Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 Review: Not The Best, But The Most Refined

As rumors surrounding the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 started to coalesce into the phone that Samsung ultimately ended up selling, I found myself disappointed—again. It’s no secret that last year’s Galaxy Z Fold 5 and I were not friends. Samsung made the upgrades it had to make, and then stopped. This year, it appeared to do the same thing.

Put the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Galaxy Z Fold 6 side by side, and they are hard to tell apart. The cover screen is still too narrow, the phone is too bulky and the cameras are still not amazing. If this phone existed in a vacuum—which to be fair to Samsung, up until last year, it basically did—then this would be a great phone. But in a world where the Oneplus Open exists which is thinner, with better building materials, far superior cameras, and a better software interface, the Galaxy Fold 6 still doesn’t measure up.

But as I started getting to know the Galaxy Z Fold 6 more, I realized that this phone doesn’t have to exist in a vacuum to be great. It already is great. I’ve been using the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 for about 10 days, and here are my thoughts.

Best for:

• People who want the absolute best foldable that Samsung makes
• Getting a combination of excellent battery life and slick AI features in a booklet-style phone

Skip if:

• You want a wider cover screen
• You are looking for more innovation in your foldable phone

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6: Design

A Refinement, Not An Overhaul

To be fair, while the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 lacks a design overhaul that it has needed for a long time, Samsung added a level of refinement to this year’s design that is only possible after years of evolution. Like the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6, the Fold 6 has some nice ornamental features, like the thicker bezels around the cameras, which give the phone a bit of character. Plus, those thicker bezels are not accent colored like the Flip 6, because that would have felt out of place, and Samsung deserves recognition for realizing that.

Meanwhile, the small changes in the height and width of the cover screen and inner screen show that Samsung sees the need for change, but isn’t quite ready to go the full mile. Samsung also trimmed off more than a millimeter of thickness and 14 grams of weight between the Fold 5 and Fold 6. Those are all minor—but welcome—improvements. All that being said, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 still feels like a phone that is designed to be used open rather than closed.

This may just be me, but my enjoyment of foldables is directly proportional to the amount of multitasking I can get done on the exterior screen without having to open it. Believe me: The irony of this is not lost on me. I just prefer to use my phone closed for most tasks, and only when I really want to complete tasks do I open it up. This is true for flip-style foldables, and book-style foldables. Your mileage may vary. But a big reason why I prefer using the OnePlus Open, or the Google Pixel Fold, or the Motorola Razr+ is because most of the time, I don’t have to open it.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6: Software

More And More AI

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 runs OneUI 6.1.1 which is based on Android 14, and Samsung promises seven years of OS upgrades. The software itself is packed to the gills with AI, and there are a few features that really stand out. Most notably is Sketch to Image, a feature that allows you to snap a photo and draw a rough sketch that software will convert to a frighteningly realistic image—most of the time. On one occasion, I drew a terrible sketch of a bird on my shoulder that morphed into a photorealistic bird. Another time, I sketched a vase with flowers on an empty table.

This is both remarkable and a little scary. It’s remarkable because unless you know these images are AI generated, you may not be able to tell the difference from real life. Only in cases where the AI had to actually interact with a real object—such as drawing flowers coming out of a beer cup, or drawing a hat on a mannequin—did the AI start to trip up. But for the most part, if you could convey the general idea, Samsung’s AI could do a lot of heavy lifting to get you the rest of the way. And, of course, while it watermarks the image in the bottom left-hand corner, you can crop it out—just like I did.

Then there’s Portrait Studio, which allows you to take a selfie a photo of your friends and then convert that subject into a cartoon character, a rough sketch, a painting and more. It’s a lot of fun, though I daresay my portrait studio likenesses bore little resemblance to me, nor even an idealized version of me. At least I’ll know what I’ll look like if I ever end up in a Pixar movie.

Other features Samsung features are things available on other phones as well, such as Circle To Search and Magic Editor (which Samsung calls “Photo Assist”). In general, I find Circle to Search to be of limited value unless you’re shopping, and the Photo Assist features are potentially cool, but I prefer Google’s implementation—especially the concept where Google makes suggestions about what can be manipulated/removed. Overall, it’s nice that these features are on Samsung phones too, but I wish Samsung had taken more UI cues from its partner.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6: Battery And Performance

All-Day Battery Life

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 comes with a 4,400mAh battery, which is not large by modern standards, especially when you consider my previous comments about this phone being designed to use while open. After all, when you’re using the larger screen, you’re using more battery life.

That being said, I haven’t found battery life to be subpar in any way. On its hardest day, which involved being off of Wi-Fi for six hours, and included quite a bit of photo and video shooting, the phone still had 40% left at the end of the night. When working from home, it was not unusual to end the day with over 50%. The phone just lasts.

