WhatsApp is getting closer to rolling out its username feature. The new feature allows you to have WhatsApp conversations without sharing your phone number, adding a layer of privacy to your messaging experience. This much-needed privacy tool doesn’t have a release timeline yet.
WhatsApp continues to develop its username feature behind the scenes
The Meta-owned messaging app has been working on usernames for a long time. We have been tracking its developments since early last year, with several iterations of the feature showing up in early builds of WhatsApp. The idea is to let you message anyone without needing to give away your phone number, which can be risky at times. Telegram already does that.
WhatsApp is taking its own sweet time to refine this feature before a public rollout. Since it is fundamentally changing how you can connect with other users on the platform, the company likely wants to ensure proper measures have been put in place to prevent potential misuse or functional breakdown. In the meantime, it continues to test various UI designs for the feature.
The folks over at WABetaInfo, the ultimate destination for all things WhatsApp, recently discovered the in-development feature in a WhatsApp Web update. A screenshot shared by the publication shows a redesigned interface to create a username for the app. “Your friends and family can contact you on WhatsApp using this username,” the official description reads. “To protect your privacy, your username will be shown in place of your phone number.”
WhatsApp adds that “only people that know your username will be able to contact you.” Like phone numbers, every username must be unique for you to reach the right person. This means you cannot choose a username that has been already taken by someone else. This is similar to how platforms like X (Twitter) and Instagram usernames work. WhatsApp will let you check for the availability of your desired username when setting up the feature.
A future WhatsApp update should bring the feature
While a release date is missing, the latest developments suggest WhatsApp isn’t too far off rolling out usernames. A forthcoming update for the app should bring it. Beta users will probably receive the feature first, followed by a public rollout. You can check for WhatsApp updates on the Play Store or App Store. Stay tuned for more information about this and other new features the messaging giant has in the works.
Google Play Protect, the security feature within the Google Play Store, is getting a potential upgrade with the addition of a “Rescan” button. This feature, still under development, could offer users the ability to initiate another scan for harmful apps without having to first uninstall those flagged in previous scans.Currently, Play Protect scans devices for apps that might violate Google’s Unwanted Software Policy. If such an app is found, users are alerted and given the option to uninstall it. However, the current system requires the removal of the flagged app before another scan can be initiated. This can be frustrating if the app was mistakenly identified as harmful.
The upcoming Rescan button aims to address this issue by allowing users to re-scan their devices without having to uninstall any apps. This could be particularly helpful for those who frequently install apps from third-party sources, which are sometimes incorrectly flagged by Play Protect.
Play Protect old UI versus new UI with rescan button | Images credit — Android Authority
While the Rescan button isn’t currently available in the Play Store, it was discovered in version 41.9.17 during an APK teardown. APK teardowns can offer insights into potential future features by examining work-in-progress code, but it’s important to note that not all features found in teardowns necessarily make it to a public release.
Play Protect itself is an essential tool for Android users, helping to safeguard their devices from potentially harmful apps. It’s a free service that’s built into the Play Store and runs automatically in the background. In addition to scanning for harmful apps, it also offers other security features, such as Safe Browsing for Chrome, Find My Device, and app permissions management.
It’s unclear when, or even if, the Rescan button will officially roll out to users. However, if it does, it could be a welcome improvement to Play Protect, providing users with more flexibility and control over their device security.
The Identity Theft Resource Center® (ITRC), a nationally recognized nonprofit organization established to support identity crime victims, released its U.S. data breach findings for the second quarter (Q2) and the first half (H1) of 2024.
The results are staggering, revealing a dramatic increase in data breach victims, with a 490 percent rise compared to the first half of 2023.
This alarming trend underscores the urgent need for enhanced data and identity protection measures across all sectors.
According to the ITRC, there were 732 publicly reported data compromises in Q2 2024. While this represents a 12 percent decrease from the previous quarter (838), the overall picture for the year’s first half is far more concerning.
The ITRC tracked 1,571 compromises in H1 2024, marking a 14 percent increase compared to H1 2023, which ended with a record number of compromises (3,203).
Explosive Growth in Victim Numbers
The number of data breach victims in H1 2024 reached an unexpected 1,078,989,742, a 490 percent increase from the 182,645,409 victims reported in the first half of 2023.
Many of these victims were impacted by breaches announced or updated in Q2. For instance, Q1 saw 37,677,141 victims, while Q2 witnessed a staggering 1,041,312,601 victims. Several high-profile breaches contributed to these alarming numbers.
Prudential Financial initially reported a breach in February 2024, affecting 36,000 victims. However, in June 2024, this figure was revised to 2.5 million.
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Similarly, Infosys McCamish System revised its victim count from approximately 84,000 in February to 6 million.
Credential stuffing attacks targeting the Snowflake cloud service customers accounted for over 900 million victims reported in Q2.
The estimated number of H1 victims is 1+ billion, not including those affected by the Change Healthcare supply chain attack.
Company executives predict this breach will impact “a substantial number” of U.S. residents, further deepening the alarming situation.
