Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 first impressions: Same same, but different

Samsung unveiled the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Galaxy Z Flip 6, along with a host of other wearables, with a major focus once again on Galaxy AI. The South Korean tech giant is betting big on the Fold 6's large screen capabilities and is further enhancing it with a range of new AI features.

New AI features

The new "Composer" feature generates suggested text based on simple keywords for emails. Additionally, there's a new S-Pen feature called "Sketch to Image," which can convert your drawings into AI-generated art pieces, each with a small watermark in the corner to indicate that it is AI-generated.

One of the most interesting features can be found in the Interpreter app, and it is called Conversations Mode, which works on the Fold 6 and Flip 6 alike. Users can keep the phone in between and use the cover display as well as the main screen simultaneously to communicate in two different languages. It works in real-time, but all this AI goodness happens on the cloud, meaning you need an active internet connection to make it work. 

Design changes

The Galaxy Z Fold 6 has some minor design changes. The smartphone maker has tinkered around with a few things to give the phone an incremental bump from its predecessor. The Fold 6 is noticeably light, coming in at 239g, and the sides are more squared off, inspired from the design of the Galaxy S24 Ultra. However, it's still not made of titanium.

Interestingly, Samsung has increased the size of the cover display from 6.2-inch to 6.3-inch, and made it an LTPO panel with an adaptive refresh rate. The panel is also brighter, with a peak brightness of 2600 nits on the main 7.6-inch display. 

Samsung is calling the Fold 6's hinge mechanism the "dual rail hinge structure", which improves the shock distribution and also provides a better in-hand feel, as the hinge doesn't protrude out of the back of the device as much. It's a tiny improvement, but almost a necessary one.

Performance

Samsung has also tried to improve the gaming and performance aspect of the Fold 6, as it is anchored by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy chipset, and even features a 1.6x larger vapour chamber to cool the phone down during long hours of usage. 

Galaxy Z Fold 6 is available in three colours, Silver Shadow, Pink and Navy, and will be available on sale starting July 24.