Samsung develops a Galaxy phone with a dual foldable display. A handy kickstand and a laptop mode make this smartphone extra versatile.
In a short time, Samsung has managed to profile itself as the market leader within the new market segment of foldable smartphones. Samsung is the only manufacturer that managed to release two completely different types of folding phones: the Galaxy Z Flip has a clamshell design, while the Galaxy Z Fold 2 folds out into a tablet. In the background, the Korean manufacturer has been experimenting with numerous different types of foldable designs for some time now.
So far, Samsung has only released foldable smartphones with an inward foldable display. Nevertheless, the Korean manufacturer is also investigating the possibilities for an outward folding display – such as the Huawei Mate X. Or maybe I should say, such as the Xiaomi foldable smartphone that was shown at the beginning of 2019, because this time we are talking about a dual folding smartphone. That is why we dubbed this device the “Samsung Galaxy Z Dual Fold”.
Samsung Galaxy Z Dual Fold
Samsung Display applied for a patent that was published by the KIPO (Korean Intellectual Property Office) on October 6, 2020. The application dates from September 2018 – even before Xiaomi showed their dual foldable smartphone.
The patented Samsung smartphone has an outward folding display. You can fold both the left and right side of the screen to the back. When folded, you keep a relatively short, wide device at your disposal. As soon as you unfold the smartphone completely, an extra wide display is created, whereby the screen surface is increased by approximately 85%.
To better visualize this unique Samsung foldable smartphone, in-house 3D graphic designer Giuseppe Spinelli, aka Snoreyn, made a set of product renders based on the patent images from Samsung Display. The 3D renders are for illustrative purposes only. Earlier this year, Giuseppe also presented an impressive concept video of the Galaxy Z Flip and for the PlayStation 5, the Italian designer has also created several high-profile video animations.
The patent was filed by Samsung Display, not Samsung Electronics. As a result, certain parts remain underexposed. For example, no cameras, speakers and control buttons are visible on the patent images. Therefore we have incorporated these missing components based on the current foldable smartphones from Samsung. For example, the phone has a hole-punch selfie camera and we also added a volume button, an on / off button and a SIM compartment. For the audio enthusiast, a 3.5mm connection has also been incorporated into the design, as well as stereo speakers and a USB-C connection.
Samsung foldable phone with kickstand
The idea of a dual foldable smartphone is not new of course. A working Xiaomi foldable smartphone with a similar design was already demonstrated at the beginning of 2019. Nevertheless, there are a number of notable differences.
To start with the hinge, this Samsung phone has a completely different hinge, which also protrudes slightly from the housing. This makes the smartphone look less futuristic than the one from Xiaomi, but it does bring new operating options. Samsung seems to see an opportunity to use the double hinge to fix the device at a certain angle.
Once fixed the bottom screen part can be used as a keyboard or for displaying operating elements, while the top, and also the largest screen part, is used for displaying the content. Of course, Samsung has already rolled out such a concept with the Flex mode on the Galaxy Z Fold 2. However, as this device can be folded twice, an even larger display surface is created, which will make the advantages of this be more noticeable.
Samsung is thus cleverly responding to increasing productivity. After all, the phone becomes significantly more versatile if it can be used effectively for quick typing – without having to sacrifice too much on the user experience compared to a laptop. To support laptop mode, Samsung has also built-in a handy kickstand, which looks robust and solid. This allows you to place the device for a longer period of time and use it as a laptop screen without any problems.
The flexible display also seems to work different from the one from Xiaomi. The dual foldable phone from Xiaomi has a foldable screen. Samsung, on the other hand, seems to provide this Galaxy Z Dual Fold with a kind of extendable mechanism. If we look at the back of the phone, folded, you can see that the screen on the right side does not extend all the way to the housing. Unfolded, however, the flexible screen does close exactly up to the housing.
It seems the flexible screen can move within the housing. Unfortunately, details about this are lacking in this design patent. Presumably, Samsung designed this to facilitate the folding process. This mechanism might be help to compensate for the difference in length that occurs during folding and unfolding. Over time we have come across numerous patents focusing on eliminating this length difference – which is closely related to the durability of the device.
Obviously, a lot has changed in the field of foldable smartphones in recent years. Since the patent was already applied for in 2018, you may assume Samsung has taken great steps in the development of new foldable devices since then, both in terms of design and functionality.
I therefore do not expect Samsung to actually release this foldable smartphone. Nevertheless, it is certainly not inconceivable that Samsung will present a dual folding smartphone in the future.
