Transcription
In this video, I'm going to say something that will surprise you all. Now, I've been using the Galaxy Z Fold 7 daily for almost a year now, and it's, you know, definitely my all-time favorite smartphone ever. I mean, I just can't seem to put the darn thing down. You know, it's such an amazing phone.
But there is a problem. The longer I use this phone, the more some of its flaws start to really stand out and become annoying, I would say. So, today I'm not talking about, you know, like the good stuff like we usually do. So, let's focus on some of those annoying compromises, the partially frustrating ownership user experience and some of, you know, the worst features found on the Z Fold 7 that not a lot of people are talking about. So, let's go ahead and jump in.
Now, let's start off with probably my current biggest complaint. Battery life. Now, for a while there, you know, after I got this phone, battery life actually was pretty decent. In fact, I'm going to say solid battery life. Especially given the size of this phone, right? It's a huge phone. You know, it's been super efficient, especially once the software or, you know, machine learning learned my usage habits, I would say.
But fast forward 10 months later and I am noticing a slight battery degradation already. And look, this is not me saying that battery life here is terrible or anything like that. In fact, as I already mentioned, this phone is particularly efficient. It is highly efficient to be doing what it's doing with a 4,400 milliamp battery size powering, as I mentioned already again, you know, this gigantic inner display and the outer display at the same time. But even with that level of efficiency though, you know, reality is still catching up and I have been finding myself putting it to charge earlier and earlier in the evening.
Now again to be fair, part of this comes down to the fact that I am a power user and I know that, right? And I'm also a power user who is trying to get his money's worth. So the way I use this phone definitely plays a role here. I don't particularly baby this phone at all. As a matter of fact, I've already dropped it a few times and and over time as I've continued to, you know, use it instead of mostly staying on the cover screen like I used to, I am finding myself constantly opening this thing up to use the gigantic display for multitasking be generally what I go for. You know, running split screen apps, also watching content, right, which I do a lot on this particular device here. Watching content here, editing photos and videos and so much more. I mean, doing all of that has definitely been amazing. It's been a blast, but clearly the price for that is, you know, battery life, as I'm coming to find out now.
At the end of the day, this is, you know, Samsung's ultimate futuristic smartphone experience, right? I mean, I still love it. And sure, foldables are still kind of an evolving technology, but Samsung has, you know, they've had years of experience with foldables, batteries, and, you know, smartphone innovation in general. And with that, I really think Samsung should start pushing even harder, specifically in the battery department on the Galaxy Z Fold series in particular, right? You know, it's time for that newer silicon carbon battery technology or whatever it's called. It's time for that because when we think about it, this phone here is trying to power that outer display and a massive 8-inch inner display here accompanied by a mega powerful Snapdragon chipset, you know, heavy multitasking, Galaxy AI features running constantly, as a matter of fact. So, it only makes sense that eventually that 4,400 mAh just start to feel a bit stretched.
Anyways, so that's just that with battery. Let's go ahead and move on to charging speeds here. It's not particularly fantastic either. You get a 25-watt charging on here, right? And again, I got to admit it didn't seem like a big deal when the battery was solid, but now that the battery is showing me that it's going to drain slightly faster over time, you know, little by little. So, as I'm seeing that, the slower charging speeds are becoming a lot more noticeable, right? Because you can't just plug it in, you know, for 10 minutes and magically get hours of usage back. With this phone here, I got to be very intentional on how or when I plan my charging, but I don't run out of battery in the middle of the day or anything like that, right?
And also, this does not come with G2 magnets, right? So, I do have this case here that you can attach because it does have the magnets, but the phone itself does not come with G2. So, if you want that, you know, G2 magnet experience, well, you would have to buy a special case in order to do that, which actually is a nice segue into the next frustrating part of owning this this phone/t, the accessories.
