The "I Got Mine" and First Impressions Thread

[The_Chief]

Did you get the Samsung servers to cooperate on announcement day, or did you try again later? It took a couple of hours, but I finally managed to get through - only via the Shop Samsung app - and pre-ordered my Z Fold 4!

There were a couple of promotions. One was a storage upgrade: 512 GB for the price of 256! That's great... but that offer did not extend to the 1 TB option! That frosted me a bit as my Z Fold 3 has 422 GB full! I wasn't going to pay that much for the upgrade, though, so I have some cleanup to do.

Another was a bundle including the Galaxy Watch 5 and Buds 2 Pro, at 30% off. It was an irresistible deal to me. I recently purchased the Mobvoi TicWatch Pro 3 Ultra: while it's an impressive watch, Mobvoi is headquartered in downtown Beijing, China... and I have been uncomfortable with all my personal information being "phoned home" to Communist China. Fortunately, its return window bumps right up against the expected delivery date for my Samsung order.

The Buds 2 Pro will be a surprising upgrade from the already awesome Sony WF-1000xm3 earbuds.

As a side note:

By selling the Z Fold 3 (with S Pen in the Thin Fit P case) and returning the TicWatch, I'll have more than enough to pay for the package deal. Plus, the credit card I use gets 1.5% cash back on every purchase (that helps pay for the new 3-in-1 wireless charging stand and Thin Fit P case for the Z Fold 4)... and since we pay the balance off every month, we have never paid a penny in interest!
(Visa hates us)



What about you? Did you pre-order, and what did you get?

 

[The_Chief]

Holy smokes, I found out that I can look at future shipments on my FedEx account! While the new products have an official release date of 8/26, FedEx currently shows my Samsung shipment delivery date as 8/23!



UPDATE:

8/19 I just received notification that Samsung has released the shipment and it will arrive Tuesday!

 

[major2112]

Just put my preorder in with free 512mb upgrade/ free s-pen w/standing case...with trade in from the z fold 2 the cost is less than $10 total....me happy! Scheduled to arrive Fri. 8/26

 

[The_Chief]

That's a heck of a deal! Great score for ten bucks!

Looks like the Tuesday delivery is the watch... the phone and earbuds are shipping later. This is really depressing because if the phone gets here Friday, I can't set it up until Saturday night or Sunday afternoon! We have an event much of Saturday for which I'm serving as master of ceremonies... that's gonna be torment!

 

[major2112]

Maybe not Chief, I just got a delivery notice from fedex for Tuesday and it's for the entire order. I guess we'll see.

 

[The_Chief]

I just got notification from Samsung that the rest of my order is being shipped. I have two FedEx tracking numbers: one for the watch, which will be here Tuesday; another for the phone and earbuds, which will be here Wednesday. Apparently, Samsung has lots of money to spend on FedEx shipping...

UPDATE:

Both tracking numbers are together, but such torment! My entire Samsung order is sitting at FedEx in Nashville, less than an hour from me... but won't be delivered until Tuesday!

 

[ironass]

Got my Samsung Galaxy Z4 Fold today, Tuesday, 22 August, here in the U.K. direct from Samsung.

Received a £600 trade-in on my Galaxy S21 Ultra, 512GB.

Just loading it up from scratch.

 

[The_Chief]

Where are you in UK that it's already Tuesday - and late enough for deliveries? It's not even 3 PM EDT on Monday! You sure you don't have a flux capacitor in your vehicle?

 

[ironass]

Where are you in UK that it's already Tuesday - and late enough for deliveries? It's not even 3 PM EDT on Monday! You sure you don't have a flux capacitor in your vehicle?

I meant Monday. Thanks to COVID I've lost the plot... totally!

 

[The_Chief]

Look what just showed up at my door! Time to charge things up and get ready to play!

UPDATE:

Setting it up now. My initial impression was how much lighter it is than the Fold 3. It's significantly lighter.

 

[The_Chief]

Okay folks, I truly hope your set-up is easier than mine. This has been the worst Smart Switch experience in years - with barely half my stuff coming over via direct cable transfer. It will take considerable time before my Z Fold is ready to be my daily driver.

Armorsuit responded to my inquiry, saying that Z Fold 4 screen protector sets will ship Monday the 29th. Since it will be much easier to apply them before the case goes on, I will spend a lot more time setting up this phone than I'd hoped.

