Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 review

Taking Snapdragon 865+ across the world

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 uses the current top-dog chipset from Qualcomm - the fully-stacked Snapdragon 865+ - regardless of the region you purchase the phone in. There is no Exynos version for this one.

The plus sign at the end of SD865 acknowledges Qualcomm has pushed the single, primary Kryo 585 core on the chip past the 3.0 GHz mark. Beyond that, the chip also has another trio of "big" Kryo 585 cores, with a maximum frequency of 2.42 GHz and then four "smaller" units of the same core, capped at 1.8 GHz. The CPU is paired with the top-of-the-line Adreno 650 GPU.

We also have fast UFS 3.1 storage and 12GB of RAM. Our particular unit has 256GB non-expandable onboard storage. There is also a 512GB variant as well, but it's not as common.

Our testing showed the Z Fold2 has trouble effectively cooling itself when under load which quickly leads to performance throttling.

This is probably down to the simple fact that engineering such an innovative and technology-packed device leaves you strapped for space. Don't forget, the Z Fold2 has two separate batteries, with all the additional infrastructure that requires; two displays, one of which is a cutting-edge folding panel; two selfie cameras, which Samsung did not skimp on. Then there is the Snapdragon 865+ chipset itself, which requires an external X55 5G modem. If that wasn't enough of a space-requirement, the Z Fold2 can be had with mmWave 5G support in some markets and on some carriers. The latter requires a more complicated and physically larger antenna setup and that's fitted in the same body.

The important bit here is that the performance curve on the Snapdragon 865+ inside the Z Fold2 is tuned in a pretty conservatively. The chip quickly drops its maximum CPU clocks when things get toasty.

GeekBench 5.1 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max
  3503
• OnePlus 8 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  3374
• Asus ROG Phone 3 (144Hz)
  3357
• Sony Xperia 1 II
  3318
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra
  3248
• Huawei Mate Xs
  2980
• Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (60Hz, 1440p)
  2728
• Galaxy Z Fold2 5G
  2715
• Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (120Hz, 1080p)
  2697
• Galaxy Z Flip
  2619
• Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G
  2603

GeekBench 5.1 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max
  1332
• Asus ROG Phone 3 (144Hz)
  975
• Galaxy Z Fold2 5G
  950
• Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (60Hz, 1440p)
  910
• Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (120Hz, 1080p)
  904
• OnePlus 8 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  902
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra
  901
• Sony Xperia 1 II
  897
• Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G
  880
• Huawei Mate Xs
  751
• Galaxy Z Flip
  750

The situation isn't all that bad when the Z Fold2 is just stressing its primary core with a single-threaded load. The generated heat in this scenario is manageable by the implemented cooling solution. Hence, we see perfectly adequate and ever above-average single-core performance scores for the Snapdragon 865+.

However, when GeekBench throws a max all-core load at the Z Fold2, the situation changes. The phone is either bumping into a thermal ceiling and ramping down or preemptively dialing-back clocks through its own volition.

In more practical terms, once subjected to a max load, the synthetic scores on the Snapdragon 865+ inside the Z Fold2 basically drop down to Exynos 990 levels. Meaning that the most you are theoretically losing in potential performance is the difference between a Snapdragon Note20 Ultra and an Exynos one.

AnTuTu 8 paints a more flattering picture of the relative performance of the Z Fold2. A good thing too, since it is a compound benchmark with both CPU and GPU sequences, with realistic pauses in-between and it also takes into account things like memory capacity and speed, for a complete picture.

AnTuTu 8

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra
  638497
• Asus ROG Phone 3 (144Hz)
  601858
• OnePlus 8 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  573276
• Galaxy Z Fold2 5G
  564907
• Galaxy Z Fold2 5G (cover display)
  562403
• Galaxy Z Fold2 5G (inside 60Hz)
  555340
• Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max
  536883
• Sony Xperia 1 II
  534701
• Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (60Hz, 1440p)
  528631
• Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (120Hz, 1080p)
  514485
• Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G
  508760
• Galaxy Z Flip
  487908
• Huawei Mate Xs (Unfolded)
  461406
• Huawei Mate Xs
  459274

The Z Fold2 is delivering flagship-level performance despite an uphill battle with thermal management. A battle that, by the way, heats up the phone, but never actually made it unpleasant to hold overall.

There is a particular spot right underneath the main camera array on the back that heats up rapidly and a bit excessively. The Snapdragon 865+ lies directly under that and as luck would have it, it's the exact spot the tip of our index finder rests when holding the Z Fold2 closed and vertically. Hardly a major deal, but still worth noting.