Now, there is no question that owning a Galaxy Z Fold 7 is expensive to say the least, right? It's a $2,000 phone for the base, you know, the the base model. And with that comes expensive accessories as well, especially if you are looking for good ones, you know, that the ones that offer a balance of style and protection without bulking up your device. Now, sure, you can hop on Amazon and get yourself a $30 case, you know, they're all over Amazon, but you would be giving up either style or protection or even a combination of both because most cases that you would find online are either super bulky, they don't necessarily look great. Again, this is pretty subjective. I mean, some people out there might find them, you know, to look nice. Personally, I prefer the ones that are I'm going to say sleek, like this one here. It covers the whole thing, but it still keeps that low profile and, you know, very thin profile design language that we have on this phone here. But I digress. So again, if you want to go for, you know, something that costs 30 or 40 bucks, it might end up being bulky or even awkward and many of them truly do ruin the thinness that Samsung has worked so hard to achieve, right? Especially if you are trying to protect the hinge that you have here as to avoid, you know, getting dings like like mine here. Actually, as I mentioned, I already dropped this phone a few times.
Anyways, that was just accessories to quickly fly over that. Now, the next thing that I want to talk about here is somewhat frustrating, but it's not necessarily a big thing, right? And it is the, you know, ownership, let's call it the durability anxiety, right? Even though the phone is very well-made, there is still that anxiety that you have that well, if I were to drop this phone, it just seems fragile. Even though it's very well-built. So that Z Fold durability anxiety is not necessarily rooted in reality, you know, at least not as much as you may think simply because Samsung has had a ton of experience building these foldables. And this particular one is actually much more durable than, you know, other foldables out there. Samsung has improved these phones a lot over the years. You know, they've done, you know, they've gone through a good chunk of trial and error and they are finally getting it.
Now, I'm only bringing up this part again because even after all of the improvements, the anxiety doesn't necessarily seem to fully go away. Even, you know, for someone like myself who is experienced with these foldables. I've had foldables since the first Z Fold. Right? So, just something to bring up there that when you have something like this, you don't necessarily slam it down or drop it in places the way I would my, I don't know, 17 Pro Max or my S26 Ultra. And that's just because it feels, you know, delicate, right? The uh inner display especially. Here for context, you know, we went to the beach, my family and I, we went to the beach a little over two weeks ago and I actually kept it in a Ziploc bag. Now, nothing happened to it, but again, just to show you the extent, you know, to which I went just to make sure that the phone, you know, stayed safe, right? And after that, even if I heard a little weird hinge sound, my heart would just kind of, you know, skip a beat for for a quick second if I heard anything. And I'm pretty sure if you own this phone, you know what I'm talking about. Or if you've ever interacted with this phone, I'm pretty sure you are familiar with what I'm talking about. But either way, you know, the phone is solid, right? Other than all of the things that I've highlighted, the phone itself is solid.
Now, with all of this said, and I cannot emphasize this enough, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 here is the best phone I've ever owned and that I have ever used. I absolutely love it. I just thought it was important for me to also highlight some of the cons, right? You have a ton of pros, but you also do have some cons with this phone. I didn't necessarily highlight everything, but just wanted to point to some of the main ones that are currently affecting my user experience with this phone here. But even with that, I still firmly believe that the Z Fold 7 here is the best foldable smartphone on the market outside of the Chinese market.
In fact, I'm going to say something that's going to trigger many of you guys out there. Yeah, I'm going to say something that I'm going to stand by. When you combine Samsung's legendary design, right? I mean, I know it's subjective, but when you combine that top-level design and build quality, you know, Samsung's software experience, Galaxy AI features, the long-term software support, you know, the ecosystem integration, Samsung's experience. I've talked about that already multiple times in this video. When you have that Samsung's experience in the foldable game, their overall reliability, Samsung's backing behind the Z Fold 7 here, this is the best foldable on the market, period.
Now, I know what many of you guys are going to say. Many of you are going to get upset and you're going to jump in the comment and start saying, "Well, you know, the Oppo Find N, I don't know, 23 or the Honor Magic V 374 has 500,000 milliamp battery and the display is all that. So, it's much better." Listen, that's your take, right? Just sharing my take, my subjective take. And you know, some people I know are going to be listing phones that they've never even actually seen in real life. Phones that they only know from, you know, spec sheet and YouTube thumbnails. Yeah. So, see you in the comments.
Anyways, I'm certainly hoping that this was informative. I just wanted to share my take on this phone after 10 months. Let me know with any questions you may have in the comment section. I'm going to capture in the comment section like I always do. Make sure to share this video if you know anyone anyone who will be interested. Make sure to subscribe if you haven't done so already. Give this video a like. I'm going to catch you in the comment section. I'm also going to catch you in the next video. Up until that next video, of course, as always, stay safe out there.