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iPhone SE vs. Pixel 6A Camera Comparison: One Outshines the Other

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iPhone SE vs. Pixel 6A Camera Comparison: One Outshines the Other

What's happening

Google released the $449 Pixel 6A, which directly competes with the $429 iPhone SE (the 2022 version).

Why it matters

Typically phones under $500 don't have great cameras, but the Pixel 6A and iPhone SE are two of the exceptions.

What's next

We were curious which phone had better cameras, the iPhone SE or the Pixel 6A. So we spent 10 days testing both.

The new $449 Pixel 6A from Google is undoubtedly a great value in terms of cost and the features you get. But in order for a phone to be affordable, companies have to make compromises. Typically the two most common trade-offs involve downgrading a phone's processor and cameras. But with the Pixel 6A, Google took a different route than most low-cost Android phones. It has the same Google Tensor chip that powers the more expensive Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro and the tried-and-true camera hardware from the Google Pixel 5.

The result? The Pixel 6A is both affordable and takes good photos and videos. But luckily for us, it's not the only phone to do so. Apple's $429 iPhone SE (2022) also aims to be thrifty and have a good camera. So naturally, I had to compare the two.

Keep in mind that both Apple and Google use machine learning and processing to counter the limitations from their tiny lenses and camera sensors. The iPhone SE gets its wallet-friendly price because it essentially has an iPhone 8 body and camera hardware but the A15 Bionic chip from the iPhone 13 Pro, which costs twice as much. That processor does a lot of heavy lifting to breathe new life into camera hardware that originally came out in 2017.

After spending 10 days taking photos and recording videos around San Francisco, I realized two things. The first is that the Pixel 6A and iPhone SE are two of the best low-cost phones you can buy that have good cameras. The second is that one of these phones consistently took better photos than the other. And this surprised me.

Read more: Google Pixel 6A Review: The Best Android Phone Under $500

Sometimes two cameras are better than one

In a world where companies try to cram as many cameras, even if they're mediocre, into a low-cost phone, it's refreshing to see that Apple and Google don't. Thankfully you won't find a sub-par telephoto camera or a craptacular macro camera on either phone. Instead, the iPhone SE has a single 7-megapixel selfie camera and a single 12-megapixel, wide-angle camera with OIS (optical image stabilization) on the back.

The Pixel 6A has a single 8-megapixel selfie camera, and two rear cameras: a 12.2-megapixel camera with an optically stabilized wide-angle lens and a 12-megapixel camera with ultrawide-angle optics. Right off the bat, this gives the Pixel a bit of an edge as it instantly becomes more versatile to use, especially in tight spaces.

The Pixel 6A can shoot raw or JPEG photos, while the iPhone SE can only take JPEG pictures.

The iPhone SE has a single rear camera while the Pixel 6A has two: one with a wide-angle lens and the other with an ultrawide.

Celso Bulgatti/CNET

Photos taken under good lighting

I am genuinely impressed by photos from both phones. Below are some of my favorite pictures that I took with the iPhone SE and Pixel 6A.

I like the way the Pixel 6A captures the colors of these houses.

Patrick Holland/CNET

A group selfie taken with the Pixel 6A.

Caitlin Petrakovitz/CNET

Notice the texture and patina that the Pixel 6A captured.

Patrick Holland/CNET

This iPhone SE photo was taken under some very bright morning sunshine.

Patrick Holland/CNET

I like the detail and colors in the palm trees in this photo from the iPhone SE.

Patrick Holland/CNET

This iPhone SE photo of the Women's Building in San Francisco has a nice mix of colors and detail.

Patrick Holland/CNET

But let's take a look at some photos from both phones to compare their quality. Below are photos I took outdoors of a cappuccino. The Pixel's photo has more contrast, whereas the iPhone's picture emphasizes brightness.

The photos below were taken while we were filming the companion video for this comparison. I was shocked by the different ways each phone made my pal and CNET colleague Celso Bulgatti look. The iPhone's photo made his hair look all gray, which I must stress it isn't. My guess is that the SE is trying to boost the shadows and reduce the contrast too much in order to make the photo brighter. On the other hand, everything in the Pixel's photo is more accurate.

