Latest news with #SamsungGalaxyFold
Man of Many
8 hours ago
- Man of Many
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7 Review: A Massive Leap Forward for Foldables
By Rob Edwards - News Published: 28 Jul 2025 Share Copy Link 0 Readtime: 10 min Every product is carefully selected by our editors and experts. If you buy from a link, we may earn a commission. Learn more. For more information on how we test products, click here. I remember the first time I saw the original Samsung Galaxy Fold. It was 2019, and the long-rumoured device had inexplicably been acquired by one of my then-colleagues. I recall thinking the device was simultaneously extremely ambitious and yet borderline unusable. With hindsight, its ugly 4.6-inch cover screen, thick folded form factor, and cheap-feeling internal display (so plasticky to the touch that many early reviewers tried to peel away what they assumed was a screen cover, ruining their device in the process) meant it probably wasn't ready for public consumption at that time. However, I also saw the exciting potential for what it might eventually become: a phone that serves as a regular candybar-style device without compromise that also unfolds to offer a large-screen experience with ease. In the years since that first release, the Fold line has evolved, taking large leaps here, small steps there, and throughout, I've remained an advocate as the device has crept ever closer to what I saw in my mind's eye when I encountered that first generation. Image: Rob Edwards / Man of Many Now, we come to the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7. This is most certainly an example of an enormous leap rather than a small step over its predecessor, the Galaxy Z Fold6, a phone that itself was a significant improvement over the Fold5. So, we've come a long way in two years. In fact, I'd go so far as to say this is the Fold many of us have been waiting for. While I've found plenty to like about the last couple of Fold generations, they've also been the kind of niche devices to elicit the response from others, 'Yeah, it's cool, but…' With the Fold7, that 'but' has all but disappeared. Is it a perfect device? No, but it's an incredible feat of design and engineering that removes many previous compromises, to the point where even one of my most Apple-devoted colleagues emphatically expressed his admiration. With that, let's discuss the good, the bad, and whether the Fold7's arrival means that now's the time to jump on Samsung's foldable bandwagon (if you can afford it). Image: Rob Edwards / Man of Many Why Trust Us Here at Man of Many, we use a wide variety of technology. We're not fans of any one brand, and we like to get our hands on the latest and greatest tech before we proclaim any product the next great thing. Over the past 10 years, we've built up extensive experience in reviewing tech as a publication. The author of this article, Rob Edwards, is one of Man of Many's technology journalists and has followed the industry for over a decade. He's previously reviewed competitors' devices and was provided the Galaxy Z Fold7 by Samsung for the purposes of this review. No money exchanged hands; all opinions expressed are those of the author and haven't been seen by Samsung ahead of time. For more information on our independence, testing and review guidelines, you can read our full editorial policies here. Nothing wrong with a bit of shameless self-promotion | Image: Rob Edwards / Man of Many The Good: An Astonishing Upgrade in Design and Performance A Foldable That Doesn't Look Like a Foldable Just about everyone I've shown the Galaxy Z Fold7 to has had a similar reaction — eyebrows raised, a moment of silence as they grapple with what they're seeing, followed by genuine excitement. This response is entirely due to the Fold7's exceptional form factor and ability to pass for a regular smartphone when in its folded state. It achieves this through an incredibly thin, light, and elegant build that shaves a whopping 26 per cent off its predecessor's width. Whereas the Fold6 weighed 239 grams and measured 12.1 mm when folded, the Fold7 weighs just 215 grams and measures 8.9 mm when folded. As a point of comparison, Samsung's non-folding Galaxy S25 Ultra weighs more at 218 grams and is only marginally thinner at 8.2 mm. To be clear, photos of the Fold7 do not do it justice. The evolution from the previous generation to this one is simply jaw-dropping. Fold7 (left) vs Fold6 (right) | Image: Rob Edwards / Man of Many Despite the more compact form factor, both of the Fold7's screens have been upsized, with the cover screen now stretching to 6.5 inches and the main display hitting a full 8.0 inches — up from 6.3 inches and 7.6 inches last time around. The most dramatic difference I felt in my time with the device was via the cover screen, which now feels (almost) like you're just using an S25+ or comparable candybar smartphone. Saying that, I