Expert Insights
Eva Velasquez, President and CEO of the Identity Theft Resource Center, emphasized the gravity of the situation.
The H1 2024 Data Breach Analysis findings are eye-opening for many reasons. The estimated victim count is up significantly, primarily due to a small number of substantial data events skewing the numbers.
What is clear, though, is the fact the trends we saw emerge in 2023 that led to a record-breaking year in compromises are continuing into 2024.
Velasquez added that the trends accelerated through the year’s first half in some cases, such as the number of organizations impacted by supply chain attacks and the number of entities that did not list the root cause of a breach.
The takeaway from this report is simple: Every person, business, institution, and government agency must view data and identity protection with a greater sense of urgency.
Key Findings
The H1 2024 Data Breach Report & Analysis revealed several critical trends:
Unspecified Causes: “Not Specified” remained the most reported cause of a cyberattack listed in breach notices issued in H1 2024, accounting for 68 percent of cases.
Industry-Specific Attacks: Attacks against Financial Services companies surged by 67 percent year-over-year, making it the most compromised industry in H1 2024, followed by Healthcare companies. Reported compromises increased in ten of the 16 industries tracked by the ITRC. However, Healthcare entities saw a 37 percent year-over-year decrease in reported compromises, dropping from the most targeted industry to the second most frequently compromised for the first time in six years.
Driver’s License Data Theft: The increased value and use of stolen Driver’s License information were evident. Driver’s License data was stolen in 25 percent of data breaches based on notices issued in H1 2024. This trend reflects a post-pandemic shift towards using Driver’s Licenses for identity verification on a broader variety of transactions. Data breaches involving Driver’s License data rose from 198 instances in pre-pandemic 2019 to 636 in 2023 and 308 through June 30, 2024.
The ICRC’s H1 2024 Data Breach Report & Analysis highlights the urgent need for robust data protection measures.
As data breaches continue to rise, affecting millions of individuals and numerous industries, safeguarding personal information cannot be overstated.
The ITRC remains committed to providing support and guidance to victims of identity crime and advocating for stronger data security practices.
The Heritage Foundation this month denied that it had suffered an earlier system breach and the subsequent leaking of internal data. But the organization had to admit that cybercriminals gained access to an archive of Heritage’s affiliated media site, The Daily Signal, dating back to 2022. That archive reportedly contained content of Heritage and non-Heritage contributors’ personal information.
Either way, a Malwarebytes review of the data shows over half a million usernames and passwords.
At the heart of the back-and-forth claims are an alleged breach against the Heritage Foundation that SiegedSec, a politically motivated group, claimed to have carried out on July 2, 2024.
The group said it released the data in response to Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, a set of proposals that aim to give Donald Trump a set of ready-made policies to implement if he wins this fall’s election in the United States.
The stolen data includes email addresses, usernames, passwords, phone numbers, IP addresses, full names, and may contain other compromised user details.
SiegedSec also claimed to have over 200 gigabytes of additional “mostly useless” data, which they do not intend to release.
The discrepancy in the claims lies in the fact that SiegedSec said it obtained passwords and other user information for “every user” of a Heritage Foundation database. Heritage responded in saying that:
“An organized group stumbled upon a two-year-old archive of The Daily Signal website that was available on a public-facing website owned by a contractor.”
A possible cause for the discrepancy is an earlier cyberattack on the Heritage Foundation in April of 2024 which resulted in a shutdown of the organization’s network to prevent further malicious activity. But the nature of that attack is unclear and it is impossible to say whether any data was stolen.
Some sources, however, have reported that it was in fact a ransomware attack by the Play Group, which means that an attempt to steal data is still a possibility.
Protecting yourself after a data breach
There are some actions you can take if you are, or suspect you may have been, the victim of a data breach.
Check the vendor’s advice. Every breach is different, so check with the vendor to find out what’s happened and follow any specific advice they offer.
Change your password. You can make a stolen password useless to thieves by changing it. Choose a strong password that you don’t use for anything else. Better yet, let a password manager choose one for you.
Enable two-factor authentication (2FA). If you can, use a FIDO2-compliant hardware key, laptop or phone as your second factor. Some forms of two-factor authentication (2FA) can be phished just as easily as a password. 2FA that relies on a FIDO2 device can’t be phished.
Watch out for fake vendors. The thieves may contact you posing as the vendor. Check the vendor website to see if they are contacting victims and verify the identity of anyone who contacts you using a different communication channel.
Take your time. Phishing attacks often impersonate people or brands you know, and use themes that require urgent attention, such as missed deliveries, account suspensions, and security alerts.
Consider not storing your card details. It’s definitely more convenient to get sites to remember your card details for you, but we highly recommend not storing that information on websites.
Set up identity monitoring.Identity monitoring alerts you if your personal information is found being traded illegally online, and helps you recover after.
Check your exposure
Even if you were not amongst the victims of the Heritage leak, it’s likely you’ve had other personal information exposed online in previous data breaches. You can check what personal information of yours has been exposed with our Digital Footprint portal. Just enter your email address (it’s best to submit the one you most frequently use) to our free Digital Footprint scan, and we’ll give you a report.