This patent also makes it clear once again that Samsung is seeking for ways to increase productivity with a foldable phone. By being able to use your phone as a tablet and even as a compact laptop, it becomes an even more versatile device. Of course you will still miss a mouse and the keyboard will also be smaller than you are used to from a physical keyboard, as a result a foldable phone will never be able to function as a laptop replacement.
Nevertheless, these types of foldable models can certainly provide added value to the business user. Being able to quickly respond on a colleague’s presentation or reply to an email, it’s all just a little easier on a big screen with keyboard. Moreover, the device is still compact enough to carry with you all day long.
Samsung market leader in the field of foldable smartphones
At the beginning of last year, there was still some uncertainty as to which manufacturer(s) would take the lead within the new market segment of foldable smartphones. For example, the Chinese Royole was surprisingly the very first to present a foldable phone, the FlexPai. Not much later, Samsung followed with the Galaxy Fold and almost simultaneously Huawei presented the Mate X 5G. That same week, Xiaomi and Oppo also showed a prototype of a folding smartphone.
A lot has changed in the meantime. After the problematic launch of the Galaxy Fold, Samsung managed to recover quickly. The Galaxy
(Pocket-lint) – OnePlus has been on something of a journey over the past few years. Initially beginning life as a plucky upstart with one phone and a disruptive attitude, it has developed into more of a machine, growing in popularity, and needing to adapt to what customers want. It’s not the only company making powerful and well-priced handsets anymore, you see, so its phones aren’t ultra cheap anymore either.
With the OnePlus 8 series the company went for the traditional ‘regular’ and ‘Pro’ model phones – just like so many other manufacturers – but with this 8T (the typical semi-annual refresh) it’s done something different: launched a phone that doesn’t look like it belongs with the 8 series at all, despite the name.
For us the OnePlus 8T is more of a OnePlus Nord Pro. But that’s not a bad thing. Not at all.
A new direction (sorta)
Dimensions: 160.7 x 74.1 x 8.4mm / Weight: 188g
Colours: Aquamarine Green, Lunar Silver
Looking at a OnePlus phone – at least from the back – has been one relatively obvious way to determine which company’s phone it is you’re looking at. There was the tell-tale long camera protrusion right in the centre of the phone, even as all the other manufacturers in the world started pushing them off to the left corner, and then eventually building big rectangles there.
Now that’s no longer the case. The 8T has seen OnePlus follow the market trend, sticking its quad-camera system in a protruding oblong. If there’s any discerning feature, it’s perhaps the colour. Like the Nord and the OnePlus 8 and 8 Pro before it, there’s a teal offering. Or what OnePlus likes to call ‘Aquamarine Green’.
It’s not frosted glass-like its predecessor though, it’s got a glossy surface – yet somehow still retains an almost frosted appearance added by the layers beneath the glass. Like green glass over a layer of compacted sherbert. Because of that, it offers the illusion that there’s no fingerprint smudges on it, and you’ll only see those if you point it directly towards a light source at the correct angle.
There are some physical design features that it wouldn’t be a OnePlus without, namely the physical alert slider switch on the right side of the phone that lets you switch between silent, vibrate only and sound alerts.
There’s a power button below that, although to call it a power button these days is sort of inaccurate. It launches the Android 11 ‘power menu’ which includes Google Pay for payments and shortcuts for Google Home controls.
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Size-wise, the 8T is pretty big – but not enormous. It’s a similar thickness to the iPhone 11, but is slightly longer than that device. It does feel relatively comfortable in the hand, however, thanks to it featuring curved glass near the edges on the rear of the phone – the screen isn’t curved, though, which we think is only a good thing.
One design choice we’re quite fond of is the design of the bezels and screen on the front. The black frame around the display is so slim that it just allows the panel to dominate the space, making you more immersed in the content. Apart from a small camera cutout in the corner, there’s nothing obstructing the view. That might make the design seem a little boring, or less elegant to some, but it has its practicalities.
Fantastic flat screen
6.55-inch Full HD+ Fluid AMOLED
2400 x 1080 resolution
120Hz refresh rate
20:9 aspect ratio
There’s no denying there’s been an appeal in having curved screens on flagships. They serve two purposes: making the phone feel really skinny, and reducing the appearance of bezels on the side. Ok, so maybe three purposes: they always look cool too. But with all that said, there’s always a little trade-off with curved screens: accidental touches increase and sometimes distort content to the edges where the contrast falls off.
With a completely flat screen on the 8T, OnePlus has essentially ensured that you’re not looking at the tops and bottoms of your content curving around an edge and looking weird. And you’re less likely to get those accidental touches. So, while it’s less exciting and less futuristic looking, it’s the better choice in our view.
