The Galaxy Z Fold Special Edition (SE) has garnered a lot of attention despite its extremely limited availability. And why wouldn’t it? The Galaxy Z Fold SE brings what many Samsung fans have been asking for since the first Galaxy Fold model in 2019: a cover screen as wide as that of regular phones instead of a cramped display that forces you to frequently unfold the device to get actual work done.
The Galaxy Z Fold SE also gets a major camera upgrade. It has a 200-megapixel main camera at the back, which has some obvious advantages over the 50MP camera on the Galaxy Z Fold 6.
That’s not the only thing that has changed as far as the cameras are concerned. Samsung has also upgraded the ultrawide camera: it now supports autofocus, which makes it possible to take excellent macro photos.
The upgraded ultrawide camera is a detail that flew under the radar when the Galaxy Z Fold SE was announced because Samsung didn’t think it was important enough to highlight in the marketing materials. There’s another detail about the Special Edition that didn’t get any attention: the Galaxy Z Fold SE doesn’t have an under-display camera (UDC).
There's no under-display camera on the Fold SE
An under-display camera—UDC for short—is one of the fancier features Samsung adopted for its flagship foldable lineup fairly early on. While not 100% invisible, it’s hidden well enough that you stop noticing it after a while. And it allows you to watch videos in landscape orientation without a dark hole obstructing the view.
Unfortunately, the Fold SE doesn’t have that advantage. What’s worse is that the Fold SE still uses the same 4-megapixel sensor for the foldable display camera. On the Fold 6 and older models, you get an uninterrupted viewing experience at the cost of camera resolution, which is an acceptable trade-off. On the Fold SE, you get a downgrade without any upsides.
There may be technical reasons for this. Perhaps the reasons are similar to those that made Samsung drop S Pen support. But it's shortcomings like these that make it harder to appreciate everything that’s impressive about the Galaxy Z Fold SE. It also makes you wonder why Samsung still struggles to make a foldable that doesn't provide an uncompromising experience in every way possible, five years after the first Galaxy Fold hit the scene.
I guess the bright side here is that makes it easier for Fold 6 buyers to stomach the fact that Samsung virtually scammed them. And all we can hope for is that the next Fold SE won't have these issues. Or, better yet, that Samsung will make bigger displays and better cameras standard features instead of making these Special Edition models a permanent fixture.