We don’t just report on threats – we help safeguard your entire digital identity
Cybersecurity risks should never spread beyond a headline. Protect your—and your family’s—personal information by using identity protection.
Last week, the Republican nominee for US President, Donald Trump, chose his running mate. Which is Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, and now we’re starting to learn quite a bit more about him, including the fact that he wants to break up Google.
Earlier this year, Vance tweeted that it’s time “to break Google up”. He went on to say that “this matters far more than any other election integrity issue. The monopolistic control of information in our society resides with an explicitly progressive technology company.”
Why is Vance so against big tech, including Google? Well one of the reasons centers around the perceived notion that companies like Google have control over what people can say and post online. He has also alleged that voters will see results on Google that could be “explicitly biased towards Democrats”, which Vance says is a “threat to democracy”.
Even if Trump-Vance wins the election this Fall, it’s not a foregone conclusion that Google will be broken up
If the Trump-Vance ticket wins in November, it doesn’t mean that Google will be broken up. But keep in mind that this is a bipartisan issue. In fact, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren ran her 2020 Presidential Campaign on breaking up big tech and making the rich pay their fair share of taxes. So this is an issue that both Democrats and Republicans agree on – which is pretty rare.
However, having Vance in the White House could lead to more discussion on breaking up big tech companies like Google in the future. Though, Vance could also have a conflict of interest here since he is an investor in the video-sharing platform Rumble. Which has filed multiple lawsuits against Google. Those lawsuits center on Google favoring YouTube in search results. Of course, this is not the first time we’ve seen Google favor its own products over competitors in its search results, and likely won’t be the last.
As always, with a presidential election looming, the threat of breaking up big tech is a big topic. Now, the real question is, will it be more than just talk this time?
Samsung‘s revolutionary new smart ring, the Galaxy Ring, is compatible with non-Samsung Android smartphones. You can use it with Android phones from any other brand, though you need to create a free Samsung account. The company might also add support for iPhones later.
The Samsung Galaxy Ring works with any Android phone
Launched alongside the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Flip 6 earlier this month, the Galaxy Ring is a revolutionary wearable device from Samsung. The tiny gadget that fits around your finger is a comprehensive daily health and fitness monitor. It boasts a wide range of features to inform you about your health stats so you can make better choices. The ring is substantially less intrusive than a smartwatch yet offers basically the same features.
During the launch event on July 10, Samsung made it look like the Galaxy Ring only works with its phones. Official product pages and marketing materials implied the same. Nowhere did the firm mention anything about its compatibility with Android phones from other brands, at least not clearly enough for consumers to understand. Unsurprisingly, some reviewers took its word and didn’t bother testing the ring with non-Samsung phones.
However, YouTuber M. Brandon Lee discovered that the Galaxy Ring works fine with their Nothing phone. This means it should be compatible with any other Android phone, no matter who made it. Like on Galaxy devices, you must install the Galaxy Wearable app, connect the wearable to the device via Bluetooth, and go through the setup process to get it up and running. You will probably need Samsung Health and SmartThings too.
These apps require you to sign in with a Samsung account. If you don’t already have one, you can create a new account for free in a jiffy. It’s worth noting that some features may not be compatible with non-Samsung phones, particularly AI-powered features like Energy Score and health recommendations. These features on the Galaxy Ring rely on the company’s Galaxy AI available on flagship phones, tablets, and foldables.
Samsung could add iPhone support to the ring later
During media briefings and Q&A sessions for the Galaxy Ring, Samsung didn’t explicitly say that the ring wouldn’t support iPhones. Instead, it said it had no word on iOS support for the wearable at that time. An industry insider claims they were “originally told that there would be iOS support, though not necessarily at launch.” It appears Samsung plans to break into the iOS ecosystem with the Galaxy Ring. Hopefully, it won’t take long to push this much-awaited update.
SocGholish malware, also known as FakeUpdates, has exhibited new behavior since July 4th, 2024, as the infection chain still begins with a compromised website prompting a fake browser update.
Downloading the update triggers malicious code that fetches additional malware. Unlike prior campaigns where SocGholish installed common RATs, recent attacks involved the execution of additional files and scripts, deviating from the usual patterns.
Infection Chain
The initial malicious Javascript downloads a PowerShell script that bypasses AMSI and fetches the next stage loader from a DGA-generated domain.
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This second stage decodes, decrypts, and decompresses a third-stage PowerShell script using a Base64 encoded string, a hardcoded XOR key, and Gzip compression. The functionality can be replicated in CyberChef to reveal the final AsyncRAT payload.
CyberChef recipe to decode the obfuscated AsyncRAT PowerShell commands.
Stage 3 of the AsyncRAT malware uses various techniques to detect virtualized environments, which check for specific strings in system information like “VMware” or “VirtualBox” and assign scores.
A higher score indicates a higher likelihood of being in a virtual machine, and the final score is then incorporated into a cURL request parameter along with a randomly generated domain name fetched by the Domain Generation Algorithm (DGA).