wish it were ever so slightly wider still, and with the next generation, it almost certainly will be, which causes me a little frustration. Nonetheless, this is an enormous improvement over what has come before. You quickly get used to placing this phone face-down due to that camera module | Image: Rob Edwards / Man of Many A Premium Phone Deserves a Premium Camera One of the aspects I've frequently bemoaned when reviewing previous Fold devices has been the fact that these very high-end (i.e. expensive) devices have consistently made compromises when it comes to their cameras. Delivering mere serviceability where the price tag warrants something spectacular, it has always struck me as odd that Samsung's most premium devices don't boast Samsung's most premium cameras. While the Fold7 does not quite match the camera offering of the S25 Ultra, it does make significant improvements to remedy the situation. The phone boasts five lenses in total, including a formidable trio on its rear (a 200.0-megapixel wide-angle lens, 12.0-megapixel ultra-wide lens, and 10.0-megapixel telephoto lens) and a pair of matching 10.0-megapixel selfie cameras on its cover and main displays. The most important of these is the 200-megapixel lens, which is essentially lifted from Samsung's flagship S25 Ultra device and performs accordingly. For the first time on a Fold, it feels like you can capture truly spectacular images, rather than just settling for snaps that are pretty (or even very) good. The Fold7's photography chops managed to prove themselves under a wide range of conditions, and it was pretty easy to achieve great results with minimal effort. As for the selfie cameras—not something I'm particularly fond of indulging in, truth be told—they are a slight downgrade from the S25 Ultra's 12.0-megapixel offering. However, you can actually work around this by using the cover display to frame your shots while using the main camera setup to capture yourself in all your glory or lack thereof. It can be a slightly clumsy experience, but it's worth it when you get the shot right. The Fold7's wider screen is a big improvement over the Fold6 | Image: Rob Edwards / Man of Many Interface, Processing Power, and Battery When you're dealing with a smartphone that consistently sees you jumping back and forth between two screens, you might think there are moments in which it struggles to keep up. However, the Fold7 handled my every whim without complaint. This is largely thanks to its Snapdragon 8 Elite processor, which offers more than enough grunt to keep things running seamlessly as you navigate through the One UI 8 interface. Building on the slickness of One UI 7, as encountered on the S25 Ultra, the interface feels extremely polished and easy to navigate here, while Samsung's suite of AI features is also integrated in such a way that, while often inessential (more on that in a moment), I didn't find it irritating either. I should also mention that I've found the battery life on the Fold7 to be surprisingly outstanding. You might think that its extremely slim build would mean a downsized battery, as was the case with the Galaxy S25 Edge, but Samsung's boffins somehow squeezed a full 4,400 mAh offering into that reduced chassis, meaning I often had enough battery to last more than a day and a half. Impressive. Image: Rob Edwards / Man of Many The Bad: AI, S Pen, and Hand-Feel AI Continues to Struggle with the One Thing I Need It For Now for the less stellar aspects of the Fold7. With every new smartphone, Samsung makes a big song and dance about its Galaxy AI functionality, and the Fold7 is no different. However, as someone who approaches anything AI-related with a hefty dose of cynicism—yes, call me a Luddite all you want—I'm prone to seeing much of it as gimmickry. Some of it's fun, sure, and some of it's genuinely useful. But other elements make it hard to imagine authentic use cases, while some of the worst of it undermines the humanity in how we communicate with one another — I recoil at the very real scenario in which two AI bots chatter away at one another with minimal human input. This time around, the AI largely keeps out of the way or does its thing behind the scenes, which I appreciate. But, while there is now a larger suite of AI-powered features than ever before, I won't fully trust it while it still can't accurately transcribe audio recordings from my interviews. That's all I ask. It might sound silly, but it's the yardstick by which I measure AI's usefulness, and as this simple task continues to elude it, I cannot help but feel distrustful of it more broadly. The S Pen is Absent To be completely honest, I don't care about the S Pen's disappearing act in between the Fold6 and Fold7. I never found much use for it, so it's not something I would mark this new foldable down for. However, I know there are those out there for whom the S Pen and the large internal display were a match made in