Pictures taken in medium lighting and indoors are typically where cameras at this price point start to fall apart. Take a look below at photos I took of Maisie the cat. The photo from the Pixel 6 nails the texture of my cat's fur. It also has more detail and a better dynamic range than the iPhone's photo.

Ultrawide vs. wide-angle

One of the most obvious differences between the two phones is the fact that the Pixel 6A has a second camera with an ultrawide-angle lens and the iPhone SE doesn't.

The Pixel's ultrawide perfectly captures the dramatic view from the balcony inside Sightglass Coffee in San Francisco.

Patrick Holland/CNET

It's one of those things that you don't realize how much you use until you don't have it. There were numerous times where it came in handy whether that's capturing a city skyline without cutting off the tops of buildings like in the photos below.

Below are photos I took from the Craftsman and Wolves cafe in the Mission. The iPhone's photo barely fits all of the people in line. The Pixel's ultrawide photo shows more of the restaurant including the bakery counter, menus and ceiling.

Portrait mode: It's all about the cutout

Apple and Google are no stranger to Portrait mode which adds an artistic blur to the background of a photo. Previous iPhone and Pixel models offer some of the best Portrait modes you can find on any phone right now. But they're also very different.

Check out the Portrait mode photos below of my pal and CNET colleague Claire Reilly. The most obvious difference between the two pictures is that the Pixel's photo has a more out-of-focus background. On the iPhone SE, you can change how much background blur there is before or after taking a photo, which is helpful. But in the photo of Claire, I opted to let the SE choose how blurry to make the background.

Claire's cutout is good in both photos, but take a close look at the inside of her elbow. The SE didn't blur the background in that area.

The iPhone SE is missing night mode

Let's move on to night mode, which typically takes multiple images and combines them into a photo in order to improve the brightness and detail. This is an unfair comparison, because the Pixel 6A has a night mode, called Night Sight, and the iPhone SE doesn't.

This photo was taken using the Pixel 6A's Night Sight mode.

Patrick Holland/CNET

I took the photos below of a dark street around 10 o'clock at night. The iPhone's photo is much darker than the Pixel's Night Sight picture. To compensate for the darkness, the iPhone applies a lot of noise reduction, which makes the details soft. In particular look at the no parking signs in the background. You can't really read them in either photo, but you can at least see the words "parking" and "anytime" in the Pixel's picture. In the iPhone's photo, it looks like someone smeared the signs out.

Below are a couple photos I took inside a bar. Again, you can see the iPhone's photo is much darker with the shadows crunched to black. There's a lot less detail. The Pixel's Night Sight photo is brighter. Take a look under the bar where the stools are. Those stools are almost in complete darkness in the iPhone's photo. But in the Pixel's photo, you can see the detail of the wood slats that the stools are pressed up against.

The Pixel 6A offers wide and wider selfies

Each of these phones has a single selfie camera but the one on the Pixel 6A can switch between a wide view to an ultrawide view for group selfies. The iPhone's selfie camera is stuck at a rather narrow field of view. 

In the selfies below, notice the difference in details. The iPhone's picture is soft while the Pixel's photo is sharper and has a bigger depth of field, which helps keep everyone in focus for group shots.

The iPhone's video quality is hard to top

Both phones record 4K or 1080p resolution video at 30 or 60 frames per second. But the iPhone can also record at a more cinematic 24fps. Both phones have video stabilization, but you can dial in what kind of stability you want on the Pixel 6A. For example, there's an option called Cinematic Pan that steadies a panning shot.

In terms of image quality, the iPhone SE is a step ahead here. Videos have good dynamic range, little to no noise and details look crisp. Videos from the Pixel 6A look soft and often have image noise in the shadows. For video examples from both phones check out the companion video to this story.

Final verdict

After all of this testing, I do have a favorite. But let me say this. For phones that are under $450, both the iPhone SE and Pixel 6A are among the best you can buy to capture good photos and videos. But after doing this comparison, I'd grab a Pixel 6A. It's got an ultrawide-angle camera, and that Night Sight mode, which means more versatility. The iPhone SE does capture better video in terms of image quality, but the Pixel 6A's videos are still pretty good.

