Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 6 Needs This iPhone Feature [CNET]

The Galaxy Z Fold 6 essentially has a built-in kickstand. Samsung should use that to its advantage.

The Galaxy Z Fold 6 essentially has a built-in kickstand. Samsung should use that to its advantage.

The Galaxy Z Fold 6 finally feels like the right middleground between a phone and a tablet. The problem, however, is that roughly five years after the launch of Samsung’s first foldable phone, I was hoping for more.

Foldable phones need extra special software that truly makes their flexible, dual-screen designs shine. Samsung is on the right track with options like Flex mode, which splits apps between the top and bottom screens when folded halfway, and Conversation mode in the interpreter app for displaying language translations on the inner and outer displays simultaneously. But those tools feel like modifications meant to make software work properly on foldable screens rather than a reason to buy a bendable phone in the first place.

As I was reviewing the Galaxy Z Fold 6, I came to a realization: Samsung’s foldable phones should have a true equivalent to Apple’s Standby mode. The feature, which Apple introduced in last year’s iOS 17 update, turns an iPhone into a miniature smart display. That seems like a no-brainer for devices like the Galaxy Z Fold 6 since it can be easily propped up without an external stand or tripod. Being able to turn that cover screen into a dedicated calendar or a more intuitive music player could make the Z Fold 6 more than just a phone that folds in half. 

It’s time for Samsung to embrace that approach more fully.

Read more: Samsung Breaks Down How Bixby Will Evolve Alongside Galaxy AI

First, a little more on what the iPhone’s Standby mode is and how it works: This mode lets your iPhone function as a bedside clock, calendar or photo frame when turned sideways and plugged into power. It’s different from always-on display mode in that these widgets are designed to occupy the entire screen so that they can be more easily viewed from a distance. The always-on display, meanwhile, is more like a dimmer version of the iPhone’s home screen for seeing the time and notifications when the screen is idle.

What makes Standby mode so interesting is that it gives your iPhone’s screen another purpose when it’s not in use. That’s exactly how Samsung should be thinking about the cover screens on its foldable phones. What other purpose can they serve on a device that’s meant to be unique, and in some ways superior, compared to a traditional phone?

I already enjoy propping up the Z Fold 6 when watching YouTube videos and listening to Spotify, especially now that Samsung’s newest book-style foldable has a larger and more symmetrical cover screen. Like Apple, I’d like to see Samsung explore what a new type of home screen could look like for the Galaxy Z Fold 6’s cover display when the device is propped open like a tent or bent halfway with the front screen facing outwards.

Apps automatically adjust to the correct landscape orientation when the Galaxy Z Fold 6 is positioned in this way. You can also view widgets for the calendar, clock, music that’s currently playing, weather and more on the lock screen in landscape mode on Samsung’s Galaxy devices. However, once the always-on display kicks in, those widgets disappear and you must tap the screen to see them. 

When it comes to new ways to use your phone’s screens, it seems Samsung is more focused on the internal screen than the external one. Flex Mode is the best example of this; when opening the Z Fold 6 halfway like a laptop, you can access controls for navigating an app on the bottom portion of the display, while content is shown on the top.

But again, both of these features feel like an attempt to help traditional smartphone software conform and adjust to the screen in different positions rather than introducing something entirely new.

Read more: Apple and Samsung Have Different Visions of AI for Our Phones

What I really want is for Samsung to think creatively about the different purposes smartphone screens can serve, especially now that software is going to matter more than ever for smartphones given the rise of generative AI. Some tech leaders believe AI algorithms that can generate conversational responses to questions and realistic imagery and video on the fly may be as monumental as the internet itself. If that’s true, how that technology is implemented on the screens we look at the most — our smartphones — will be critical, just as app stores and the mobile internet have defined the current generation of smartphones.

Samsung knows this, which is why it’s been emphasizing its suite of Galaxy AI features as being a major turning point for its mobile devices. Samsung, of course, isn’t the only one; Apple also recently laid out its vision for AI on smartphones with its own collection of features known as Apple Intelligence. 

Standby mode is a separate entity. But it shares a common idea with generative AI; that maybe it’s time to evolve smartphone software to more closely match the myriad roles phones have taken on in our lives over the past decade and a half. Foldable phones, with their bendable screens and unconventional postures, are a prime candidate for that type of change.