Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2: Top COMPLAINTS and TAKEAWAYS By Joshua Vergara

The Samsung Galaxy z, fold 2, might have been one of the most interesting smartphone experiences I've had all year, but as a bit of a spoiler alert, you can see that as I filmed this video, I no longer have it in my hands. I returned it. After all, it was a review loan unit, but I did not buy one of the pre-orders and I definitely don't have one that I bought with my own money. That should tell you a lot about where I'm going to go in this video: hey, it's Joshua verger! What's going on everybody, these are my thoughts, my top complaints and takeaways. On the Samsung Galaxy z, fold, 2. Yeah, I decided ultimately to not own a Samsung Galaxy z, fold 2.

That doesn't mean that it is a bad foldable or a bad smartphone. Even it's just not something I felt like was truly necessary in my daily tech life. However, if you are looking for even more content on the z-fold 2, I do have my real world camera test that I put out recently and before that I had the unboxing and concerns with this particular phone, and I, of course did the more traditional review over at pocket. Now links are above and below so obviously, all the footage that you're seeing in this video will be from the two weeks that I spent with that review unit and this whole video with my complaints and takeaways that I have written right here. I'm just gonna talk through all of these things and sort of explain why I feel like this phone while fascinating and exciting is just not something that I decided belonged in my life, I mean I did introduce this video by basically talking about my first complaint, which is what are you paying for you see it's easy to get really caught up in the hype around a foldable like the Galaxy Z, full 2.

After all, you get a 7.6-inch tablet display by unfolding what is supposed to fit in your pocket. That's really awesome, but then I kept thinking about all the different tools and the different use cases that I might actually use with this phone. Unfortunately, I couldn't come up with too many of them, and I'll get into those more later on and early on in this video, it's going to sound like an oversimplification, but one way I would put it in a nutshell, is that this phone basically just takes your high-powered everyday smartphone experience and just gives it a much larger canvas. Is that really valuable to you? Well, that's the question you got to ask if I were to talk to somebody about the experience of a Galaxy Z, fold 2, who has never used a foldable like me when I first got this phone, I would tell them this is not going to be what you think it is. You can think of this in two different ways: the first one being part of that oversimplification.

I just mentioned that this is just a tablet that happens to have a folding mechanism, and it fits in your pocket. Well, that is an oversimplification, but then, once you start to use it, you realize it can be incredible fun. You can name off the various scenarios that are enhanced by having a bigger display to play with things like video games, where they dynamically render onto the larger canvas, and you can see more at least vertically, in games like Call of Duty mobile aside from that, you can have a much better experience, actually watching media on apps like YouTube and Netflix, and then, of course there is the multitasking scenario where you have up to three: maybe even four applications, if you have YouTube hovering above three apps uh, all working at the same time, so you can get things done and to anybody. That's scoffed at the first galaxy fold for not having a good quote, unquote, smartphone experience when the phone was closed. Well, that was literally addressed in the z-fold 2, with a much bigger display on the cover and then there's the other school of thought that thinks that this, the z-fold 2 is a sign of the future.

While I do think that there is a future with foldable phones like this, I don't think it's going to really take up our entire smartphone market and that's because, no matter what this form factor looks like later on, you can make it as thin as possible. You can make it as sleek as possible, there's always going to be some sort of adjustment period. This was a thought that I had on the palatal weekly podcast, not too long ago, where there is a certain safety zone that smartphones still need to have so that casual users who are not super tech enthusiasts, who are super open to new things that they can retreat to, and in this case it's going to be that cover display. Unfortunately, the adjustment period is still going to be required, even when you have the phone closed most of the time, because that screen on the cover is a little narrow. It's still something you have to contend with from time to time, especially when typing and overall it is a heavy smartphone and then there's the whole adjustment period of figuring out what times would actually work best for opening up to the bigger display.

Unfortunately, there are certain applications that don't really support this form factor just yet so there's a two-way street here as far as adjustment periods are concerned, and the z-fold 2 is a little ahead of its time, you're going to want to open that thing up more often than not anyway, because big is in. This is a big screen device and if you've ever used a tablet for certain applications that you rely upon on smaller smartphones and found the experience to just be that much better. That's literally what you're getting in the z-fold too. Typically, I don't go for the larger phones like, for example, with the iPhones. I never get the max models anymore and if I can help it, I do my best to get the smaller note device whenever those come out.

My favorite example is that I went for the note 10 in red because it was the one that had the nice color, but it was also the one that was a little smaller easier to handle, and it still had many of the same features. The z-fold 2 is really trying to marry the two scenarios so that you do have something that's kind of easy to use in one hand, but then, once you open it up, you know that you're going to want to use that bigger screen for most things and, of course, it's easy to get sucked into the large display experience, even if there's that little crease in the middle that would take you out of it once in a while. It's not hard to look past it once you just start enjoying your media, I tend to have something playing in the background at all times and having the phone propped up in the large screen format. Well, it was nice to just have something easily viewable and enjoyable. So in the first half of this video, I've made it very clear that I do believe there is value in having a large screen experience.

It's not only fun, it can be somewhat usable, but the thing is the usability of the large 120 hertz, refresh rate screen is hindered by the fact that there aren't that many tools that support the z-fold 2's existence and by tools I also mean just general things like, for example, in the unboxing experience. I still think it would have been nice to have some sort of case in here, because this is a sturdy device, but it's still not one that you want to accidentally break by dropping it or by letting that cover screen scratch on some sort of surface and then, of course, most people might not be like me, where I have a lot of different tools already available uh in order to prop up the phone in its large screen format. My point is that tools are needed in order to really take advantage of everything. This phone is trying to give you and unfortunately, even Samsung themselves needs to put a little more effort into creating a great first party, bevy of accessories for their own high-end device. Sometimes the form factor itself is its own tool, and I will give the phone credit for that uh.

