In the last 15-odd months, it has been difficult to decide on the more thrilling option — watching a new phone announcement virtually or seeing a cup of water getting boiled in the microwave. More megapixels! A brighter screen! A new colour variant! It’s like watching Hugh Grant play versions of himself while the plot gets squidgier like his cheeks.

Something out-of-the-box has finally happened — folding phones have arrived for consumers at large. Agreed that Samsung has been delivering folding phones for a couple of years now but there have been chinks in the armour and one had to be super careful with these devices. Smartphones have once again become interesting with the launch of Galaxy Z Fold3 5G and Galaxy Z Flip3 5G. These are the first set of folding phones that are expected to weather almost every use-case scenario, including water. It’s the phone you can confidently carry around.

A good helping of practicality

The general goal of the Galaxy Fold is to be the best of both phones and tablets. It’s bigger than your existing Galaxy S phone but smaller than the Galaxy Tab S tablet while use cases are completely different. When the first folding phone arrived it was more like a solution that was searching for a problem. Now, we know the use case scenarios and, if the wallet permits, a plunge can be made.

There are several reasons why Galaxy Z Fold3 checks all the boxes for making a sensible purchase, the three biggest being water resistance, support for S Pen and improved app support. To enhance the foldable experience, the UX appears to be better optimised for a large screen, multitasking should be better and apps are expected to be optimised better for the foldable screen.

You can now split the unfolded screen into two and open another webpage using the right side of the screen to chat with friends. Earlier, you were able to share content with drag and split. Now, it’s more evolved. When you are shopping online, and want to get more information from a hyperlink, just click the link and drag it to the right side of the phone and drop it. Then you will see the next page on the right side immediately. You can turn on the new Labs feature in the settings menu. It allows you to tailor the size of the app window and use it simultaneously with other apps — making them all look and work seamlessly on your foldable device.

Of course, the phone is slightly thinner and the main screen is better than before. This time, it’s a 7.6-inch QXGA+ dynamic AMOLED 2X display with 120Hz adaptive refresh rate, which is very important. On a bigger screen, a higher refresh rate will make scrolling extremely smooth. The usual smartphones have a smaller screen, so all kinds of jitters go unnoticed. Here, 120Hz will come to the rescue. Besides being lighter — 271g only — the configuration of the camera on the back is better with 12MP each of main, ultra-wide and telephoto (OIS; 2X optical zoom).

And something cool rather than crazy awaits on the inside — there is an under-display camera on the inside of the phone. Though it’s only 4MP but it’s expected to become a feature on many phones going forward. This will become a trend in the coming months but once we play around with the review unit, can we tell you how hidden is the camera when a lighter shade of colour fills up the screen.

We already knew that the phone has support for the S Pen, which is usually seen on Galaxy Note devices. Perhaps it makes better sense to have it on the Fold. What we now know is that there are two types of S Pen. The S Pen Pro comes with Bluetooth (allows device switching and allows ‘Air’ actions) and is 173.64mm long while the S Pen Fold Edition is shorter (132.1mm), slimmer and lighter but has no Bluetooth.

Staying on with the practicality theme, the outer body is protected by Armor Aluminum and Gorilla Glass Victus, the company’s strongest aluminum frame and toughest glass yet. More importantly, Samsung has increased the durability of its flexible displays by about 80 per cent than its previous foldables, by redesigning the layer structure and using a new protective film.

Needless to say, the phone will be powered by the latest chipset available for Android phones as well as support 5G. Basically, you are covered for the next four-five years.

Fashion factor

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip3 5G is a lifestyle-oriented device that doesn’t compromise on speed The Telegraph

If Galaxy Z Fold3 is about multitasking on a bigger screen, Galaxy Z Flip3 is a lifestyle-centric device.

This phone too is rated IPX8 water resistant, but our upvote goes for the redesigned cover screen which now boasts more functionality. The cover screen is 1.9-inch (super AMOLED), which is way bigger than the earlier 1.1-inch. Now you can check all your notifications at once, with up to four commands on-screen and there is the option to scroll down to see more. Also, you can keep up with your emails and your group chats, all without flipping open the phone. With eight available widgets, you can look up the weather, monitor your step count, and even check out at your local grocery store with Samsung Pay, all from the cover screen.

The Galaxy Z Flip3 has a wide range of accessories — you can pair it with ring grips or strap-type accessories to make it easier to take special selfies.

Apple Watch has competition

The Galaxy Watch4 series offers a new unified platform, built jointly with Google The Telegraph

It was expected of Samsung to make foldable phones practical but what is equally important is the work that has been done on the new Samsung Watch options — Galaxy Watch4 and Galaxy Watch4 Classic (comes with a rotating bezel).

The company has a new wearable processor — the Exynos W920, which integrates an LTE modem and is the first in the industry to be built with an advanced 5-nanometer (nm) extreme ultra-violet (EUV) process node. The processor supports a new unified wearable platform the company has built jointly with Google.

There are significant day-to-day improvements, thanks to the unified platform. You can obviously access leading apps from Samsung but there is also support for Google services and third-party apps. The experience will be better. For example, the enhanced built-in compass works in tandem with Google Maps to make it easy to explore a new area. You can also enjoy a seamless experience with Spotify that includes the ability to listen to your favourite music offline.

Samsung has engineered the BioActive Sensor, an innovative instrument that runs on just one chipset and measures, not one but three powerful health sensors — optical heart rate sensor, electrical heart rate sensor and bioelectrical impedance analysis sensor. It’s smaller and more compact with an entirely new algorithm, enabling the Watch to have a streamlined face, without affecting measurement accuracy.

There is a new Body Composition analysis tool on the Watch4 series. It offers a more holistic picture of your health, with insights like skeletal muscle, basal metabolic rate, body water and body fat percentage that give you a deeper understanding of your body and fitness — weather it’s losing weight, building muscle or boosting your metabolism.

The way forward

Instead of going by the book, Samsung has managed to do what Apple did years ago — write a playbook, this time for future generations of folding phones. Everybody wants big displays, but now you don’t have to hate how big the phone looks in the pocket. Both Galaxy Z Fold3 5G and Galaxy Z Flip3 5G have water resistance (IPX8) while the screens are tougher than before, allowing you to worry less about folding phones. Frankly, it seems like folding smartphones are maturing fast enough to be worth owning.

At a glance

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 5G: Supports S Pen, is water resistant (IPX8), comes with under display camera on the inside, and features Corning Gorilla Glass Victus. Will be powered by 5nm 64-bit octa-core processor. Unfolded screen size is 7.6-inch with 120Hz adaptive refresh rate.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip3 5G: Water resistance (IPX8), has Corning Gorilla Glass Victus (toughest glass at the moment), Armour Aluminium (Samsung’s strongest aluminium frame) and will be powered by 5nm 64-bit octa-core processor. Unfolded screen size is 6.7-inch (FHD+ dynamic AMOLED 2X with 120Hz adaptive refresh rate).

Pricing: India pricing and availability were unavailable when this edition went to print.