If the score passes the threshold on the C2 server, the final AsyncRAT payload is delivered.
The domain used by the final AsyncRAT payload.
A malicious PowerShell script disguised as a BOINC software installation uses cURL to download a file and then creates a random directory and file name, downloads a ZIP archive, extracts it, renames a file likely containing malware (BOINC.exe), and creates a scheduled task to execute it.
To potentially evade detection, the script removes itself and creates a registry value with a misspelled key name (“ExpirienceHost”) as a possible infection marker.
Strings from the process memory of PowerShell show the scheduled task creation.
SocGholish malware is abusing BOINC, an open-source distributed computing software, to create a command-and-control (C2) server by installing a disguised BOINC client that connects to a malicious server instead of legitimate BOINC servers.
While no malicious tasks have been observed yet, the attacker can potentially steal information, transfer files, or execute further malware on the infected hosts.
Malicious server project status page.
An AsyncRAT infection was discovered through the analysis of scheduled tasks, which include malicious PowerShell commands disguised within log file names and executed by a headless Conhost process.
It establishes persistence for the AsyncRAT and maintains connections to its C2 server, and tasks associated with a BOINC client were found, which may be a downloaded component for cryptocurrency mining or other purposes.
According to Huntress, the techniques used in this attack closely resemble those linked to the SocGholish malware family, particularly its use of fake browser updates for initial access and obfuscated PowerShell downloads for AsyncRAT deployment.
Right now, the recent leaks and rumors don’t leave anything to the imagination with these phones. We know how they look, when to expect some of them, and some of their specs. There’s not much to speculate on. With most of the hardware details revealed, there’s not much for Google to reveal to us other than AI.
New Pixel 9 Pro and Pixel 9 Pro XL renders show the phone in some nice colors
Most of the information we’ve seen has revolved around the Pixel 9 Pro. Now, it’s time for the other two variants to get some attention. In a new leak from Sudhanshu Ambhore on Twitter, we see some of the colors that these phones could come in.
Starting off with the Pixel 9, we see a pleasant-looking pink color. It has a pastel tone to it, which is consistent with Google’s brand. We know it’s the Pixel 9 base variant because of the cameras. We see that there are only two lenses and that there’s no temperature sensor. We also see that it’s the smaller of the two in the renders.
Next up, there’s the Pixel 9 Pro XL. This one has a nice cream color to it. Again, there’s a pastel aesthetic to it that gives it a very “Google” look. On this phone, we see the three sensors along with the temperature sensor. It will be the larger of the phones, dwarfing the Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Pro. We’re sure that Google’s going to give these colors some wacky names.
Specs
As for the specs, these phones will use Google’s Tensor G4 SoC, and we expect the Pro versions of the phones to come with 16GB of RAM, and a Samsung modem (Exynos 5400)
Moving onto the camera tech, reports state that both the Pixel 9 and Pro phones will have a 50MP IMX858 sensor for their ultrawide cameras, and the Pro phones will use the same sensor for their telephoto cameras. Also, the Pro phones could use that same sensor for their selfie cameras.
Google’s going to unveil the Pixel 9 Pro and Pixel 9 Pro Fold on August 13th, and maybe some other devices. That’s only a few weeks away, so you’ll need to mark your calendars.
SonicWall has disclosed a critical heap-based buffer overflow vulnerability in its SonicOS IPSec VPN.
This flaw, identified as CVE-2024-40764, can potentially allow unauthenticated, remote attackers to cause a Denial of Service (DoS) condition.
The vulnerability has been rated with a CVSS v3 score of 7.5, indicating a high severity level.
CVE-2024-40764: Critical Vulnerability in SonicOS IPSec VPN
The vulnerability, which affects multiple versions of SonicWall’s Gen6 and Gen7 platforms, was first published on July 17, 2024.
SonicWall has provided a workaround and is working on a patch to address this critical issue.
Advisory ID
SNWLID-2024-0012
First Published
2024-07-17
Last Updated
2024-07-17
Workaround
True
Status
Applicable
CVE
CVE-2024-40764
CWE
CWE-122
CVSS v3
7.5
CVSS Vector
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
The heap-based buffer overflow vulnerability in the SonicOS IPSec VPN allows an unauthenticated remote attacker to exploit the system, leading to a Denial of Service (DoS) condition.
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This could disrupt services and potentially cause significant operational downtime for affected organizations.
Affected Products
The vulnerability impacts a wide range of SonicWall products across different versions. Below is a detailed list of the affected platforms and their respective versions:
7.0.1-5151 and older versions, 7.1.1-7051 and older versions
To mitigate the potential impact of this vulnerability, SonicWall recommends restricting inbound IPSec VPN access to trusted sources or disabling IPSec VPN access from Internet sources. This temporary measure should be implemented until the official patch is applied.
Organizations are encouraged to contact SonicWall Technical Support for further assistance restricting or disabling IPSec VPN access.
