Samsung's foldable phones have come a long way in a short span of time. It was only two years ago that the Galaxy Fold hit the market, and while its launch was anything but smooth, Samsung turned the ship around quickly and brought numerous refinements with the Galaxy Fold's successor. It also launched the Galaxy Z Flip, which captured the attention of millions thanks to its compact form factor and stylish design.
And now, the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy Z Flip 3 are here, and both are amazing devices in their own right. The Galaxy Z Fold 3 is especially interesting thanks to a laundry list of fancy features, including water resistance, an under-display camera, and S Pen support. Unfortunately, it doesn't bring any improvements to the rear camera setup compared to the Galaxy Fold or Galaxy Z Fold 2, and as I've opined before, the lack of a modern zoom solution on Samsung's foldables is a massive disadvantage.
However, I recently began to wonder if I really need a zoom camera and if I can't just forget about one and make the switch to Samsung's foldables. For a second I thought I could. Thanks to the never-ending pandemic, I'm not really stepping out of the house all that much, so I'm not getting too many chances to do anything remotely resembling serious photography.
In fact, there's only one reason I really need a high-quality zoom camera for. Sadly, it's quite an important one: I need it to take pictures of my dog.
Dog doing cute things? Whip out your camera and zoom before the moment's lost
Anyone who owns a dog knows how important it is to capture all those cute things they do before the moment passes. And having access to a good zoom camera is essential for doing so, because often times they'll stop doing what they're doing when they see you moving closer. With a proper zoom camera, you can snap a picture from far away, and it's an area in which Samsung's foldables fall behind.
With the Galaxy Z Fold lineup, you're stuck with 2x optical zoom, and the Galaxy Z Flip lineup only offers digital magnification as it lacks a telephoto camera. And that's just sad, because I loved both the Galaxy Z Fold 2 and the Galaxy Z Flip when I got to test them out. The Galaxy Z Flip, in particular, had me captivated, despite its longer list of shortcomings (many of which have been fixed with the Galaxy Z Flip 3, like a high refresh rate display and stereo speakers).
Below are just a few photos of my dog that I captured with my Galaxy S20 Ultra. With a Galaxy Z Fold 2/3 or Galaxy Z Flip/Z Flip 2, these would come out extremely pixelated.
Seriously, if it weren't for my dog, I'd pre-order the Galaxy Z Flip 3 right now, especially since its stylish design is matched with a surprisingly attractive price tag here in India. But it seems I need to wait another year or two before Samsung's foldables start making sense for those who want high-end zoom capabilities on their phones. Or even just close to high-end, like a 3x telephoto camera instead of a 10x module, as we see on phones like the Galaxy S20 FE and even the mid-range Galaxy A72.