You can find a bunch of new angles by using the cameras and the body together to actually position the rear cameras or even the front cameras for some cool shooting, and this is honestly where I had the most memorable experience with the galaxy's e42. It was when I was using the foldable form factor with that really strong hinge in order to enhance a different experience. Not just have a big screen, but also to have a different camera experience, put the z-fold 2 down on a surface and then hit a timer. So you can get in front of the camera or just hit record on the video mode, and you'll be able to just get in front of it and actually talk for a while, not to mention using the main cameras as the selfie cameras by unfolding the device and then using the cover screen as your viewfinder. This might be the best thing that I did the most memorable part of the Galaxy Z fold 2, because you know I love vlogging, and this made the form factor make so much more sense.

Pretty much. No other phone does something quite like this, and it's good that the cameras here actually get certain features from the other lines like pro video mode and uh Bluetooth, audio, recording its one of those like one step, four or two steps back things, though, because the cameras on here are just kind of run-of-the-mill as far as Samsung is concerned. Clearly the cameras were not going to be the biggest focus when it comes to the z-fold 2. And that's the thing. Samsung is really drawing the lines among their different smartphone families, and the z line is about having a foldable display, whether it's the z flip, with a form factor that gets smaller or the z-fold, with the form factor that gets bigger.

Those are the focuses on there and the cameras are not going to get nearly the same enhancements as the note line or the s-line. Can you get some cool shots with these cameras? Absolutely, but that's true for pretty much any smartphone, and it's just that the form factor of the z, full 2 is the only real story when it comes to the camera experience, so we're. Finally, making our way back to the question regarding price Samsung has done a perfect job of providing a completely different type of experience compared to almost every smartphone on the market today, and that is exactly what you're paying for you're paying for all the tech that Samsung used to achieve that. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to tell you to spend two thousand dollars just so you can have something that is this different. Your priorities are going to be very, very different and clearly mine did not include the z-fold 2 as a main device, and I just don't really want to put down two thousand dollars, no matter what smartphone it is, but I do also think that the two thousand dollars is the price of entry for something this unique, and you know what the z fold two also stands as proof that you shouldn't really go for gen one every single time, something new comes out, maybe give it a little of time and see where the enhancements might be.

I think a lot of people would agree that, with the original galaxy fold there were so many things about it. That proved the concept, but there just were too many little flaws that needed to be addressed, whether it was the build quality or the small front screen or the fact that the main screen the larger screen had just a little too much going on around it. Now with the gen 2 Galaxy Z, fold, 2, literally, all of those things were addressed in one way or another. It even has the design language of the Galaxy Note line, which we all really enjoy, even with that larger camera hub and if you do want to change up the look a little. Of course, there are ways of doing that, like with a d brand scan.

This is the first time I'm using the marble version of the brand skin, and it works pretty well with the mystic bronze. Obviously, Samsung will continue iterating on every smartphone line, even if there are some very clear differences between them, as the z-fold 2 proves to me, and if this is the step forward, or maybe some people might say of the leap forward from gen 1-fold to gen 2 faults. Well, I'm actually really excited to see where it goes next and as more foldable come into the market. That price potentially will come down, because the experience is not quite so unique, and it doesn't quite stand so alone anymore. So I have found ways of gushing about the z-fold ii experience that I had obviously I'm very happy to have been able to try it out, and I think that a lot of people will get that excited about this phone also, but after two weeks of using the phone, why did I not buy one myself? Well, it's kind of a simple answer.

Taking a step back and looking at the fundamentals of a smartphone, I found the z-fold 2 to simply be good enough in multiple ways. I already talked about the cameras and how they don't get as much of a boost when compared to the display experience. Meanwhile, when you take a look at this as a smartphone meaning closed and just using the cover display, the experience is just passable. It is just a good enough display to be able to do most things most quick tasks before you open up the phone and then, when you open up the galaxy's default 2. Well, you get a tablet, but because of the software that we have in android right now, it's still not a great tablet experience.

It's simply good enough. Yes, there are ways of getting certain applications that don't sprawl across the entire display to do so, but that's extra steps and ultimately, what we need right now is an android experience on a tablet that doesn't require either adjustments on our end or further adjustments on the software, and I just couldn't shake the fact that for all the hype, the z-fold 2 definitely makes us feel. If I can get many of my tasks or all of them done on a smaller smartphone. Well, then I don't need to pay 2 000 for a foldable. Do I alright? I did this one off the cuff.

Hopefully my thoughts came out coherently, and hopefully you got something out of this uh discussion that I wanted to have regarding the galaxy default.2. I mean it. This is a discussion. Let me know what your thoughts are, especially if you have a z-fold 2 now or if you used the original galaxy fold. Let me know what your experience has been like in the comment sections down below.

Let me know what you think about the foldable space. Are you excited for more devices like this to come out? I am excited to see more like this come out, but I think that the fundamentals still need to reach where the tech has already blasted forward, but with all of that said, I'm going to go ahead and call it on this one. Thank you so much for watching drop some likes on this video at the very least and subscribe to my channel. If you haven't already alright until my next one, please take care of yourselves and each other and enjoy your tea. Everybody.

Source : Joshua Vergara