- 2 months ago
The newest folding phone from Samsung is called the Galaxy Z Trifold and it has TWO hinges instead of three. Making a 10 inch tablet that you can fold up and put in your pocket. Its a really cool smartphone... lets cross our fingers that it survives the JerryRigEverything durability test today.
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TechTranscript
00:00Every so often there's a piece of technology that lands on my desk that almost makes me feel bad
00:06for what's about to happen. Almost. This is the Samsung Galaxy Z Tri-Fold, the culminational
00:13climax of the last 7 years worth of folding phone technology. Samsung has now doubled the number of
00:19hinges to make a tri-folding 10 inch tablet that fits in your pocket, Iron Man style.
00:26I do have another one of these to give away, so stick around.
00:32Plus, this might be the most shocking-est of all new developments, it comes with a charging brick
00:38in the box. Right off the bat it kind of feels fragile, which makes me nervous since I definitely
00:43don't want this tri-fold to die before it's supposed to. And without even getting to the main Android
00:49menu, we're treated with a long list of warnings. Like don't press too hard on the screen, this phone
00:55is not dust resistant, don't remove that protective film on the main screen, and a new one. When folding,
01:01always start with the panel that has no camera. Starting with the panel that has the camera can
01:07damage your phone. Well, I think we should see what happens when we don't follow instructions.
01:12Lifting the edge that has the camera, I can slowly, sadistically, sorry, scientifically,
01:18start bending the right most flap towards the center. Once it hits about 90 degrees,
01:23the tri-fold starts vibrating,
01:27and slowly pulsating the entire 10 inch display in a slowly intensifying red hue. What's interesting is
01:34that Samsung has some kind of sensor in this hinge since the phone's vibrations increase in vigor as
01:40the flap gets closer and closer to the center until it touches. Honestly, I think the tri-fold is being
01:46a little overdramatic here. The bend is still quite gentle and all the hardware is fine. I wouldn't worry
01:52at all about accidentally folding the right flap first. We've got plenty of other things to worry about,
01:57like paying taxes to pedophiles. But it looks like Samsung has made opening the tri-fold easier
02:03by protruding out the tiny lip on the first flap that opens. It's also around here that I notice
02:09that every single section of the tri-fold is a different thickness. Not a complaint of course,
02:14just an observation. We'll get to the larger center screen in a second. But first let's see
02:19what the exterior display is made from. This guy is the same size as a regular smartphone,
02:25six and a half inches. I'll remove the pre-installed plastic screen protector,
02:29and we can work our way up through the Mohs scale of hardness. As you know, plastic scratches at a
02:36level 2 or 3. Glass scratches at a 5 or 6. And sapphire, which is some pretty amazing stuff,
02:45scratches at a level 8 or 9. Diamonds are the only 10, aside from my wife. And just like we would expect
02:54on a smartphone made with Gorilla Glass Ceramic 2, this one scratches at a level 6 with deeper grooves
03:00at a level 7. Both marks at 6, 7 are definitely visible. I am so sorry. For the inner, larger,
03:08flexible display, this is where things get interesting. 7 generations in, we are still
03:13seeing scratches at a level 2, with deeper grooves at a level 3. Flexible screens are soft and there's no
03:20way around it. But knowing that folding screens are soft is the first way to protect it from damage.
03:26As long as you don't let the inner display come in contact with hard or pointy objects like fingernails,
03:31keys, or even coins, it should last a really long time. Samsung has tested the folding mechanism in a
03:39pristine controlled environment up to 200,000 times with no damage. That's folding open 100 times a day
03:46for 5 years straight. But you know, not all environments are pristine. There's a 10 megapixel
03:53hole punch selfie camera on this inner display. This has the same scratchable clear screen material over
03:58the top, so be careful with it. It's also very nice that the entire soft screen is protected when the
04:04tri-fold is closed up tight. There's another 10 megapixel selfie camera on the front glass display,
04:10so the whole phone works just fine when it's all closed up, which is good news for later.