heaven. So for their sake, I'm registering the S Pen-shaped void here, even though the truth is I don't care one bit. Unpleasant Hand-Feel While I cannot heap enough praise on the Fold7 for the triumph of engineering that it is, I simultaneously feel compelled to note that if I owned one I'd be slapping a case on it as soon as possible. Not only is this due to a somewhat slippery feel in the hand (fuelling my paranoia that I could at any moment drop the phone and ruin that immaculate form factor), but it's also for my own comfort as the phone's hinged side has a way of digging into my palm that is less than pleasant. This is a minor gripe, but a curious side effect of Samsung's impressive design. Image: Rob Edwards / Man of Many Many of Many's Verdict on the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7 The Galaxy Z Fold7 is the most fully realised foldable device I have encountered. It's an astonishing achievement that once again cements Samsung as the world's leading force in foldables. Over the last few weeks, I've seen it turn the heads of people who have remained steadfastly unimpressed by previous foldable devices. To quote the aforementioned Apple fan on the Man of Many team, 'They did it. They finally did it.' They really did, and while that AUD$2,899 starting price will keep the Fold7 beyond consideration for many, there will be those for whom the 'but' has now disappeared. DISCLAIMER: The author of this post, Rob Edwards, was supplied a Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7 for the purposes of this review.
Time of India
5 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
The Escobar Fold phones were a scam after all
Remember those unbelievably cheap foldable phones branded with Pablo Escobar 's name? Turns out they were exactly what they looked like, too good to be true and a scam. Olof Kyros Gustafsson , the 32-year-old Swedish mastermind behind Escobar Inc. , pleaded guilty to fraud and money laundering charges, finally putting an end to one of tech's most brazen scams. Gustafsson convinced thousands of people to shell out $399 for the " Escobar Fold 2 ," promising cutting-edge foldable technology at a fraction of Samsung's $2,000 Galaxy Fold price. The catch? Most never received their phones. Those lucky few (mostly influencers) who did get a package found Samsung Galaxy Folds wrapped in cheap gold foil, Escobar Fold phones were not made by Escobar Inc. The Escobar Inc caught attention when Marques Brownlee famously unboxed an Escobar Fold 2 on YouTube, revealing it was simply a Samsung Galaxy Fold with gold foil stickers slapped on top. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Why seniors are rushing to get this Internet box – here's why! Techno Mag Learn More Undo Even more telling, Gustafsson later admitted in company correspondence that the Fold 2 was "an overstock purchase of the Samsung Galaxy Fold" bought from retailers and wholesalers. The first device, the Fold 1, bore striking similarities to the FlexPai from Chinese manufacturer Royole, though Gustafsson denied any connection. Now, that Fold 2, per Marques, was sent by Escobar Inc. themselves. That tells that Gustafsson deliberately sent sample devices to influencers to drum up interest, knowing the buzz would drive more orders. It worked, The videos inadvertently gave the fake company some credibility, eventually pocketing over $300,000 from unsuspecting customers. Books instead of Folds These thousands of people who paid around $399, would get a "Certificate of Ownership," over their mail. After that one would hope for their Escobar Fold phone. Instead they received Pablo Escobar's brother Roberto's autobiography and a congratulatory flyer featuring scantily-clad women. When buyers demanded refunds, Gustafsson used these book shipments as "proof" that products had been delivered, successfully blocking refund requests through payment processors. The company didn't stop at phones. Gustafsson also hawked "Escobar Flamethrower," a dupe of Elon Musk's Boring Company flamethrower, an "Escobar Gold 11 Pro Phone" that was supposedly a refurbished iPhone, and even "Escobar Cash," that the Escobar Inc. marketed as the world's first physical cryptocurrency. None of these products existed beyond promotional materials and the occasional sample sent to reviewers. CEO faces 20 years jailtime for $1.3M fraud Federal investigators eventually caught up with Gustafsson's operation. He was arrested at his home in Marbella, Spain, in December 2023 during a joint raid by Spanish police and U.S. Internal Revenue Service agents. After unsuccessfully seeking asylum in Spain to avoid extradition, he was brought to Los Angeles to face charges for 115-count federal indictment Court documents show Gustafsson laundered over $307,000 through bank accounts in the United States, Sweden, and the United Arab Emirates during just the first six months of the scheme. Gustafsson sentencing is scheduled for December 5, and he faces faces up to 20 years in federal prison on fraud charges and up to 10 years for money laundering when he's sentenced on December 5th. He must also pay $1.3 million in restitution to the customers he duped, though many victims are likely wondering if they'll ever see that money either. AI Masterclass for Students. Upskill Young Ones Today!– Join Now