On to GPU performance then, there are a few notes to make. We ran all full set of tests in a total of three setups - the internal display in Adaptive (120Hz) mode, the same display in Standard (60Hz) mode, and then on the cover display, which has a notably lower resolution and only runs at 60Hz.

For the off-screen test, we consistently and expectedly got identical numbers within the margin of error. An expected scenario, since they are not influenced by display resolution or refresh rate. Hence, we are only publishing a single off-screen number per test.

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max
  179
• Galaxy Z Fold2 5G
  128
• Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (60Hz, 1440p)
  125
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra
  125
• Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (120Hz, 1080p)
  124
• OnePlus 8 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  123
• Asus ROG Phone 3 (144Hz)
  123
• Sony Xperia 1 II
  120
• Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G
  116
• Huawei Mate Xs
  115
• Huawei Mate Xs (Unfolded)
  115
• Galaxy Z Flip
  105
• Galaxy Fold
  101

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Asus ROG Phone 3 (144Hz)
  111
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra
  104
• Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (120Hz, 1080p)
  101
• Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G
  88
• Galaxy Z Fold2 5G
  84
• Galaxy Z Fold2 5G (60Hz)
  60
• Galaxy Z Fold2 5G (cover display)
  60
• Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max
  60
• Galaxy Z Flip
  60
• Sony Xperia 1 II
  60
• Galaxy Fold
  59
• Huawei Mate Xs
  59
• OnePlus 8 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  58
• Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (60Hz, 1440p)
  57
• Huawei Mate Xs (Unfolded)
  51

In graphics-intensive tests, we had little doubt that chipset would perform as expected regardless of any thermal management limitations because GPUs, on their own, can hardly thermal-throttle the chipset.

Since GFXBench is not pinning the CPU cores at 100% load, we are seeing perfectly reasonable numbers for the Snapdragon 865+ all around.

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max
  120
• Asus ROG Phone 3 (144Hz)
  92
• Galaxy Z Fold2 5G
  91
• OnePlus 8 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  86
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra
  86
• Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (120Hz, 1080p)
  85
• Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (60Hz, 1440p)
  85
• Sony Xperia 1 II
  84
• Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G
  80
• Galaxy Z Flip
  73
• Galaxy Fold
  71
• Huawei Mate Xs
  66
• Huawei Mate Xs (Unfolded)
  66

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Asus ROG Phone 3 (144Hz)
  82
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra
  78
• Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G
  76
• Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (120Hz, 1080p)
  74
• Galaxy Z Fold2 5G (cover display)
  60
• Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max
  60
• Sony Xperia 1 II
  59
• Galaxy Z Flip
  56
• Huawei Mate Xs
  54
• Galaxy Z Fold2 5G
  53
• Galaxy Z Fold2 5G (60Hz)
  53
• Galaxy Fold
  52
• OnePlus 8 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  43
• Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (60Hz, 1440p)
  42
• Huawei Mate Xs (Unfolded)
  26

One interesting thing worth noting here is that, outside of the lowest-difficulty Manhattan OpenGL ES 3.0 test, none of the other on-screen tests were easy enough for the Adreno 650 to push past the 60fps mark on the 1768 x 2208-pixel resolution of the large 7.6-inch main display.

GFX 3.1 Car scene (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max
  67
• Asus ROG Phone 3 (144Hz)
  56
• Galaxy Z Fold2 5G
  55
• Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (120Hz, 1080p)
  51
• Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (60Hz, 1440p)
  51
• OnePlus 8 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  51
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra
  51
• Sony Xperia 1 II
  51
• Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G
  50
• Galaxy Z Flip
  46
• Galaxy Fold
  42
• Huawei Mate Xs
  36
• Huawei Mate Xs (Unfolded)
  36

GFX 3.1 Car scene (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max
  57
• Asus ROG Phone 3 (144Hz)
  48
• Galaxy Z Fold2 5G (cover display)
  46
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra
  46
• Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (120Hz, 1080p)
  43
• Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G
  42
• Sony Xperia 1 II
  39
• Galaxy Z Flip
  35
• Galaxy Z Fold2 5G
  33
• Galaxy Z Fold2 5G (60Hz)
  33
• Galaxy Fold
  32
• Huawei Mate Xs
  30
• Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (60Hz, 1440p)
  25
• OnePlus 8 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  24
• Huawei Mate Xs (Unfolded)
  16

Of course, these are all synthetic and unreasonably hard loads. A real-world game, especially one worth its salt, is always going to adapt dynamically and dial-back to improve the experience.

Still, one potentially important takeaway here for gamers, who are looking to enjoy more advanced Android titles on the Z Fold2's huge display is that 120Hz refresh rate will be an overkill because games will find it hard to reach the sort of framerates needed to match it.