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Missing iPhone texts and notifications are frustrating: These fixes could help

Missing iPhone texts and notifications are frustrating: These fixes could help

Apple's iOS 15 made a number of changes to how notifications work, allowing iPhone users to prioritize important alerts and make less important notifications less intrusive. They're certainly less intrusive: Over the past few months I've been wrestling with my iPhone's settings to even see when my friends message me on WhatsApp, Signal, Instagram and other apps. In one extreme case, a friend texted me on Signal on a Friday, and I didn't even notice their text until Monday when I opened up the app -- thankfully it was nothing pressing, but I was embarrassed.

I'm not alone in this frustration. Multiple threads on Reddit are focused on trying to bring notifications back, whether due to changes in how notifications behave when Do Not Disturb is on, how notifications won't appear unless you proactively enter an app and people having such a difficult time with iOS 15's Focus feature that they're finding it easier to use apps with similar notification controls. 

Third-party app developers might not be able to control these systems either. WhatsApp has an FAQ page that specifically references the way Apple controls push notifications on the iPhone. While the issue appears to originate from WhatsApp, there's little the company can recommend apart from restoring the phone to factory settings and starting over. 

These issues have the potential to come to a head during the busy holiday season, since family and friends will use whatever device and messaging service is most convenient to get in touch. Notifications are the way we keep up with chats, whether your friends and family prefer iMessage, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger or any other number of texting and video chat apps.

So let's go over some of the biggest obstacles that currently affect notifications and applicable solutions where possible.

iOS 15's Focus may need some tweaks

iOS 15's Focus mode is meant to be an evolution of Do Not Disturb. In addition to allowing users to select Do Not Disturb, which lets you silence notifications until it is turned off, it allows you to create situational profiles that are more custom tailored to your needs. For instance, I recently created a "Movies" focus that when enabled turns off notifications from all apps, phone calls and texts except for the RunPee app, which is a timer that sends a notification at the best times to leave a movie theater to take a restroom break. 

Focus, while well-intentioned, does however lead to an easy way to accidentally leave your phone in a state of not receiving notifications. Focus can also be enabled to be run across your various Apple devices, making it either convenient for silencing notifications for your needs or a liability if you only wanted to silence your phone but leave your iPad and Mac computers alone.

Accessing Focus for turning it on and off is fairly easy: You open Control Center by either scrolling down from the top-right corner of an iPhone with Face ID's display or scrolling up from the bottom of an iPhone with a home button's display. This should serve as a decent first start for figuring out whether Focus is the issue at fault. 

If it appears like the issues are the Focus settings themselves, you'll need to drill down by going to the iPhone's Settings app, scrolling down to Focus and entering the menu for the specific Focus you need to adjust. For instance, I noticed my Sleep focus that begins to activate around 10:50 p.m. was causing me to miss texts and video calls from friends that I do enjoy talking to before bed -- but I didn't want to leave my phone open for anyone to ring that late at night. I adjusted the Sleep focus to allow calls from specific people that I am OK with reaching me after that time. It's not elegant as now that smaller list could potentially decide to wake me up to calls at 3 a.m., but for now it's the best system for me. 

The way your notifications are delivered might also have been changed depending on your Focus settings. Instead of receiving notifications individually, your Focus may be collecting them together into a Summary. Tweaks to how that summary works can be found separately by going to Settings, Notifications and tapping Scheduled Summary to make tweaks or to turn the feature off. 

Notifications that are hidden might be collected for a summary, depending on your settings.

Patrick Holland/CNET

Do Not Disturb's changes may disturb how you use your phone

Do Not Disturb is now part of Focus, but it has a key tweak that appears to be messing with the way some people have previously used their phone. Before iOS 15, when turning on Do Not Disturb an iPhone wouldn't buzz or immediately display notifications while the phone was locked and the display was off. However, notifications would display if you were actively using the phone while it's in Do Not Disturb mode.

The fix isn't quite clean as of yet. Like with the previous example I gave of adjusting the settings of an individual Focus, you can adjust how the Do Not Disturb Focus behaves. In addition to selecting people you can ring your phone, you can pick specific apps that are allowed to notify you when you have Do Not Disturb on. However, then the apps you choose will notify your phone at all times when Do Not Disturb is enabled, whether your phone display is on or off.

