 The worst thing about the Galaxy Fold is the crease, because even though this is the first device in years that you can pull out of your pocket at a party and be confident that it'll spark the curiosity of everyone there, it's the first thing that they're going to notice, especially at the wider viewing angles as they look around your shoulder, leading some people to immediately lose interest. And honestly, that's a shame because I absolutely love this phone. I'll be using it as my daily driver probably until the Fold 2 comes out. So don't write it off just yet. Stick around and let me tell you guys why I think this phone is not just really cool, but changes the way that I use my mobile device. Right after this message from our sponsor, Pulseway. With Pulseway, you can remotely monitor, manage, and control all your Windows, Mac, and Linux machines from one app. Create your free account today at the link below. Incidentally, Pulseway's gonna be a way better experience on the Galaxy Fold, anything productivity wise. Yeah, I'll wait, I'll wait, I'll wait. Seoul, Seoul, Seoul. Jokcheon, Seoul, Seoul. Seoul, Seoul, Seoul. Seoul, Seoul, Seoul. Seoul, Seoul, Seoul. Seoul, Seoul, Seoul. Most of you have seen this phone by now. So I'm only gonna spend two breaths describing how it works. When it's folded, the front has a 4.6 inch 21 by 9 AMOLED display, a 10 megapixel selfie camera, and all the hardware you need to make phone calls. While on the back, there's a triple camera set up with a telephoto, wide and ultra wide lens. But when you open the phone up, that is when the magic happens. One continuous 7.3 inch display with 362 pixels per inch and a 4.2 by three aspect ratio. There we go. Now I will admit that the crease was distracting for me at first, but I've been using this phone for almost two weeks now. And at this point, I barely notice it, especially in dimmer environments, when the background image is displaying something bright or when I'm viewing it straight on. Watching video content on this thing is badass. Thanks in part to the stereo speakers. It really is like having a tablet in your pocket, except that it's still useful once the show ends. And the large screen puts productivity through the roof because even if you don't use the super intuitive controls to open up and switch between up to three apps at once, it still makes even full screen basic things like controlling your remote desktop through TeamViewer or using a website that wasn't built for mobile way easier. The folding screen does have a couple drawbacks though. While the smaller display on the front is glass and therefore feels totally normal by 2019 standards, glass don't fold. So the big screen is a soft plastic with a higher friction feel and the tendency to grab onto junk that's not easy to wipe away, especially if you don't wanna risk, you know, using your fingernail to pick it away and then accidentally scratching the screen. But the bigger issue literally is the gigantic and in my opinion, completely unnecessary notch. It contains cameras five and six, but it makes swiping down notifications more difficult if you're right-handed like me while cutting deep into your full screen content. Now I will admit that there are benefits to having these cameras accompany the main screen because it makes taking selfies way better and it turns your screen into a really nice foldable pocket mirror, which happens to be a common use case. But as someone who rarely does either of those things, I would much rather lose those cameras and the notch and the extra price that I paid for them and just have all the cameras on the outside of the phone then open it up if I wanna preview an image. Speaking of outside, wear a hoodie when you go outside, lttstore.com. Just kidding. Speaking of the outside, I ended up using the outer screen a lot less frequently than I originally anticipated, seeing as it's a fully featured screen, opening the phone all the way really does take some extra effort and holding the unfolded fold one-handed felt quite unwieldy. At first, while there was a learning curve for me, I actually now find that even one of my small hands can hold and use the phone stably as long as I'm not trying to do anything complicated like reach all the way across it. Combine that with how limiting such a small screen can be, especially once you're used to a big one. And the fact that using this thick and heavy chocolate bar one-handed is itself actually kind of tricky because of its thickness. And the end result is I basically only ended up using the front screen when I was gonna dictate a message to someone or when I wanted to close up the Google Maps search I just did and like put it in my phone holder on my windshield. Actually, overall, this is kind of crazy, the fold made me use my phone less as a whole. The extra time that it takes to open it has nudged me to use my phone more intentionally with less time spent just idly scrolling stuff that I didn't really wanna read anyway and fewer instances of just mindlessly taking it out of my pocket when I'm like waiting for an elevator. It's counterintuitive, but the phone made the time that I spent on my phone better without compelling me to spend more time using it with one notable exception. This thing has actually gotten me reading more because the Kindle app on it is so awesome. I mean, I've said it a couple of times now, but it's like having a folding tablet in your pocket. Which brings us, I guess, to the software experience as a whole, which is aside from the Kindle app, a bit of a mixed bag. This is the only device of its kind and Samsung is doing their best, but they still have to rely on third parties to optimize for it. Some apps like Google Maps are really great at keeping continuity as you transition between screens, which is something that you can configure on an app by app basis, but others are completely unable to resize themselves while they're running and need to be restarted. It's a little annoying. Typing is a bit of a different experience as well. Now, Samsung did a fantastic job of designing a split keyboard that's really smooth to type on. In fact, it was one of my favorite things about the device until I realized that no, I in fact still do not like Samsung's prediction. But if you wanna load up a custom board, you're kind of rolling the dice. Gboard no longer supports a split mode and SwiftKey, which is my preferred third party keyboard, does support a split mode, but the keys are orpho linear, which takes a little bit of getting used to. So does the price tag. At $1,980 US dollars, this thing costs more than a lot of people's cars. It is really expensive. It is $500 more than even the most tricked out. It is $500 more than even the most tricked out iPhone 11 Pro Max, which by the way, we did review. So go check that out. And yet, I don't think Samsung is being entirely unreasonable here. Not only are you getting more hardware than any other device, like for real, basically three screens, six cameras, and a pair of wireless earbuds in the box. And not only does Samsung need to and deserve to be compensated for all the R&D that it took to bring this thing to market, but the fold also delivers experiences that you are not going to get on any other phone. Like this is the first phone that I thought, maybe when I'm on the plane, I don't need something with a bigger screen, as long as I don't need to do too much typing. Is it a first gen product? Yeah, they need to lessen the crease. I would love it if the fingerprint reader and the lock button were combined into one. And an official IP rating would be really nice to have at this point. Not to mention that the accessories ecosystem needs to catch up so I can like mount it to my dashboard and get, you know, a variety of cases that make any sense. But overall, I'm super impressed with what Samsung has accomplished here with the fold. And I'm looking forward to all the copycat devices trying to emulate this form factor in the coming years. 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They're dead for good. If they converted me, then you're not gonna be far behind. Hey James, could you grab the Galaxy Fold for me please? I have a little surprise for you.