Making a great foldable phone is the next big challenge for all smartphone brands. Samsung kickstarted the idea of taking foldable phones truly global. Even today, it is the only brand that has been selling foldable phones worldwide. Other brands, including Huawei, Motorola, OPPO, Vivo, and Xiaomi, have launched two generations of foldable phones, but they still haven’t got it right.
While Huawei is completely missing access to Google Play Services, foldable phones from OPPO, Vivo, and Xiaomi are still focused on stuffing the best hardware specifications or achieving record-thin designs. These devices still haven’t got the software design right. And software experience is one area why Samsung is clearly winning. Yes, the company hasn’t brought the best of cameras or the flattest of creases to its foldable phones, but it is focusing on offering the best possible software experience.
How Samsung continues to crush its foldable rivals
For example, let us take a look at the image below, which shows a popular social networking app TikTok running on the Galaxy Z Fold 4 and the Vivo X Fold 2 side by side. The Galaxy Z Fold 4 shows the sidebar and vertical videos on the left and the comments section on the right side of the screen, completely filling the big screen. On the other hand, the Vivo X Fold 2 displays the TikTok app’s UI in the middle of the screen, leaving thick black bars on two sides.
Samsung has been partnering with popular smartphone apps to bring optimized UI of those apps to its Galaxy Z Fold and Galaxy Z Flip devices. These optimized apps, including TikTok, take full advantage of the big screen on the Galaxy Z Fold 4 and other devices in the lineup. Samsung was also the first to bring special modes for Google Meet and YouTube when using Flex Mode.
And as we revealed in our exclusive report, Samsung will also be optimizing Google apps for the Galaxy Z Flip 5’s larger cover screen, in addition to ensuring its own apps work well. Basically, while the specs on Samsung’s foldables may not hold up very well compared to the competion, the software experience is unmatched, especially when it comes to productivity.
