Two months later and I can finally put my sim in my F7 and have newbie questions

[donm527]

Man, this F7 section is dead quiet... did everyone sell their F7 while I was waiting to be able to put my sim and run this thing full time?? LOL.

Well, two months went by and now able to put my ATT sim into my Verizon F7 and went through set up and data transfer last night and will rock this thing full time for the rest of the year and see if I fall in love with it from my S23U or go with the S26U.

Will I find myself unfolding the phone and using the larger screen all the time enough that being able to unfold to a bigger screen is a bigger feature than cameras on the Ultra?

Will the cameras and pic quality be good enough (quality to 30x as good or decent enough) that I don't miss having the cameras from the Ultra?

Is the experience with the larger screens which includes apps running on larger screen be as good as a tablet to not miss my iPad for apps and viewing content in larger format and can leave the tablet behind when I go travel?

Just from some brief play I see how some apps might be cooler on larger screen like Outlook and Teams for work but some apps are laid out a little wonky when opened to large screen... you'd think with Android tablets being out for a while there would be some improvement? And then I even encountered a bug in one app where I am using an streaming app and with screen rotation turned off the app will still rotate if I rotate the phone.

I guess the above could have been put into a couple of separate posts lol but am curious to hear others opinions after rocking the phone for a while positives and negatives... 3+ months do you love your F7... plan to keep or go S26U... quirks and bugs with apps in F7. Oh well.

On to the newbie questions...

1. Can you have separate brightness settings for the outer screen and inner screen? I feel I want adaptive brightness on the outer but on the inner I would want to have it at a constant higher level.

2. On the S23U I set a 4 digit pin to unlock phone and when set it doesn't need to press enter. On the F7 I set the same pin but now I have to press enter. Is there a way to eliminate pressing enter?

 

[Bkdodger1]

Welcome aboard to the F7, I don't have a PIN code for 4 digits as I use 6 digits where in settings I'm able to tick "Confirm PIN without tapping OK".

Routines for the screen brightness

 

[donm527]

Thanks. Took a minute to figure out but able to create same routine as you and works perfect.

The confirm pin w/o tapping OK... yes only available if you create a six-digit passcode.

My S23U with OneUI 8 still gives option at 4-digits. Guessing still works with S25U?? But for a Fold it has to be six??

Well I guess five digits if you include the OK is better than forced a sixth press.

 

[ahiqar]

I think you will have to be the decision-maker on whether or not the fold replaces an ultra for you. For me, the fold is the only device I have, so I appreciate the fact that it has the larger screen option.
If I wanted a phone for the best cameras, however, this phone is not it. The cameras aren't bad at all--they are quite good-- but the Ultra cameras are better. I am not the main picture-taker in my family so the fold is perfect for me. The fam can take all the great pictures, send them to me, and we can look at them together on my big, beautiful inner screen!

 

[donm527]

I think you will have to be the decision-maker on whether or not the fold replaces an ultra for you. For me, the fold is the only device I have, so I appreciate the fact that it has the larger screen option.
If I wanted a phone for the best cameras, however, this phone is not it. The cameras aren't bad at all--they are quite good-- but the Ultra cameras are better. I am not the main picture-taker in my family so the fold is perfect for me. The fam can take all the great pictures, send them to me, and we can look at them together on my big, beautiful inner screen!

Yeah will have to give it some time.

Using it as my daily for last two weeks... it's ok. Honestly, I'm glad I didn't have to pay for it. $2000 for basically a larger inner screen... eh.

For a 7th gen phone, I'm a bit disappointed in how there is barely any optimization of apps to take advantage of the larger screen. Some apps like Outlook and Teams may open to use the space better but that's about it. I would like to see more productivity apps optimize... to improve productivity or usage for the open screen but not. All the other apps it just looks bigger. Ok for web browsing but still could benefit from some optimization. Some sites I frequent on my S23U or even my iPad will look off as far as layout of pics instead of 6-8 wide in mobile view on S23 will show excessively wide only fitting 2 thumbnails per line taking up almost all the 8" screen. Changing to desktop view will help but no ability to zoom in and out the page for a middle ground.

Also after by 7th gen you'd like more individual control of each screen. Have to use developer mode to increase the font size of the front screen to be a little more readable while trying not to make it look too big when screen opened. For me I just wanted a tweak to have the notifications size to match the font size on my S23U. Any bigger then then the font looks too big when working on larger screen. So your stuck with compromising. They should have had in place separate display settings for each screen... fonts, brightness, all display settings.

Glitchy software. Mentioning browsing earlier reminded me of one irritating glitch. Browsing to site like yahoo.com with Samsung browser and I use SwiftKey. On yahoo a lot of times I scroll up, the keyboard slides up into view and I can't get rid of it, the down arrow to the browser is gone. I forgot what I have to do, leave the app and go back in for back a page then forward I can get rid of the keyboard and browse again but as soon as I scroll up a page, the keyboard slides up again and i cant get rid of it.

Something as minor as McDonald's app. Signing in it wants to verify by sending email and in app give you option of which app to open. It doesn't have my email app I use so if I open my yahoo email app separately to get the email and click on link to activate... no go. I had to forward my email to my work outlook which is one of the options in the app and then use the app to open my outlook to get my confirmation email and verify my sign in. LOL. Just little things I don't have issues with on my S23U.

Now to cameras. 1x photos... very good. anything over 3x and it's just not that sharp. Took it traveling to and visiting Auburn campus try to take a couple of 3x, 10x, zoom in to take closer pics of the stadium.. S23U being two gens back spoil me I guess. I'm not expecting high performance on anything over 30x but I was hoping at least 10-30x would be more usable.

