Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 review: an (almost) perfect foldable flip phone. Galaxy flip z

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 review: an (almost) perfect foldable flip phone

“The Galaxy Z Flip 4 may not be a revolutionary year-over-year upgrade, but it stands tall as one of the best folding smartphones you can buy in 2022. It’s sleeker, faster, and more reliable than ever.”

• Flatter design looks and feels fantastic
• Bespoke customization is unmatched
• Excellent main display
• Blazing fast performance
• Good, fun cameras

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 is one of the best folding smartphones you can buy in 2022. Simultaneously, it’s also one of the most boring compared to its predecessor. It’s a fascinating place for the foldable niche to already be. Over the span of only three years, foldables have gone from a breakthrough niche to “just another” smartphone option you can buy. Samsung, specifically, has already gotten so good at the folding formula that it doesn’t have to reinvent the wheel every year. It just has to keep doing what worked the year before.

• Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 design
• Galaxy Z Flip 4 screens
• Galaxy Z Flip 4 performance
• Galaxy Z Flip 4 cameras
• Galaxy Z Flip 4 battery life and charging
• Galaxy Z Flip 4 software
• A second opinion on the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4
• Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 price and availability
• The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 is the foldable you should buy Show 4 more items

This year’s Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Z Flip 4 perfectly embody this. But where our Galaxy Z Fold 4 review found some fairly significant changes, that sense of repetition is especially prevalent with the Flip. Compared to the Flip 3, there’s not much new with the Flip 4. It has a slightly tweaked design, a camera that’s a little better, a newer chipset, and a marginally larger battery. It all makes the phone sound quite dull on paper. However, after using the Galaxy Z Flip 4 as my daily driver for the past few days, “dull” is the last word I’d use to describe it.

Is the Galaxy Z Flip 4 a substantial improvement over the Flip 3? No. But is it one of the best foldable phones you can buy today? Absolutely.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 design

If you’ve seen the Galaxy Z Flip 3 before, you’ll be right at home with the Galaxy Z Flip 4. If you haven’t seen a Flip 3, the Flip 4 is essentially a reimagining of the flip phone for the modern era. When it’s open, the Flip 4 looks like any other smartphone — touting a large display, centered hole-punch camera cutout, and slim bezels. But the magic happens when you close the Flip 4. Snap the phone shut, and its hinge mechanism turns it into a compact square you can slide into the tightest of s and the smallest of bags.

Samsung made a handful of design improvements this year, starting with the Flip 4’s aesthetics. The rear glass panels have a frostier, matte finish compared to the Flip 3, the frame is flatter, and the hinge holding the phone together is slightly smaller than before. On paper, these changes sound like peanuts. But in practice, they take the Flip 3’s already excellent design and make it even better. The matte glass panels feel luxurious while hiding fingerprints, the flat frame gives the Z Flip 4 an even more distinctive look, and the new hinge — as marginal as it is — does give the Flip 4 a smaller overall footprint.

Speaking of the hinge, it feels every bit as sturdy and reliable as it did on the Flip 3. Like that phone, Samsung says the Z Flip 4 should survive over 200,000 folds during its lifetime — equating to about 100 folds per day throughout five years of use. While I can’t yet speak to how the hinge will feel after a year or two of constant usage, it’s been a champ during my time with the phone.

It opens and closes smoothly, though with enough resistance that it doesn’t feel flimsy. The hinge is also strong enough to be propped up at almost any angle, allowing you to sit the Z Flip 4 on a table with the screen up and facing at you — perfect for hands-free movie watching, video calls, etc.

As much as I appreciate the Flip 4’s durability, my favorite design trick is its emphasis on style. By default, Samsung’s website and third-party retailers carry the phone in four hues: Bora Purple, Blue, Pink Gold, and Graphite. Bora Purple is the color Samsung sent me, and I think it’s my favorite of the bunch. It’s a muted lavender color that’s distinctive without being obnoxious, and it contrasts beautifully with the black cover screen. Plus, it looks phenomenal next to the Bora Purple Galaxy Buds 2 Pro.

But if none of those colors catch your eye, Samsung’s website also lets you design the Flip 4 using its Bespoke Studio. Here, Samsung lets you pick and choose the exact colors you want for the Flip 4’s front panel, back panel, and frame – resulting in over 70 possible combinations. It’s unlike anything else available today in the smartphone world and is arguably one of the Flip 4’s best features.

This is some of the most fun I’ve had with a phone all year.

Furthermore, there’s the fun factor that naturally comes with a device like the Galaxy Z Flip 4. It’s not something I can measure with benchmarks or technical analysis, but I can confidently say that this is some of the most fun I’ve had with a phone all year.

From snapping it shut after using an app, propping it up on the counter to watch a YouTube video while I cook dinner, or taking a phone call with the phone slightly bent to resemble the handsets of yesteryear, there are so many unique qualities about the Flip 4 that simply can’t be replicated on a non-folding counterpart. That may not mean anything to some people, but to me, it’s made using the Z Flip 4 an experience I look forward to every time I take it out of my

Galaxy Z Flip 4 screens

We have two screens on the Galaxy Z Flip 4 to judge, but we’ll start with the one you’ll spend the most time with. When opened, the Z Flip 4 treats you to a 6.7-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X panel. It’s a screen with a 2640 x 1080 resolution, HDR10 support, 1,200 nits of peak brightness, and a variable refresh rate that scales up to 120Hz and all the way down to 1Hz.

In practice, the screen on the Z Flip 4 looks outstanding. Colors are lusciously vibrant, viewing angles are excellent, and it gets very bright when you need it. Samsung flagships are famous for having some of the best smartphone screens on the market, and even with the foldable form, the Z Flip 4 is no different.

But what about the crease? Every Z Flip handset has a noticeable crease in the middle of the screen where the hinge folds shut, and despite changes to its hinge, the Z Flip 4 is no different — despite what rumors suggested. The crease is still there. You can clearly see it in certain lighting conditions, and you’ll feel it when swiping your finger across it.

But after just a few hours of use, the crease becomes something you subconsciously ignore (just like the notch on an iPhone). I still see it with direct sunlight and feel it when doom-scrolling. but it’s not something that ever gets in my way of using the Flip 4.

And we have the cover screen. Despite rumors of Samsung enlarging the Flip 4’s cover screen, it’s the same 1.9-inch Super AMOLED 512 x 260 resolution screen that we had on the Flip 3. And that means the functionality is mostly the same, too. You swipe right to see notifications, swipe up to access cards in Samsung Wallet, swipe down to adjust a handful of quick settings, and swipe left to view a variety of widgets.

For checking notifications, sending quick replies to text messages, viewing upcoming calendar appointments, or enabling SmartThings scenes, the cover screen on the Flip 4 is great. It also serves as a handy viewfinder, allowing you to take photos/videos of yourself with the main and ultrawide cameras and see what’s in your shot. But I can’t help but wish there was more I could do.