SonicWall has released fixed versions for the affected platforms. Below is a list of the fixed platforms and their respective versions:
I’ve reviewed every single Galaxy Z Fold model since the original, though we were a bit late with the Galaxy Fold review publishing in 2020. It’s interesting to see how each model looks like an iterative update, but once you actually use the phone for a decent amount of time, it turns out to be a much larger update. That’s the case this year with the Galaxy Z Fold 6.
On paper, it looks like the Galaxy Z Fold 6 is a very minor upgrade over the Galaxy Z Fold 5. What’s new? A more boxy and flat design, a new processor, a few millimeters wider and a millimeter shorter, and that’s pretty much it. But these changes do make a pretty big difference actually. As I mentioned in the disclaimer above, I’ve been using this phone for a little over a week so far, and I actually really like it. I like it so much that, for the first time in four years, my main SIM has been moved from my iPhone to the Galaxy Z Fold 6 – though that is not 100% because of the Galaxy Z Fold 6.
With a $100 price increase this year, many are upset at the lack of innovation and changes. But there’s an important aspect to remember here. The original Galaxy Fold was $1,980 when it debuted back in 2019. So, even at a starting price of $1,899, this is still about $81 cheaper than the original model. It’s always good to keep things like that in perspective. Let’s keep that in mind as we go through this full review.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 Review: Design and Build Quality
Recently, we’ve heard a lot from people that the new Samsung phone “looks the same as last year”, and honestly, I don’t know what’s so bad about that. Every smartphone company has its own design identity, plus it doesn’t make much sense to spend a ton of money on R&D just to change up the design every year. Making iterative improvements to the design each year is a much better approach.
Samsung has started to take the Apple approach to updates, and I think it’s the right way to go. Apple, Samsung, and other companies know that you are most likely not upgrading every year. You might not even upgrade every two years, it might be three, four or even five years in between upgrades. So, instead of throwing everything and the kitchen sink into the new phone every year, Samsung does iterative upgrades. So when you upgrade your Galaxy Z Fold 3 to a Galaxy Z Fold 6, it’s a much larger upgrade and worth the price to the consumer.
And that’s the case here with the Galaxy Z Fold 6. It’s a pretty iterative upgrade on paper, but I absolutely love the design changes on this phone. First off, it is now fully matte. The Galaxy Z Fold 5 had a glossy frame and hinge, which is cool. But after a little while, once it catches all of the fingerprints, it really starts to look pretty nasty. This year, Samsung opted for a matte finish on the Fold 6, which not only looks much nicer but also doesn’t hold onto fingerprints and other dirt and dust.
Speaking of the sides, the Galaxy Z Fold 6 is fully flat, this is good for a couple of reasons. It does add some durability to the phone, but it also adds a bit more space inside the phone. Now you might be wondering, just how much space can this provide? Considering how large the Galaxy Z Fold 6 is, quite a bit. Especially since Samsung did include a much larger vapor chamber this year.
The hinge is also more flat and matte this year. It’s also stronger. This is the new dual rail hinge that Samsung has been talking up, and honestly, I can notice a huge difference between this and the older hinge on the Galaxy Z Fold 5. It stays in position better when you are opening the phone partway, and it also snaps open. Unlike some other foldables, the Galaxy Z Fold 6 does open to a full 180-degrees.
With the more boxy design, the front display has also gotten a tad larger, now at 6.3 inches. This is also thanks to the phone being a tad wider and a tad shorter, overall. This also makes the Galaxy Z Fold 6 look more premium. I really don’t know how to explain it, but it’s almost like the Galaxy Z Fold 6 looks more grown up, versus the Galaxy Z Fold 5 with its curves. I’ve fallen in love with the design of this phone, and it’s been hard to put it down, because it’s just so good.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 Review: Display
Over the past few years, I’ve been pretty vocal about why I don’t like foldables. And it mostly comes down to the display. The front display is generally pretty skinny, and the main display is generally a square. Neither of which is really great for watching videos or using apps. OnePlus and Google sort of got the message, and used wider front displays on their foldables last year. Now Samsung finally appears to be catching up, sporting a 22:9 aspect ratio cover display, versus the 25:9 aspect ratio on the Galaxy Z Fold 2 (as the first Galaxy Fold was not full screen). Each year, it gets a little wider, and this is the first time that I can say it is actually usable.
Let’s face it, with a foldable, you don’t want to have to open it every time you want to doomscroll on X, or check out Facebook, etc. And with a super skinny front display like the older Galaxy Z Fold models, I would find myself wanting to open the phone way more often than I wanted too. Which is what kept me away from using a foldable outside of reviewing it. However, that changed with the Pixel Fold and OnePlus Open last year, and now with the Galaxy Z Fold 6. While I would like it to be a little bit wider, closer to a 20:9 or 18:9 aspect ratio, it is now usable.
But what about the brightness on these displays? Samsung says that both displays can reach 2600 nits of peak brightness. That’s nice and bright, and the same peak brightness as the Galaxy S24 Ultra released earlier this year. This peak brightness is especially useful on the folding display, since it is made of plastic and plastic does tend to reflect a lot more. Meaning it’s tougher to see in direct sunlight if it’s darker – a problem we all faced with the Pixel Fold last year. I’m happy to report that both displays are perfectly visible in direct sunlight. I’ve used the Galaxy Z Fold 6 a lot in direct sunlight already, and I had no complaints being able to see it.