04:15For the frame, Samsung is using two materials. For the most part, everything you can touch with your
04:20hands along the exterior is the super thin armor aluminum. And supposedly there is some titanium
04:27inside the hinge, but we can't touch that yet. The side mounted fingerprint scanner is made from plastic,
04:33and the metal volume rocker is removable, but let's keep going. I can't believe how thin these frame rails
04:39are. For reference, at its thinnest point, Samsung has these frame rails slimmed down to just 3.9 millimeters,
04:46while Apple at their thinnest point on their thinnest iPhone Air is 5.6 millimeters. Samsung's
04:52tri-fold is a full millimeter and a half more thin, while still having dual stereo speakers,
05:01which the iPhone Air didn't have room for. Amazing things can happen when Samsung decides to flex,
05:07and I think they should be flexing way more often. There's a dual SIM card tray with a gray rubber
05:12ring to help with water resistance. The Samsung tri-fold is IP48, meaning it can be submersed in
05:18water for short durations, but it doesn't have much in the way of dust resistance. We'll find out for
05:24sure here in a second. The most amazing part is that this USB-C port is basically the thickness of the
05:31phone. For example, my own USB-C charger is larger than the phone body. Samsung is literally playing
05:37around with the absolute tolerances of reality here, and it looks phenomenal, but I do have a bad
05:43feeling that the bend test is going to reveal some things. Zooming back out to the rear panel with its
05:49triple camera lens housing. Normally Samsung uses glass back here, and they still are for at least the
05:55three camera lenses. These are the same cameras on the Z Fold 7. A 12 megapixel ultra wide on top,
06:01the 200 megapixel primary camera in the middle, and the 10 megapixel 3x telephoto zoom camera on the
06:08bottom. With, you know, a single colored LED flash embedded in the ceramic glass fiber reinforced polymer
06:15that happens to be very scratchable. It's the same color as the redacted Epstein list, and the zigzag
06:22texture kind of reminds me of a zipper. Which, fun fact, if you go ahead and check your own zipper
06:27right now, I bet I could tell you the three letters that are printed on the puller. And if I'm right,
06:31you gotta let me know in the comments. It's YKK, isn't it? YKK makes most of the zippers on the planet.
06:38Like, that single company makes enough zippers to circle the globe 80 times every single year,
06:44so it's a pretty safe bet that you're probably wearing one of their zippers right now. I thought that
06:48was kind of a cool fact, but it's probably best to stop looking at it now.
06:58The other non-screen panel is made from the same scratchable ceramic glass fiber reinforced polymer
07:04in the redacted black colorway. Personally, I'm a big fan of the fiberglass. Yeah, it scratches,
07:11but I would way rather have a scratched back panel than a cracked glass shattered panel. So I hope Samsung
07:16brings this panel material more into their mainstream lineup. The front screen is a 120Hz,
07:226.5 inch, 1080p, 2600 nit panel that lasted about 17 seconds under the heat from my flame,
07:30before the OLED panel went kind of golden and didn't recover. I realized about here that when the Samsung
07:36tri-fold is folded up, there is a very small gap all the way through the phone body, obviously so the
07:41outermost edge doesn't rub up against the soft inner screen. Definitely not a problem or anything,
07:46I just think it's really cool how Samsung put this all together. The inner 10 inch screen is the same
07:51120Hz OLED, but it is only 1600 nits, and only lasted for about 10 seconds before the pixels burned black
08:00and did not ever recover. OLED panels are super expensive, and rumor is that replacing the middle
08:05screen alone will cost about $1,100 to replace or repair. But without it being released in the USA
08:13quite yet, we won't know for sure. If you remember from earlier, Samsung says this thing is IP48 dust
08:19and water resistant, but as you can see, and more importantly here, as soon as dust comes in contact
08:25with the tri-fold, it becomes a tri-full noisy. You can see the way the iron metallic dust from my
08:38backyard collects on the internal magnets. And I mean, yeah, the amount of dirt I sprinkled on top
08:43is rather extreme, but with how instantaneous the grinding started, I would be very nervous to ever set
08:49the tri-fold down on a non-cristine surface, or even put it in a pair of work pants, even if they do
08:55have that YKK zipper on them. You can see the location of the many internal magnets with my
09:00magnet paper. There's a lot going on inside of this thing, which we will probably involuntarily
09:06see more of in just a second. Sprinkling a bit more dust on the titanium hinge of the tri-fold,
09:12even more dust gets inside. I think it's rather generous of Samsung to give themselves a four on
09:18the dust protection rating. I would have left it at zero, or X, just to not give people a false sense
09:25of security. Doubling the hinges does double the dust danger. Now that our tri-fold's got more
09:30sand inside than an hourglass, it's time for the bend test. And just for fun with how thin it is,
09:36I figured I'd try to snap just one corner off first. I've seen graham crackers thicker than this phone,
09:43so I figured it was worth a shot. The corner of the tri-fold did flex and permanently kink with just
09:48the pressure of my fingers right there near that antenna line. 3.9 millimeters is not a lot. By the
09:54time you're done milling out the internals for the battery and hardware, you're left with about
09:58the same wall thickness as a pop can, and that ain't all too strong. I have a feeling that the insides
10:04of the tri-fold are about to be on its outsides. With the single bend in the wrong direction, the
10:09tri-fold becomes the first Samsung ever to kick the bucket during my bend test. With the thin plastic
10:16back panels not adding any additional structural support, and the antenna lines splitting the
10:22armor aluminum frame, the phone just buckles. But at least now we'll be able to see the insides.
10:27Thumbs up for that. The hinges are fine of course, Samsung's got patented black magic all up in those
10:33bad boys, but the frame is so impossibly thin it just can't handle any level of abuse. Definitely don't
10:40sit on it while it's open. Which is really the key here. If you're going to treat the tri-fold nicely,
10:45it's probably the coolest phone on the planet. But if you're the kind of person who's loose and
10:51carefree with your hardware, this probably isn't the phone for you. And speaking of getting a phone
10:56just for you, I do know of an extra Samsung tri-fold that's being given away. A new one,
11:01obviously, not this one. My friends over at dbrand are actually giving away a brand new tri-fold.
