Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 Review: The world is waiting to change

Some apps, such as Lightroom, refuse to accept that second, larger screen. When you enable it, it appears in the center of the display, as it does on a smartphone. (Never mind the fact that Lightroom runs wonderfully on regular Android tablets.) AquaWater treats Open Fold 2 screen as a tablet in landscape mode, so it’s necessary to turn the phone sideways to use the app. HBO Max, not currently available for Z Fold 2. And Instagram – well, Instagram is always too bad to adapt to different types of displays, so it’s very scary here. The thing is, unless you are committed to some good apps you know, expect A lot Instability.

What if you want to run multiple applications at once? Such a big screen begs for clever multi-tasking tricks and Samsung has added some of them. Multi-active window mode allows you to drag three applications into the on-screen grid at once. (If you really want to go wild, you can open up to another five of their own floating windows, but humans never need this.) This grid view is very helpful once you find the right combination of apps, and it’s very easy to save them as a preset if you want to use them again. You can also shuffle around the windows so that a larger app extends to the bottom of the entire screen, with two smaller windows side by side on top of it.

Improved flexibility is a welcome addition, but it still has its quirks. Want to take the top of the screen instead of that big app window? Too bad. And some apps refuse to appear in those small application windows, which you will only ever find after trial and error. The Quirks do not end there. One of the biggest software additions to Fold 2 is the ability to copy and paste by dragging text or image from one window to another. It’s awesome when it works, but – and tell me if you know it – it sometimes does not work.

Drag and drop between multiple instances of the office app works like a dream. It also pulls text from Chrome into the Samsung Messages app. But trying to move text snippet from browser to google docs? No. Ditto for pulling and dropping into the notion I came to rely so much on. Again there is that awkward instability!

Still, Fold 2’s software seems like a failure and in some ways it is. But there are clever features that make using a folding gimmick. Application Continuity is a great example: when you open Fold 2 it ensures that everything you do on that external screen continues on the internal. Aside from the occasional compatibility issue, the transitions work well. This year, a little more time has been spent on the continuation of the Samsung reverse app, where the apps you use on the inner screen switch to the outer screen when Fold 2 closes.

It does not have a universal switch, though – you just have to pop it into the settings and select the apps to switch from the inside out. That was the right decision. I do not want my PayPal information to appear when I close Fold 2 Do I want to continue reading my Kindle book while standing in line and suddenly have to use my other hand.

It has all the flex mode features that Samsung originally built for the Galaxy Z Flip. Short story, partners like Samsung and Google have tweaked their apps to take advantage of that big display when Fold 2 opens like a laptop. When you fold the phone while shooting photos, for example, the viewfinder stays at the top of the screen, while the lower half gives access to the camera settings and controls, along with a quick view of the photos you took. Making video calls with the Duo in Flex mode is also a lot of fun: the person you’re talking to fills the screen halfway, leaving only the hangup button and a few other options below it.