I’d love to be able to reply to Telegram or Microsoft Teams messages, show QR codes/boarding passes stored in Samsung Wallet, view conversations from my messaging apps, etc. Trying to replicate your home screen and all of your apps on a 1.9-inch canvas would be a bad idea, and Samsung’s right not to have done that. But even with the limited real estate, I think there’s still room to grow here. I love using the Flip 4’s cover screen for fast interactions, and I’d love to see it expand a bit more than what’s currently available.

Galaxy Z Flip 4 performance

The Galaxy Z Flip lineup has never had a problem regarding internal horsepower. The original Z Flip donned a Snapdragon 855, the Z Flip 5G had an 865 5G, and the Z Flip 3 shipped with a Snapdragon 888 — all top-of-the-line Qualcomm chips for their time. The Galaxy Z Flip 4 is no different, coming with Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 1.

As we’ve seen from other phones with the 8 Gen 1, the Galaxy Z Flip 4 has all of the performance you could ask for. Apps open instantly, menus scroll flawlessly, and graphically demanding games like Call of Duty: Mobile play without a hitch. The Z Flip 4 can heat up during more demanding tasks (such as long gaming sessions or multiple hours of hotspot use), but it never gets to the point where it’s uncomfortable to hold. For a foldable phone this slim, it’s pretty impressive.

The Galaxy Z Flip 4 has all of the performance you could ask for.

The only potential irritant is the Z Flip 4’s available RAM. Just like last year (and the year before), the Galaxy Z Flip 4 has 8GB of RAM for all storage models. It’s enough to juggle a handful of apps at a time, but if you want to be a multitasking champ with a dozen or more apps open at once, 8GB may be a touch too limiting. And if you’re that concerned about multitasking, you’re probably better off with the phone/tablet form factor provided by the Galaxy Z Fold 4 anyway.

Galaxy Z Flip 4 cameras

Next, let’s talk cameras. The Galaxy Z Flip 4 has a fairly basic offering in this department — including a 12MP primary camera, a 12MP ultrawide camera, and a 10MP selfie camera. Those are all the same megapixel counts as what you’ll find on the Flip 3, but Samsung says the primary camera on the Flip 4 is 65% brighter this generation.

Finally, there’s the 10MP selfie camera. It’s a perfectly adequate sensor and works well for selfies and video calls. But on the rare occasions I wanted to snap a photo of myself, I found I was ignoring the 10MP selfie camera and instead using the 12MP primary camera. Thanks to the Flip 4’s folding design and cover screen, you can easily take photos and videos from the 12MP main and ultrawide cameras and preview them directly on the cover screen. And new this year, you can view the full preview of the photo in its actual aspect ratio, not just a cropped-in version like on the Flip 3.

Side by side, the difference in quality between the 10MP selfie camera and the 12MP main camera is easy to see. Both photos were taken seconds apart from each other and in Portrait mode on the Flip 4. The photo from the 10MP camera is fine, but it also has an unpleasing haze throughout and noticeably softer details on my face. By comparison, the selfie from the 12MP main camera has better colors, detail, and was easier to capture while holding the Flip 4 closed.

And that’s just scratching the surface of how the Galaxy Z Flip 4’s camera system stands out from competing handsets. You can also prop up the Flip 4 on a table or other flat surface and easily capture hands-free photos no iPhone or Pixel can come close to mimicking. On vacation with your partner and want a cute photo together? Just use open the Flip 4 and place it on something in front of you — no hunting for a random stranger to be your photographer required.

It’s because of these unique use cases that I’m less bothered by some of the technical shortcomings of the Z Flip 4’s camera. It’s not the very best out there, but it churns out good-looking photos, handles lowlight situations well, and comes with unique shooting modes none of my other phones have.

Galaxy Z Flip 4 battery life and charging

One of the weakest aspects of the Z Flip 3 — if not the weakest — was its battery life. The Galaxy Z Flip 3 was a one-day phone at its best and often required you to look for a charger before the day was over. Hearing the battery complaints loud and clear, Samsung made a couple of key changes with the Z Flip 4. In addition to the more power-efficient Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset, the Z Flip 4 also comes with a 3,700 mAh dual-cell battery, a 500 mAh upgrade over the 3,300 mAh unit in its predecessor.

The good news? Battery life on the Galaxy Z Flip 4 is markedly better than it was on the Flip 3. The bad news? It’s still only good enough for one full day of use. One of my better days with the Flip 4 saw me end the day at 10:53 PM with 23% battery still left in the tank. That was following 14 hours of total use time with 3 hours and 42 minutes of screen on time — including over an hour of YouTube, 30 minutes of browsing. 16 minutes of Reddit scrolling, a 10-minute Duolingo session, etc. Another day saw the phone reach 14 hours and 52 minutes of use time with 15% battery remaining. That was following 2 hours and 23 minutes of screen time consisting of a 30 minute Teams video call, 30 minutes of. calling and tracking a Lyft ride, and frequent use of the Delta app while jumping on a couple of flights.

The Galaxy Z Flip 4 ships with Android 12 and Samsung’s One UI 4.1.1 interface layered on top. It’s also backed by Samsung’s usual update promise, meaning you can expect four major Android updates and five years of security patches.

If you’ve used a modern Samsung phone within the last couple of years, you’ll be right at home with the software experience on the Flip 4. Samsung’s One UI aesthetics aren’t my personal favorite, but the interface is fast, fluid, and keeps everything feeling snappy. And as is the case with all Samsung phones, there are ample features/settings to keep you preoccupied. You can change the shortcuts that appear on the lock screen, enable Edge panels for handy app shortcuts, use Link to Windows for seamless device syncing with your PC, add custom shortcuts for the power button, run apps in a windowed view on your screen, etc.

Not every application formats nicely in Flex mode, but I do love that Samsung lets you try it with any app you have to see what works and what doesn’t. It’s not something I use all the time, and the practicality of the feature is often questionable at best, but I still like that it’s there. Plus, for certain applications like YouTube and the camera app, they’ll automatically shift UI elements around when half-folding the Flip 4. The Fold 4 remains the go-to foldable for anyone trying to make the most out of their device’s screen real estate, but I do appreciate Samsung putting these tools at your disposal so you can really do whatever you’d like with the Flip 4’s unique design.

A second opinion on the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4

As someone who has been an iPhone user most of her life, Digital Trends’ Mobile Staff Writer, Christine Romero-Chan, has been enjoying her time with the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4. In fact, though she has been skeptical of folding phones before, her time with the Galaxy Z Flip 4 has turned her into a believer, and she’s excited about all the possibilities a folding phone can bring.

She thinks that the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 is the perfect compact size, as it can fit nicely in her front s (women’s clothes are notorious for tiny s) when closed. It makes more sense than a foldable that opens up into a small tablet size, at least. However, she does think that it’s a little difficult to open up the Flip 4 with one hand and use it single-handedly when one has smaller hands. Of course, the crease can be irksome since it’s always visible, and you’ll feel it when you touch the screen, but that’s a problem with most foldables — at least until the technology for folding displays improves, like on the Oppo Find N2.

