Our Verdict
The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 may not come with many hardware upgrades, but as a complete package, it feels refined and premium. It's Samsung's best big-screen foldable yet, but with competition heating up, the tech giant will need to step up its game to retain the top spot.
- Wider external display
- Brighter screens
- Slimmer and lighter chassis
- Improved look
- Galaxy AI features
- Expensive
- Minor hardware changes
- Noticeable crease
Samsung’s latest foldables have arrived, and just as we saw with the Galaxy S24-series, the big focus this year is Galaxy AI. The Z Flip 6 has some nice hardware upgrades, but changes to the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 are far more subtle. Still, we thought it worth getting our hands on one to see how much is different inside and out.
This model brings with it a wider cover display that’s easier to type on, narrower screen bezels, and a refined design that’s slimmer and lighter. While they’re all respectable differences, they’re not exactly revolutionary, and the rest of the changes are found in the software. It was already one of the priciest handsets, but it’s $100 more expensive this year. With such stiff competition in the best foldable phones arena from OnePlus, Honor, and Vivo, has Samsung done enough to stay on top?
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Price and availability
The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 is now available to purchase globally, and as mentioned earlier, it starts at a higher price than last year. The base model with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage begins at $1899 / £1799. It’s also available with either 512GB or 1TB of storage for an additional fee.
As with all Samsung flagship launches, you can buy the phone outright or opt for a contract through most major carriers. If you buy the phone directly from Samsung, you’ll be able to choose the exclusive Crafted Black and White color options.
Specs
Features and software
The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 runs Samsung’s One UI 6.1 software, a heavily skinned version of Android 14. Samsung fans will feel immediately at home with this OS, and as I found with the brand’s S24 series phones, it feels incredibly snappy and responsive.
This operating system is one of the most feature-packed on the market, doubly so with the introduction of all the Galaxy AI goodness, and that’s a bit of a double-edged sword. On the one hand, you’re not likely to find a missing feature, but on the other, it’s starting to feel a bit cluttered and confusing.
Samsung basically has its own version of every Google application, so while there’s no bloatware, you first load up with tons of apps installed, many of which you might not need. It can get quite confusing when you’re looking for a specific feature and don’t know which app it’s baked into. Of course, you adjust to it with time, and you’re in for a good time when you do.
Samsung’s launch event for the Galaxy Z series was mainly centered around Galaxy AI, and this phone features the same AI trickery as the S24 series. On this model, though, Samsung has made additional optimizations to take advantage of the unique form factor, and there are a couple of brand-new AI features, too.
The Browsing Assist feature that can read webpages and summarize them for you now displays in a side-by-side view when using the foldable display. The same goes for the summarization feature in the Notes app. It’s a small change, but it’s handy, as you can cross-reference the original copy at a glance.
The Interpreter app has been optimized to take advantage of both displays simultaneously. This means you can type in one language on the main display and have a translated version appear on the cover display. It’s a neat use of the folding hardware.
The most engaging addition is a new feature called Sketch to Image. This lets you create a doodle and then uses generative AI to provide you with a few artistic interpretations of your original drawing. It works on top of your photos, too. So, for example, you can draw a hat on someone, and then the AI will magically make some hats to choose from. It’s great fun, and it sometimes looks quite convincing.
Despite all these impressive AI additions, I didn’t find myself using them that much. The one I utilized most is probably the simplest of the bunch: Circle to Search with Google. Samsung introduced this feature with the S24 series, and it’s now also available on Pixel phones. You just draw a circle around anything on your screen, and the phone will quickly reverse image search to tell you what it is. It’s a basic feature, but it’s supremely useful.
Aside from software features, Samsung also offers some of the longest support terms of any brand. Just like the S24 series devices, the Z Fold 6 and Flip 6 will get 7 years of software updates and security patches. That means this phone will still be running the latest version of Android in 2031. Impressive stuff.
Design
The Z Fold 6 looks very similar to its predecessor at a glance, but when you look a little closer, there are some substantial tweaks to this model. The biggest change is with the outer display, it’s now 1mm wider and 1mm shorter than the Z Fold 5, bringing it slightly closer to typical candybar smartphone dimensions.
It definitely looks and feels more natural in the hand, and it’s easier to type with a slightly wider keyboard, but it’s a lot narrower than the competition. I’ve recently been using the Vivo X Fold 3 Pro and Honor Magic V2, and both of these have significantly larger cover displays.