If this bothers you, you aren't alone. A fairly active Reddit thread on r/iOS has been communicating on exactly that issue and sharing tips for workarounds until something official is hopefully baked in at a later date.

A strange solution for getting notifications back

During my own wrangling through various Reddits and Apple support pages to get my notifications working for WhatsApp, Signal and Instagram, I found a strange solution that has at least worked for myself.

In Apple's Support forums, one person discovered that turning on and off the "Announce Notifications" feature could possibly fix your phone's notifications. To access it, you go to Settings, then Notifications, then Siri, then turn Announce Notifications on. The feature is normally for allowing Siri to read your notifications out loud, such as when you are driving. But instead of leaving it on, exit out of the Settings app, then re-enter it and turn it back off.

Somehow when I do those steps, apps that aren't notifying me resume again. It doesn't make sense, but I've now run through these steps twice when I noticed the problem has resumed, and it's fixed it each time.

I'll keep updating this article as I find more solutions for getting notifications back in iOS 15. If you have found any roadblocks that have stopped you from receiving notifications or solutions to getting them back, feel free to write them in the comments.

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• Missing Iphone Photos
• Missing Iphone Messages
• Missing Iphone Text Messages

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Apple's 2022 iPhone SE Has 5G and a New Chip. But We Wanted These Features, Too

Apple's 2022 iPhone SE Has 5G and a New Chip. But We Wanted These Features, Too

Apple's 2022 iPhone SE represents a notable upgrade over its predecessor: It has 5G support, the same processor as the iPhone 13 and longer battery life compared to the 2020 model. But there are still some features we hoped to see that didn't make it into the third-generation iPhone SE.

Apple announced the new iPhone SE during its first product launch event of the year on March 8. It hits stores on March 18 and starts at $429, making it slightly more expensive than the 2020 version. 

The iPhone SE hasn't become part of Apple's annual product cycle yet, but the company is closing the gap between release dates. Apple introduced its original iPhone SE in 2016 as a low-cost alternative to its marquee iPhone, but didn't release a new version until 2020. Now, the newest model has arrived just two years after that, in 2022. It's the latest sign that smartphone-makers like Apple are increasingly catering to budget-conscious customers. 

While it's a shame the iPhone SE is missing the features below, Apple's new phone does include other upgrades that were on my wishlist like 5G support and longer battery life.

More storage in the base model

The 2022 iPhone SE got its debut at Apple's Peek Performance event.

screenshot/Apple

Apple increased the iPhone 13 lineup's base storage capacity up to 128GB from 64GB. Unfortunately, that approach didn't trickle down to the new iPhone SE, which starts at 64GB of storage. You could argue that the 128GB iPhone SE, which costs $479, is hundreds of dollars cheaper than the base iPhone 13. But Apple is still behind its competitors in this regard: Samsung's $400 Galaxy A42 5G, comes with 128GB of internal storage, as does Google's $449 Pixel 5A with 5G. 

A sharper front camera for selfies and FaceTime calls

FaceTime gets a bunch of significant upgrades in iOS 15, such as a Portrait Mode.

Patrick Holland/CNET

Like its predecessor, the new iPhone SE has a 7-megapixel front camera. Apple's new A15 Bionic processor will bring some improvements to the selfie camera, like the addition of Deep Fusion, which processes individual pixels to improve detail and reduce noise. But still, it would have been nice to see a bump in resolution to go along with these improvements. 

Read more: Best Apple SE Case for 2022

Samsung's phones that come close to the iPhone SE's price range have Apple beat when it comes to resolution. The $500 Galaxy A52 5G has a 32-megapixel front camera, while the $400 Galaxy A42 5G has a 13-megapixel front camera. Apple introduced several new FaceTime features last year in its iOS 15 update, so it's surprising that the front-facing camera wasn't a bigger area of focus for the new iPhone SE. 

Night Mode for taking better photos in the dark

Night Mode on the iPhone 11.