Still, one of her favorite things about the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 is the ability to use it half-open in Flex mode, which is perfect for photography. Since one of the things Christine does most with her phone is taking pictures, being able to prop the camera up without the need for third-party accessories is a huge advantage. Flex mode is great for hands-free photography, and you can even use the 1.9-inch cover screen as a viewfinder for selfies, which is also incredibly handy. Speaking of the cover screen, she’s a fan of how informative it can be, despite the minimalism, allowing you to get information in a quick view without having to open the device.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 is not perfect by any means, but it is a great foldable phone for anyone who is intrigued and willing to give it a try.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 price and availability

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 starts at 1,000 in the U.S. for the base model with 128GB of storage. You can upgrade to 256GB or 512GB if you need more room, but doing so will set you back 1,100 and 1,220, respectively. The phone is available for purchase now.

As the story often goes with Samsung phones, however, the retail price isn’t what you’ll end up paying. Whether you buy the Z Flip 4 direct from Samsung, through your carrier, or from a third-party retailer like Amazon or Best Buy, chances are you’ll find some sort of promotion to make the phone considerably more affordable.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 is the foldable you should buy

I understand why some people have dismissed the Galaxy Z Flip 4 as a “boring” phone this year. It’s about as iterative as a yearly update gets. Other than a slightly tweaked design, an upgraded chip, a larger battery, and a faster charger, it’s effectively the same Z Flip that Samsung released last year. But that’s precisely why the Z Flip 4 works so well.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 Review: Where do your priorities lie?

Foldable smartphones still feel like a brand new idea, but in reality, Samsung is now on its fourth generation of the form factor. Foldables are still far from perfect, yet each new release inches closer to solving the biggest issues. With the Galaxy Z Flip 4, Samsung has debuted a foldable that’s really ready for most buyers, mainly thanks to solving the most glaring issue.

The Galaxy Z Flip 4 can be summarized incredibly quickly – it’s a slightly upgraded version of the most popular and most loved foldable to date – the Galaxy Z Flip 3 – but it’s also incredibly iterative.

So, we’re taking a different approach to our review format this year. Instead of looking at each individual part of the Flip 4, we’ll take a look at the biggest areas of improvement, a few features that have changed since last year, what still needs work, and conclude with if this device is actually worth buying and who it’s for.

What’s new?

The Hardware – same basic design with some subtle changes

For the Galaxy Z Flip 4, Samsung stuck with the tried and true formula established on the Flip 3, and it continues to work out great. The outside of the Flip 4 has a black glossy area with the cover screen and cameras. The phone’s main color offers a stark contrast to that. This year the glass is matte across all colors, which is a nice change, especially since the Flip 3’s glossy colors were notorious for sliding off of surfaces.

Outside of the look, the idea behind the Flip is to take a full-size smartphone and fold it in half. Why? The smaller size is easier to carry around and can be especially handy for those with smaller or even non-existent s. As I said in our Flip 3 review last year, the size has meaningful benefits.

With this device, I had a full-sized smartphone in my. but it wasn’t dominating 90% of the space in my When it’s folded up, I could still easily fit the key fob for my car or the charging case for my earbuds in my comfortably. It’s something I just can’t do with other smartphones with a 6.7-inch display. Sure, the phone is a bit thicker than the average at over 15mm when folded, but it’s absolutely a worthy trade-off.

I think it was rather Smart on Samsung’s part to stick with this design, but some of the changes have proven less than ideal in my past week with the phone.

For instance, the flatter frame looks wonderful, but it makes the phone harder to pick up and even more difficult to open – more on that later. The matte glass is a good thing, ultimately, but the texture is slippery against fabric, and I’ve almost had the phone slide out of my on a couple of occasions. It’s definitely a phone I recommend a case for.

Battery life – usable but still not tremendous

Our time with the Galaxy Z Flip 3 last year was wonderful, but the straw that broke the camel’s back turned out to be the battery life. It reminded us most of the Google Pixel 4, a phone that was notorious for poor endurance. The Flip 3 was arguably just as bad. I said at the time:

The next few days saw my active use getting closer to 2.5 hours over the course of 10 hours, but that’s still dreadfully bad battery life for a 1,000 smartphone in 2021. In fact, it’s almost identical to what I was getting from the Pixel 4, a device that basically didn’t succeed because of its notoriously bad battery life.

Galaxy Z FLIP 4 Review | The Cutest Phone BUT… (2 weeks later)

Thankfully, the Galaxy Z Flip 4 solves the battery life problems.

The improvements on battery life are thanks largely to two core changes. For one, there’s a 400 mAh increase to the battery as a whole, an increase of around 15% over the Flip 3. That’s certainly a big deal, but the bigger factor here seems to come from the efficiency of the chipset. The Flip 4 sees much bigger gains than just 15%. To me, it feels almost like battery life has doubled.

Generally speaking, my day on the Galaxy Z Flip 4 would consist of lots of social media, managing email, messaging, watching videos, and taking pictures. It’s not particularly intensive use, but enough to give the battery a test. An average day for me would start around 7:30 a.m. and go through 11:00 p.m., and most days the Flip 4 would be around 10–20% by the end of the day, with three to five hours of active use (screen-on time). That’s still not tremendous, but it’s good enough, and a huge improvement over last year. Plus, that’s without any adjustments – I’ve been using the default settings, including 120Hz for the inner display.

Of course, that still leaves the Flip 4 in an awkward spot. Battery life on Samsung’s mainstream foldable is no longer an active hindrance, but it’s also still not enough to match most traditional smartphones. Thankfully, that won’t matter much given the form factor. The Flip 4 is a device that, by its very design, almost encourages you to use the device less often. The action of physically opening up the display for essentially every task subconsciously makes you rethink if you really need to interact with that notification. I found myself using the Flip 4 less as a result, just as I did with the Flip 3 and Flip 5G. But unlike those two phones, that lesser usage didn’t still require topping off the battery by 7:00 p.m.

The other thing that makes the battery life on the Flip 4 better is the faster charging speeds. The Galaxy Z Flip 4 packs 25W fast charging over USB-C, which is speedy! You won’t be able to literally watch the percentage points rise like you can on something like the OnePlus 10T, but the Galaxy Z Flip 4 can pick up 10 to 20% in a few minutes to get a boost if you need it. This past Saturday I had managed to drain the battery quite a bit by early afternoon, and knew I could use an extra 10% or so to help get through the evening out. So, I popped it onto a charger for about 15 minutes, and by the time we were leaving, I saw the battery jump from around 33% to 42%. Not crazy by any means, but it’s fast enough to be useful.

With the Galaxy Z Flip 3, battery life was my only major concern with the device on the whole, and it really soured the experience for me. But with the Flip 4, it’s a problem that’s been solved.

The display – generally excellent, despite the crease

Moving over to the display situation, the main display on the Galaxy Z Flip 4 is a 6.7-inch OLED panel that’s virtually identical to the one on the Flip 3. The only difference this year is that Samsung claims the panel is slightly brighter, hitting 1,200 nits at its peak.

