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Samsung insists the Galaxy Z Fold 8 is ‘perfect’ for ‘full-screen’ video – it’s not
As Samsung’s pre-order perks for the Galaxy Z Fold 8 come to an end, the company continues to advertise its new form factor as a perfect fit for “full-screen” video, which is a pretty big departure from the reality of using this new foldable.
In a pair of new posts on its newsroom, as well as a boatload of marketing over the past two weeks, Samsung has been positioning the Galaxy Z Fold 8’s wider new form factor as a great content device. Specifically, Samsung calls it the “perfect device for your favorite content.”
Throughout the leak cycle, that’s more or less what we expected. Whereas existing foldables have square displays that aren’t much better than a normal slab smartphone for video content, the Fold 8’s wider display would be much better for video and other media. And, technically, it is. While we found that the actual space used by videos on the Fold 8 is roughly the same as the Fold 7 and Fold 8 Ultra, there is less wasted space and the form factor as a whole is more compact than those devices.
But Samsung is pretty heavily implying that this is a “full-screen” experience and, let’s be clear – it’s not.
As seen in the image above and through many other Samsung promotions, the video is shown to be completely full-screen, hitting all four sides of the display. Samsung says:
Galaxy Z Fold8’s display is designed to optimize the content you consume, shifting and expanding with your curiosity. The 10:16 cover screen is the ideal shape for messaging, browsing and short-form video to fill the screen, and the immersive 4:3 main screen is great for unfolding to enjoy full-screen movies and e-books1.
Unfortunately, that’s just not the reality of this product. The 4:3 aspect ratio of the inner display leaves letterboxing around virtually all video content, whether that’s a movie or a YouTube video, as you can see below and as we discussed on launch day.
While there is 4:3 content out there, this is basically the whole The Odyssey debacle, just in reverse. Samsung’s new foldable, Apple’s iPad, and more all provide the 4:3 canvas, but there’s just not that much content out there ready to take full advantage.
The same goes for the cover screen, with the 10:16 aspect ratio leaving short-form videos letterboxed along the sides, though it’s certainly a lot closer to content aspect ratios that you might actually come across online.
Funnily enough, Samsung’s other post about how “perfect” these screens are for content mixes up the aspect ratios, calling the inner display 16:10 and the outer 4:3.