Apple

Given the iPhone SE's cheap price, I wouldn't expect it to have a camera that's on par with the iPhone 13 or even the iPhone 12. But if there's one feature I would have appreciated, it's Night Mode. Across the industry, smartphone cameras have gotten a lot better at taking photos in the dark. I hoped Apple's low-cost iPhone would reflect this progress, too. 

It's possible that it would have been too challenging in terms of size and cost to include the iPhone 11's upgraded wide camera sensor in the new SE. (The iPhone 11 family was the first of Apple's phones to get Night Mode.) But Google has found a way to bring Night Sight to its similarly priced Pixel 5A with 5G... and considering the iPhone SE lacks a secondary ultrawide lens, the quality of the standard wide-angle camera is more important than ever. 

That said, Apple says the iPhone SE should be able to take better videos in low light thanks to the A15 Bionic's newer image signal processor. And the camera is getting other upgrades, such as the pixel-by-pixel Deep Fusion processing technique.

Overall, the new iPhone SE reiterates the different ways Apple and Samsung view what matters most in a budget smartphone. Samsung's cheaper phones usually have more camera lenses, sharper selfie cameras and larger screens. Instead of those, Apple's iPhone SE gets the latest mobile processor, which should hopefully keep the phone feeling relatively fast for years to come.

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Galaxy fold z 3 review galaxy z fold 3 review cnet galaxy z fold 3 5g reviews samsung galaxy z fold 3 5g reviews galaxy z fold galaxy z fold 4 review galaxy z flip 3

Galaxy Z Fold 3 review: A refined foldable in search of a purpose

Galaxy Z Fold 3 review: A refined foldable in search of a purpose

Samsung announced the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Z Flip 3  at the same time. But of the two, the $1,000 Z Flip 3 has a familiar design that's based on clamshell flip phones that have been around for decades. It folds in half from a 6.7-inch phone down to a square that's roughly the size and thickness of several coasters stacked. Meanwhile, the Z Fold 3 costs $1,800, with a futuristic design closer to something you'd see in a sci-fi movie or TV show like Westworld. The latter folds open from a regular phone, into a 7.6-inch square tablet and lacks the same "love at first sight" appeal as the Z Flip 3.

This is because Samsung's phone/tablet hybrid design is still inherently new compared to the tried-and-true flip phone motif the Flip 3 embraces. The Z Fold 3 is actually a wonderful tablet, but when it's folded up it has the same hefty appeal as an air conditioner remote control.

Like

• 120Hz cover screen
• Water resistance
• Wonderful tablet experience
• S Pen is a blast to use
• Software improvements for multitasking and Flex Mode

Don't Like

• Battery life lasts about a day
• Weird, heavy phone when closed
• $1,800 is still expensive

Despite its complicated allure, the Galaxy Z Fold 3 is a remarkable showcase of technology and innovation. Pretty much anytime I open the phone in public, there is someone with a dumbfounded look on their face. For the price, you get nearly every high-end feature one would expect in a flagship Android phone. And for $1,800, you better. The few compromises Samsung did make, like having B+ cameras instead of A+ ones, aren't deal breakers and stand as further reminders that the Z Fold 3's high price tag is because the phone folds in half.

Throughout my time with the Z Fold 3, I kept asking myself why the tablet even needs to fold in half? Or is there a better way to design a tablet that folds down to the size of a phone? As much as the Z Fold 3 has improved over its predecessors, it's still largely a concept in search of a purpose. And I couldn't escape that underlying conundrum. Yet if you want a tablet that can fold up and fit into your pocket, the Z Fold 3 certainly deserves your consideration. It's the second best foldable phone Samsung has made to date, with the best one being the more practical Galaxy Z Flip 3.

Galaxy Z Fold 3 storage and pricing

	US	UK	Australia
Galaxy Z Fold 3 256GB	$1,800	£1,599	AU$2,499
Galaxy Z Fold 3 512GB	$1,900	£1,699	AU$2,649

The Z Fold 3 has nearly all the refinements you could ask for, but it still feels like it's missing a purpose.