Battery... ok I guess. Most of the time I can get to the end of the day with 10-20%. Not heavy use though.

The other day I was chatting with my daughter and she sent me a youtube link to view. But she kept texting while I was trying to watch and have to stop to reply so I split the open screen to watch video and reply withough have to switch back and forth and interrupt the video so that was cool. Not sure how often I'll want to multitask like that but it was cool.

Love the thin form factor. Crazy it's not much if any thicker than my iPhone 15 in slim case or my S23U with my carbon fiber case. Rocking my phone with Pitaka carbon fiber to keep it thin and a Toast black walnut front skin and it's a great combination. looks great contrasting materials and stays super thin and makes opening the phone a non issue. Spigen tempered glass... Just want to say the oleophobic or whatever coating they put in is one of the best I've used ever. Prints do not stick to this glass and if any it wipes clear with little effort and super slick to the touch.

The but screen is nice. But if you watch a movie on netflix or most streaming video, if it's 16:9 when you watch it opened... it really is not that bigger than watching the video on the outside screen. If you take pics with phone closed... you review your pics on the larger screen, it's on the closed screen aspect ratio so it's not any bigger. take a pic using the open screen then yes the picture shows full screen when reviewing. Someone with an iPhone sends you a pic in 3:4, then it does utilize the larger screen better.

I'm going to keep rocking the Fold full time for rest of the year and keep trying on the cameras and use the open screen and see if the wow factor goes up. Definitely until the S26U is released and see if I move. Right now I probably would. I'd probably use my S22U and S23U as a trade if they have $1000 trade in and keep the Fold as a 8" pocket tablet maybe for when I travel and keep in a sling bag? Or see if future updates have more optimization.

 

[Talderon]

I hear you about the lack of optimized apps for the form factor. I feel it as well, but this is what you get for being on the bleeding edge. Even though this fold is the 7th gen of this form factor, we are still edge-cases when it comes to app development. The company I work for develops apps for IOS/Android and when I got my fold and reported issues with the apps on the inner screen, I was just told "there are not enough fold users for us to dedicate development resources to fix much of this".

This is also the case with many Tablet users as well.

 

[Bkdodger1]

App optimization is up to the developers of the apps which imo are just way behind on a few of them for foldables not only Samsung but all in general, you can use routines to use larger font while the phone is closed versus when it's open

 

[donm527]

App optimization is up to the developers of the apps which imo are just way behind on a few of them for foldables not only Samsung but all in general, you can use routines to use larger font while the phone is closed versus when it's open

After 7 gens developers won't devote time to the Fold.. or even Android tablet after how many years?!!... is going to keep foldables from being more popular along with the crazy high price.

I can't imagine the tri-screen phone being any better... maybe the aspect ratio will be better for streaming vids... but that's about it.

That's why I love Android phones but always stick to my iPads since the first gen. The apps are much more optimized for their tablets. If they do a foldable I imagine they should give a better experience because of that.

I did try using Routine after you taught me to use it for brightness. But it wont support the change and made the phone glitchy. I mentioned it in another post. so have to use developer mode to make more mico adjustment and find a middle ground.

So I tried creating a Routine to set font size about two clicks up when phone is folded and bring font size back down when screen is opened.

Found out that Routine will not perform these instructions and that's when my phone screen locked. Not a full lock it was odd where it wouldn't let me side scroll and wouldn't respond in opening apps. But bad enough were I had to restart the phone to get the screen to respond and then I deleted the font size routine and all is good.

 

[Laura Knotek]

After 7 gens developers won't devote time to the Fold.. or even Android tablet after how many years?!!... is going to keep foldables from being more popular along with the crazy high price.

I can't imagine the tri-screen phone being any better... maybe the aspect ratio will be better for streaming vids... but that's about it.

That's why I love Android phones but always stick to my iPads since the first gen. The apps are much more optimized for their tablets. If they do a foldable I imagine they should give a better experience because of that.

I did try using Routine after you taught me to use it for brightness. But it wont support the change and made the phone glitchy. I mentioned it in another post. so have to use developer mode to make more mico adjustment and find a middle ground.

So I tried creating a Routine to set font size about two clicks up when phone is folded and bring font size back down when screen is opened.

Found out that Routine will not perform these instructions and that's when my phone screen locked. Not a full lock it was odd where it wouldn't let me side scroll and wouldn't respond in opening apps. But bad enough were I had to restart the phone to get the screen to respond and then I deleted the font size routine and all is good.

Foldable phones are still niche products with low adoption rates. https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/64...want-a-foldable-smartphone-cnet-survey-finds/

 

[Bkdodger1]

After 7 gens developers won't devote time to the Fold.. or even Android tablet after how many years?!!... is going to keep foldables from being more popular along with the crazy high price.

I can't imagine the tri-screen phone being any better... maybe the aspect ratio will be better for streaming vids... but that's about it.

That's why I love Android phones but always stick to my iPads since the first gen. The apps are much more optimized for their tablets. If they do a foldable I imagine they should give a better experience because of that.

I did try using Routine after you taught me to use it for brightness. But it wont support the change and made the phone glitchy. I mentioned it in another post. so have to use developer mode to make more mico adjustment and find a middle ground.

So I tried creating a Routine to set font size about two clicks up when phone is folded and bring font size back down when screen is opened.

Found out that Routine will not perform these instructions and that's when my phone screen locked. Not a full lock it was odd where it wouldn't let me side scroll and wouldn't respond in opening apps. But bad enough were I had to restart the phone to get the screen to respond and then I deleted the font size routine and all is good.

It won't support the brightness routine? I use the developer options phone width values to see different sizes closed vs open