Hands-on: Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 4 kickstand case is great, but a bit disappointing

The Galaxy Z Fold 4 is a device that’s great for consuming media on the go, and Samsung has clearly made an effort this year to improve the cases for the device to better interact with that purpose. We’ve had a chance to try out Samsung’s kickstand case for the Galaxy Z Fold 4, which looked promising but ultimately isn’t quite what most were expecting.

The “Slim Standing Cover” for the Galaxy Z Fold 4 is a two-piece case that includes a bumper for the front display, a full cover for the back of the phone, and a kickstand built-in. It retails for $49.99, making it one of the most affordable case options in Samsung’s official lineup.

At a glance, the case looks a lot like Samsung’s tablet cases with kickstands. The Galaxy Tab S8’s “Protective Standing Cover” has a kickstand that can be positioned at different angles, and this is an idea that Samsung employs in some of its other tablet cases. Microsoft Surface products use a very similar method in the Windows tablets, and Lenovo also has a similar kickstand design on its Android and Chrome OS tablets.

Unfortunately, this isn’t what the “Slim Standing Cover” for the Galaxy Z Fold 4 does. The kickstand has a fixed point when it’s opened up, which appears to be at roughly 45 degrees or so. The kickstand also doesn’t have any resistance to hold it in that position, rather simply popping off of its magnetic connection point and loosely hanging until you put it down on a flat surface.

That’s not to say this is a bad case. The kickstand is still rather useful, and the angle it’s held at is generally going to be just about perfect for putting the phone on a table to where you can see the full canvas.

But, it’s a little disappointing that the kickstand isn’t adjustable at all. It brings to mind the controversy around the kickstand on the original Nintendo Switch. It’s something that the product ultimately benefits from, but the existing design just doesn’t provide the right experience. Nintendo ultimately fixed that by revamping the kickstand in the Switch OLED, which includes adding the ability to adjust the angle of the kickstand.

I’d love to see Samsung take a note from Nintendo in the Fold 4’s kickstand case. A “Slim Standing Cover Pro” could add the customizable adjustments that this product deserves. But going based on how Samsung usually develops its foldable cases and how slow it is to fix issues, I won’t be holding my breath.

But on the note of kickstands for the Galaxy Z Fold 4, we also got another chance to try out the “Standing Cover with Pen” for the Fold 4 this week. Back on launch day, we reported on this case as the solution to Samsung’s S Pen storage problem that was dreadful with 2021’s release, and that even third parties couldn’t fully solve.

Now, we’ve also had a chance to try out the kickstand that can be swapped for the S Pen storage slot. Like the Slim Standing Cover, this solution isn’t ideal. The angle can’t be adjusted, and it uses a much smaller area to hold up the phone. But, it is considerably more economical (despite the Pen cover costing $89) to go with this solution, as it essentially acts as two cases in one.

Today is the last day of pre-orders for the Galaxy Z Fold 4, and Samsung is offering the Standing Cover with Pen for free with pre-orders from Samsung.com.

Personally, I think I’ll be using both of these cases with my Fold 4 going forward, but the Slim Standing Cover certainly isn’t the huge winner that I hoped it would be.

More on Samsung:

• Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Flip 4 FAQ: Everything you need to know
• Where to pre-order the Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Flip 4 and get the best deal
• Hands-on: The Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Flip 4 are all about addressing the biggest flaws