In my day-to-day usage, that seems to be true – I had no problem keeping my scores playing disc golf on a bright sunny day, and reading webpages outside equally had no issues. That doesn’t really come as a surprise, given that Samsung is pretty much the king of displays at this point, but it’s nice to see that foldables are no longer getting a trade-off in that department after the first couple of generations were notorious for not being bright enough.

On the other hand, there’s the crease. Smack in the middle of the display is a horizontal crease across the panel that you’ll distinctly feel while using the phone and see fairly easily too. In terms of the appearance, I don’t consider this a big deal. Looking at the phone straight on, the crease disappears into the content and is really only visible in certain lighting conditions.

You’ll forget about it in time, but that only softens the blow so much when the competition has already mostly solved this problem.

Flex Mode – useful and just plain fun

Beyond the physical size, the ability to fold the Galaxy Z Flip 4 in half presents another bonus in “Flex Mode.” This feature uses the hinge design to hold the Flip’s upper half in place at various angles, which can be useful for a variety of reasons.

One of the main things that comes to mind is using Flex Mode as a tripod, and it works rather well! If you’re alone and want to capture a quick video, or a unique selfie, this feature genuinely comes in handy. Even in a group, the ability to prop up your phone to use the camera is perhaps the best way to use this feature.

This habit also comes in handy with some apps. YouTube, for instance, is one of my favorite apps to use in the kitchen while making lunch, and Flex Mode means I can more easily see the content from other parts of the room. Using half of the Flip’s display for a video isn’t exactly the experience Nolan intended, but Flex Mode makes it useful in a pinch.

Doubling down on this even further, there’s a new “Flex Mode Panel” on the Galaxy Z Flip 4 that opens up new tools. You can use the bottom half of the display as a trackpad or just as a row of quick settings. I didn’t find this super useful, seeing as it has to be manually enabled for each app, but it’s a great idea that does work as Samsung intends it to.

The cameras – slight improvements but nothing groundbreaking

In the camera department, Samsung has made the best of a tight situation. Physical space is beyond a luxury in this phone — it’s at an actual disadvantage. So, it makes sense that Samsung can only fit two rear-facing camera sensors in the phone.

The big difference is with the main sensor, which is still at 12MP but uses a better sensor compared to the previous generation. Shots are generally detailed, and Samsung’s software does its usual trick of upping the saturation. I’ve been mostly pleased with pictures, and the improvements in low-light are especially noticeable

But realistically, no one is buying the Flip 4 solely for its cameras, because the Galaxy Z Flip 4 is never going to compete with the best smartphone cameras on the market due to the inherent limitations of being a foldable – the space available for the sensors being the key problem here. That said, the Flip is definitely not going to lag too far behind either.

The ultrawide sensor here is roughly the same one as the Flip 3, and it works fine. Distortion is at acceptable levels, and sharpness is good enough for a secondary camera. The inner selfie camera is also just fine. It’ll take a good shot, as long as you use it through Samsung’s own camera app.

Where I was mostly disappointed was with video, which I felt was not at all sharp. Even outdoors, the quality here felt like it suffered dramatically. For a phone that’s targeted at the TikTok generation, that feels like a huge oversight on Samsung’s part, even if it is a limitation of the hardware to some extent.

The cover screen – slightly more useful!

Right next to those cameras is a 1.9-inch outer display that is used for a few limited purposes. The outer display can show the time and date, even with an always-on display feature that makes it a wonderful desk companion. It can also light up when notifications arrive. Essentially, it acts like a little smartwatch on the outside of the phone, but there are a few more features.

Swiping to the left, you’ll get a list of notifications that you can preview and, now, finally interact with. On previous versions of the Flip, notifications could only be seen and dismissed. Now, if a message arrives, you can actually reply without opening the phone. This doesn’t magically mean that you’ll never open up the main display, but it does mean that you can get a lot more done before cracking it open. That’s a game changer in my book, and it really makes the cover display a lot more useful in daily life.

Over to the right, there is a list of widgets you can customize. Options include weather, calendar, alarms, timers, health data, and earbud controls. There’s a fair bit you can do, but I can’t help but feel this is very limiting. Samsung only lets you use a few of its own widgets, and nothing more. I’d love to add a widget from a third-party weather app, maybe one from Google Keep for quick note-taking, or maybe a news carousel from Feedly, but I can’t.

The story is similar for mobile payments on the outer display. You can use Google Wallet for mobile payments on the Flip 4, but only if the device is opened up. Samsung Wallet is the only option for the outer display, and Samsung clearly doesn’t seem interested in changing that.

The other new feature on the Galaxy Z Flip 4’s outer display this year is a collection of quick settings. You can toggle Wi-Fi/Bluetooth/Airplane mode, change the ringer to vibrate or mute, adjust the brightness, and even activate the flashlight from the cover display. The flashlight option is also Smart enough to know not to activate immediately while the LED is still pointed at your face, instead requiring a press of the volume key to activate the light, and it automatically turns off when you turn the phone back around. Neat!

You can also now do more with the camera on the cover display. Double tapping the power button fires up the camera in its default mode, but you can swipe for portrait or video modes, and also swipe down to use the ultrawide camera, and double-tap to see the entire frame. This whole process feels more polished than it did on the Flip 3, but frankly, I still didn’t use it much – but if you take a lot of selfies, I can certainly see the utility.

There’s still a lot more Samsung could do with the cover display on the Galaxy Z Flip 4. I’d love to run full apps without installing a third-party app or Good Lock, but things are, at the very least, progressing.

The performance – Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 is incredible, to say the least

Out of the box the Galaxy Z Flip 4 runs on top of Android 12L, with Samsung’s One UI 4.1.1 skin on top. At a glance, it feels largely unchanged from other modern Samsung phones, which is to say that the software is overall pretty great. Samsung takes an “everything but the kitchen sink” approach to software, meaning there are a ton of features here, but you might not use a lot of them. If you’ve used an Android phone before, though, you’ll feel right at home here.

If you haven’t used an Android phone before, and Samsung’s foldable hardware is tempting you away from Apple’s ecosystem, there’s still a lot to love. One UI has a distinctly Samsung look and feel to it, but it’s generally pretty consistent where it matters. Samsung’s apps have excellent one-handed usability and integrate fairly well with each other, but there’s also nothing stopping you from going all in on Google’s software here. The vast majority of Google’s core apps are loaded up out of the box, and features such as Google Assistant, Google Wallet, and Photos all work like a charm. Many of Google’s apps are also optimized for Samsung’s hardware, such as YouTube and Google Meet taking advantage of Flex Mode. Nothing quite matches Apple’s level of fit and finish, or especially the cross-device integration, but Samsung has perhaps the best in the game with its smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, and earbuds.

Plus, Samsung still has the best update policy in Android, offering four years of major updates and five years of security patches to the Galaxy Z Flip 4.

But, where the software really shines is in its performance.

One UI 4.1.1 delivers a handful of improvements to the look and feel of Samsung’s Android skin, and on top of Qualcomm’s latest chip, everything flies. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 is a marvel of efficiency and raw performance, at least in the Android world, and it makes the Flip 4 one of the fastest smartphones you can buy today.