Samsung’s design encourages you to unfold and switch to the main display more often, whereas, with some of these other foldables, you could happily just use the cover display all the time. I wouldn’t say one is better than the other. It’s just a slightly different approach.
The Z Fold 6 has adopted a more boxy design with sharper corners, reminding me of the Galaxy S24 Ultra. I’m a fan of the new look, but depending on how you hold your phone, you could find these corners poking your palms more often than you’d like.
When you unfold the device, you find a combination of sharper corners, a wider cover display, and slimmer bezels, resulting in a 2.6mm wider main display. It’s not a huge change, but it does feel larger in the hands.
The phone has been slimmed down a little, now measuring 12.1mm thick when folded, down from 13.4mm. It’s also 14g lighter, tipping the scales at 239g. It’s an improvement, but compared to some Chinese devices, like the Honor Magic V2, it still feels quite chunky.
The Z Fold 6 also gets a matte finish on the sides and the rear, again matching the S24 family. It looks lovely, and it’s a little more fingerprint-resistant than its glossy predecessor. The silver, pink, navy, and white options all have a similar finish, while the Samsung exclusive Crafted Black version has a carbon fiber effect rear panel.
The cameras now have chunky black bezels around them. It doesn’t change anything, it’s purely for the looks, but I like it. The phone looks more playful with these cartoonish camera lenses.
The new Galaxy Z devices both have an IP48 rating, and it’s the first time that we’ve seen Samsung foldables have a rating for dust resistance. However, this rating only means that the phone only offers protection against 1mm or larger particles, so you’ll still need to be very careful around sand. It’s waterproof, at least, and can withstand up to 30 minutes submerged in fresh water.
Display
When it comes to the displays, the specifications are quite similar to the previous model. There’s a small difference in resolution due to the change in aspect ratio, but it’s nothing meaningful in terms of pixel density. Both displays still feature adaptive refresh rates that dynamically shift from 1Hz to 120Hz. The S Pen still only works on the foldable display.
What has changed, though, is the brightness output. Both panels now peak at 2600 nits, up from 1750 nits on the Z Fold 5. This makes both panels much easier to see in direct sunlight and makes for stunning HDR playback.
One thing that’s worth noting is that the Z Fold 6 dims its displays to prevent overheating, and when this happens, it becomes challenging to see. I was testing during a bit of a heatwave in the UK, and it happened more than once. Maybe it was just the weather, but I haven’t noticed this happening on my other foldables.
The interior display still has a very sizable crease, plus a high gloss coating that makes the crease even more noticeable. It was quite jarring switching to this phone from the Vivo X Fold 3 Pro, which has a comparatively tiny crease and a screen protector that’s far less glossy.
That said, this shiny display has advantages. It’s much more resistant to fingerprints than the Vivo display, and it feels like there’s less friction, making swiping much more natural. I get the impression that it’s a harder coating, too, which gives some peace of mind when using a stylus.
Samsung doesn’t seem to have upgraded the speakers for this generation, but that’s fine with me because they still sound great. There’s a nice bit of stereo separation when using the large main display, and there’s more bass than most phones. They’re not the loudest, but they’re certainly good enough around the house.
Cameras
I was hoping for some big upgrades in the camera department, but unfortunately, the specs are identical to the Z Fold 5, and those specs were identical to the Z Fold 4. It’s kind of wild to see the same cameras for three generations on a phone that costs nearly $2000, especially with all the exciting camera developments we’re seeing elsewhere.
Apparently, the 12MP ultrawide sensor is all-new, but it has the same specs as its predecessor, and I struggled to see a difference in the results. It’s still not great in low-light conditions, and it still lacks autofocus, limiting its usefulness.
However, with all that said, the Galaxy Z Fold 6 can take some great shots. Samsung’s image processing makes the most of these aging sensors, and maybe that’s a good enough argument for keeping them around.
I’ve noticed that Samsung’s 2024 phones take a slightly different approach to image processing. Colors appear more natural with toned-down sharpening compared to older models. It’s a change for the better, and I really like the default look.
Pictures come out looking sharp and detailed, with matching colors on all cameras. There’s a slightly higher noise level than I’m used to, and it’s very noticeable at night. However, you’ll rarely see any motion blur in your shots, and I suppose that’s the tradeoff.