Patrick Holland/CNET

A stronger, lighter and thinner Fold

The Z Fold 3 takes on the same design and form as the Z Fold 2, albeit with a bunch of improvements. For some, the best improvement might be the $200 drop in price from the $2,000 the Z Fold 2 cost. Most of the phone's upgrades are more iterative, small touches that add up to a more refined package overall. 

For instance it's lighter than the previous Fold, which I noticed as soon as I picked it up. But it's still one of the heaviest phones I reviewed this year. It's thinner and more svelte than the Z Fold 2, but still one of the bulkiest phones I have ever tested.

It seems more durable. Obviously, I only had a couple of weeks with the Z Fold 3, so I can only be hopeful that the improvements I noticed span the life of the phone. The metal in the frame and hinge is reinforced and you can feel that extra tensile strength when you hold it, fold it and interact with it. The folding screen, hinge and body feel more like a single uniform whole instead of being separate features. The 7.6-inch main screen still has a crease but it doesn't bother me in the least. You could nitpick it if you want, but the iPhone's notch is far more of an eyesore.

The Gorilla Glass Victus-clad cover screen now has a smooth 120Hz refresh rate that matches the main display and looks lovely. The Z Fold 3 has water resistance and can be submerged up to 1.5 meters (about 5 feet), which is truly remarkable for a folding phone.

Using an S Pen on the Galaxy Z Fold 3 is a blast

One indication that Samsung is confident about the Z Fold 3's durability is that it sells a sharp pointy stylus for you to use on the screen. It's as if Samsung is saying, "We're no longer worried about your fingernails making indentations on the main screen. Go ahead and try out an S Pen."

In my time using the S Pen with the phone, the screen looks just like it did when I took it out of the box. And that's on top of all the times I folded and unfolded it, shoved it in the pockets of my jeans and threw it in my backpack along with whatever else was in there.

Samsung made two versions of the S Pen for the Z Fold 3: the S Pen Fold Edition, which lacks Bluetooth and costs $50; and the S Pen Pro, which has Bluetooth and costs $100. Both have a retractable tip that helps reduce wear and tear on the screen. I only got to try out the S Pen Fold Edition and I noticed that the tip rarely retracted all the way. Instead, it seems to relieve some of the pressure I put on the screen when I draw or write. There's a small arsenal of S Pen tricks such as hover to magnify, which activates when the S Pen is just millimeters away from the screen.

The Galaxy Z Fold 3 is the first foldable phone that supports the S Pen.

Patrick Holland/CNET

The cover screen doesn't support either new S Pen which is a bummer because there's no way to jot a quick note or a doodle without opening up the Fold. And if you have an old S Pen, you can't use it with the Z Fold 3.

As much fun as it is to use an S Pen on that giant vibrant screen, the Fold in no way replaces the inherent convenience that a Galaxy Note provides. The Fold doesn't let you quickly make a note. And there isn't a place to store the S Pen. It would be nice if you could magnetically attach the S Pen to the Fold 3's hinge in the same way you can attach an Apple Pencil to an iPad Pro. I should note that Samsung sells a bundled S Pen Fold Edition and phone case that stores it along the hinge for $80.

Under-display camera selfies and Zoom calls on the Z Fold 3

There are two, technically three, selfie cameras -- let me explain. You can take a selfie with the hole-punch selfie camera in the cover screen. Or you can flip the cover screen down, use it as a live preview and take a selfie with the main rear camera. Or you can use Samsung's first ever under-display camera, which is mostly hidden behind the main screen.

Out of the three options, the one that is the most curious is the under-display camera. The part of the display in front of the camera has fewer screen elements and translucent wiring. At certain angles or when brighter colors are on the display, you can see the part of the screen where the camera is. Think of this camera setup like looking through a window that has blinds on it.

The front-facing camera in the main display of the Galaxy Z Fold 2 (white screen) is housed in a hole-punch cut out. The Galaxy Z Fold 3 uses an under-display camera. Notice the tiny octagon shape in the green leaf wallpaper on the Fold 3's main display.

Sarah Tew/CNET

The under-display camera is only 4 megapixels, which isn't a lot, but that lower resolution helps it see through or around those screen elements. Samsung also uses AI processing to improve the image quality. I took selfies with all three options on the Fold and, no surprise, the photos from the under-display camera looked the worst. Indoor selfies look highly processed and outdoor snaps in good lighting do not look much better.