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As a purely visual tool, it’s a great display too. It has a fast 120Hz refresh rate for smooth playback, doubling the frame-rate of what’s typical on a more entry-level device. You’ll mostly notice this in the general user interface, when doing things like swiping down the notification shade or scrolling through the app drawer looking for apps. It means those parts of the experience stay sharp and look smooth even when you scroll quickly.
Whether or not that’s important to you is an entirely personal preference. When you launch most games or videos, you won’t really notice any difference at all since most content tends to max out at 60 frames per second or even 30fps.
Despite ‘only’ being a Full HD+ resolution panel, it appears crisp and only slightly misses out on that extra sharpness that comes from having a Quad HD resolution screen.
In its default setting, colours appear well-balanced, without over-egging the reds or greens. You can adjust the balance of colours and temperature to suit your own preference anyway. OnePlus offers calibration options within its settings menu to make it more or less vivid, or choose a standard colour gamut like sRGB and Display P3 modes.
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If there’s any criticism it’s that sometimes the images look a bit too contrasty. It’s not to the level where it negatively impacts viewing too much, but a little edge taken off the contrast would help some colours appear less dark and crunched.
Oxygen OS 11’s controversial redesign
Magazine redesign
Big headlines, reachable actions
Fluid animations
Here’s something we didn’t think we’d say before trying it out: we prefer Oxygen OS 11 to previous versions of the software. During its beta programme, there was some strong reaction to the departure from stock-like Android to something more similar to Samsung or Huawei’s more recent software, but unlike some of those other skins OnePlus has done a great job of keeping a light and fluid feeling.
Stock applications and interfaces have a new magazine-style hierarchy, where there’s big text at the top, lots of white space and reachable actionable items near the bottom of the screen. That makes it easier to reach with a thumb one-handed. Sadly this doesn’t include the stock Google apps like Messages, but just from a purely aesthetic point of view it looks nicer.
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More important, however, is the way OnePlus has managed to make the animations feel like they instantly respond to your gestures. It’s super quick in its traditions and movements, taking full advantage of the 120Hz refresh rate. At times, it may seem unnaturally responsive, but it helps add to that feeling that you’re directly interacting with the graphic interface on the display.
There are some additional features and apps, like Zen Mode, which encourages you to switch off for a set amount of time, blocking notifications and giving you a bit of time to unwind and disconnect.
Market-leading speed
Snapdragon 865 processor
8GB/128GB & 12GB/256GB variants
As we mentioned in the software section, the OnePlus 8T feels very fast, which is something we’ve become accustomed to with OnePlus phones as the hardware is top of the range. It often uses the fastest types of memory and storage it can get its hands on and equips the phone with the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon processors. The end result, understandably, is a fast and fluid experience.
Part of it is obviously down to the optimisations within the software, but of course it still needs the processing power to make it load games and apps quickly, and thermal cooling to ensure it doesn’t get blazing hot when you’re sniping rivals in Call of Duty or trying to slay Baby Luigi in Mario Kart Tour. Games load so quickly and effortlessly.
This same reliability and consistent speed is visible when unlocking the phone too. We’re now a couple of generations down the line for the in-display optical fingerprint sensors, and any issues we had with reliability and failing to recognise or unlock have all but disappeared with the 8T. In our entire time testing, we’ve not had one instance of it failing to unlock – although periodically it asks for a PIN after a few days of only using the fingerprint sensor.
No battery anxiety
4,500mAh battery
65W Warp Charge + and PD compatible (finally)
One of the most freeing things about the OnePlus 8T is its charging speeds, and the versatility its charging system offers. OnePlus has used a similar system to Oppo’s flagship SuperVOOC, delivering 65W of power to the 4,500mAh battery in order to fill it up quickly. To be more accurate, it’s actually delivering 32.5W of power to two individual 2,250mAh batteries simultaneously.
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Technicalities aside what it means in your average daily life is that there’s no such thing as battery anxiety with the OnePlus 8T. With this phone, there’s no need to be a night time charger, ever. It can get you from zero to just over 60 per cent in just 15 minutes – that’s not a typo, it really is that fast.
As an example, with our iPhone – yes, we’re always running two phones at once – we typically just place it on its (relatively) slow wireless charging stand overnight to make sure we have a full battery the next day. With OnePlus, we just keep it running until the battery gets low, plug it into its crazy fast-charger for 15-20 minutes, and we have enough juice to get through a full day.
Put that capability into a normal working day and it means you just plug it in when you get up, go have a shower, have breakfast, and get ready for the day. By the time you leave for work – or sit down for work in the next room, as it is these days – you’ll have a fully loaded battery.
