Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 5G is official: new specs, water resistance, S Pen

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3

256GB, w/trade-in

$749 ⁹⁹

$1799 ⁹⁹

Expired

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3

512GB, w/ trade-in

$849 ⁹⁹

$1899 ⁹⁹

Expired

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 will be up for pre-order today, the 11th of August! It starts at $1,799.99 for the 256 GB model and the phone will launch on the 27th of August. Those who pre-order will get 1 year of Samsung Care+ protection. Users’ phones will be covered from accidental damage, including screen replacement, water damage and back cover replacement.

The Galaxy Z Fold 3 comes in 3 flavors — Phantom Black, Phantom Silver, and Phantom Green. No bronze or gold colors this year, it seems, or at least not for now. Also, it seems that we won't have that "customize your fold colors on the Samsung website" as we had before.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 5G camera

The triple camera module on the back seems unchanged from last year’s model. We have a 12 MP main camera with an F1.8 aperture lens, a 12 MP F2.2 ultra-wide camera, and a 12 MP F2.4 telephoto camera with 2x optical zoom.


Just like before, both the main camera and the portrait (telephoto) camera are assisted by an optical image stabilization module to reduce shaky hands and improve night-time photography.

No crazy zooming on board — if that’s your jam, the Galaxy S21 series is where you should look.

The Galaxy Z Fold 3’s software makes a lot of use of the foldable phone factor — with various shooting modes, you can either use the huge screen as a nice, big viewfinder, or have it split to show both camera feed and a strip of your recently-taken photos. If you turn the phone around, you can use the small display as a viewfinder and take a selfie with the high-quality back-mounted cameras.


The actual selfie camera that’s located under the Z Fold 3’s main display has a 4 MP sensor and an F1.8 lens. Doesn’t sound crazy impressive, but it doesn’t need to be — this camera is there mostly just for video calls. There’s another selfie camera on the outer shell of the phone, above the small display, which is a 10 MP sensor under an F2.2 lens. Or, you know, just unfold the phone and use the main 12 MP camera for selfies.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 5G hardware

The Galaxy Z Fold 3 doesn’t cut corners — it’s a flagship smartphone and that’s that! A 5 nm Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 hums inside — the same SoC that powers the Galaxy S21. It comes in two storage tiers — 256 GB or 512 GB. Both variants will rock 12 GB of RAM, which will surely help out as you spread multiple windows and multitask on the internal display.


The lights are kept on by a 4,400 mAh battery, which is slightly smaller than last year’s model with its 4,500 mAh cell, but should be good enough for a full day of use.

There are, as before, two stereo speakers with Dolby Atmos support. The Galaxy Z Fold 2’s speakers sounded sublime, we expect nothing less of the Z Fold 3.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 5G S Pen

Well, here’s the big one — the reason we won’t see a Galaxy Note 21 this year. The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 now supports an S Pen!

Not every S Pen, mind you. Since the inner display is a bit softer than your average smartphone screen, the new S Pen is gentler, with a rounded and retractable tip, which will withdraw into the pen when under pressure, keeping the screen safe.

The Z Fold 3-compatible S Pen is sold separately and comes in two flavors. There’s the regular S Pen Fold Edition, which doesn’t support Bluetooth or the magic wand gestures that the Note line has had since the Galaxy Note 9 launches.

Then, there’s the S Pen Pro — this is labeled as a “Galaxy common” S Pen and will work with all your Samsung devices that support the stylus. From the new Z Fold 3 to Galaxy Note models of yore, Galaxy S21 Ultra, and Galaxy Tab S tablets. The S Pen Pro supports Bluetooth connectivity and has a tiny switch to swap between compatible devices — it has a Fold mode for the Z Fold’s delicate screen and an S Pen screen for anything with a conventional glass display.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 5G expectations

While the Z Fold 3 doesn’t feel like as much of a huge leap as the Z Fold 2 was after the original Fold, it still brings about a slew of meaningful upgrades and improvements. Should you turn in your trusty Z Fold 2 just to buy a Z Fold 3 on launch? Probably not, unless you are really craving that S Pen experience for handwriting.

But, if you’ve been on the fence for a foldable phone thus far and were waiting for them to become a bit more fleshed-out and reliable, the Galaxy Z Fold 3 feels like a good place to jump in. We’ve got a bit of a sturdier construction, water resistance, and Note fans can get an S Pen experience now. The Z Fold’s design really lends itself to that “digital notebook in your pocket” experience, so it kind of makes sense why Samsung pushed the Note series out of the limelight in favor of the Z Fold 3. Though, that $1,799.99 price is definitely a tough pill to swallow.