 There have been four major upheavals in cell phone design over the past 22 years. The first was the mass production of a cell phone, regular people could afford. The second was the attachment of a camera to a cell phone. The third was the introduction of a touch screen and a unified operating system to go with it, either iOS or Android. And finally, a cell phone which folds out a larger screen without compromising on the quality of color and refresh rate. This is the Z Fold 4 and I have watched almost every video review, first impressions video, dissection, drop test, talking head narration and whatever video you could think of provided the main focus was this phone. I even watched videos on how best to set up the phone despite not even having one. After two months of the obsession, I just decided to trade in my beloved Galaxy S21 Ultra and my old iPhone 7 Plus on a chip to New York last December and acquired this 528GB Z Fold 4 for $827. Since then, I took it around the city which never sleeps, 10 day cruise around the Caribbean alongside its sandy beaches which no one in their right mind should do because the phone does not have dust and sand protection. I even brought it back with me to the beaches of Bohol and of course I have had time to completely absorb myself with it at home here in Manila. Hi, I'm Rafael from Hardware Sugar and these are the top five annoyances about the Galaxy Z Fold 4 which other reviewers haven't talked about. So, I'm a web developer and content creator for a YouTube channel and now I'm still active on my own. Ugly. After four months of use, I can tell you that I find the phone absolutely ugly unfolded. When it is on the desk, I just can't help but instinctively feel that I just downgraded from a work of art to an abyss and backward machine. A part of me tells me that the phones no longer need to be thick in order to produce this screen quality which at first glance is less than what people normally get. I want to highlight that this is purely a cosmetic sensation and opinion and I do understand that this ugly facade nevertheless carries magic once it's unfolded. Yes, even the phone without a case, I still find it a little ugly. But because it is such an expensive phone, there is no way that most people won't be getting a case for it. And I honestly think that there isn't a single case out there for the past like four generations that this phone has been out which is forgiving of this form factor. Mostly because of this annoying sticker bumper. What is not explained enough in detail online however is that there are two screens which either work at the same time for some functions or which work alone and that both screens are exactly the same when it comes to image quality and refresh rate. The biggest difference of course is that the fold out screen is much larger and the front screen is meant for usage during commutes or quick paced scrolling or situations where it is either impractical or dangerous to use the phone completely folded out. Unfolded the front facing screen is too narrow and too tall to be something most people are used to. There is a practical reason for this which I agree with. But aesthetically, the phone looks too unnecessarily fat for what you see initially. This comes from having gotten used to many years of wide screens with very thin bodies. The fold 4 is also thicker than it should be because there is quite literally a gap between the screens due to the way the hinges design. Again, cosmetically, it is ugly not only in design but also due to the amount of dust which creeps in through that large gap. The moment you open the screen, you will almost always have dust particles which you need to wipe away. This is why I always carry around a microfiber cloth with me at all times. A similar problem plagues the Surface Book which also has the same gap in between its fold out keyboard and body. For the uninitiated fold users, I still find myself wasting precious seconds which add up to minutes over the day. Deciding on whether or not I want to or need to use the bigger screen or if I would be okay with just the front facing screen. Do not get me wrong, I absolutely love the option of being given the option. I also love that Samsung purposely steers you towards designing the layout of the front screen differently from that of the wider screen. A nudge that people should use the front screens for quick tasks while the use of the wide screen for more complex ones. That's why the shortcuts I have for each are different. I purposely made sure not to place large informative widgets in the front screen and aimed to keep it to the essential such as messaging apps, news, Spotify and Google Maps for instance. Ever when I am at home or commuting while sitting down, I have this nervous stick which pushes me to want to unfold it. Not just because it is fun, but because I feel like I'm not getting my money's worth if I'm not using it completely unfolded. If you're familiar with Mark Zuckerberg's choosing to wear the same clothes every day just so he doesn't need to worry about wasting time on what to wear. That sensation is similar to me when I'm faced on whether or not scrolling through Spotify deserves the front facing screen mode, which I already find ugly or the much more refined wide screen, which takes a mere second to unfold. These are first world problems, I'm sure. However, if you are about to cuff up this much money, you should know that there are some character quirks you'll quickly find yourself facing, such as this. Due to the full day nature of the device, a horrendous majority of reputable phone case brands have been forced to use this adhesive in order to attach the front facing bumper. This includes Spigen and my new found favorite, Ring K. Even Samsung can't think of a more refined solution as seen from their own case. A lot of my time spent researching this phone went deep into phone cases for this phone, which do not need an adhesive. I'll leave a link to the most helpful videos below. I don't, however, want to spend a lot on five or seven cases, which I'll probably end up with just one, because that's just a waste of money. There are some cases which do not require an adhesive, some of which use magnets. However, I've been hesitant to get them simply because if the manufacturer of the phone, Samsung isn't doing it for their own cases for this phone, then