For any of the popular advanced titles, though, like Fortnite and PUBG, we already know that their engines can't push past the 60fps mark. Some are even capped at 30fps. We would honestly suggest going for the nifty 48Hz limiter, baked inside Samsung's Game optimizer for these specific cases, so as to maximize endurance, without needlessly wasting refresh rate.

Aztek Vulkan High (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Galaxy Z Fold2 5G (cover display)
  33
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra
  30
• Asus ROG Phone 3 (144Hz)
  27
• Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (120Hz, 1080p)
  26
• Galaxy Z Fold2 5G
  22
• Galaxy Z Fold2 5G (60Hz)
  22
• Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G
  20
• Sony Xperia 1 II
  20
• Galaxy Z Flip
  18
• OnePlus 8 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  17
• Huawei Mate Xs
  16
• Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (60Hz, 1440p)
  14
• Huawei Mate Xs (Unfolded)
  10

Aztek OpenGL ES 3.1 High (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Galaxy Z Fold2 5G (cover display)
  33
• Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (120Hz, 1080p)
  32
• Asus ROG Phone 3 (144Hz)
  32
• Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G
  31
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra
  30
• Sony Xperia 1 II
  27
• Galaxy Z Flip
  25
• Huawei Mate Xs
  23
• Galaxy Z Fold2 5G
  22
• Galaxy Z Fold2 5G (60Hz)
  22
• Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (60Hz, 1440p)
  19
• OnePlus 8 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  17
• Huawei Mate Xs (Unfolded)
  12

Both our OpenGL ES 3.1 and Vulkan runs of the Aztek benchmark netted practically identical frame rates on the Z Fold2, which is a great indication that there is no irregular renderer overhead in any of the two. All is working as expected, despite the complexities of two different displays and resolutions on the phone. Quite impressive.

We can't imagine the cover display will see a lot of actual gaming use. Even with its objectively improved versatility over the old Galaxy Fold, the 25:9 aspect ratio is still excessively wide for most gaming purposes. Still, for the sake of thoroughness, we had to test it as well.

3DMark and the Sling Shot Extreme tests always render frames at a fixed resolution of 2560 x 1440-pixels, without much dependence on the refresh rate. Hence, just like with GFXBench off-screen runs, we only have one aggregate score for the Z Fold2.

3DMark SSE OpenGL ES 3.1 1440p

Higher is better

• Asus ROG Phone 3 (144Hz)
  7645
• Asus ROG Phone 3 (60Hz)
  7593
• Sony Xperia 1 II
  7138
• OnePlus 8 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  7127
• Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra
  7073
• Galaxy Z Fold2 5G
  7035
• Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (120Hz, 1080p)
  6713
• Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (60Hz, 1440p)
  6593
• Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G
  6543
• Galaxy Z Flip
  6032
• Huawei Mate Xs
  5759
• Galaxy Fold
  5510
• Huawei Mate Xs (Unfolded)
  4614

3DMark SSE Vulkan 1440p

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra
  6431
• OnePlus 8 Pro (120Hz, 1440p)
  6425
• Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (120Hz, 1080p)
  6308
• Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G (60Hz, 1440p)
  6249
• Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G
  6248
• Sony Xperia 1 II
  6167
• Galaxy Z Fold2 5G
  5879
• Galaxy Z Flip
  5298
• Galaxy Fold
  4856
• Huawei Mate Xs
  4362
• Huawei Mate Xs (Unfolded)
  3528

The scores themselves look quite reasonable, even if positioned on the lower-end for the Snapdragon 865+. We can safely say that the Z Fold2 might struggle with handling the Snapdragon 865+ and its heat a bit, but it still manages to deliver a true flagship experience.

Just to cover all of our bases, we subjected the Z Fold2 to a few rounds of the CPU Throttling test app, at 20 threads and with a fairly-lengthy run time of an hour. The performance decrease was gradual over time and well-controlled with no sudden drops. This is likely the result of a deliberate preemptive strategy by engineers, and it means the throttling won't really be felt during intensive use, like gaming. Top marks to Samsung right there.

CPU Throttling test

So overall, the Galaxy Z Fold2 does not seem to squeeze out the most performance out of the Qualcomm silicon. Perhaps a less-potent chipset might have even been a more-balanced choice with the existing design and thermal capabilities of the Z Fold2. However, there's not a lot of variety of 5G capable high-end ARM chipsets. Options are limited, especially if you don't want to sacrifice in the GPU department or skip on other advanced connectivity options and little bells and whistles. Frankly, no other chip would have been fitting or would have gone over well with fans, consumers, and even the media for the Z Fold2.