Folding out for a hero?

If you've been waiting for a dual-screen phone that you can actually justify buying, Samsung reckons its latest effort is a true productivity powerhouse

- Tom Morgan-Freelander

From £1649/ stuff.tv/Fold4

With big names like Huawei, Motorola and Oppo all getting in on the action, the foldable phone arms race shows no sign of slowing down this year. But with the inward-folding Galaxy Z Fold4, it's Samsung leading the charge.

This fourth-gen flagship gets the latest Snapdragon silicon, a triple-lens camera borrowed from the Galaxy S22, and a more streamlined appearance that's more manageable with one hand. It's still heftier than a traditional phone, but compact by foldable standards.

The entry-level model (if you can call it that) gets a generous 256GB of storage, which should take some time to fill, but with no microSD card slot you'll need to splash out on the 512GB model or the top-tier 1TB version if you need more. That latter option is a first for the range... and will set you back more than £2000. Ouch.

Those might sound like minor gains, but the biggest changes are on the software front. A productivity push aims to finally take full advantage of that big internal screen - and might be the move that fully secures foldables' place in the wider smartphone landscape. All it took was a few features borrowed from the desktop PC world and a helping hand from Google's big-screen-friendly Android 12L. So is this hinged wonder worth all that cash?

1 Baby it's fold outside

The Z Fold4's outer screen is as good as any flagship phone's, with a 120Hz adaptive refresh rate and a colourful, contrasty OLED panel - it's just a little narrower than most. It gets plenty bright and has stellar viewing angles.

2 Crack that fold

The 7.6in panel inside is superbly sharp, with the same high refresh rate. It holds up very well under direct sunlight, and colours are wonderfully vibrant. The crease down the centre is visible if you go looking for it, but it's less distracting than before.