In my day-to-day use, the Flip 4 didn’t once lag or hang up on its performance. Despite some pretty warm summer days, too, heat was kept to a minimum. Even the handful of games I tried out – admittedly not many, given the awkward aspect ratio of the screen not being ideal for gaming – couldn’t get the phone very warm. Benchmarking apps won’t tell you much about daily performance, but in this case they’re certainly correct in saying the Flip 4’s performance on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 is significantly improved over the Flip 3 and even Samsung’s Galaxy S22 series.

The not so good

One-handed usage – a double-edged sword

The main selling point of the Galaxy Z Flip 4’s design is that it turns a big phone into a small one, but this really comes as a bit of a trade-off.

While yes, the Flip 4 fits in places that phones of similar size do not, it comes at the expense of true one-handed usability. The display is much taller than the comparably-sized Galaxy S22, for instance, which means certain things are simply out of reach.

The other, bigger problem, is just that the Flip 4 can’t easily be opened up with one hand. The flat glossy sides don’t offer enough grip to comfortably open the phone with a single hand without doing one of two things. The first option is to push the phone into your body, which is what I generally end up doing as it offers the least chance of damage. The other option is to forcefully flick the phone open, something that is definitely not healthy for the hinge, even if it is something that longer-term Flip owners have done without major problems. But again, this comes down to the flat sides. They don’t give me enough grip to feel like I can do this comfortably. Then again, it remains incredibly fun to do.

Durability – no meaningful improvements

Perhaps the single biggest problem I have with both the Galaxy Z Flip 4 and Fold 4 is that these phones haven’t made any improvements to durability.

Samsung is still using ultra-thin glass, the same basic hinge concept, and roughly the same frame, too. After a year of watching Galaxy Z Flip and Fold owners see their displays break, and even waking up to one of our Flip units spontaneously shattering, I was really hoping that Samsung would finally address this problem. But, alas, that doesn’t seem to be the case – and if it is, Samsung isn’t shouting about it from the rooftops as it really should.

But even with that in mind, it’s hard to forget that Samsung is still in a great place in this regard. The Flip 4 is IPX8 water resistant, something that other foldables can’t match yet. The clever hinge design is also generally good at avoiding problems with dust and debris. Samsung has done a lot, but this year’s release has failed to address the remaining problems.

I definitely feel that no one should buy a Galaxy Z Flip 4 without also paying for insurance on it.

Final thoughts |

The Galaxy Z Flip 4 is a foldable meant for the mainstream, and I think it accomplishes that goal rather well. There’s a lot to love about this device from its nostalgic form factor, genuine utility, and fair pricing.

• Better battery life and faster charging
• Excellent performance
• Best Android support policy
• Reasonably priced with excellent trade-in values
• Battery life is still not great
• Cameras, while good, lag behind similarly priced phones
• Durability is still questionable
• Difficult to use one-handed

But, it’s still not a device that everyone will want. You still have to make trade-offs to own a Flip 4. There’s not as much battery capacity as a traditional slab. The cameras, while decent, still lag behind virtually everything else at this price point. The lack of one-handed usability is something that I feel is a genuine downside to this device.

Still, for the person who wants this device, those trade-offs won’t matter, because the Flip can do some things that other phones just can’t. I can’t carry my keys and earbuds in the same as a Pixel 6, but I can with the Flip. I don’t usually have a tripod around ready for a quick video or picture with a Galaxy S22, but I do with the Flip. There are real reasons to love this device, and at its 999 price tag, it’s not particularly difficult to justify those reasons. Ultimately, you’re not paying any more than you would for a normal flagship. It’s just a matter of where your priorities lie.

Samsung Z Fold 4 и Z Flip 4

Where to buy the Galaxy Z Flip 4:

The Galaxy Z Flip 4 will be available starting on August 26, but is available for pre-order now. You can click here to find the best pre-order deals for the Flip 4, or check out retailers directly at the links below.

• Samsung.com
• Best Buy
• Amazon
• Walmart
• Verizon
• ATT
• US Cellular
• T-Mobile
• Xfinity Mobile

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The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip proves the second time is the charm for Samsung’s foldable devices

Tom’s Guide Verdict

The Galaxy Z Flip was the best foldable phone, at least until the Galaxy Z Fold 2 came along. As clever as the design of the Flip is, at a still-high 1,380, it’s hard to recommend this phone over more traditional flagships like the iPhone 11 Pro and Galaxy S20 Plus.

Pros

• Snapdragon 855 Plus is plenty powerful
• Ultra-thin glass aids durability
• Compact design when folded
• Less expensive than other foldables

Cons

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The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip has pulled off a feat that eluded the Galaxy Fold, Samsung’s original foldable device: The Z Flip can fit in your when it’s closed.

Price: 1,299 (LTE), 1,199 (5G) Screen (open): 6.7-inch Super AMOLED (2636 x 1080) Exterior screen: 1.1-inch Super AMOLED (300 x 112) CPU: Snapdragon 855 Plus RAM: 8GB Storage: 256GB Cameras: 2 12MP (main: f/1.8; ultra wide: f/2.2) rear/10MP (f/2.0) front Battery: 3,300 mAh Size (open): 6.6 x 2.9 x 0.28 inches Size (folded): 3.4 x 2.9 x 0.61-0.68 inches Weight: 6.5 ounces

That wasn’t the case with the original Fold, a device that opened up horizontally like a book to unveil a 7.3-inch display. The Galaxy Z Flip is different. This time around, Samsung uses a flip-phone design. (Yes, exactly like the Motorola Razr.) The Z Flip flips open vertically to reveal a 6.7-inch display that includes a layer of ultra-thin glass for an extra level of polish. importantly, when the phone is shut, it’s tiny — a closed-up Z Flip fits easily in my hand and my paws aren’t exactly meaty.

That’s a promising start for the Galaxy Z Flip, but is it enough to make this the foldable phone to beat? And more importantly, has Samsung done enough to justify the Z Flip’s four-figure asking price? Our Samsung Galaxy Z Flip review gets to the bottom of those key questions.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip review: Price and availability

Before you even examine the relative merits of the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip, one of its most appealing attributes may be its price. Debuting at 1,380 last year, the Galaxy Z Flip isn’t cheap by any stretch of the imagination. But in the world of pricey foldable devices, Samsung’s flip phone feels like a bargain.

The Galaxy Z Flip’s 1,380 price was a 600 drop from the debut price of the Samsung Galaxy Fold. The Galaxy Z Flip also costs less than the 1,500 the Motorola Razr. And the price has fallen even further in the subsequent months, as you can now pick up a Galaxy Z Flip for 1,299.

You can get the Galaxy Z Flip from ATT, Best Buy and Samsung. However, these days, the FOCUS is on the Galaxy Z Flip 5G, an updated version of the phone that came out after we published our Galaxy Z Flip review. The Galaxy Z Flip 5G features a more powerful Snapdragon 865 Plus processor with a 5G modem, and it makes some improvements to the multitasking features. Originally, 1,499, the Galaxy Z Flip 5G now now costs 1,199, which is the same price as the Galaxy S21 Ultra.

