Beyond the Alphabet is a weekly column that focuses on the tech world both inside and out of the confines of Mountain View.
Following our Galaxy Z Fold 6 initial review, a suggestion was made that I see how the phone stands up to taking pictures in the rain. Part of the reason is that this is the first Samsung foldable to sport an IP rating, as the Fold 6 is equipped with an IP48 rating.
I have a tendency to try to wait for the "perfect" conditions to take pictures. This applies to both product photos and camera samples, as I just enjoy the way pictures look with the sun shining. But the new IP rating on the phone gave me a different opportunity.
Seeing as I've been moaning and complaining about Samsung's inability to do anything with the cameras, it was the perfect storm to try and compare the Z Fold 6 to the OnePlus Open. There's some irony in that previous sentence, and you'll soon learn why.
Using the Main cameras
As I mentioned previously, the original idea was to try and see how the Z Fold 6 stood up in the rain, but Mother Nature decided to hold out for a bit. Thankfully, the skies didn't clear up, providing cloudy backdrops for the majority of the pictures I took.
Kicking things off, it's important to note that I didn't make any adjustments to the pictures, using only the default settings within each device's camera app. From here, it seemed as though the Z Fold 6 gave a bit of a blue-ish tint to its pictures, whereas the OnePlus Open offered a bit more "life."
This continues throughout a lot of the pictures between these two foldable phones. But I don't necessarily think that's a detractor for the Fold 6 and instead comes down to more of a personal preference. However, I do think that there's a bit more detail in the images taken by the Open.
There are a couple of key differences, such as in the first image in the gallery above. To my eye, the Z Fold 6 takes more "moody" pictures, but for whatever reason, the roles are reversed in the photo of the birds flying away. I actually prefer the Z Fold 6 here, as it looks more natural, whereas the Open slightly oversaturates the rocks on the shore.
Telephoto cameras
If there's one thing I'm a sucker for, it's having a good telephoto lens. For reference, my preferred "big camera" lens is 100mm, so I can get close-up product photos without needing to actually move closer. Both of these devices offer telephoto lenses with a 3x optical zoom, but the Open has an extra trick up its sleeve with the 6x "in-sensor" zoom.
Unfortunately, in the picture of the bird above, it's pretty obvious that the Z Fold 6 takes the better photo. I'm not exactly sure what happened here, as not only is the picture darker, but it lacks details when looking at the bird. However, I will give the Open props, because it actually managed to capture a heron flying in the background.
With the image above, comparing the 10x preset of the Fold 6 to the 6x preset of the Open, it doesn't take long to notice a big difference. No, I'm not talking about the darker hue of the Open's picture. It's that Samsung's processing starts to rear its ugly head and in a big way.
There's very little accuracy in the way that the water looks, as a lot of it just looks smoothed over. Needless to say, I'd rather have the picture from the Open, and would just make some adjustments in Lightroom to make it a bit brighter.
Ultrawide and Macro
Admittedly, I didn't put much of a focus on the ultrawide cameras between these two devices. Part of this was just because of the location as there wasn't much of a point, but really, it's just not something that I personally use all that often.
That being said, we have another role reversal, as the Fold 6 provides the moodier shot of the two, while the Open is brighter. It's almost like there's some type of haze over the picture from the Fold 6, while the Open is punchy and vibrant.
Another benefit of the ultrawide cameras for both of these devices is that they can double as macro lenses. You just have to stick your phone as close to the subject as possible, but it's still a pretty cool option to have.
In the image above, I think it's a bit of a coin flip. The colors are slightly punchier with the Fold 6, but the Open slaps back by offering more details. If you look really closely, you can see a cameo being made by an ant in the middle of the Open's picture.
Super Zoom at 30x
As it turns out, this little trip down to Point Lookout State Park offered an unexpected opportunity. There was a massive cargo ship off the coast, providing an excuse to check out the ultra-zoom capabilities of these phones. Seriously, the ship was so massive that you can see in the standard 1x zoom, something that isn't always the case.
The first thing that I'd like to point out is that it's incredibly annoying to try and use the 30x zoom without a tripod. I was just standing on the beach using two hands for stability and holding my breath just to try and get the ship in focus. That being said, neither of these pictures is good, and it's more of a parlor trick than anything else.
Stuck in the rain
The original point of this comparison was to see how the Galaxy Z Fold 6 would stand up in the elements. Mother Nature had other plans in mind as the weather started to clear up and I jumped in the car to head back home.
However, as I got closer to home, I saw a storm system was coming my way, so I decided to make one more last-ditch effort to get pictures in the rain. Unfortunately, as I got out of my car to head down to the shore, I quickly realized that I had locked my keys in my car.
This resulted in me spending an hour and a half in a downpour trying to use a coat hanger to unlock the car. After getting some help from a family that was sitting in the parking lot waiting out the storm, I successfully got back into my car. Unfortunately, by that point, the park was closing meaning that I wasn't able to actually take any of the pictures that I had in mind.
What I did learn is that despite being drenched from head to toe, the Fold 6 and Open were completely unphased. I honestly was a bit worried about what would happen, but was pleasantly surprised.
So the moral of the story is, don't listen to Jerry Hildenbrand and quadruple-check that your keys are in your pocket. Otherwise, you might get stuck in a thunderstorm at a park and have no shelter from the elements.
