Here’s how the Galaxy Z Fold 6 got me through six hours of air travel delays

A funny thing happened on my way back from picking up my Galaxy Z Fold 6 review unit last week. Just about five minutes out from getting dropped off at JFK, my flight home to Buffalo was delayed by, at first, a couple of hours. By the time I got through security, it was delayed again. A strong set of storms making their way across New York State — including some rare tornadoes — meant that I was stranded in the airport, without much more to keep me company than, well, a shiny new $2,000 foldable sitting in my bag.

Yes, like any good tech reporter, I’d already set up my Galaxy Z Fold 6 after it was handed to me at Samsung’s Galaxy Experience space in SoHo, even managing to charge the battery up to nearly full before I had to check out of my hotel. It’d gotten me through a delicious lunch at Rubirosa with some familiar faces, kept me up-to-date on Slack while writing at a nearby WeWork, and helped me navigate my way to the airport, which, of course, brings us back to the hours-long delay promised in the headline.

I was supposed to be back in Buffalo a little after 9 PM on Wednesday, but thanks to a powerful storm system, our plane didn’t actually land until nearly 2:30 AM on Thursday. Having spent nearly seven hours in JFK — and an extra couple of hours waiting on the plane — here’s what I’ve learned about the Galaxy Z Fold 6.

This hardware is pretty refined

But that doesn’t mean I don’t have my complaints

This obviously isn’t a full review — more complete thoughts are coming in earnest later this week — but I’ll say this: the Galaxy Z Fold 6 is an excellent piece of hardware. For whatever thoughts you might have about Samsung’s iterative design language, you can’t say it doesn’t have some of the best mobile hardware in the game. The move to a matte finish all around the device, rather than keeping the glossy edges seen on last year’s Galaxy Z Fold 5, help to make it feel much more premium. In other words, this is as refined a foldable as we’ve seen from Samsung yet.

That doesn’t mean it’s perfect though. I’ve already issued my complaints about Samsung falling behind the competition — Honor just announced its latest foldable, and it’s 3 millimeters thinner than this model — but at 12mm, I do think this piece of tech is just slim enough to not feel too bulky in your hand. Similarly, at 239 grams, I think it’s about as comfortable to lug around as the Galaxy S24 Ultra. All of that makes for a good improvement, even if it’ll be tough to sell Fold 5 owners on such an expensive upgrade.

A few very basic photos from my trip home — there’s not much to photograph in an airport.

Rather, I’m finding myself a little disappointed with some of the other design changes here. Sure, the cover display is a couple of millimeters wider, but it’s really not enough to make for a noticeable difference in actual use. I’m still making typos when I type, while my time playing Pokémon Go around the airport felt cramped to the point of impacting gameplay. (Go, for the record, still doesn’t work well on the internal display thanks to some poor optimization for larger screens, even though that would be a pretty fun way to play the game.)

In other words, if you’re thinking this new aspect ratio will change how you think about the Fold series, you’re setting yourself up for disappointment. There are plenty of people who prefer Samsung’s design over Google’s or OnePlus’s, though, and if you count yourself among them, you’ll be more than satisfied. At the very least, it does make the front screen much better for when you’re quickly firing off a text message response.

What you might not find yourself enjoying, however, are those sharp new corners. Samsung’s squared-off design might look great next to the S24 Ultra, but it digs into the palm of your hand far more than previous generations. This is especially the case with the lower-left corner of the phone; hold the device closed in your left hand, and it’ll only take a few seconds before it starts to dig into your palm. Sorry, lefties — this one might not be for you.

The software, for better or worse, feels pretty unchanged

Galaxy AI aside, this is still a Samsung foldable

I really enjoyed the foldable optimizations the OnePlus Open brought to the table last year, and hoped to find some of those concepts make their way over to Samsung’s latest Z-series entry. Unfortunately, this is still the same One UI experience you’ve come to know over the last few years, and whether that’s good or bad really depends on your preference for different flavors of Android.

Sitting in the center of Terminal 5 at JFK, it’s easy to admit that split-screening apps felt as good as usual. On one side, I kept my JetBlue app open for updates; on the other, you’d find Twitter, or YouTube, or whatever time-waster app I was filling my time with while lounging around various spots in the airport. Having used the Open as my main foldable for nearly a year, though, I have to admit I missed Open Canvas and its more advanced form of multitasking. Fingers crossed we see some improved foldable elements in One UI 7.

One thing that didn’t make much of an impact on me during my delay: Galaxy AI. I’m not trying to sound like a skeptic, but it does feel like Samsung is already scraping the bottom of the barrel when it comes to its new AI-focused platform, at least as far as productivity is concerned. The Fold is supposed to feel like a tablet capable of slipping into your pants pocket, and I find it odd that Samsung didn’t lean into these elements with its latest One UI refresh. Drawing a hat on your friend might sound fun in theory, but it didn’t do much to make my time trapped in an airport feel a whole lot better — and that situation is, I think we can all agree, the most optimal time for this sort of silly nonsense.

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Samsung’s foldable battery life remains consistently okay

But it might not be enough to get you through airport delays

Perhaps the best thing you can test while trapped in an airport with any device is its longevity. As I mentioned, I was able to nearly charge my Z Fold 6 to full before checking out of my hotel, which — at least in theory — should’ve given me plenty of life to get home to Buffalo a little after 9 PM. Obviously, that wasn’t what happened, and, I think, even the most resilient of smartphone batteries couldn’t have survived through the gauntlet I put this one through.

That doesn’t mean I think Samsung’s new foldable is on par with modern battery champs, though. Admittedly, I was stuck using 5G, but for as much as I relied on using the external display for plenty of my time at JFK, I found the battery draining faster than usual. Looking back at my review of this device’s predecessor, battery life has never been the standout feature of this series, and I’m not surprised to see that hasn’t changed this year.

So yes, despite hoping I could run the Z Fold 6 into the ground on its first day, when it became abundantly clear my plane wasn’t leaving soon, I found an outlet with about 40 percent left. Despite some pretty slow charging speeds compared to other various flagships, I was able to bring the Z Fold 6 back up to 70 percent before relocating, which got me through the rest of my time waiting for my flight to board.

The Galaxy Z Fold 6 is a decent travel companion

I just hope your next trip goes a little smoother than mine

There’s plenty more to come on the Galaxy Z Fold 6, which — although it might not seem like it from the jump — is arriving at a fascinating time for foldables. More than ever, it feels like Samsung thinks it has the exact idea of what this form factor should represent, practically acting like it’s a refined, mature product category when, really, I still think it’s early days. But with such little change year over year, it’ll be interesting to see just how the Fold 6 stacks up to new devices from Google and OnePlus over the next few months.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6

Samsung’s latest foldable takes some cues from the Galaxy S24 Ultra, with a boxier design and an all-matte finish. It features a slightly wider cover display for a more comfortable typing experience, as well as new Galaxy AI features and an upgraded ultra-wide camera.

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