We’re focusing on the Galaxy Z Flip for this review, but everything with the exception of performance would be the same with the Galaxy Z Flip 5G.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip review: Design

The distinctive thing about the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip’s design is its horizontal hinge, a contrast to the vertical hinge that the Galaxy Fold used. Samsung claims it can flip open 200,000 times.

We haven’t put the hinge to that much use in our time with the Z Flip, but it does feel pretty durable. (According to the YouTube channel JerryRigsEverything, the Galaxy Z Flip’s display behaves more like plastic than glass when subject to various torture tests.) We’ve dropped the phone on a hardwood floor without damaging the hinge, outer case or display.

significantly, the Z Flip’s hideaway hinge is designed to keep out dust. It’s got a thin layer of fabric to make sure particles can’t find their way into the gap that exists between screen and hinge. Dust is what felled the original version of the Galaxy Fold, forcing Samsung to delay that phone’s release. This suggests that Samsung has learned its lessons.

When open, the Galaxy Z Flip’s screen measures 6.7 inches from corner to corner. Rather than using plastic to protect the panel — the tack taken by every foldable maker prior to the Z Flip — Samsung has turned to a new ultra-thin glass material that seems to make the display less prone to damage. The most definitive thing we can say in that regard is “so far, so good,” but at least the Galaxy Z Flip feels more polished than other foldable phones.

Speaking of polish, you’ll need to apply a lot to the exterior metal case of the Galaxy Z Flip. On our Mirror Purple edition of the phone, our fingerprints are very visible on the reflective glass exterior. That’s a shame, because it mars an otherwise stylish look that you’d be eager to show off, as the Mirror Purple is especially eye-catching.

You can also opt for Mirror Black and — in some countries — Mirror Gold. When we first laid eyes on the Galaxy Z Flip, we thought Mirror Gold was the sharpest of its looks, but the light lavender glow of Mirror Purple has grown on us.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip review: Display

Samsung has turned to a full-HD display for the Galaxy Z Flip, with a resolution of 2636 x 1080 pixels. That’s a lower resolution than the quad-HD panels inside the Galaxy S20 series, but it’s certainly sharper than the Razr’s 6.2-inch, HD screen.

If you had hoped that Samsung would figure out a way to get rid of the crease that marred the Galaxy Fold experience, you’re going to be disappointed. There is indeed a crease where the top and bottom halves of the Z Flip’s extended screen meet, and it’s not that difficult to spot when the screen’s not in use.

Still, when we were watching a video on Netflix or playing PUBG Mobile, the crease was lost in the inky black of the Galaxy Z Flip’s AMOLED panel. While you wish that a 1,380 phone wouldn’t have any visible crease, at least the Z Flip’s modest bend isn’t as noticeable as the Razr’s gigantic crease.

Samsung has managed to fit a pretty colorful display into the Galaxy Z Flip’s folding frame. In its default Vivid setting, the screen captured 200.8% of the sRGB color spectrum, which means bright, if saturated, colors. For context, the Galaxy S20 Plus captured 224.4% of the sRGB color spectrum.

Switch the viewing mode to Natural, and you’ll see 122.1% of the sRGB color spectrum on the Galaxy Z Flip, comparable to what we registered when testing the Galaxy Fold’s Natural mode (124.8%.).

Those colors could be more accurate. The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip has a Delta-E rating of 0.31 in Vivid mode compared to the S20 Plus’ 0.36 rating — numbers closer to zero are better — but Apple’s iPhone 11 Pro Max tops both, with a Delta-E rating of 0.28. You’ll get more accurate colors when switching over to Natural mode on the Z Flip, where the color accuracy rating improves to 0.21.

In real-world use, you’ll enjoy watching video on the Galaxy Z Flip’s screen, even if the 21.9:9 aspect ratio is probably more narrow than you’re used to on a mobile device. (For context, the 6.7-inch Galaxy S20 Plus offers a 20.9:9 aspect ratio, and the difference is noticeable.)

On other phones, some scenes of the No Time to Die trailer on YouTube can seem overly dark, but you can still make out James Bond’s facial features even in the shadows. The phone also did justice to the colorful costumes in Dolemite Is My Name on Netflix.

Shining a flashlight at the Galaxy Z Flip screen, we recorded 677 nits of brightness with a light meter. That’s not as bright as the Galaxy S20 Plus (847 nits) or iPhone 11 Pro Max (761 nits), but it’s a big improvement over the 552 nits we recorded when testing the Galaxy Fold. Still, when using the Galaxy Z Flip in broad daylight, we had to squint to see the camera controls until we maxed out the display brightness.

That internal display is not the only screen on the Galaxy Z Flip. On the phone’s exterior, you’ll find a 1.1-inch Super AMOLED panel that’s just big enough to notify you of incoming calls, texts and alarms. It can also display the date and time, so you’re not flipping open the phone just to see what time it is.

We had doubts about the utility of this screen, and we don’t like that Samsung placed it just to the left of the phone’s dual exterior cameras. But the exterior panel serves several functions: You can use it as a mini-view finder to shoot selfies with the Z Flip closed. Just press the power button twice to summon up the viewfinder and then hit one of the volume buttons to snap the shot. You only see a sliver of your face, but it’s still an ingenious way to save you from opening up the phone just for a self-portrait.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip review: Using the device

Once you start using the Galaxy Z Flip, you’ll immediately notice how solidly built and sturdy it is. Compact though it may be, this is no flimsy phone. The outer case feels very substantial and opening the Z Flip takes some effort — we couldn’t pull it off one-handed, so we used one hand to steady the device and the other to lift its screen. Forget about whipping the Galaxy Z Flip out of your and snapping it open with a flick of your wrist like the flip phones of old.

Then again, if you’ve used the foldable Motorola Razr, you wouldn’t see this as much of a problem. The build on Motorola’s new flip phone is one of its weakest points. The Razr proved difficult to flip open, it didn’t look like it would last long after too many accidental drops, and due to a design flaw, the flexible display actually lifts up from the chassis as you shut the device. None of these flaws are in evidence with the Galaxy Z Flip.

There’s no sound when you open or close the Galaxy Z Flip — in contrast to the creaky noise the Motorola Razr makes. The nature of the free-stop hinge means you can stop adjusting the angle of the flexible display wherever you wish and the device will hold its orientation. That’s extremely useful if you want to capture a selfie or video chat while going hands-free.

Samsung has dubbed this Flex mode, and when you enable it by opening the Z Flip into an L-shape, the top half of the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip’s screen serves as a viewing area while all your actions are on the bottom of the screen. Use the camera app in Flex mode, for example, and the top of the screen becomes a viewfinder while the bottom houses the shutter button and menu options.

YouTube, which Google updated specifically for the Z Flip, displays the video in the upper portion of the screen, letting you scroll through Комментарии и мнения владельцев and related content on the bottom. It’s a very clever use of the Z Flip’s unique design, but it would be even better if more apps took advantage of Flex mode.

One other thing we appreciated when using the Galaxy Z Flip was how flat the phone lays against surfaces when fully opened. That allows you to set down the Z Flip and tap away without experiencing any wobbles.