there's probably a reason why. In short, you'll need to rethink how easy it originally was to take a case on and off your phone. Each time I take this off to install a screen protector or more irritatingly to switch SIM cards, which I'll get into a bit. I know that the adhesive is a little bit weaker each time. I feel like I'm destroying the money I paid for the case. And I also feel like I'm wasting money on such a premium device, which gets coated in glue, which I can't or even buff out because that would further expedite the degradation of the case. For the most part, however, I am happy with Samsung's S-Pen holder case. Not so much because of the S-Pen, but because of this handy kickstand and the sleek look of the overall design of the case. I, however, much prefer Rinkay's original casing for the S21 Ultra, which had a rough skin, thus making it very gripable. For reasons unknown to the world, Rinkay decided not to carry over this type of case to the Fold 4, especially since the Fold 4 is the kind of phone that needs the best grip possible to hold. I was shocked that no one talked about how the Z Fold 4 version sold in the United States only has a single SIM card slot. Coming from my S21 Ultra, which had the option of two physical SIM card slots and an eSIM, I immediately felt the pain while traveling. A lot of things need one time pin SMS nowadays, such as banking, credit cards or even trying to change the password of your Facebook or YouTube account. When I traveled to the United States, I got a mint SIM card. However, I often had to remove the whole case, which I said in my other point, maybe feel wasteful each time I needed a one time pin sent to my native Philippine SIM card. While I understand that not everyone in the American market may need to even have a physical SIM nowadays, the flexibility of having the option to have more than one physical SIM placement does not seem like a difficult thing to install. Especially since the Z Fold 4 sold in other countries actually do have a SIM tray, which allows for two SIM cards around the world. Different carriers will often offer different data SIM cards at different prices for different packages and are also found in different places. I just really like having the option to wield more than one physical SIM card. And for that reason, I feel that my upgrade to the Z Fold 4 was a level down in this regard. A clear example of this was when I was in Spain last February. Vodafone offered a 140 gigabyte physical data SIM for 20 euros or around 22 US dollars. While Ubigi, an eSIM company I used in both Japan and Spain, offered a mere 10 gigabytes for 18 US dollars. To be honest, 10 gigabytes is a lot, especially if your hotel has Wi-Fi and if you aren't intending to stay for a long time. But for those who have a much longer vacation, the added flexibility to take great discount deals with physical SIMs in the local area is tough to sometimes beat. That Fold Sound Ever since my Fold 4 has been new, I always heard the Fold make this sound like creaking sound when I'm unfolding it. Note that this was well before I took it to the beach and before it had a large amount of debris to collect within its hinges, which I don't think it really has. Reviewers of this phone have commented on encountering something similar. However, it is important to note that other users who have had this phone for much longer than me don't hear this at all when they unfold their phones. I do not feel as though the screen will come apart due to how durable the drop test and dissection videos have shown the Fold 4 to be. Nevertheless, it feels more akin to having sand inside one's expensive dress shoes. It neither damages the phone, doesn't change how it looks and feels, other than being a constant disturbance that I cannot unhear. I actually find this sound to be more distressing than noticing the crease of the fold out screen every now and then. In fact, this annoying sound is also what sometimes keeps me from wanting to unfold the phone to begin with. It feels as though I want to live in denial that some annoying defect blatantly exists in my extremely expensive phone. I have no regrets on buying the Fold 4, even after watching Samsung's latest launch of the Galaxy S23 Ultra. While I do miss the 10x zoom lens of my S21 Ultra and its camera, the Fold 4's camera is really quite a marvel to behold as well. It may not be as versatile as the Ultra's, but I find it very hard to find any fault in the quality of the shots. The extra screen and real estate allows for a more comfortable working and content consuming experience, which is unlike any other phone out on the market. I believe that the deciding factor for me on the Fold 4, as opposed to other folding phones right now, is that Samsung has really nailed the operating system for foldable devices. Usage is seamless and intuitive, especially when it comes to split screen. In conclusion, if you aren't dead set on getting the Fold 4, or if you are looking to binge watch one more video about it, covering matters which are rarely discussed, then I am happy to oblige. I'll be talking more about the phone in the months to come, as a lot of people are often curious about how well the screen holds up. To be honest, I'm not scared of it cracking, but rather more of the screen just not working anymore or suddenly suffering dead pixels. Samsung care seems to be region locked, so even if I bought the phone in the United States and bought insurance there, it doesn't carry over to Samsung repair centers here in the Philippines and vice versa. This to me is an extreme letdown. I feel the Fold is priced so high that it feels as though I should be granted access to some sort of club member privilege. This was a missed PR and marketing opportunity to reward Samsung customers from taking the plunge into the brave new world of choosing their foldables. If you have any questions about the Z Fold 4, or if you have any opinions about any other foldable devices, or if you have a Fold 4 and have something to report, let us know in the comment section below. I myself am actually very curious about what other people have been experiencing with their Folds. So next time, have a good one. We clean computers. We also have our excellent cable management and CPU cooler repasting in cleaning. We also clean and repaste GPUs. 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