With the redesigned Galaxy Fold on the horizon, many smartphone lovers are asking themselves whether or not they should buy it once it will hit the shelves in September. Previously, we’ve given you a list of reasons why you might want to consider buying Samsung's first foldable phone. But this is a two-way street and, just as well, there are reasons to consider skipping the Galaxy Fold.
The elephant in the room: the price
The Galaxy Fold is set to launch for around $2,000. There’s simply no way around the fact that this is an expensive device. Sure, it's as premium as it can be and it's been in development for many years. It's a costly device to manufacture. The price can be partly justified by the fact that it's both a phone and a tablet, and that buying a top-tier smartphone along with a high-end tablet would cost you about the same as the Fold.
However, this is also quite subjective because if you don't care as much about the foldable phone's compact nature, you could be better off buying two separate devices. It probably wouldn't be as cool or perhaps even practical as the Fold, at least in some situations. But while you could argue that the Fold offers the best of both worlds, it doesn't actually excel in either. It really depends on what type of user you are and how much value you expect to get from each form factor.
It’s not that great of a phone when folded
Once again, the Galaxy Fold is both a phone and a tablet, and although it gets pretty darn close to the functionality of a regular tablet when unfolded, it’s not nearly as practical as a smartphone when folded. This is because of the rather small 4.6-inch Cover display which is surrounded by the thickest bezels around. The Cover display is not too limiting but it is a compromise. It can run your usual applications and so on, but the small footprint and odd 21:9 aspect ratio doesn’t provide the same user experience as a regular smartphone. You'll find that some apps, or mobile games, just don't work that well on the smaller screen.
This shortcoming is further accentuated by the fact that the Galaxy Fold had to be delayed and it will virtually launch later than the Galaxy Note 10 series. The Note 10 is a flagship phone through and through, and it’s further enriched by the S Pen. In its shadow, the Galaxy Fold is probably going to be a hard sell for people who don’t care as much about the tablet side of things and plan to use most of their applications in the phone form factor.
There are some shortcomings in terms of features
Some smartphone users may have gotten more used to the idea that flagship phones will eventually ditch the headphone jack and, in some cases, expandable storage. Unsurprisingly, the Galaxy Fold skips on both of these features that are considered standard by a lot of other smartphone users. It does come with 512GB of storage and it includes a pair of wireless Galaxy Buds in the box, which should alleviate these shortcomings. But if you're part of the latter camp and you do care about the 3.5mm headphone jack and microSD card slot then the Galaxy Fold is probably not for you.
Also worth considering is that the Galaxy Fold has 15W fast battery charging capabilities. Meanwhile, the Galaxy Note 10 and Note 10+ are expected to benefit from 25W and 45W super fast charging, respectively. It might not make that much of a difference, depending on what type of user you are. You can check this comparison between 15W and 25W fast charging for more information.
It’s a first-generation device
The foldable form factor is new and, as a result, it’s untested for the long term. We’ve already witnessed the struggles Samsung had to go through with the first Galaxy Fold version, and even though the redesigned model should fix the screen-related issues, we can’t yet be certain of just how foolproof it's going to be. Either way, there’s always a risk associated with being an early adopter of brand new technologies.
Furthermore, there’s no telling how the foldable form factor will evolve over time or if the Galaxy Fold’s design will become obsolete. If you want to play it safe and don’t like adopting new and arguably untested tech, you might want to wait until Samsung releases the second or third Fold iteration before abandoning the true and tested candy bar form factor.
What's your opinion regarding the Galaxy Fold? Are you going to buy one or skip it? Feel free to take this poll and let us know.
