When it comes to foldable phones, Samsung remains the leader. But in the last year or so, rivals — like Vivo X Fold 3 Pro and OnePlus Open — have tried to catch up with excellent hardware. The new Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6 is lighter (almost like the Galaxy S24 Ultra), thinner, comes with IP48 rating, and has been tested and verified for at least 200,000 folds or 10 years of approximate use. However, the chart-topping feature on the new Fold6 is Galaxy AI, which we will get to in a bit.

Best display on a foldable phone

The phone’s design has been evolving over the last few years and where it is now, you get the best fold experience. The book-style opening technique has proved to be a hit.

The internal tablet-sized screen of the Fold6 measures 7.6 inches

On the front screen, there is a slight change — skinnier bezels mean a larger display. More importantly, the weight of the phone is down to 239g. It means you can use the phone longer without the wrist aching; the phone is more squared off than before. What I like most about the phone is the absence of a gap between the two folds and when you move from the outer 6.3-inch screen to the 7.6-inch main display, foldable phone users will notice that the crease on the display is barely there. Both are Dynamic AMOLED 2X displays with 120Hz variable refresh rate.

The hinge has a great feel to it. When you open and close the phone, there is a nice feel to the hinge; there is just about enough resistance. It doesn’t feel loose and you can prop up one part of the display to use as a tripod or use the display in flex mode so you can type easily. If sand or dust particles get stuck on the main display when you close the phone, there should be no damage.

Staying on with the main display, which is wider, the colours it produces and the levels of black are excellent. The screen can go up to 2,600 nits, which is stunning. The resolution of the main display is 2160 x 1856 (QXGA+) and it’s among the best money can fetch you.

The Fold6 takes detailed and colourful photos that were in most cases better than those from its rivals

Like before, there is a dock on the bottom for your apps and there is the option to continue using all the apps from the main display to the cover screen.

A quibble: The phone supports the S Pen and if you buy a cover, there will be a slot to house the stylus. But given the pricing of the phone, the S Pen should have come with the device.

AI goodness

There are several foldable phones in the market, bringing in competition on the hardware front. But what Samsung has is what rivals are not offering — features around artificial intelligence. Sure, the Galaxy Z Fold6 and Galaxy Z Flip6 are slimmer, sexier and souped up but there are AI features that will help the user. The set of features is called Galaxy AI.

There is already a feature you know about — it’s called Circle to Search, which involves drawing a circle on anything that’s on the screen leading to a focussed set of search results.

Samsung has extended the feature to suit the new foldable devices. Say your children come to you with a complicated math problem and you need an answer there and then. All you have to do is draw a circle around the math problem and see the results in real-time. Not just that: You also get a step-by-step solution. Apple too is working on a similar service but that has only been announced and the public will get to experience it later this year.

Another AI smart: Imagine walking down a street in, say, Japan, and you come across a number of billboards. Samsung devices can give you the translation (in your language of choice) placed in the exact position of the original text.

More practical AI features are coming your way. Many a time we get PDF files in a language that’s beyond our understanding. For example, you get a PDF file that tells you — in French — how to fix the engine of a particular vintage car. Instead of having to manually translate chunks of text, the entire PDF can be translated in a single shot, without playing around with the format. If there are graphs in the PDF, those too get translated.

The advanced editing experience with Photo Assist on the large Fold6 screen helps to effortlessly create professional-grade content. Portrait Studio creates a variety of different portrait styles such as 3D cartoon or watercolour for more creative possibilities.

Let’s dive deeper into sketch to image: Some of us like to doodle but somehow the drawing comes out less creative than that of a four-year-old. Here’s how it works: Draw a penguin, say, with the S Pen on the Galaxy Z Fold6, select the drawing and then decide what kind of output you would like, for example, a 3D drawing. It takes 10-15 seconds (depending on the complexity of the doodle) to come up with a generative AI-generated drawing.

Sketch to image can also be used with a real photograph. For example, I take a picture of my wife on the beach and I want to literally make her feel like a queen. Simply doodle a crown on her head and let AI turn it into a masterpiece without touching any other part of the picture.

Other than that, you can take a note/memo and then use AI to summarise, correct spelling, translate and transcribe. That’s one part. You may also have a voice recording which can be transcribed alongside to make the memo/note richer.

Two more exciting AI-driven features — Conversation Mode and Listening Mode. As the name suggests, Listening Mode can listen to a speech or the voice in a video and translate it into the language of your choice. With Conversation Mode, put your Fold phone in Tent Mode, so one user can see the inside screen while the other can see the cover screen. Say it’s a conversation between someone who speaks only French while the other, only Korean. The conversation gets translated in real-time.

So far Samsung has kept the AI features free for use. All eyes are on Apple, which will make the Apple Intelligence features available with the launch of the next set of iPhones.

Should you buy it?

The Galaxy Z Fold6 has a 50MP main camera, 12MP ultrawide camera and 10MP telephoto camera, with the company updating the ultrawide camera’s sensor to help it perform better in low light.

These are excellent cameras even though the phone is geared towards productivity. It takes detailed and colourful photos that are in most cases better than those from its rivals.

Also, the Fold6 can be seen as an example of how the gap is closing between the foldable phones and standard Galaxy S phones. The phone runs on a version of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip optimised for Samsung’s Galaxy phones, just like on the Galaxy S24 series. The new foldable from Samsung will receive new versions of Android for seven years. Needless to say, the processor is fantastic when it comes to dealing with AI features.

Portrait Studio creates a variety of different portrait styles such as 3D cartoon or watercolour for more creative possibilities

Agreed that the crease on the main display is still there though less noticeable than ever before. Samsung has managed to come up with an impressive piece of hardware. With the marriage of top-drawer hardware and AI-driven features, what you have in the Galaxy Z Fold6 is a gold standard in foldable phones.

At a glance

Device: Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6

Price: Upwards of Rs 164,999

High notes

Improved design with less crease on the main display

Excellent software update cycle

Best AI-driven features on any phone at the moment

Improved ultra-wide camera

Good battery life

Muffled note

The S Pen should have come free with the phone