We tested Galaxy Fold 7 Cover Screen vs Main Screen: Here is the difference in battery consumption
The Fold 7 now has a fully functional Cover Screen. What if you use it more, how much battery will you save compared to just using the main screen?
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The new Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 is a masterpiece in engineering, with a super slim body that weighs less than a traditional flagship like the S25 Ultra. Yet it unfolds into a full-sized 8-inch tablet.
The most important upgrade is arguably the bigger cover screen, so you can now easily just use that and feel like you are using a regular phone. Previous Galaxy Folds had an extra narrow cover screen that made typing very difficulty and everything looked off on the weird tall aspect ratio. It was just not a good experience, inviting users to instead always open their phone to use the main screen.
Well, no more. So what if you only used this new cover screen? It's certainly not the point of the phone, but how much battery would you save if you decided to do so? We ran some tests and now we have the results, but first, let's recap the screen changes that Samsung made with the Fold 7.
Fold 7 vs Fold 6 screen changes
| Fold 7 | Fold 6 |
|---|---|
| Cover Screen: 6.5-inch 21:9 aspect ratio | Cover Screen: 6.3-inch 22:9 aspect ratio |
| Main Screen: 8.0-inch OLED 120Hz 2600 nits Almost no crease | Main Screen: 7.6-inch OLED 120Hz 2600 nits Some crease |
As you can see, the screens have both grown bigger and we have the aspect ratio change for the cover display.
YouTube video streaming test
| Screen | Hours of use |
|---|---|
| Cover Screen | 7 hours 46 minutes |
| Main Screen | 6 hours 38 minutes |
So, to the testing table we went.
For our first test, we played the same video playlist first on the cover screen and then on the main screen. We always first carefully set the brightness levels to the same number for all devices we test (using professional equipment) to ensure equal conditions.
Translated into percentage numbers, using the cover screen instead of the main screen, you get 17% longer battery life.
Web Browsing test
| Screen | Hours of use |
|---|---|
| Cover Screen | 14 hours 55 minutes |
| Main Screen | 14 hours 18 minutes |
For the web browsing test we ran a script that cycles through web pages and simulates scrolling behavior, much like in a regular web browsing session.
The results here were a bit surprising, considering the difference between the two was so tiny, much smaller than with the YouTube browsing test, amounting to just around 5%.
Conclusions
In normal conditions, meaning you don't use your phone out in the sun when the brightness gets too high, and you don't run super intensive apps or games, then there is a proven benefit of using the Cover screen to save battery life. But it's not huge.
In our tests, we saw a difference ranging from 5% all the way to around 20%, and we are sure there is some variability to those numbers. But if we average out the results, we would say that you get at least 10% longer battery life if you use the cover screen.
And honestly, that's not a huge win. And if it tells us something is that the main screen on the Fold 7 is actually quite efficient at doing its job.
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