As we do with every smartphone, we also tested the brightness on both displays here. Basically, we get a plain white screen, use a flashlight to shine on the light sensor above the display, and a luminance reader to find out how bright it is. Now keep in mind, we will not see anywhere near 2,600 nits in this type of testing, as that is peak brightness, aka the absolute brightest it can get. We did get up to 1700 nits, which is still plenty bright.
Finally, let’s talk about that crease. Another big complaint about Samsung’s foldables have been the crease. I mean, they hadn’t even closed the gap until last year with the Fold 5. The crease is still here, but it is less noticeable compared to the Fold 5. It’s getting closer to the Chinese rivals like the HONOR Magic V2 and OnePlus Open, however, which is good. To be honest, most of the time I don’t even notice the crease, unless the display is off. If I’m watching TikTok on it, you don’t really see it, unless there is light reflecting off of it.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 Review: Performance
Performance on the Galaxy Z Fold 6 isn’t anything out of the ordinary here. It’s sporting the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy, 12GB of RAM and (our unit has) 512GB of storage. Pretty similar internals to the Galaxy S24 Ultra, which I’ve used quite a bit this year. I’m happy to say that the performance on the Galaxy Z Fold 6 is top-notch. Of course, a good bit of that comes down to the new vapor chamber inside.
The vapor chamber inside the Galaxy Z Fold 6 is about 1.6x larger than that of the Galaxy Z Fold 5. And I have to say, I’ve really noticed a difference there. Typically when running a bunch of apps for a long period of time, the Galaxy Z Fold 5 would get quite warm, that’s not the case with the Fold 6. It does get warmer, but it’s barely noticeable. That’s even reflected in our temperature reading tests that we’ll talk about in a little bit.
Whether it’s multi-tasking, playing games, or what have you, the Galaxy Z Fold 6 lives up to its promise of being a performance king.
Samsung is also continuing to use a side-mounted fingerprint sensor, versus an under-display fingerprint sensor. That should come as no surprise, since the display is pretty fragile, particularly the main display. I do quite like having the fingerprint sensor in the power button, it just makes things so much easier and faster to unlock. The only real complaint I have here is that the power button is a little to concave, compared to some other foldables. Making it a little tougher to use versus the Pixel Fold, where you can just tap it and unlock it. Again, this isn’t a major issue, and it is something I’ve gotten used to, but I’d like to see it be a normal button like the volume rocker.
Benchmarks
With every phone (and tablet) we review, we run a few different benchmarks to truly test how good the phone is. Manufacturers will always tell us how much better their phone is compared to the predecessors and their competition. But we can’t always take what companies say at face value. So we have to benchmark them. In this series of benchmarks, we use a mixture of well-known benchmarks and one that we designed ourselves – so that OEMs can’t “cheat” on them.
The first of which is Geekbench 6. Many of you are likely familiar with Geekbench 6, it will test the raw performance of the CPU in single-core and multi-core tasks, as well as the raw performance of the GPU.
For this review, we are comparing the Galaxy Z Fold 6 to the HONOR Magic V2 RSR, OnePlus Open and the Galaxy S24 Ultra. All of these, with the exception of the OnePlus Open, run the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, so scores should be relatively similar. The Galaxy S24 Ultra did marginally beat the Galaxy Z Fold 6 in both the CPU single-core and multi-core test. However, the Galaxy Z Fold 6 did beat the Galaxy S24 Ultra quite handily (by about 2,000 points) in the GPU test. And that, we believe comes down to the much larger vapor chamber this time around.
The next benchmark we run is the 3D Mark Wildlife Extreme Stress Test. This puts the phone through a pretty extreme stress test, getting it to about the highest temperature it’ll ever hit. It runs a loop of the same 60-second long benchmark, 20 times. And from that you get a score from the best loop, the lowest loop and then the stability score. Among the four phones we are comparing here, the Galaxy Z Fold 6 had the lowest scores, but had the highest stability, which is definitely more important. This means the Galaxy Z Fold 6 can withstand better performance for a longer time before needing to cool down.
Finally, we do a benchmark with Capcut. This is a pretty popular video editing app from TikTok. What we do here is, load up the exact same 60-second video into the app, make zero edits and export it at 1080p30, and time how long it takes to export. A pretty simple test, with wildly different results, we’ve found out. The Galaxy Z Fold 6 did marginally better than the Galaxy S24 Ultra here, exporting at 7.68 seconds, whereas the Galaxy S24 Ultra was 7.75 seconds. The HONOR Magic V2 RSR was at 12 seconds and the OnePlus Open was 16 seconds.
It looks like Samsung’s claims on performance for the Galaxy Z Fold 6 do hold true. It has handily beat most other Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 devices, and is basically on par with the Galaxy S24 Ultra which uses the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy.
Thermals
Now let’s talk thermals. This is probably one of the more interesting parts of these tests, and will really show us if that vapor chamber is doing what it should.