The under-display camera is intended for video calls and works fine for them. On the few video calls I made using it, people on the other end said that they didn't notice anything out of the ordinary.

I took selfies with the different cameras on the Galaxy Z Fold 3. From left to right, here are selfies from: the main rear camera, cover screen camera and under-display camera.

Patrick Holland/CNET

But let's go back to why there is an under-display camera. The idea is to reduce visual distractions on and around the display. There isn't a notch. There isn't a hole punch. Instead, you either see nothing (yay!) or when bright colors are displayed, you see a tiny glittery octagon that I found to be more distracting than something like a hole-punch camera. At this point, the benefit of having a screen free of visual interruptions isn't worth the tradeoffs from this under-display camera.

Z Fold 3 has B+ cameras at an A+ price

Despite all of the improvements to the phone's hardware, the cameras are one area that largely remain the same. In terms of quality and performance, they are a step behind the camera systems found on phones like the iPhone 12 Pro Max and Samsung's Galaxy S21 Ultra. These are good cameras and for most people the photos and videos they capture with them will be fine. 

There are five cameras on the Z Fold 3: the aforementioned under-display camera, the cover-screen selfie camera and a triple camera array on the "back" with a main wide-angle camera, an ultrawide-angle camera and a 2x optical telephoto camera that now has optical image stabilization. In bright lighting, photos look good. Digital zoom up to 4x magnification has minimal image deterioration. If you go past 6x, photos look less stellar and have softer details. Night mode on the Z Fold 3 is solid, but compared to the S21 or S21 Ultra, images look soft. Take a look below at a few photos I took with the new Fold.

The camera hardware didn't change, but the Z Fold 3 gets a new image signal processor thanks to its Snapdragon 888 chip.

Patrick Holland/CNET

Under good lighting, the Fold can capture great photos.

Patrick Holland/CNET

Notice how it handles the highlights in the clouds and the details above the windows of the cream-colored building.

Patrick Holland/CNET

There is something about the perspective of Samsung's ultrawide cameras that always gets me.

Patrick Holland/CNET

This was taken with the 2x telephoto camera.

Patrick Holland/CNET

A beautiful day yields some perfect views. Look at the highlights and shadows in the clouds.

Patrick Holland/CNET

Night mode on the Fold 3 isn't quite to the level of the Galaxy S21, but it's still impressive.

Patrick Holland/CNET

Images look bright and are mostly free of image noise, even from the ultrawide camera.

Patrick Holland/CNET

Videos are decent, but suffer from image noise in all but the most ideal of situations. Take a look at some videos I recorded with the Z Fold 3 below.

There will inevitably be some people who expect the absolute best cameras on a phone that costs $1,800. I'd argue that Samsung made a smart tradeoff to keep that price under $2,000.

Like the Z Flip 3, the Z Fold 3 is essentially its own tripod. Because of its size and flexibility you can put it nearly anywhere to capture a unique angle or perspective.

Galaxy Z Fold 3 gets multitasking right

On the inside, the Z Fold 3 packs nearly every 2021 Android spec you could want. It has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 chip and 12GB of RAM. It runs Android 11 and Samsung's One UI 3. Split-screen apps are more customizable, taking advantage of the larger tablet screen. You can put them side by side, stacked vertically or even have three. You can move each app around and resize their windows. You can also save split-screen app groupings and setups for later.

Like the Z Flip 3, the phone's settings has a section called Labs, which lets you optimize nearly any app for the screen. For example, natively Instagram shows up in a thin vertical aspect ratio with screen space on either side of the app. I went into Labs, and forced it to be displayed across the full screen, which worked well.

Multitasking is fun and customizable on the Z Fold 3. You can save app window layouts to use the same setup again.

Patrick Holland/CNET

A useful trait that the Flip and Fold share is Flex Mode. You can position either phone half open like a mini laptop. Flex Mode gets more support in One UI 3 and there are more apps that can take advantage of it. Some apps just move to the top half of the screen with system navigation and brightness controls on the bottom. Other apps, like for videos and music, place the playback controls on the bottom half of the screen. Not every app is optimized for Flex Mode, but this is a huge step up from the Fold 2. I still would like to see apps go farther and even be designed around Flex Mode. Can you imagine a game designed for Flex Mode?