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Sure, it’d be nice to have the convenience of wireless charging for night time charging habit, but really it’s not needed here. If you do decide to use it to charge overnight, OnePlus has an optimised charging feature that learns your charging habits and makes sure it has a full battery when you wake up, but does it by charging quickly to 80 per cent and then trickling the rest in during the run up to your usual wake up time.
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As a last note on charging, the OnePlus 8T also supports Power Delivery – which is a first. That means you can charge it quickly from your laptop charger, or use the Warp Charge adapter to charge your other tablets/devices using up to 45W via Power Delivery technology. That makes it one of the most convenient and versatile chargers around, and it comes in the box with the phone.
As for the battery life itself, we almost forgot to care about it due to the speed of refuelling. However, the total battery capacity is more than capable of getting you through a full day. On a light day with a couple of hours of casual gaming, photography, social networking and browsing, it was typical to get to night time with around 40 per cent or so left.
OnePlus devices of the recent past have had a multi-camera system where one camera outshines the others. The same is true for the 8T. It’s a quad-camera system which – as a whole – isn’t really flagship level.
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The primary camera is the best of the bunch, as you’d expect. Results from it in good light are generally sharp, colourful and balanced – even if like the display there’s a tendency to over-egg the contrast a tad. If it was a single camera phone, we’d be perfectly happy with the results on offer.
When you switch to the ultra-wide camera, you get a much wider view, making it a relatively versatile system. However, the results don’t consistently match the colours, detail and balance of the primary lens. We noticed the shadows and darker areas become darker, while colours didn’t appear as rich and varied. It just gives the image a slightly harsher appearance than the main lens, so if you want that wider shot, you do have to sacrifice a bit of quality.
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As for the macro lens, it’s another instance whereby you’d actually be better served just using the main camera further back and selecting the 2x digital zoom. Using the macro lens just makes the picture darker, less detailed and full of more image noise. As we’ve said of all phones with a dedicated macro camera so far: it’s deadweight.
On the whole it’s a case of having one good camera and surrounded by a few sub-par ones. We feel if OnePlus really wants to compete with the top phones, it still needs to improve this offering. Not by going crazy and throwing in triple-figure resolutions and massive zoom lenses, but a decent main camera, a wide-angle with results more consistent to the main lens, and a decent 2x or 3x zoom would be spot on. Yes, zoom lenses aren’t cheap, so that might not be incoming just yet, but it’s on our wishlist.
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Saying that, there is one interesting new Nighstcape option, in that it’s come to video mode. You can enable it when it’s dark and it’ll draw in a lot more light as you shoot your video. The result can be a bit mushy when you move the camera, but it’s still pretty impressive how much colour can be drawn in.
Verdict
The OnePlus 8T has more in common with the OnePlus Nord than it does the OnePlus 8 series with which it shares its name, with a flat screen, rectangular camera protrusion, and glossy green glass rear.
But that’s not really important. What’s important is that OnePlus has delivered yet another stunning example of fluidity and performance, in a package that’s reasonably priced.
There really is little else like the 8T when it comes to fast-charging too. When the battery runs low it’s a case of – whoomp – and in almost no time you can fill it up again thanks to Warp Charge 65.
So what gives? The camera setup. We’d still like to see more consistency between the different lenses on offer, plus the macro camera really doesn’t add anything. Sure, the 8T takes good pictures with its primary camera, but there’s scope for a more considered choice of lenses in the future.
There’s a lot to admire about the OnePlus Nord Pro. Sorry, OnePlus 8T. It’s super smooth in use, super fast to charge and, well, all-round super for the asking price.
Alternative to consider
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Samsung Galaxy S20 FE
Samsung knocked it out of the park with the S20 FE, giving us essential features we need for a flagship experience, but stripping down some of the nice-to-have things to bring the cost down.
Best smartphones 2020: The top mobile phones available to buy today
(Pocket-lint) – Realme has really taken it to the mid-range/low-end market in 2020, and that focus on offering lots of handsets with different focuses is continuing right into the holiday quarter. In the UK, it was one of the first to offer a 5G phone under £300, and now it’s launching a new series of powerful, well made non-5G phones in the same bracket.
The Realme 7 series is less about speed and performance and more about design, battery and camera performance, and the more expensive of the two phones in the series is the Realme 7 Pro, which comes with some features you’d only have seen on top tier flagships just a year or two back.
