Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 Review: A Fabulous Foldable Phone

The Z Fold4 may be the king of Android productivity, but that comes at a cost in terms of battery life. Samsung hasn't increased the battery capacity of tis foldables in several generations, and the Fold4's 4,400mAh of power will be gone by the end of the day, even with modest usage. It's difficult to gauge how long exactly this phone will last because the main screen uses much more power than the cover display, and you might use one or the other more or less in a given day. In our testing, the Fold4 hits about five hours of intense usage in a single day. Samsung's sluggish 25 Watt charging doesn't help matters either, unfortunately. 

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 Battery Life And Charging

The PCMark battery life test aims to simulate a standard day's workload by running the benchmark over and over over the course of hours. It's not always indicative of real world performance, but it helps to compare devices. In the case of the Z Fold4, it's down near the bottom. With just the cover display, you'll use about as much power as a traditional flat smartphone, but the internal screen blazes through the battery much faster. It even falls behind the power-guzzling Pixel 6 Pro. 


This is definitely a "one-day" phone, and you'll get a bit of range anxiety toward the evening if there's no charger in sight. The bigger issue, though, is the max 25W charging. You're looking at well over an hour to charge this phone from 0 to 100%. That's just very slow in 2022, particularly when you consider the price tag. The OnePlus 10T literally charges 100W faster, and it's less than a third of the price. Even Samsung's other high-end phones like the Galaxy S22 Ultra can manage 45W charging. There's also no charger in the box, but that almost doesn't matter with such slow charging; you probably already have chargers that will max this phone out. Samsung absolutely needs to address this next year. 

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 Review Conclusion: On The Edge Of Tomorrow

By some measures, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 is the best Android phone you can buy. It offers true multitasking in a way that traditional flat phones do not, and it's fast enough to take advantage of the screen real estate. We've had no trouble running three apps at once, jumping between app groups, and playing the latest games. The Fold4 is also a genuinely cool piece of engineering. The hinge is solid, and we love the satisfying feel of snapping it closed. Samsung also gets big points for revamping the cameras here, which were a real pain point on the Z Fold3. 

Samsung also made the displays just a touch wider this year without increasing the phone's footprint, and the difference is noticeable. The cover display is still unusually narrow, but it's reached the point that most apps work correctly. The added width on the main display makes split-screen apps more comfortable in both portrait and landscape. We're also happy to see Samsung improve the pixel density on top of the under-display camera. It's almost invisible on some backgrounds now, although the camera it hides still takes sub-par photos. 

Sadly, the phone's battery life is disappointing. You've basically got a small tablet running on a battery that's on the small side even for a normal phone. The result is a device that can usually last a day. That wouldn't be so bad except that Samsung still only supports 25W charging on the Z Fold4. That's just too slow in 2022 when phones that cost considerably less offer three, four, or five-fold faster speeds. The Fold4 is also a real chonk of a phone in your pocket but the heft isn't from its battery.


And let's not forget, this phone is $1,800. As of the publication, there are still a few hours left to pre-order the phone and get enhanced trade-in values, and you should do that if you're considering taking the leap into foldables. Otherwise, wait for a sale.

Most people don't need to spend big on a foldable right now, but the day is coming when the Z Fold family or something like it will be a mainstream hit. And with the way Samsung's new Galaxy Z Fold4 gets so close to this mark, that may happen sooner than you think.