11:06All you need to do is place an order for anything at dbrand.com by the end of the year, and you'll be
11:12entered into a draw to be very one of the first people to own one of these tri-folds in the entire
11:17world. There weren't many in existence to start with, and now there's one less. If you need suggestions
11:23on what to buy, I might recommend their brand new Sketch 2D line. Each design is a hand drawn
11:28representation of what your device would look like if it came out of a comic book. And as a professional
11:34doodler myself, I gotta say I'm a fan. Of course, if you want to pick out one of my teardown skins, I don't
11:39blame you. These show nearly picture perfect representations of nearly every popular smartphone.
11:45And everything dbrand sells make you eligible for the tri-fold giveaway. Any order, no matter what's
11:51in it, is good for an entry, as long as it's before the end of the year. I'll leave a link to dbrand
11:55down in the description that you can check out after we finish the teardown. Owning a fully functional
12:00tri-fold would be exciting. Must be nice. I mean technically one of the screens on my fold is still
12:06functional, but you know what I mean. 75% of my pixels are toasted. I'll slice into and pull away
12:12the flexible panel on the non-camera side of the phone. You can see how flimsy and structurally
12:18unhelpful these fiber reinforced panels are. And so far we do see batteries in at least two of the
12:24three phone sections. This teardown is going to be interesting. The 12 megapixel ultrawide on top does
12:29not have any optical image stabilization. The main 200 megapixel camera in the middle does though,
12:35along with the 10 megapixel 3x telephoto zoom. It also has OIS.
12:43The 15 watt wireless charging pad sits below the camera units. I'm surprised the copper coils made
12:48the cut after slimming down so much. I'm glad because the copper coils always make the phones
12:53look so much cooler on the inside. They can also reverse wireless charge headphones in a pinch,
12:58which is a feature I've used before. Kind of fun. I'll remove the 22 visible phillips head screws
13:03from the camera unit panel. This frees out the wireless charger flap and the NFC pad that's
13:08connected to it. Normally these metal shields that protect the hardware have a bit more substance,
13:14but to nobody's surprise there isn't a whole lot of structure in here. I'll take out 15 more screws
13:19on the non-camera side flap and then we can work on the middle screen. You can tell this one is glass by
13:24the way that it is. Samsung makes some of the best looking phone guts on the planet,
13:34and it's a real shame nobody gets to see this unless they've subscribed to my channel. There are
13:39another 15 phillips head screws holding in the hardware in this middle third. Then we can get a
13:44close up look at the ultra thin upper loudspeaker. Surprisingly, even with the ultra thin form factor,
13:50Samsung still managed to fill it up with balls. Even the lower stereo loudspeaker has more balls
13:55inside. Remember, these tiny balls help the speaker sound bigger than it actually is by giving the
14:00internal sound waves more internal surface area to reverberate off of. The main motherboard appears
14:07to be on the left side next to the camera units, but there are several daughter circuit boards in the
14:11other two thirds as well. I'll unplug the long ribbon cables and pull out the dual SIM card tray.
14:17The goal here is to unbury the triple batteries so we can calculate how much juice is flowing around
14:22in here. The middle section has an upper daughter board with the front facing selfie camera still
14:26attached. Then the main board with the processor and primary cameras comes out after that. This
14:32circuit board is where most of the brains are at like the Snapdragon 8 Elite processor, but in typical
14:37Samsung fashion there is no thermal paste nor even a thermal system beyond just hoping the aluminum frame
14:44absorbs most of the heat. I was also about to congratulate Samsung on the continuing usage of
14:49their battery pull tabs, but as you can see we kind of now have a new problem. The thinness of the
14:55batteries makes the pull tabs kind of worthless and they are bending in a way that makes me extremely
15:00nervous. This might be why Apple is now encapsulating all of their batteries in metal so they don't bend
15:06during removal. Bending batteries can cause them to explode like we saw in the Pixel Fold earlier this year.
15:12Either way, I'd rather not catch anything on fire today, so we'll just admire these batteries from
15:17the inside of the frame and leave them where they lay. All three different sized batteries add up to
15:22a whopping 5600 milliamp hours. Not only is it interesting that each section has its own battery,
15:28but also that the batteries are what take up the vast majority of the phone's internal real estate.
15:33The only way for these phones to get thinner in the future is for battery technology to change
15:38drastically. But for the moment Samsung has set the new standard and holds the record for the most
15:43useful and best looking folding smartphone. The flexible screen itself does look similar to what
15:52we always see on folding smartphones, with the metal sheet supports on the back side and metal mesh along
15:58the curvatures. And of course instead of just one hinge, Samsung threw in two. It's impressive. I'm
16:05impressed and now you can impressively be holding one of your own soon since any purchase you make with
16:10dbrand from now until the end of the year gets you a chance to win a Samsung tri-fold of your own.
16:16Again, not this one obviously. Mine's going to take a little rest. It's a new one,
16:20and I'll leave the dbrand link in the description. And thanks a ton for watching. I'll see you around.
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