Vox
17-07-2025
- Vox
Revenge of the flip phone
is a senior technology correspondent at Vox and author of the User Friendly newsletter. He's spent 15 years covering the intersection of technology, culture, and politics at places like The Atlantic, Gizmodo, and Vice. Despite rumors of its demise, the smartphone will continue to be your most important gadget for a long while. Paige Vickers/Vox; Getty Images I laughed out loud the first time I saw a folding phone. The contraptions, which debuted when the Samsung Galaxy Fold hit the market in 2019, are smartphones with bendable screens. You can fold them in half and put them in your pocket. That first Galaxy Fold was huge, heavy, cost nearly $2,000, and looked like it would snap in half the first time you used it. When folded, the tiny display on the front was not enough screen. When unfolded, the device became a creased tablet and too much screen. But after spending a few days with the latest iteration of that very gadget, which Samsung announced last week, I think the future of smartphones is more interesting than we thought. User Friendly A weekly dispatch to make sure tech is working for you, instead of overwhelming you. From senior technology correspondent Adam Clark Estes. Email (required) Sign Up By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. We've all been beholden to smartphones for more than a decade. Although they're wonderfully capable pocket computers, smartphones are also a source of work stress and a place for doomscrolling, all wrapped up in a piece of hardware that hasn't evolved in a meaningful way in years. The new iPhone that will debut later this year, for example, will undoubtedly look and work a lot like last year's iPhone. This lack of innovation is why people have been saying for about a decade that the smartphone era has run its course. Soon, they say, we'll be wearing augmented reality glasses instead, or AI pins that we talk to. Despite rumors of its demise — including those coming from AI maximalists like Sam Altman and Mark Zuckerberg — the smartphone will continue to be your most important gadget for a long while. That doesn't mean you'll continue to carry around the same boring slab of glass you've had in your pocket since the late 2000s. Foldables, an unfortunately named category of devices with shape-shifting abilities, are finally becoming an appealing alternative. In a lot of ways, it feels like the comeback of a much older device: the flip phone. Samsung just released the $2,000 Galaxy Z Fold 7, which is effectively the same size and thickness as my iPhone 15 Pro but opens up to reveal an 8-inch screen (about the size of an iPad Mini). The company also released the $1,100 Flip 7, which is 4.1 inches of screen folded up but becomes a full-sized smartphone when unfolded. Motorola has a similarly futuristic flip phone, the Razr Ultra, and Oppo has a comparable folding phone, the Find N5. Things get even more mind-bending in China, where Huawei sells the Mate XT, a phone that folds twice. Dubbed a 'trifold,' this form factor is basically a tablet that folds up like a brochure. Even Apple is reportedly working on a folding iPhone. 'If and when Apple enters this segment, they will create a lot of awareness,' said Francisco Jeronimo, vice president for data and analytics at IDC. 'It will help the entire industry to move towards [foldables].' Folding phones are supposed to adapt to your needs: Start with the smaller screen for basic tasks, like checking notifications, and then switch to the bigger screens for writing emails and watching videos. As someone who dreads reading anything long on a small screen, I get the appeal. I really like the idea of making the device smaller, as the Samsung Flip and Motorola Razr do, to give me less screen to stare at for basic functions. It also makes me nostalgic for a time when these devices didn't fill up your entire pocket — or your attention span. Related How switching to a flip phone deepened my friendships More than anything, the idea that smartphones still have a few tricks up their sleeves brings me hope that, even if people like Altman and Zuckerberg really want us to, we won't all be wearing AI pins or smart glasses any time soon. 'Is the smartphone going to be replaced? I think at some point, yeah,' Gerrit Schneemann, a senior analyst at Counterpoint Research, told me. 