To test out the thermals, we run three (technically four) tests. The first is done with the benchmarks, and that’s the 3D Wildlife Extreme Stress Test. As mentioned before, this benchmark really heats the phone up, usually more than any other test we do. So once it completes, we use our temperature gun to get a reading. For the Galaxy Z Fold 6, we’re looking at a temperature of 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit. That is pretty good for phones, but with foldables where there’s more space for heat to dissipate, we generally see slightly lower numbers. The HONOR Magic V2 RSR was only 98.9 degrees Fahrenheit.
Next up, we will play Genshin Impact for an hour straight, at full brightness and max settings. Since Genshin Impact is such a demanding game, this is a pretty good way to test out the thermals. After an hour of gameplay, the Galaxy Z Fold 6 was at 99.6 degrees Fahrenheit, less than a degree higher than the HONOR Magic V2 RSR.
Finally, the third test is video recording. As most of you probably know, video recording particularly at 4K resolution can be very demanding and heat up the phone. So we record a video at 4K30 (since not every phone has an option for 4K60 yet, to keep things fair in comparisons), and check the temperature at 5 minutes and again at 10 minutes. These readings were 92.8 degrees and 95.5 degrees Fahrenheit, which is actually lower than the HONOR Magic V2 RSR.
Overall, it looks like that larger vapor chamber in the Galaxy Z Fold 6 is really doing a good job at keeping the phone cool, even in the most demanding instances. On most phones that we’ve tested, all of these numbers are above 100 degrees Fahrenheit, so this is looking good for Samsung.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 Review: Battery life and Charging
This is probably the most disappointing aspect of the new Galaxy Z Fold 6, the battery capacity and the charging speed. Both are unchanged once again. So the Galaxy Z Fold 6 has a battery capacity of 4400mAh – which is the same battery capacity as the Galaxy Z Fold 3. And the charging speed maxes out at 25W wired and 15W wireless.
When it comes to battery life, it’s okay. I’ve been able to get between six and eight hours of screen on time, depending on what I’m doing that day. On the weekend, I got a good bit more screen on time, since I wasn’t on my laptop all day working. And I generally did not need to charge the phone during the day – the only time that happened was after running all the benchmarks and thermal tests mentioned above. So it’ll get you through a day, but this is by no means, a two-day phone.
In our battery rundown test, the Galaxy Z Fold 6 lasted for 15 hours and 35 minutes. That is quite comparable to most other foldables we’ve tested – most are in the 14 to 15 hour range. But most other smartphones are well over 20 hours in this test. With this test, we play a 24-hour long video on YouTube at full brightness from 100% to about 1% to record how long it took.
On the charging side of things, seeing this cap out at 25W wired charging is pretty sad. I’m pretty sure I know why Samsung is not pushing the envelope on charging speeds; it all comes back to the Galaxy Note 7. But come on, Samsung, 25W? In 2024? OnePlus Open, which is sold in the US, offers 67W charging, and the OnePlus 12 (also available in the US) does 80W in the US and 100W in Europe. At least give us 45W like the Galaxy S24 Ultra has. That being said, in our charging test, we were able to fully charge from 1% up to 100% in about an hour and twenty minutes. While not terrible, it could be much better.
The battery capacity here is more puzzling since we now have flip-style foldables with larger capacity batteries, like the new Xiaomi Mix Flip that was just announced. Even the new HONOR Magic V3, which will make its global debut at IFA in September, has over 5,000mAh capacity. Samsung, it’s time to up the battery capacity. We’re not asking for much, just a larger battery. You’ve already upped the price by $100.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 Review: Software
The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 launched with Android 14 and One UI 6.1.1, which is a slight update over what the Galaxy S24 series launched back in January. There are some minor changes here, but the bigger changes will come with One UI 7, which is expected later this year with Android 15. It’s also important to note that the Galaxy Z Fold 6, along with the Flip 6 and the S24 Series, will all get 7 years of software updates. Only the Pixel 8 series is matching that right now.
With the Fold 6 this year, Samsung’s not really focusing much on new features exclusive to foldables. Instead, it’s more about AI. Which, surprise, surprise. Obviously, Samsung announced a slew of Galaxy AI features with the Galaxy S24 series back in January. But with the new foldables, Samsung is adding onto that with a few more features. You can even force all of the processing to happen on the device, which is a really good security feature.
One of the changes that Samsung made in One UI 6.1.1 that I really like is adding a section in Settings for Galaxy AI. Honestly, I forget about a lot of these very useful Galaxy AI features. There are toggles for a lot of them, along with a few more options too. Here are all of the Galaxy AI features available on the Galaxy Z Fold 6: Call Assist, Chat Assist, Interpreter, Note Assist, Transcript Assist, Browsing Assist, Photo Assist, Drawing Assist, Photo Ambient Wallpaper, and Health Assist. We’ll touch more on the Health Assist feature when we review the Galaxy Watch 7 and Galaxy Watch Ultra.