If that sounds like a small thing, consider that there’s always an angle at play with the Motorola Razr, even when fully opened. It’s slight, but it’s there and it’s hard to ignore. It’s another flaw Samsung managed to avoid with its own foldable.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip review: Camera

If you’re a mobile-photography aficionado, you might be ever so slightly disappointed by the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip’s primary camera module, which pairs two 12-megapixel sensors — one with an ƒ/1.8 regular wide lens, and the other with ƒ/2.2 ultra-wide optics.

While that’s half the number of lenses you’ll get from the Galaxy S20 Plus and Galaxy S20 Ultra, the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip’s cameras produced impressive results during our testing. Samsung’s computational photography chops have been very close to Apple and Google’s levels over the past several years, and the Z Flip should more than suffice in this department.

For example, the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip’s ultra-wide camera squares up nicely with the 12-megapixel one inside the iPhone 11 Pro. Samsung’s algorithms definitely brighten the darker regions more aggressively than Apple’s, and there are some regions — like the brick walkway toward the bottom of the frame — that seem a tinge blown out. Otherwise, there’s a lot to like here.

The Galaxy Z Flip does a decent job capturing this steak dinner, recreating the array of colors on the plate. But the same photo shot with an iPhone 11 Pro Max is warmer and presents a greater variety of textures on objects like the homemade potato chips and the lettuce leaves in the salad.

The Z Flip also captures a wider view even though I hadn’t switched to the phone’s ultra wide angle lens. The result is more of the surrounding area, but there’s also a noticeable bend to the Z Flip’s perspective.

The Night mode on the Galaxy Z Flip can hold its own against similar features on other devices, even if we’re not crazy about the fact that you have to dig into the options on the Z Flip to enable it.

The iPhone 11 Pro Max takes night shots automatically and its rendition of a mural features the kind of well-balanced coloring we expect from Apple’s phones. It also didn’t struggle with light from a nearby street lamp that casts a glare on the Galaxy Z Flip’s shot.

Still, the Z Flip captures more detail around the mural, like the trees on the right side of the frame and the house on the left. These details sink into the shadows on the iPhone’s shot.

There’s little differentiating how the Galaxy Z Flip and iPhone 11 Pro Max handled this photo of a statue in a residential area. You could argue that Samsung’s phone produces the better image, given that the palm tree fronds have some color in its rendition. The iPhone’s version overly darkens the trees.

The real reason to take a photo of that statue, though, was to test out the ultra-wide-angle lens on the Galaxy Z Flip, and the result remains pleasing. You get a wider viewing angle in the Z Flip’s shot than what the iPhone 11 Pro Max produces, and the colors remain more vibrant in the Samsung photo. (One exception: the patches of blue sky are more alluring in the iPhone shot.)

If the Samsung phone falls down anywhere on wide-angle shots, it’s that the phone loses FOCUS. Notice the fuzziness around the parked cars in the right background of the Z Flip’s photo. That’s not something you see in the iPhone 11 Pro Max shot, where everything remains sharp.

The Galaxy Z Flip doesn’t come with a telephoto lens, so to see if that’s a worthwhile sacrifice to make in a 1,380 phone, we relied on the camera’s digital zoom for a 2x look at the Oakland skyline. The shot’s not bad — the foreground is in sharp FOCUS, the colors pop and the exposure’s fine.

But zero in on the details, and you’ll see how an optical zoom like the one on the Galaxy S20 Plus is more up to the task. The S20 keeps the Tribune Tower and the Wells Fargo sign next to it in FOCUS; those are fuzzier in the Galaxy Z Flip’s rendition.

This portrait of my colleague Henry is also quite good, even if there are aspects we prefer from Apple’s rendition. Henry’s skin tone is a bit more natural through the iPhone’s cameras, and of course the presence of a telephoto shooter on Apple’s handset provides that more dramatic, zoomed-in look you probably want from a portrait. But the Z Flip appears to do a better job isolating Henry’s clear glasses frames.

A 10MP front camera peeks out of you from a punch-hole cutout in the center of the Galaxy Z Flip’s interior display, just like the selfie cams on the S20 and Galaxy Note 10.

It does a decent job, but in this photo, shot in a challenging mixture of shadow and sunlight, the Z Flip produces muted colors and struggles with the shifts in lighting. Colors are more balanced in the photo captured by the iPhone 12 Pro Max’s 12MP selfie cam — not just the person in the photo, but the surrounding garden as well. And the iPhone isn’t as aggressive with skin smoothing as the Galaxy Z Flip.

One nice feature about the Galaxy Z Flip’s front camera is a Smart Selfie Angle component that automatically switches to a wide-angle shot when it detects more than two people are in the frame. The Galaxy Z Flip certainly detected the extra bodies in this shot and adjusted its FOCUS accordingly — the feature probably works best for landscape selfies — though the issues with overexposure remain.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip review: Performance

Samsung may have skipped the latest, greatest Android processor in the Galaxy Z Flip when it neglected to give it Qualcomm’s then-brand new Snapdragon 865. However, at least the company is using the next best chip available.

That would be the Snapdragon 855 Plus, which debuted in 2019 in a small number of phones, including the OnePlus 7T. Because it’s the 855 and not the 865, the Z Flip cannot connect to 5G networks — though it’s still very snappy, with 8GB of RAM. (If you want 5G, opt for the Galaxy Z Flip 5G and its more capable Snapdragon 865 Plus chipset.)

Additionally, a standard 256GB of storage provides plenty of space for apps, media and games. Forget about the microSD slot you’ll find on most Samsung flagships, though.

Samsung’s latest foldable achieved a Geekbench 5 multi-core score of 2,689 points. The OnePlus 7T fared only slightly better than the Z Flip, notching a 2,759 score in Geekbench 5, while the Galaxy Fold and its slightly less powerful Snapdragon 855 chipset brought up the rear with a 2,619 tally.

In other words, expect the Galaxy Z Flip to turn in comparable performance to 2019’s Android flagships, even if phones with newer silicon leave it in the dust. The Galaxy S20 Plus, for example, rides its Snapdragon 865 chipset to a 3,076 score in Geekbench.

Graphics testing tells a similar story — the Galaxy Z Flip holds its own with devices that feature last year’s top-of-the-line Snapdragon system-on-chip while lagging behind newer flagship phones. On the GFXBench Aztec Ruins Vulkan test for high-tier phones, the Galaxy Z Flip’s score of 1,048 frames was in line with the 1,038 score produced by the Galaxy Fold. The Galaxy S20 Plus handily bested both foldable Samsung devices with a result of 1,319 frames.

This isn’t to say that the Galaxy Z Flip is a laggard. It kept up with any app I threw at it, even demanding games like PUBG Mobile. Android users who want the absolutely fastest phone available will want to turn elsewhere, but that’s hardly the appeal of the Galaxy Z Flip. And even if you do prize performance, the Z Flip is no slouch.

