Gadgetory

(fast-paced music) - So the Galaxy Fold is officially delayed, but before Samsung pulled it, I got a chance to check one out. (fast-paced music) Now if you've been following the Galaxy Fold fiasco, it's been a little bit of a rollercoaster. First, you had review units go out. Things were magic and rainbows and unicorns and puppies and "Oh my God. "This thing was the amazing feature "that we never knew we needed." And then, things took an ugly turn. Got real dark, real quick. And devices were just breakin' and bustin' left and right. On one hand, you had an incident where the Galaxy Fold has this very thin protective, almost screen protector-like layer on it that you weren't supposed to remove. And honestly after messing with the Galaxy Fold, I wouldn't say my first reaction would be to pull this off, but if you get any dust or if you look at this thing in bright, direct sunlight, I can see where it would look like a screen protector. With that you then had a group of people who were dramatically jumping to defend the Galaxy Fold screen, "User error. "That's your fault dumb[Bleep]. "You break your device, "you can eat your $2,000 and like it." But really though, if something that fragile can potentially brick a $2,000 device, you might need to rethink things. Now on the flip side of things, there were a couple cases where that protective layer wasn't removed and the Galaxy Fold still ended up like Linguo. - Dead. - You then of course had that dramatic group defending that saying, "What are you freaking out about? "It's only four devices." But you gotta think about it. There was like a total of 12 out there. So if your dentist was like, "Yo, don't worry about it. "Only four out of my 12 root canals go bad." You would be a little worried. So regardless, it's nice to see Samsung take a step back and hopefully fix this. Because regardless of whether you weren't supposed to take that screen protector off, again the fact that something so small and simple could potentially destroy a device could have been disastrous if this got into consumers' hands. So problems and delays aside, actually getting to use a Galaxy Fold, I could see where there's a huge potential future with this because honestly Samsung is kinda lookin' at this as a phone first that then turns into a tablet. But I kinda feel like it's the other way around where it's a tablet that then folds and can fit in your pocket that can also act as a phone. Seriously the biggest benefit of this is having this much screen real estate that you can then fit in your pocket. Like imagine doing that with an iPad mini; it would not work out so well. (smooth music) The main reason why I feel like it's not a phone first is that front screen when it's folded up leaves a lot to be desired. On one hand, there is some positive where I get this one-handed, old school, smaller smartphone vibe whether it's the Galaxy S4 or the Nexus 4. So I can kinda see that merit and honestly imagine if you had like the iPhone SE form factor. Something that flipped open, transformed, and then gave you tablet-like size, that would be amazing. And this is, until you realize how much screen real estate is left at the top and the bottom and that feels like they're definitely wasting some of that. Again I get it. It's a genuine product from the fact that we have self-driving cars and a tablet you can bend and flip and fold and put it in your pocket is amazing. So if they can take better advantage of that screen real estate, it's going to be incredible. As far as the crease goes, I'm not gonna lie and say it's some magic, wizard sorcery to where you just don't see it, it's invisible, "Oh my God. It's amazing!" It is definitely there. You notice is, but it doesn't bother me at all. I also love the fact that you're getting all the major features from something like the Galaxy S10. Wireless power share. USBC. Although, they did remove the headphone jack. You have a giant battery pack inside. Well over 4,000 milliamp hours and really great cameras. I will ask the question though, is this too far or what is the line for where it's acceptable to take pictures with this, especially in tablet mode? Like is that gonna make taking pictures with iPads okay? I don't know yet, but either way having a view finder that big, that nice is awesome. One really clever design that I appreciated with the Galaxy Fold is that it doesn't matter whether you're folded up or in full on tablet mode, you're going to get stereo audio which is a really nice touch. Reading and watching videos is hands-down the most enjoyable thing with the Galaxy Fold. And again, the fact that you can fold this up and fit it in your pants, that makes it feel like it's straight out the future. Like imagine trying to fit an iPad mini in your gym shorts. That's not gonna work. With this, you just fold it up, pack it in there, whip it out. That's gettin' weird. Get on the treadmill. Bust out a solid 60 and have a beautiful viewing experience. Sign me up for that please. Maps also look amazing. And the fact that you have that kind of screen real estate, multi-tasking is also a beautiful, beautiful thing. The one thing that I will say might come at a question with this is longevity. Like how will it last and perform over time assuming Samsung fixes these initial problems? Like how is this gonna hold up after like six months? So I'm curious to see: one, if Samsung can fix this issue. Then also, they can get it back out the gate, how this thing will hold up over time. Now I've only spent about a day with the Galaxy Fold and I was curious to hear thoughts on someone who spent a week with it. The one, the only, Jon Rettinger. - I dig the Fold. I've been using it for a week. I think it gives you multiple form factors in one device. The Fold itself is inherently flawed. What it represents as the future of mobile, changing shapes, I'm totally for. If Samsung would have just called this phone like the Galaxy Fold developer's edition, they would of avoided I think 100% of the drama that came along with this. People would have known that it's not for everybody. It's a beta device that you can buy and try. But making it an actual product, and then a super expensive product, and then have it break and peel. It was a bad PR move. - So there you go. Thoughts from two Johns. A lot of respect. Make sure you guys drop a like for the GOAT, the old school Jon4Lakers. I will drop a link to his coverage down below. Thank you guys so much for watching. This is Jonathan, and I will catch you guys later.