Design and display
160.9 x 74.3 x 8.7 mm
182 grams
Mist White and Mist Blue colours
6.4-inch Super AMOLED display
Full HD+ (2400 x 1080) 60Hz
Single hole-punch cutout
Realme 7 Pro comes in two finishes: Mist White and Mist Blue. Our unit is the deep blue model and has this unique and attractive finish on it. The entire thing has that frosted glass effect, which we’ve seen on a number of phones already, but Realme mixed it up by making one part along the left edge reflect light the opposite way to the section on the right.
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That means when you’re looking at it, you get this effect where – if the right side of the phone is reflecting light at the top – it’s the bottom half of the strip along the left that reflects. It’s eye-catching without being too in-your-face. The rear feels solid and sturdy too, so no hollow bendy plastic feel.
Its camera housing is relatively subtle too. The four cameras are housed in a small rounded rectangle which protrudes slightly from the left corner, but not too much. It’s not an eye-sore in the slightest.
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As for buttons and ports, you get everything you’d expect. The right edge has the single power button with a neat little gold accent, while the two separate volume buttons live on the left. The bottom features the Type-C port and speaker grille, but also a 3.5mm input which will make any wired headphone users delighted.
The front is dominated almost entirely by the 6.4-inch Super AMOLED display built by Samsung. It has skinny bezels up the sides and a small cutout for the camera in the top corner, ensuring that you get that real full-screen effect. The bottom bezel (or chin) is quite a lot thicker than the rest of the frame, but that’s to be expected at the lower end of the market. It’s not really an issue.
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On first impressions, the full HD+ AMOLED panel certainly seems vibrant and punchy. Colours are vivid without being too oversaturated and although ‘only’ 1080p, it still seems sharp to the eye at arm’s length.
Performance and hardware
Snapdragon 720G processor
8GB/128GB RAM and storage
4,500mAh battery
65W SuperDart Charge
It’s not just the outside of the phone that looks decent for the money, the internals are pretty spicy too. To keep it ticking over smoothly, the engine behind all the processes is the Snapdragon 720G platform. It’s not quite top tier, but it’s certainly powerful enough to ensure you can get everything done and with little effort.
It’s joined by 8GB RAM and 128GB of storage, ensuring there’s not only enough memory to run background processes smoothly but also plenty of storage. If the 128GB isn’t enough for all your apps, photos and media, you can expand it further using the MicroSD slot which lives on the same pull-out tray as the nano SIM slots.
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As for the battery, that’s a 4,500mAh cell – or rather – it’s two 2,250mAh cells joined together to form a 4,500mAh total capacity. The reason for this is that it uses that tasty 65W fast-charging technology developed by Oppo that can fully charge your phone in less than 40 minutes.
In the past, we’ve mostly seen it on higher-end devices, and it really does change your battery charging cycle completely. You just don’t need to plug your phone in overnight, ever. 15 minutes plugged in is enough to get you a full day’s worth of power and so you can just plug it in before you start work while you get showered, dressed, breakfasted and you’ll have more than enough charge when you’re done and ready.
Cameras
Quad camera system
64MP f/1.8 primary (Sony IMX682)
8MP f/2.3 119-degree ultra-wide
2MP B+W portrait sensor
2MP f/2.4 macro sensor
32MP front-facing camera
As with most modern phones, there’s a quad-camera system here. And as with most modern mid-rangers, only two of those are actually usable on their own. You have a primary and an ultra-wide camera joined by two additional low-resolution sensors for capturing additional data.
One of those low res cameras is a 2-megapixel monochrome sensor that captures depth information and keeps your black and white photos looking contrasty. The other is a macro sensor.
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As for the main cameras, they sound pretty solid. There’s a Sony-made 64-megapixel sensor which you’ll be using most of the time, and it’s joined by the 8-megapixel ultra-wide for those times you want to cram in more into your photos.
We’re yet to test the camera system, but we’ll be updating this review with full results once we’ve done some proper testing.
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First Impressions
Running up and down the spec list there’s very little here not to like, especially in the price bracket the phone fits in. When it comes to pure numbers and performance, you’ll struggle to find anything as compelling at the budget end of the market.
In fact, even within our first 24 hours or so of using the phone, there’s so much here going for it. Sure, it might not have 5G, but the rest of the experience seems fantastic given the price range.
Realme has given this phone a sub £300 recommended retail price in the UK, and for that to have a decent-looking AMOLED panel, super-fast charging and at least one capable camera is great value for money.
If you do want 5G for this price, there’s the Realme X50 5G which launched a little earlier in the year, but with that device you lose out on the AMOLED screen, in-display fingerprint sensor, fast charging and the build doesn’t feel as sturdy and premium.
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Writing by Cam Bunton.
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