Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 vs Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3: What has changed?

Samsung has just unveiled its newest Galaxy Fold device, but is it really such a big upgrade over its forerunner? Here’s the breakdown.

Samsung is surely the market leader in foldable devices right now, with its Fold and Flip handsets being released on an annual basis to little competition from other major manufacturers. However, is this year’s Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 actually a major upgrade on its predecessor? Or is it in fact highly similar to the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3? Read on to see how we stack up the two, highlighting three key differences.

Screen

Considering that the folding screen is the defining characteristic of this device, we should certainly hope for improvements to this aspect year on year.

One thing that has indeed changed with the Fold 4 is its aspect ratio, which is now wider at 23.1:9 than that of its predecessor (25:9) and just 3mm wider, so it may well prove to be preferable for watching widescreen content. It’s also got smaller bezels too, although the screen still spans 7.6-inches.

What’s more, with this generation there have been app optimisations to make the most of that tablet-sized inner screen, including to popular programs such as Microsoft Office, Outlook, Teams, Google Meet, Facebook, and Messenger. There’s even been a PC-like taskbar added for easier navigation.

Considering that that the relatively poor app optimisation was our main criticism of the Fold 3, we hope that these changes significantly raise the usability of its successor.

Camera

There have also been some serious tweaks made in the camera department as well.

The Fold 3 impressed us for its photographic ability, albeit falling below the standards of the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra. The trio of 12-megapixel lenses provided crisp and punchy shots resulting from daylight photography, though the system sometimes struggled in more difficult lighting conditions. However, we went as far as to describe the 4-megapixel under-display selfie camera as “dire”, giving poor results in video calls and with selfie photographs.

Samsung has announced quite a few camera upgrades to the new model, fortunately including an updated under-display camera. The rear camera module now consists of a 50-megapixel wide angle lens, a 12-megapixel ultrawide, and a 10-megapixel telephoto sensor with 3x optical zoom.

Processor

Another key difference that you’ll find between the two is the processor. The Fold 3 ran on the Snapdragon 888 5G, which was top of the range at the time of release and we found to be highly impressive, blitzing everything that it tackled with ease.

This new generation has, naturally, received an upgrade and has adopted the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1, which is a true powerhouse. We’ve already seen it in action on the Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro and the OnePlus 10T, and its performance has blown us away, so we’re sure that similarly great things lie in wait for the Fold 4.

Early impressions

Both of these foldables are highly capable and trailblazing devices. We still need to put the Fold 4 through our full review process, with particular attention paid to the camera ability, in order to test out whether it is a great leap forward – but for the time being it does seem more like a refinement than a revolution in Samsung’s foldable strategy.