I’ve discovered what’s wrong with the Galaxy Z Fold 6’s camera. Naysayers claim it’s nothing special, and while I both agree and disagree (as I’ll explain), it took one single photo from a comparison with another folding phone for me to truly understand where the root of the problem lies.
The photo in question was taken with the Vivo X Fold 3 Pro at an evening car meet, and looking at the equivalent Z Fold 6 photo, it’s clear why Samsung’s cameras aren’t succeeding as we all think they should.
Life, above all else
I like the Galaxy Z Fold 6 a lot, and I don’t think the camera is bad at all — provided you examine it in context. It’s not designed to compete with the Galaxy S24 Ultra, but more with phones like the Galaxy S24 Plus. I get the negativity that surrounds it, and using it alongside the Vivo X Fold 3 Pro showed me exactly what it needs.
You see, the X Fold 3 Pro’s wonderful camera takes emotive, evocative, vibrant photos that are full of life, and the Z Fold 6 simply can’t get close. The photo above is the one that made me really understand. I spent a lot of time looking at and photographing this fantastic wide-body RWB-modified Porsche 911 (964), wanting to capture all that made it so unique.
This photo made me say “wow” when I first looked at it and I continue to be astounded at how well it came out. I took it using the Vivo Fold 3 Pro’s Portrait mode, tapping to focus on the headlight. The depth of field, the sharp focus, the beautiful colors and contrast, the HDR effect, and the way it captured the setting sun are all stunning.
It’s not that the Z Fold 6’s photo, which you can also see here, is terrible. It’s fine, and some may even like the less processed look, but when you put it next to the X Fold 3 Pro’s photo, it can’t help but look flat, dull, and lifeless.
There’s no subtlety to the portrait effect and it doesn’t seem to understand the subject in the same way as the Vivo phone. The reflections don’t emphasize the madness of the car’s shape, and the sunset is reduced to a hint in the background. I’d hang the Vivo phone’s photo on my wall and consign the Samsung one to the depths of my Google Photos account. What the Z Fold 6’s camera lacks is life, which is there in abundance in the X Fold 3 Pro.
Not just a one-off
As the evening went on, the more photos I took, the more I could see what was missing from the Z Fold 6’s camera. I liked that I could open both phones up and see the photos I’d just taken on a large screen and, despite the differences in display, assess and compare them on the go. It’s a big advantage of a folding phone and one that only the X Fold 3 Pro’s camera managed to truly exploit.
The Vivo X Fold 3 Pro is a portrait mode superstar with a natural depth of field that avoids looking fake while retaining masses of color and definition. I enjoyed experimenting with it because I trusted the results, safe in the thought that it would replicate what I had in my mind’s eye. I lacked that same trust in the Z Fold 6, and while it often technically did the job well, the photos don’t have the same vibrancy and — I’m going to say it again — life to them.
Look at the shot of the pink and black Porsche Boxster against the side of the transporter. Rather than only boosting the colors to make the photo pop, the X Fold 3 Pro’s camera gets the white balance and exposure spot-on, recreating the scene naturally, but also giving it a life and excitement of its own. The Z Fold 6’s photo is dull by comparison. Nothing about any of the subjects that night was dull or ordinary, yet the Z Fold 6 seemed to see only cars in a car park.
Is it all because of the specs?
By the end of the evening I felt I’d found out all there was to know about the Galaxy Z Fold 6’s camera, but had only just begun to explore what the X Fold 3 Pro’s camera could create. You may be wondering if it’s all down to a massive difference in specifications, and admittedly, the Vivo does have the edge.
The pair both use a 50-megapixel main camera with optical image stabilization (OIS), but the Vivo phone has a 64MP periscope telephoto camera for a 3x optical zoom rather than the Z Fold 6’s 10MP telephoto driving its 3x optical zoom. The X Fold 3 Pro’s 50MP ultrawide camera is a step up from the Z Fold 6’s 12MP ultrawide sensor, too. However, I don’t think the X Fold 3 Pro’s success is down to the numbers.
Vivo has a partnership with lens experts Zeiss, and the X Fold 3 Pro’s cameras have Zeiss optics, plus a host of Zeiss camera enhancements in the software, notably in the portrait modes. Zeiss has been working on cameras and camera lenses for more than 100 years, and its experience and understanding of photography shine through here. Zeiss’ partnership with Vivo appears to match that of Xiaomi and Leica in terms of creating photographs with a mobile phone that represent the brand’s heritage, style, and unique tones.
An engineering (but not a camera) marvel
When you look at the Galaxy Z Fold 6’s photos in isolation and ignore the phone’s sky-high price, they’re good. You’d likely be happy with the ones taken, and I know I was during my review period. But when you see what other brands are doing to make their cameras their true selling points, Samsung’s shortfall in this area becomes obvious.
It performs well on a technical level, but this almost perfunctory performance robs it of emotion, which the Vivo X Fold 3 Pro serves up in almost every photo it takes. The last time I felt as strongly about photos taken with a phone, I was using the Xiaomi 14 Ultra and its Photography Kit. The Vivo folding phone gives me the same vibes, and I want to explore its potential every time I use it, while I’m OK with just taking snaps with the Galaxy Z Fold 6.
Samsung’s top phone range is fairly simple, and each model has its own space within it, but the cameras can’t compete with those on devices like the X Fold 3 Pro or the Xiaomi 14 Ultra. The collection of photos taken at the car meet showed me one of the key reasons why, and it has nothing to do with the technology or specification.
Samsung’s engineering on the Z Fold 6 is fantastic, and this highly precise, but necessarily cold approach has bled through into the camera and the photos it takes. But as the X Fold 3 Pro proves, engineering isn’t what makes a camera special at all. Until Samsung decides to change that, it’ll continue to suffer against the competition.