There are a handful of Galaxy AI features that I do use quite often. One that I’ve used a few times but expect to use more the next time I travel to another country is Interpreter. I’ve tried this out with a few friends who speak Spanish, of which I don’t speak a lick. And it was pretty quick, and accurate. What’s great about using this on a foldable is that you can see each language on each side of the phone. So you can hold up the back of the phone to someone, and they’ll be able to see and hear what you’re saying once it is translated. I can see this coming in handy when I go to Berlin for IFA next month.
Transcript Assist is another super handy one, especially as a journalist, as we are a part of loads of Q&A sessions and briefings. With Transcript Assist, you can have your recordings transcribed into text, making it easy to find a specific portion of the briefing or meeting. It can also summarize the recording for you if it’s a long one. Speaking of summarizing, with Samsung’s Internet, you can do summarization of webpages. This is really helpful for articles like this one that are well over 4,000 words long and will take a while to read. Google Gemini powers it, so it’s going to work the same as the summarization feature in the Google app and in Chrome. But Samsung Internet is just so much faster than Chrome these days.
Finally, an AI feature that I use a lot now but suspect I won’t use as much after this review is Photo Assist. This allows you to use Generative AI to change up your photo. It’s especially fun with the Sketch to Image feature. Just sketch something that you want to add to the image, then tap on “Generate,” and it’ll give you a few options to choose from. This actually works a lot better than I thought it would. I took a picture inside Moynihan Train Hall in Manhattan, and I thought it’d be funny to have a train going through the main level. I drew something that was close to a train – my drawing sucks, though – and Samsung added a van. It looks cool, but the van is comically small compared to the people around it. Other than it does look realistic.
With Photo Assist, you also have the Portrait Studio option. This lets you turn pictures of people into a sketch, watercolor, cartoon or comic. Some of these have come out really well, in my opinion. I especially like the sketch and watercolor options. With this being Generative AI, it’s only going to get better as it learns more about what people are doing with it. Here are a few examples of what Photo Assist is capable of:
As mentioned before, the software on the Galaxy Z Fold 6 runs insanely well. I’ve never had it slow down or really heat up other than when I’m editing a video in Capcut or playing games for a long period of time. It’s what you expect with this type of hardware, but always good to see.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 Review: Camera
There’s been a lot of talk about how Samsung is still sticking with the same cameras as the Galaxy Z Fold 4. Which normally, I wouldn’t mind. However, where the Galaxy Z Fold cameras were already a few generations behind its flagship phones like the Galaxy S24 Ultra, and Samsung raised the price by $100, it is a lot harder to justify.
These cameras are not bad by any means. They will take some really good pictures on your Galaxy Z Fold 6, especially with that 50-megapixel primary camera. But they could be so much better. After using the OnePlus Open for many months, it’s hard to go this far backwards in terms of cameras. Samsung, please just slap the Galaxy S24 Ultra cameras on the Galaxy Z Fold 7 next year. Even it if makes the camera bump larger, we don’t care.
Like I said, the cameras aren’t bad. That 50-megapixel primary sensor has provided me with some pretty good images over the past week. They are still pretty sharp, mostly because they are pixel-binning the image down to a 12.5-megapixel image. But even when you opt to take a shot at the full 50-megapixels, it’s still really sharp. The colors look great, mostly true-to-life, with a tad of saturation. They aren’t overly saturated like Samsung phones used to be, back in the day.
The 12-megapixel telephoto sensor is a 3x optical zoom camera, which is a bit weird to see these days, with so many offering 5x, 6x or even 10x telephoto lenses. But It’s still taking some good pictures, though remember this only goes up to 30x and not 100x like the Galaxy S24 Ultra.
Finally the ultrawide. It’s really hard to mess up an ultrawide camera unless it’s a 3-megapixel or lower lens. It’s also a camera that I don’t use all that often. But on the Galaxy Z Fold 6 here, it has cranked out some really good-looking photos too. You can find images from all three lenses down below, none of these have been edited, and all shot at “auto” the only changes we made was the focal length.
My conclusion on the camera here is that it’s okay. It could be better, we know Samsung can do better. The $100 price increase does sting a bit since we’re now on our third-generation of the same camera sensors on this phone. While the Chinese competitors are putting crazy camera modules on their foldables, and selling them for less.
Should you buy the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6?
For me, it’s always hard telling someone whether they should buy a phone that costs $1,899. That’s a lot of money to spend on a phone. I will say, however, if this is your first foldable and you can get a good deal with trade-ins and other promos, then yes definitely switch to the Galaxy Z Fold 6. If you have a Galaxy Z Fold 5, I don’t think it’s worth switching yet. Even though Samsung is offering $1,500 trade-in credit for it.
I feel that foldables are still mostly niche products. Because not everyone wants to carry a phone that unfolds into a phone in their pocket all the time. But heavy users like myself love products like this because you have a 7.6-inch screen in your pocket to use for navigation, seeing desktop versions of websites, and much more.
You should buy the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 if:
You want a phone that unfolds into a tablet.
You want one of the best foldable software experiences out there.
You can get a good deal from Samsung or your carrier.
You want to try out a foldable phone for the first time.
You should not buy the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 if:
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