'But I think it's going to take a long time for that to shift, so not in the next five years.' The hunt for an iPhone successor There was a time when people were obsessed with their phones, and these devices were a source of wonderment and fun. (This was well before we knew how phones were cooking our brains.) Companies like Apple, Google, and Samsung got into an arms race over how many cameras they could cram onto a device or how high the screen resolution could go. By the late 2010s, however, the specs had more or less maxed out. Even cheap phones were really good. So people held onto their phones for longer, breaking the annual upgrade cycle. Devicemakers started inventing reasons to upgrade, like the introduction of 5G wireless technology, which was really important to carriers but didn't impact consumers all that much. More recently, there's been a similar push to upgrade your phone to take advantage of AI features, even when the ChatGPT app works just fine on most phones. Apple ended up getting sued several times over how it marketed its Apple Intelligence-capable iPhones. Whatever the future of the smartphone is, standalone AI devices have not done well so far. In 2024, the Humane Pin, a $700 AI-powered device that clipped to your shirt and projected text messages onto your hand, became one of the biggest flops in gadget history, lasting less than a year on the market. The Rabbit R1, a smartphone-adjacent little box that promised to be a personal assistant, also got awful reviews last year. Even the Ray-Ban Meta glasses, which I've spent hours testing, currently struggle as a smartphone replacement (Meta has admitted as much). You can talk to the AI assistant, but you have to take out your phone to get anything done. Related Your iPhone is about to get uglier 'I'm not sure why they've decided voice is a good input method, but I'm not totally certain users are actually ever going to be comfortable doing that,' said Max Weinbach, an analyst at Creative Strategies. That brings us back to the familiar glow of a smartphone screen. Love it or hate it, this will continue to be your portal into the digital world for years to come — but probably not forever. Meta, Apple, and Google are all working on their versions of augmented or mixed reality devices. In addition to the Ray-Ban glasses, Meta revealed the Orion glasses last fall, which project virtual elements onto the real world and make you look goofy in the process. Apple is expected to release the second-generation Vision Pro headset, a very expensive set of goggles that also mix the real and virtual worlds, later this year on the way to its own lightweight glasses. Both devices currently require you to keep a smartphone-sized component in your pocket for the glasses to work. So we're a ways away from a total smartphone replacement. Foldables, in the meantime, create a sort of bridge. If your hope is to spend less time staring at screens, a new-fangled flip phone like the Samsung Flip or the Motorola Razr is a good compromise, since the small screen ostensibly keeps you from looking at the big screen too much. If you want to be more immersed in your daily content, a device like the Galaxy Fold makes certain sense in the absence of a true augmented reality experience that turns the real world digital. If you really just want more control over your screen time and you're not enthralled by the idea of talking to an AI all day or dealing with anything foldable, I have to recommend the Light Phone 3. This compact device for digital minimalists is effectively a smartphone that's been stripped of the most addictive features. I like to think of it as a weekend phone that lets you put your smartphone life on hold for an extended period of time. On the Light Phone, there is no app store, and thus, no TikTok or any other endless feeds. There are simply tools like maps, a music player, a messaging feature, and of course, a phone. As Kaiwei Tang, co-creator of the Light Phone, told me earlier this year, 'We don't want the device to try to fight for your attention, or be shiny. We wanted it to be calm, low key, and just disappear, even when you use it.' I've tried out all of these form factors, because I'm a nerd and because it's my job. As appealing as they are, I won't be switching to either of Samsung's foldable options permanently, because I am stuck in the Apple ecosystem and basically satisfied. I tried switching to the Light Phone, but as a young parent, I'm too dependent on being constantly connected — for better or worse. I also have a pair of Ray-Ban Meta glasses that I primarily use as sunglasses that can also play podcasts. You could say that I'm stuck somewhere between the future and the past. As eager as I am for something new to come along and unify my digital life, as the smartphone did so many years ago, I find myself reaching for different devices for specific purposes. But I'm also nostalgic for the time when each gadget had its purpose, when a flip phone was what I used to make calls and an iPod was how I listened to music. My smartphone can do it all, sure, and it will for years to come.
