Lounge
Have foldable smartphones finally come of age?
Summary
Foldable smartphones from the likes of Motorola, Samsung are no longer early trials at innovation. But it remains to be seen if they can rival other flagship devices
Foldable smartphones have been around for a while—they’re no longer mere concepts. Come 2024, and the Moto Razr 50 Ultra has built upon its legacy with nostalgia and modern essentials. Samsung, meanwhile, introduced its sixth generation of foldables recently—the Galaxy Z Flip 6 and Z Fold 6. Beyond them, India also has multiple more options in the foldable realm, such as the Oppo Find N3 Flip, Vivo X Fold 3 Pro and the OnePlus Open.
With multiple choices in the market, are foldable smartphones finally closer to mainstream usability and no longer remain niche objects of fancy?
Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 6 ( ₹164,999/$1,970) and Flip 6 ( ₹109,999), on this note, are in their sixth generations, while the Moto Razr 50 Ultra ( ₹94,999) is in its fifth generation. Are they good enough to replace any other ‘typical’ flagships, such as the Apple iPhone 15 Pro ( ₹129,800), Google Pixel 8 Pro ( ₹106,999) and Samsung’s own Galaxy S24 Ultra ( ₹129,999)—in terms of features, practicality, and most importantly, durability?
No longer impractical
The first point that arises in conversations on choosing the right smartphone today is practicality. Most smartphones today are good enough for the average, user—but why should you spend upwards of $1,000 on a smartphone?
The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 offers a practical response. Now six full cycles old, the Z Fold 6 offers users not only social recognition with a near-unmatched show value, it also comes with a screen that’s hard to argue against. Once you get to using the smartphone as a daily device, the 7.6-inch foldable display on the inside presents itself not as a tablet replacement, but more as a smartphone on steroids.
For instance, browsing and typing tasks on the Galaxy Z Fold 6 are very obviously superior than on any other device—including the massive Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max ( ₹154,000/$1,840). The key to its benefit is the width of the display, which is otherwise not attainable without a foldable form factor. Samsung has also succeeded in achieving two key aspects—making sure that the device clasps shut without a gap in the middle and optimizing its software experience to seamlessly switch between the large display and the smaller, 6.3-inch outer display.
Also read: OnePlus Watch 2R review: A cheaper, lighter Android watch that keeps on going
The lack of a gap is important since you don’t end up finding any dust in your phone when you open it. On each of the Moto and Samsung phones, the crease on the display is also not apparent and does not get in your way in everyday usage.
Further practicality of form factor is found in the Galaxy Z Flip 6 and the Moto Razr 50 Ultra. If you don’t need a large screen for frequent typing sprees like journalists do, the next best thing is to get yourself a phone that can collapse into a more compact, pocketable form factor. On this note, both the ‘flippable’ phones have managed to tweak their builds and designs into feeling like well-refined gadgets.
The Moto Razr 50 Ultra does exceptionally well in this department. With a soft leather-emulating rear panel, smoothened edges and a super-premium glass-metal finish, the Razr 50 Ultra feels befitting of its price tag. The well-finished software ensures that what’s on the outside matches the inside.
While the Z Flip 6 isn’t too far away, it feels like there are clear compromises that differentiate it from the Z Fold 6 in terms of usability. For starters, the awkwardly-shaped outer display offers less real estate than the Moto Razr 50 Ultra.
What each of these phones do achieve, however, is that as a user you do not need to always focus on taking extra care of the devices when you’re out. Usability, seamlessness of user experience, and durability combined, the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and the Moto Razr 50 Ultra do show actual progress made by designers at Samsung and Lenovo (which owns the Moto brand today).
AI and use cases
What’s also commendable is that as overall smartphones, each of the above devices feel like complete units that are at least as good, if not better, than conventional smartphones. For instance, on the Galaxy Z Fold 6, you can access its main cameras without needing to ‘open’ the phone. The same can’t be said of the Moto Razr 50 Ultra or the Galaxy Z Flip 6. However, the Razr makes up for it with the certainly-cool gimmick of the ‘camcorder mode’—simply open the phone by half, open the camera and turn it sideways to turn it into an old-school video recorder.
In other features, each of the phones do as well as any flagship. The Samsung duo is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip from Qualcomm, while Moto uses an even newer Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 chip for all performance tasks.
The flip phones have a very wide screen, which is great for gamers. The Z Fold 6, meanwhile, has a display that makes watching movies a great experience—even though there are no videos that can make use of its square-ish dimensions. You do not miss out on not having a tablet, especially while travelling.
Then, there’s the artificial intelligence (AI). Samsung’s AI features have improved considerably —which is apparent in its transcription of voice notes. Even with the Indian English accent pack, the transcription performance is evidently better than the previous generation (Galaxy Z Fold 5/Flip 5). Samsung attributes this to its continuously improving machine learning algorithms running locally.
Moto’s native generative wallpaper creator, based on Google’s Gemini foundational AI model, fares much better than Samsung’s, giving users more flexibility to create a wider range of images. However, the Razr does miss out on voice transcription—an increasingly popular feature today. Overall, each of these features ensure that there’s nothing missing in the foldable smartphone experience, and the latter is in fact better and more future-forward than conventional smartphones.
Must haves?
At above $1,000, as a user, you’d want a device that makes you stand out from the crowd. With the latest generation foldables covering up on their previous shortcomings in terms of durability and practicality, the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Z Flip 6 from Samsung, as well as the Moto Razr 50 Ultra, make for phones that are fun to own and use. If you’re willing to spend a sizeable amount, the overall finesse and usage experience does deliver more than conventional smartphones.
With each of the above smartphones now producing enough battery stamina to last a full day, even with intense usage, 2024 could well be the year when the foldables grew up. With increasing competition coming in from more brands across all corners (the Google Pixel 9 Pro fold is supposedly around the corner), and rumours around a foldable iPhone still rife, buyers of flagship smartphones must have foldables in their shortlists today.
As for which one to pick, the Moto Razr 50 Ultra is undeniably the most appealing in terms of compactness, finesse and features. But the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 is by far the only form factor that adds more value in terms of what foldable phones can offer compared to other smartphones. In that regard, the Z Fold 6 (and similar devices from Vivo and OnePlus) is the one to pick, as long as you don’t mind the extra heft that it brings to the pockets.