 

[major2112]

Good to know. Mine came today but haven't had time to switch yet, now I'm thinking I'll wait until the weekend.....she's perrrty though!

 

[The_Chief]

It's a mess. My 3-in-1 wireless charging stand has to go back because the magnet for the watch was apparently installed upside down at the factory... so it keeps pushing the watch off center. Until the new one arrives tomorrow, I'm charging everything in various places around the house.

I miss my watch but I don't want to connect it with the Fold 3, then turn around and redo it on the 4. As much as I don't like the idea of applying the screen protector film with the case on, I believe I will. I'm not going to wait ten days with this new phone and not use it!

 

[The_Chief]

I AM P*SSED OFF!

Smart Switch was anything but smart - almost NOTHING copied over! My email apps are blank - the freaking accounts didn't come over, no emails; no messages; my calendar app was all messed up! I got all the icons on my home screen, hooray, but the APPS didn't install. I can't update this without opening that, which isn't installed... and when I install that, it tells me to enter the verification code in my email. Which I don't have. It will take DAYS to set this damn thing up: it's like I have never owned an Android phone in my life. This phone "upgrade" is the biggest PITA I've had in years.

 

[olbriar]

Wow Chief, that's a huge bummer. It's no wonder that you are "passed" off. I've used Smart Switch a number of times without a single complaint. I wonder why the problems? The problems that you've encountered gives me chills. Have you considered running Smart Switch again? Perhaps with a different cable or BT? Just wow.. way sorry.

 

[The_Chief]

I opened Samsung Wallet (formerly Pay) and nothing synced. No payment cards, none of my loyalty or discount cards... nothing!

I'm not even going to set it up until I call Samsung Premium Care+ (which must not be very premium since my phone call today was met with "your call cannot be completed right now". I must not be the only person ready to send this thing back...

 

[major2112]

OUCH! I haven't even fired mine up yet since I don't have the time but will do Saturday and let you know how my transfer went. Keep us updated with your experiences. Good luck.

 

[major2112]

Ok, so I finally setup and transferred all my data from my Z fold 2 via Samsung Smart switch and I must say that I had around 95% everything transfer. I did backup all of my accounts beforehand and I knew that I had some data that I would have to reload but everything went as I'd hoped. My Samsung wallet cards did transfer over but I did have to re-enter the basic security codes and billing addresses on them. In all, I'm pretty satisfied with my results and feel bad for you Chief!! My feeling is that you ran into some bad hardware or even just bad luck but who knows.?

I'll leave my thoughts about the S-pen case in the accessory thread...not good!

 

[major2112]

First impressions....coming from the 2 this is my first S-pen I've had since all of my Notes. I never did rely on the s-pen but did use it on occasion, so I'm getting back into it. Yes I wish it performed the bluetooth features but that's not a huge deal for me. My only gripe is that you can't use it on the cover screen which I really would use because of the size of the screen compared to my fingers...C'mon Samsung!! I'm really happy with the way this phone is performing otherwise. It's similar to the 2, and for all of you 3 owners that upgraded, I'll bet it's almost identical. Well, if problems arise, I will check back but so far so good after 1 day.

 

[The_Chief]

Okay: now that I'm pretty much moved in, it's time to start evaluating this phone. My initial impression is how incredible the battery life is! I'm astonished by how far this phone will go on a charge. I haven't had the nerve to keep it off the charger at night as a test, mostly because I need it to last me the whole day. Lots of people have tested that, though, so I feel no need. Let it suffice that if I needed to be away from a charger for two days, I think this phone could comfortably make it without going to extreme battery optimization.

 

[The_Chief]

Okay, so is anyone else having a problem with the location of the navigation buttons with that "taskbar" to the left?

When I compose an email or otherwise go to use the enter button (which I do a lot), the phone seems to confuse "ENTER" with the 3-line button for active apps... in fact, it will randomly switch my phone to another active app! I'm using the S Pen, so there's no mistake in where this thing is tapping. It's infuriating because my phone instantly does something I didn't want or expect; then I have to get back to the app I was in and hope it's still there.

As little as I use this taskbar (13 years of Android, I have never needed one and not had it), I will likely turn the thing off and spread the nav buttons out a bit. Hopefully that fixes it, and this isn't a digitizer issue.

 

[The_Chief]

This morning I saw the Moon shining down and decided to step out on our deck and test the Z Fold 4 at maximum zoom. Not bad....