The Irish Sun
04-07-2025
- The Irish Sun
First look at top-secret Samsung phone that folds THREE times with giant screen after ‘leak' days before big reveal
SAMSUNG fans may have just had their first peek at the new "multifold" phone just days before the Korean tech giant is due to reveal it. Animations in an update on the latest One UI 8 software - which Samsung devices run on - has inadvertently exposed the new device, according to . 4 Samsung's Flex G concept shared by NotebookCheck Credit: NotebookCheck 4 Samsung's Flex G concept shared by NotebookCheck Credit: NotebookCheck 4 The middle panel appears to be the cover display, with a front-facing camera that can be used even when the device is folded shut Credit: Android Authority 4 The three-panelled phone has a dual-hinge folding mechanism, which allows it to fold up in a Z-shape formation Credit: Android Authority They show what the trifold Samsung flagship might look like . The three-panelled phone has a dual-hinge folding mechanism, which allows it to fold up into a Z-shape formation. The leaked design also shows a large triple-camera setup on the rear, located on the right-hand panel when fully unfolded. Onlookers reckon the device will be called the "Galaxy G Fold". READ MORE ON SAMSUNG Al though Android Authority noted that it is labeled as the "Multifold 7" in the One UI 8 animation files. Samsung first teased the new foldable at its Unpacked event in January, alongside a basic illustration of what looks like a triple-screen phone. The illustration matches up with the design in the leaked animations. The middle panel appears to be the cover display, with a front-facing camera that can be used even when the device is folded shut. Most read in Phones & Gadgets When unfolded completely, the front-facing camera is on the right side, and is the same panel that houses the rear triple-camera on its reverse. Samsung is set to host a Galaxy Unpacked event on 9 July, where it is slated to reveal its next generation of foldable phones, likely the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Z Flip 7. Samsung's home robot Ballie rolls around and projects TV anywhere you like The design closely resembles rival Huawei's Mate XT trifold phone. A brief timeline of the Samsung Galaxy Fold Here's all the major things to happen in the controversial phone's history so far... May 2011 : South Korea's Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology announces its researchers have made a folding smartphone prototype November 2013 : Samsung promises to bring folding display devices to the market Spring 2016 : Engineers start working on what we now refer to as the Galaxy Fold Otober 2018 : Samsung officially confirms its foldable phone is on the way February 20, 2019 : The Samsung Galaxy Fold is unveiled with May 3 release date and a staggering £1,800 price tag April 15, 2019 : Journalists with early access to the phone complain its screen breaks after a couple days of use April 22, 2019 : Samsung announces it's postponing the Fold days before release to address and fix durability issues May 31, 2019 : All pre-orders of the Fold are cancelled by Samsung, with no new release date in sight June 18, 2019 : Samsung Display Vice President Kim Seong-cheol claims 'most of the display problems have been ironed out' September 18, 2019 : Samsung relaunches the Fold following a hasty redesign Samsung has since released several foldable smartphones without further major issues