As for performance, the Z Fold 6 has the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy (which is basically an overclocked 8 Gen 3). You can open up to three apps simultaneously on the inner screen and there’s no discernible lag. Gaming with titles such as Call of Duty: Mobile and Genshin Impact is smooth and easy. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is the fastest processor for Android on the market, and this one is overclocked, so there is definitely power to spare.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6: Cameras

Mostly The Same

If you had the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 last year, the camera story is basically the same hardware as last year. The only difference is a new 12MP ultrawide camera that is supposed to have better low light noise reduction. The other sensors—the 50MP main camera and the 10MP 3x telephoto cameras—are both the same as last year. If there was any part of the phone that needed new features over last year, the camera set was it. But we didn’t get that, so here’s what we got.

It’s incredibly hard for a phone camera to shoot a bad photo when the lighting is good, and indeed, the Galaxy Z Fold 6 shoots just fine both in photos and video when the lighting is good. There is some minor color variation between the ultrawide camera and the main sensor. That’s not unusual for a phone camera, but it’s also not something you want to see in a flagship phone, let alone one that costs just a Benjamin short of $2,000.

As light dims, so does the camera quality. Indoor video shooting sees a tiny amount of judder when the person holding the camera is walking, but it is otherwise clean. At night, video shooting gets grainy with more judder when walking, but it’s not as bad when there is a subject to focus on.

The same goes for stills. At night, when your subject is motionless, photos are quite good. When subjects move, you get quite a bit of blur. The ultrawide lens with its brand-new low light noise reduction still gets quite a bit of noise. Generally, at night, you should stick with the main sensor because you’ll get the best results there. The ultrawide and telephoto cameras are both serviceable at night, but if you want anything that’s shareable, it’s the main camera or bust.

Overall, while once again acknowledging that this phone does not exist in a vacuum, it’s hard to look at the camera set on one of the Fold 6’s main competitors, the Oneplus Open (48MP main, 64MP telephoto and 48MP ultrawide) and not question Samsung standing pat on this camera set. Again though, it’s not that this camera set is bad; it’s just not the best.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6: Verdict

Good, But Not The Best

That’s the general theme of this whole phone—it’s good, but it’s also not the best. The AI features are pretty neat, though Google might have something to say about that in the future.

While it’s good, it’s also hard to recommend in light of the competition out there. The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 represents what you would find in a phone that has been around a long time and is still in the fine-tuning phase. The problem is that Samsung’s fine-tuning falls short of other phones that came after it. It’s almost like Samsung settled too soon on what it wanted to be and has since written off any other possibilities.

What’s maddening about that is Samsung showed some people other Fold designs that had been considered as of last year. These designs tested out other form factors, and even included some with the S Pen garaged within the device. Samsung has an S Pen case this year, like it did last year. That’s great, but putting it in the phone would be so much better.

Rather, Samsung wiped its hands and said, nope, we nailed it, and it hasn’t moved since. On the one hand, I admire the confidence that goes into a decision like that. On the other, there are other possibilities to enhance this foldable device, and it wouldn’t hurt to explore them.

Having said all that, and considering the bold decision to increase the price by $100 this year, it’s hard to recommend this phone. At the same time, if you want to go with Samsung’s strong record for reliability, support and the ecosystem it’s building around the Galaxy brand (watches, buds, tablets, laptops and even tight integration with Windows PCs) which other manufacturers don’t have, then this phone is a great choice.

How I Tested The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6

I used the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 as my main device for almost two weeks, checking messages, taking calls and more. I played AAA titles like Genshin Impact to test the processor and temperature, too. I also monitored its battery life, noting how much was lost when at home on my Wi-Fi network as well as when I was out and about in Chicagoland on my carrier’s 5G connection.

For its camera set, I took the phone with me to the local carnival, taking both still and life shots throughout the day and into the evening. Because Samsung added a slew of AI features around the camera, I put each of those AI features to the test, drawing with the S Pen and checking to see how well they worked across a variety of different images.

My Expertise

I’m a Chicago-based freelance reviewer and have been writing about consumer electronics for over a decade with a particular focus on mobile phones and cellular technology including the birth of 5G. I’ve also tested most smartphones on the market over the last several years, including the Google Pixel 8 Pro. I also have compared top devices, from the Oneplus 12 versus the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra to the iPhone 14 versus iPhone 15. And, of course, I’ve tested each phone’s software, comparing Android versus iPhone to help you make informed buying decisions.

When I’m not testing the latest and greatest flagship phones, I’m hosting the Benefit of the Doud podcast/YouTube channel with my co-host Clifton M. Thomas and editing technology news articles for SlashGear. In addition to Forbes and SlashGear, I have bylines at Android Central, Reviewed.com, Android Authority, Lifewire and more.