Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 long-term review

Camera image quality

The Galaxy Z Fold3 has three cameras on its back, and they're the ones you'd want: a main/wide, an ultrawide, and a telephoto. That said, neither of them is really the best available out there, but that isn't meant to imply that the images they produce are bad. They're not, though cameras are clearly one of the areas in which Samsung tried to save as much space as possible, so as to not make the phone even bigger than it already is.

As such, the sensors in these cameras are pretty small compared to what we see on flagships lately, which is why you shouldn't expect them to compete head-on in terms of image quality with said flagships. And yet, in our experience, what the Fold3's cameras deliver isn't a mid-range experience, but more. Think of these like upper-midrange, almost-flagship but not quite, and you'll get the idea.

The main shooter delivers good images during daytime, which isn't really that surprising since it's the same one previously seen in the likes of the Galaxy S20. However, the Fold3's images are slightly soft sometimes and can get a tad noisy in certain environments, especially in skies. The flip side of that coin is that the reason for this seems to be less aggressive sharpening and noise suppression, which makes for an overall more natural look.

Not natural per se, this is still a Samsung, but more so than you might expect. Colors are a similar story: they still pop, but ever so slightly less than the Korean company has gotten us used to. Detail levels are good generally, only lacking when meeting intricate patterns. There is also a tendency to overexpose sometimes, again slightly.

Daytime samples from the main camera

These images, while a bit different from what we expected, still definitely exhibit the trademark Samsung look, which seems to be appealing to a lot of people, especially when sharing on social media is involved. Samsung clearly knows what it's doing, giving people what they appear to prefer even if purists will moan and whine.

The ultrawide produces good images too during the day, although there is a quality delta when comparing them to the main shooter. We've definitely seen better daytime ultrawide shots from other phones, but these aren't bad in any specific way - they're just good, and nothing more. If you look closely enough, you can see general ultrawide problems like overall softness and slightly lacking detail levels and dynamic range.

Daytime samples from the ultrawide

Once again, the images are a bit less sharp than we expected them to be, but color consistency compared to the main camera is on point, and needs to be praised because this is somehow still an issue even on devices that have overall better sensors. Colors pop a little but maybe less than you'd think. Sadly the ultrawide doesn't have autofocus, which means it can't pull double-duty as a macro camera.

The telephoto camera shoots in a native zoom level of about 2x, which is fine but far from anything a periscope would achieve. Insert note about how a periscope zoom lens would have taken up much more space inside the phone, but then again, how come some of Samsung's Chinese competitors can throw a periscope inside their foldables without them being too unwieldy? That's a mystery for another day.

Daytime zoom samples

The images out of the tele are good too, if not amazing or the best we've ever seen (spot a trend here?). They have a good dynamic range and are generally devoid of too much noise (even if it does tend to creep in from time to time). Colors are once again consistent with what the other cameras deliver, and we were pleased with these shots - they are closer in quality to what the main snapper delivers than what the ultrawide can manage.

At night, the main sensor produces shots with good levels of detail and good sharpness too, without going overboard, though sometimes perhaps lacking a bit. Noise exists, but it's generally kept well in check, and overall these are very nice nighttime images.

Nighttime samples from the main camera

If you want them to get even better, then employ the manual Night Mode. There's a sort of half-Night Mode sometimes automatically triggering when you use the Auto mode, but the manual one goes further in restoring highlights, especially from light fixtures, and it also brings up the shadows nicely. There's also some much needed extra sharpness on offer. There isn't a specific capture time for Night Mode, as this automatically varies based on the amount of ambient light around you. But we never found it to take so long that we couldn't hold the phone still.

Night Mode samples from the main camera

The ultrawide isn't great at night, clearly delivering the worst results of the trio. It's not horrible - we've definitely seen much worse - but produces dark shots that are soft (and especially so near the edges), while light sources are very blown-out. Not all of the pictures you capture with this camera at night will be usable, let's put it like that.

Nighttime samples from the ultrawide

Thankfully though, Night Mode improves things visibly, fixing those light sources, lifting shadows, and even bringing forth some more details. There's also a welcome boost in sharpness (since we were starting off overly soft anyway). All that said, these images are still worse than the auto mode shots from the main camera.

As with practically all phones, it takes more to capture Night Mode shots with the ultrawide than with the main camera, so while we recommend going the Night Mode route if you can, that is something you need to keep in mind. Shot-to-shot times aren't great, and since there's no OIS on the ultrawide either, if you have shaky hands, things may get murky.

Night Mode samples from the ultrawide

The telephoto's night shots are, unsurprisingly, noisier than the daytime snaps were. Some sharpening artifacts can also make their way into your images, but you do get reasonable amounts of detail and generally well-balanced exposures with decent (but not outstanding) handling of light sources.

Nighttime zoom samples

Once again, Night Mode improves things, trying (but not always fully succeeding) to restore light-source-related highlights, and lighting up shadows a bit too. As on both of the other cameras, it brings some extra sharpness as well. Overall we think we'd recommend using Night Mode for nighttime shots by default no matter which camera you use, that is if you have the time (and stable hands) for it.

Night Mode zoom samples

While you can use the main cameras to capture selfies thanks to the Fold3's unique folding nature, and you can also use the under-display camera on the inner screen for the same purpose, neither of those put up a fair representation we think. The main cameras obviously take the best selfies so comparing those to anything shot by a dedicated selfie cam is pointless, while the under-display shooter is worse than a normal selfie camera because, well, it's under the screen!

Not to mention that the phone simply won't let you use it at all when it's very dark - that makes sense since it's struggling to pull in light anyway, because of the screen being in its way; this problem gets exponentially worse when there isn't a lot of light around you to begin with. So while this might work when you're directly under a lamp post, there are a lot of scenarios when you'll be instructed to use the other selfie camera anyway.

This long preamble is meant to explain that what you see below are selfies from the punch-hole camera on the outside of the phone. If you want to get an idea about selfie quality from either of the main cameras, just look above at our other samples, while the under-display shooter is best used for video calls if you must. A proper selfie, one that's not fiddly to capture, and so can be taken with the phone closed, is one produced by the camera on the cover display.

These are sharp, detailed, and look very good during daytime. As is tradition with high-end Samsungs, you get two 'field of view' options for your selfies, which is fine but the default is the cropped mode, and that just looks a bit too close. The wider one makes much more sense in our book, and thankfully you can make that the default if you like it more.

Selfie samples, day and night, portrait mode off/on

At night, quality degrades quickly, and it's best to have at least some light sources around you before attempting to capture a selfie, even if you use the screen flash function. In pitch darkness, even that won't make for a usable shot, but, when there is some light nearby, you can still capture images that are shareable on social media, even though they're soft, noisy, and detail levels suffer.