Samsung Galaxy Fold 6 review – Taking no chances with this one

We go over this every year and it’s almost boring now. Yes, the Galaxy Fold 6 is the best folding smartphone Samsung has made to date. The tricky bit of this statement is pointing out that there wasn’t all that much to do to get there. Samsung’s newest foldable doesn’t take chances because it doesn’t have to. It might not have the capability.

We’re not sure that it’s possible to improve folding smartphones or even flagship smartphones without some radical change in what they do. Everything that could be added to these devices would only complicate what is already a neatly efficient package. The answer, of course, is software but software updates don’t move that stock market ticker ever upward. Hence, the Galaxy Fold 6.

As good as it ever gets

If you’re willing to complain about what Samsung has presented here, you’ve got no business ever buying one. The Fold 6 is as accomplished a bit of cellular hardware as it’s possible to get without completely reinventing smartphone screens (again). The metal frame is an example of precision and the outer glass surfaces match this engineering in terms of quality. If anything is objectionable it’s that rear panel. Not because there’s anything to dislike about the smoothly textured coloured glass back but because of the large camera bump that keeps it off balance. The answer is a protective panel, which returns balance to the Fold 6 but also keeps that lovely surface out of reach of questing fingers.

The Fold 6’s camera bump is a less obtrusive take on last year’s effort. The design is largely similar but Samsung has opted for black ridges over the silver from 2023. Whether this is a practical choice, preventing flare in overly bright light, or just an aesthetic one doesn’t matter. The effect is the same.

The other aspect worthy of mention is the pair of screens. Samsung makes some good ‘uns and it loves to put these on phones that’ll consume a large chunk of your annual earnings. The exterior 6.3in AMOLED panel has a resolution of 968 x 2,376 and matches its 7.6in (1,856 x 2,160) folding AMOLED in most of its capabilities. 2,600 nits of peak brightness, 120Hz refresh rate, HDR10+… the usual high-end specs. If, as with any other expensive Samsung, you’re looking to consume media on your mobile, the Galaxy Fold 6 offers excellent clarity and punchy colour no matter which of its screens you use. You should be using the folding screen… but you don’t have to. It’s your phone.

Quicker than ever

The Galaxy Fold 6 has, in common with previous versions of this phone, chosen to stick a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 at its core. It’s been tuned to Samsung’s specifications, so you’re getting something a little quicker than the competition, but it’s the same chip powering Samsung’s other 2024 flagships. Any complaints there (and there aren’t any) would be issues here. 12GB of RAM, whether you’re using the 256GB or 512GB storage version of the phone, rounds out the internal hardware. You’re unlikely to encounter any slowdown of any sort whether you’re playing resource-chewing games or editing videos on your device.

Apps open smoothly and the transition between multiple open apps is similarly speedy. If there’s any stutter in evidence it’s not something we’re able to see with our flawed human eyes. Samsung had loaded the Galaxy Fold 6 with a batch of all-new AI skills that might be capable of spotting any inconsistencies in the Fold 6’s performance. If it does, though, you can bet it won’t say anything. It’s all about… nice things.

Brand new (except for all the others)

The Galaxy AI features seen on other Samsung smartphones? Yeah, those are all here too, as well as a handful of others that will doubtless travel to older devices as OTA updates in short enough order. But if you want to be the first to create custom images using prompts via your folding Samsung smartphone, it’ll cost you north of R40,000.

Is it worth dumping that sort of money solely for Samsung’s on-device AI. Ehhhh…. probably not. You’ll get the same features for cheaper if you just wait a little while. That doesn’t mean that the Galaxy Fold 6 doesn’t go as hard as it can with its software wizardry, though. It’ll encroach on every bit of your smartphone experience if you let it, from suggesting message responses in Samsung’s messaging app to translating text into (and from) one of a handful of supported languages just by highlighting text.

There’s one really novel update from Samsung, if you’re excluding the camera-specific stuff, that stands out. Smart Sketch is a feature that turns your doodles into something approaching an understandable image. It does so within the context of what you’ve provided (and does it surprisingly well), rather than yanking together a compilation of other people’s art based on your ‘prompt’. You’re not a ‘prompt engineer’, you’ve just ‘told the AI what you’d like it to steal for you’. Smart Sketch at least feels like you’ve provided some tangible input.

Snap happy

Samsung’s Fold devices aren’t known for featuring the best camera tech and the Galaxy Fold 6 entirely fails to buck that trend. There’s very little physical difference between this phone and the previous two. As we said in the beginning, there’s increasingly less space to innovate, folding AMOLED screens or not. A 50MP main sensor, with a 10MP telephoto and 12MP ultra-wide, takes up residence in the refurbished rear panel. There are two more to fiddle with — a 4MP inside on the 7.6in display and a 10MP on the outer display. We don’t want to neglect video calling options, after all.

There isn’t a lot of point going on about what these cameras can do. If it was possible last year, it’s possible this year. Add a little extra performance to account for software optimisation and what you’ve got is a set of snappers that range from ‘getting the job done’ (the two front-facing cameras) to ‘reasonably competent’ (the rear trio). As with several other aspects of this phone, Samsung is waving AI at you in the hopes that you won’t notice just how little has actually changed.

It might well have worked, too. Galaxy AI’s image manipulation skills do feel like an upgrade, whether you’re yanking specific sections of your snaps out and turning them into stickers or seamlessly deleting inconvenient people from the background of your group shots. It’s also possible to heavily stylise anything you take a photograph of, rendering them as sketches, paintings, or other AI-powered styles. This feature is the most visually impressive but it’s also the one you’ll get tired of first.

Samsung Galaxy Fold 6 verdict

If you want one of Samsung’s Galaxy Fold 6 handsets — and you should, unless you own the Fold 5, or Fold 4, or Fold 3… — it’ll cost at least R43,000 to stick one in your pocket. Up that to R46,000 if you’re after the 512GB model but at least you get a free case (provided you put your money down before 31 August). You’re not signing up for the AI even though that’s the freshest thing about this phone. It’s still all about the folding form factor and the fact that Samsung makes it feel as premium as its ‘normal’ smartphones.

The waterproof rating for the Galaxy Fold 6 has increased to an IP48 rating and there’s almost a 5,000mAh battery inside here for a change. 4,400mAh is close enough, okay? There are incremental upgrades and tweaks all over the place but it’s still essentially the same phone Samsung sold to everyone last year. And the year before. If you already own one of those, your AI skills upgrade is probably just weeks away. If you don’t have one but you’ve got a hankering to spend a substantial car deposit on the best folding phone Samsung has ever made, you’ll find it here. The AI is also pretty nice. You should check that out.