Galaxy Z Fold 3 has less than average battery life

The Z Fold 3's biggest drawback is its battery life. The dual 4,400-mAh batteries are actually a tad smaller than the ones in the Fold 2. As a result, the Z Fold 3 barely makes it through a day. I imagine that has a lot to do with the combination of 5G connectivity and the fact that there are two screens that run at 120Hz. Screen-on time during my review averaged about three and a half hours, which isn't great. I am still running CNET's battery test and will update this review with the results soon.

The Fold lacks dust resistance. In my use this wasn't an issue. But I recommend being careful if you take the Z Fold 3 to the beach or on a hike or anywhere there's potential for small particles to interact with the phone. This wouldn't be a good phone for Salt BAE.

The screens and finish on the body collect finger smudges easily. I find myself wiping it clean constantly.

The Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Z Flip 3 are quite the pairing. One is aimed more at the mainstream and the other at early adopters.

Sarah Tew/CNET

A better foldable, but not the best

While I continue testing the Galaxy Z Fold 3, I still question who this phone is for exactly. A phone enthusiast might love all of the technology in the Fold, especially that folding screen. Foldable phones are still at a comparatively early stage, but the lower price offered by the Z Fold 3 and the Z Flip 3 compared to their predecessors shows an effort to make them more accessible. And I hope that's a trend that continues in the coming years. I still hold that most people who want a folding phone will likely want to consider the Z Flip 3 for its familiar flip-phone aesthetic, but if you want that larger tablet shape the Z Fold 3 fulfills that promise.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 specs vs. Galaxy Z Fold 2, Galaxy Fold

	Galaxy Z Fold 3	Galaxy Z Fold 2	Galaxy Fold
Display size, resolution, refresh rate	External: 6.2-inch AMOLED (2,268x832 pixels); internal: 7.6-inch AMOLED (2,208x1,768 pixels)	External 6.2-inch AMOLED (2,260x816 pixels); internal: 7.6-inch AMOLED (2,208x1,768 pixels)	External: 4.6-inch AMOLED (1,680x720 pixels); internal: 7.3-inch AMOLED (2,152x1,536 pixels)
Pixel density	387ppi (external) + 374ppi (internal)	386ppi (external) + 373ppi (internal)	362ppi (internal screen)
Dimensions	Folded: 67x158x16mm (hinge) ~14.4mm (sagging); unfolded: 128x158x6.4mm	Folded: 68x159x16.8mm (hinge) ~13.8mm (sagging); unfolded: 128x159x6.9mm (frame) ~6mm (screen)	Folded: 63x161x15.7mm ~17.1mm; unfolded: 118x161x6.9mm ~7.6mm
Weight	271 grams	282 grams	276grams
Software	Android 11	Android 10	Android 9
Camera	12-megapixel (ultrawide), 12-megapixel (wide), 12-megapixel (telephoto)	12-megapixel (wide),12-megapixel (ultrawide), 12 megapixel (telephoto)	12-megapixel (wide), 16-megapixel (ultrawide), 12-megapixel (telephoto)
Front camera	4-megapixel (under display), 10-megapixel (front cover)	10-megapixel (main display), 10-megapixel (front cover)	10-megapixel (main display), 10-megapixel (front cover), 8-megapixel (3D depth)
Video	4K	4K	4K
Processor	Qualcomm Snapdragon 888	Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 Plus	Qualcomm Snapdragon 855
Storage	256GB, 512GB	256GB	512GB
RAM	12GB	12GB	12GB
Fingerprint reader	Side	Side	No
Battery	4,400 mAh	4,500 mAh	4,380 mAh
Special features	Foldable display, 120Hz refresh rate (front cover and main display), water-resistance, S Pen support, 5G	Foldable display, 120Hz refresh rate (main display), wireless charging support, 5G	Foldable display, Power button, wireless charging, fast charging
Price (USD)	$1,800 (256GB)	$2,000	$1,980

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