The phone takes decent selfie snaps with the cover camera, but there’s no autofocus, which means it’s a slight downgrade compared to the S24 series. Of course, since this is a foldable phone, you can always flip it around and use the rear cameras, and the results are excellent if you do so.
The 4MP under-display selfie camera is still present on the foldable screen, and that’s one thing I’d really like to see changed. It’s just about acceptable for video calls, but the photos look awful. In my opinion, the low pixel density over the camera lens is just as distracting as a punch-hole cutout, if not more so. It’s really not worth the tradeoff.
For video shooting, you can record up to 4K 60fps on all the rear cameras and the cover-screen selfie camera, while the under-display camera limits footage to 1080p. The videos look great, with excellent stabilization, and the microphone quality is better than most. I was chuffed to see that this phone supports 4K 120fps slow motion as well.
Performance
The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 utilizes a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, one of the fastest chips available, and it’s a special “for Galaxy” edition with a slight overclock applied.
It’s paired with 12GB of speedy LPDDR5X memory and either 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB of storage. This year, Samsung has beefed up the cooling solution, increasing the size of the vapor chamber by 1.6x to keep it cool under pressure.
The performance did not disappoint. In daily use, the phone feels lightning-quick. I’m not sure if it’s a trick of the One UI animation style, but something about Snapdragon-powered Samsung flagships makes them feel quicker than just about any other Android device.
This performance extends to gaming, too. I enjoyed many hours of Zenless Zone Zero on the large internal display with fully maxed-out settings, and I never experienced any slowdowns or frame drops.
It’s not perfect, though; the phone gets pretty warm during extended gaming sessions, and the battery definitely takes a hit, too. I also wasn’t a fan of the way the crease feels when you swipe over it in a game. However, using a clamp-style controller like my GameSir X2 Pro made for a really nice experience.
Battery
Battery capacity is another area where Samsung is lagging behind its competition, and there are unfortunately no changes to be found here.
You still get a 4400 mAh cell and the same 25W wired and 15W wireless charging speeds. It’s not awful, but when you compare it to a phone like the Vivo X Fold 3 Pro, which has a 5700 mAh battery and 100W charging, it just sounds outdated.
Still, in the real world, it never failed to get me to the end of the day, although it sometimes cut it close. There’s no charger in the box, but with the appropriate adapter, you can expect to go from fully flat to about 60% charged in half an hour. It’s not impressive, but it’s easy to live with.
Wireless charging takes a lot longer, but I found it very convenient to just stick it on the charging pad whenever I was at my desk for a few hours.
Should you buy the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6?
The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 might not be the most exciting hardware, but all the small improvements add up to create Samsung’s most polished and refined big-screen foldable to date. The cover screen is much easier to use, the software is easily among the best, and it feels premium throughout.
The biggest problem with this phone is that most of the exciting new features are software-based. This means the Galaxy Z Fold 5 (and earlier devices) are likely to get many of the same capabilities in future updates. This leaves existing owners with very little reason to upgrade, and savvy shoppers can get a bargain by opting for the older model.
Then there’s the competition. We’re now seeing some amazing foldable hardware from the likes of OnePlus, Honor, Vivo, and Xiaomi. Many of these models have slimmer designs, larger screens, smaller creases, bigger batteries, and better camera specs.
However, these alternative devices aren’t so widely available, especially if you’re in the States or if you want to buy on contract. Samsung has a clear advantage here, it also has the best software experience, and almost no other brand matches its seven-year support terms. There are plenty of reasons to stick with Samsung for now.
If you’re coming from an older foldable, like the Z Fold 3 or earlier, this will feel like a big upgrade, and if it’s your first foldable, it won’t disappoint. It has been an absolute delight to live with. I just hope Samsung steps its game up next year, as rival devices look more appealing than ever.
Alternatives
If you’re not sure that the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 is right for you, here are a couple of other excellent foldables to check out.
OnePlus Open
OnePlus’ first foldable made a big splash when it launched last year. It has seriously impressive cameras, large displays, and solid everyday and gaming performance. Unlike most other Z Fold rivals, this is one that you can actually buy in the US, too.
Honor Magic V2
The Honor Magic V2 is a foldable phone that’s so slim, you could almost forget it folds. The Z Fold 6 may have lost some bulk this year, but this device is on another level. The screens are much larger, and the crease is less noticeable, too. However, an older SoC and less refined software sour the deal. You can check out our review of the special Porsche Edition Honor Magic V2 RSR for more details.