One of the less discussed aspects of the new Galaxy Z Fold4, unveiled a couple of days ago is its software situation. Namely, the move to Google’s Android 12L – a branch of the company’s popular mobile OS meant specifically for foldables, tablets, and Chrome OS devices, which debuted last year.
Previous Galaxy Z Fold devices will get the new Taskbar introduced with the Z Fold4 alongside One Ui 4.1.1 “later this year” pic.twitter.com/PUBxGpyfNI
— Anthony (@TheGalox_) August 13, 2022
We are already in the process of reviewing the Z Fold4, but one of the software highlights for this year is instantly noticeable in the new persistent Taskbar Samsung has placed at the bottom of the UX. According to industry rumors, that taskbar will be coming to older Galaxy Z Fold devices as well, alongside One UI 4.1.1 “later this year”.
While that’s not a surprising move in itself, it does raise some interesting questions. Chief among which is whether Samsung will be updating all or at least its most recent Fold phones to the “L” Android branch as well.
To be perfectly frank, at this point in time, we can’t really say how much of the new Z Fold4 One UI 4.1.1 UX is related to the new Android 12L core and how much is just Samsung’s custom skin effort. From our brief time with the Z Fold4, which you can read about in our hands-on review, we can say that many of Google’s own apps come in two columns, which is easier to navigate on a square-ish display, and select productivity and social media apps are also aware when the device is folded, so they switch in their regular orientation.