We haven’t benchmarked the Galaxy Z Flip 5G yet, but we’d expect its performance to outshine the original Flip and to behave more like the Galaxy Z Fold 2, though that phone boasts more RAM.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip review: Battery life and charging

Inside the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip is a 3,300-mAh battery, a respectable size for a foldable where there’s not a lot of room to spare. Consider that the Razr uses a tiny 2,510-mAh power pack and its battery life suffered as a consequence: Motorola’s phone lasted only 6 hours and 4 minutes on our demanding battery test, which involves continuous surfing over LTE until a fully charged phone runs out of power.

The Galaxy Z Flip fared better than that, though you won’t mistake this for a long-lasting phone. Over the course of four different battery tests, the Galaxy Z Flip lasted an average of 8 hours and 16 minutes. That’s two hours better than Motorola’s foldable phone but more than 90 minutes less than the average for a smartphone. The Galaxy Fold was able to last 10 hours, though.- its 4,380 mAh battery is much larger than what you get with the Galaxy Z Flip.

Like other recent Samsung flagships, the Galaxy Z Flip supports Wireless PowerShare, meaning you’ll be able to wirelessly charge other Qi-compatible devices with this phone.

The Galaxy Z Flip also supports fast charging, though “fast” is a relative term in this case. After a half-hour of charging a drained Z Flip, the phone’s battery indicator was back up to 43%. We got to 55% with the Galaxy S20 Plus in the same time frame, though that phone comes with a 25-watt charger to the 15-watt charger that the Galaxy Z Flip uses.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip review: Software

Thanks to Android 10 and its support for foldable devices, the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip offers multitasking through a Multi-Active Window feature. You’ll be able to select the apps you want to use on different parts of the screen, though that feature only works with select apps. You’re limited to two apps at once as opposed to the three you can use on the Galaxy Fold, but that makes sense given the dimension of the displays on the different foldables.

Multitasking on the Galaxy Z Flip is simply a matter of swiping right from the side of the screen to bring up a tray of apps that support the feature. I was able to watch YouTube videos in one panel on the Z Flip screen while browsing through mail on the other.

Some apps work better than others with the Multi-Active Window feature. I wouldn’t advise playing PUBG Mobile while running another app in a different window, though you could in theory. The feature works whether you’re holding your phone in portrait or landscape mode.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip review: Verdict

It didn’t take long a lot of testing for our Samsung Galaxy Z Flip review to realize that Samsung had built the most polished foldable phone yet — at least until the Galaxy Z Fold 2’s subsequent release. Even though the new Fold now sets the standard for foldable devices, the Galaxy Z Flip remains a well-built phone that provides a big, colorful screen still capable of folding into a device that fits neatly into your

Features like Flex Mode that take advantage of the Z Flip’s screen mean that foldable devices are more than just gimmicks, though Flex Mode would be even more useful if more apps took advantage of the feature.

That doesn’t mean the Galaxy Z Flip is ready to go toe-to-toe with the leading flagships. For starters, those phones may be pricey, but with the exception of the Galaxy S20 Ultra, they’re still cheaper than the Galaxy Z Flip. And while the Z Flip’s cameras certainly produce pictures that match up well with what you’d get from the best camera phones, you’d expect a little something more for a phone that will set you back 1,200 to 1,300, even after Samsung’s price cuts. (There’s also the possibility of a new Galaxy Z Flip coming out later this year, which might make you wary of springing for an older foldable phone.)

So yes, the Galaxy Flip Z is among the best foldable phones you can buy. That’s not enough to make it an alternative to something like the iPhone 12 Pro Max or Galaxy S21 Plus, but the advances Samsung made with this device over the Galaxy Fold makes us think that foldable phones actually have a future.

Editor Adam Ismail contributed to this review.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip is officially released in February 2020. The smartphone comes in a dimension unfolded: 167.3 x 73.6 x 7.2 mm and when it is folded it sizes 87.4 x 73.6 x 17.3 mm that weighs 183 grams.

The display of the smartphone is Foldable Dynamic AMOLED capacitive touchscreen which is sized 6.7 inches when unfolded.

The cover display size is 1.1 inches with a Super AMOLED screen and provides 112 x 300 pixels resolution while the screen is protected with Corning Gorilla Glass 6.

The smartphone is pack with 8 GB RAM and 256 internal storage while there is no memory card slot available to increase the storage.

The device is pack with 12 MP (wide) 12 MP (ultrawide) on the rear side while on the front there is a single camera, 10 MP (wide).

The smartphone supports wireless charging and a Non-removable Li-Po 3300 mAh battery Fast battery charging 15W Wireless charging.

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Samsung Galaxy Z Flip. SPECIFICATIONS

Design

Type Design Type called form factor refers to a mobile phone’s size, shape, and style as well as the layout and position of major components of phone. There are three major form factors seen in mobile phones = bar phones, folding phones and sliding phones.

Display

Display Type Display Technology = A number of display technologies and types used in mobile phones = TFT (Thin Film Transistor), IPS (In-Place Switching), OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode), AMOLED (Active-Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode), Super AMOLED (an even advanced version of AMOLED), Resistive Touchscreen (Resistive touchscreens contain two layer of conductive material with a very small gap between them which acts as a resistance), Capacitive Touchsceen (Capacitive touchscreen technology consists of a layer of glass coated with a transparent conductor)

Display Colors Display Colors is refers to the number of different shades of colors that the screen is capable of displaying = 64K colors, 256K colors and 16 million colors, Obviously 16M is highest available range of colors and better than others.

Pixel Density Pixel Density (PPI) is refers to the concentration of pixels on a particular display, measured in pixels per inch (ppi). Pixel density is calculated by dividing the diagonal pixel resolution of a display by its diagonal size, higher pixel density better display quality.

Display Protection Display Protection = Gorilla Glass is a special alkali-aluminosilicate glass shield with exceptional damage resistance that helps protect mobile displays from scratches, drops, and bumps of everyday use, It is always better to go for a smartphone with Gorilla Glass for that added protection and peace of mind.

Hardware

GPU GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) is a single-chip processor designed to rapidly manipulate and alter memory to accelerate the creation of images in a frame buffer intended for output to a display, This includes things such as lighting effects, object transformations, and 3D motion.

RAM (Memory) RAM (Random Access Memory) is a type of computer memory that can be accessed randomly, any byte of memory can be accessed without touching the preceding bytes that allows information to be stored and accessed quickly from random locations. RAM is the most common type of memory found in computer systems, smartphones, tablets and other electronic devices.

Internal Storage Internal Storage is a data storage space (flash memory) mostly used in smartphones, tablets and other electronic devices where operating system, apps, music, photos, videos, files and other user data Is stored.

Memory Card Slot Memory Card Slot is a special slot for inserting a memory card. Memory cards allow you to expand the phone’s built-in memory, A memory card (sometimes called a flash memory card or a storage card) is a small storage medium used to store data such as text, pictures, audio, and video, for use on small, portable or remote computing devices such as mobile phones, mp3 players, digital cameras.

Sensors Sensors are electronic components that detects and responds to some type of input from the physical environment. The specific input could be light, heat, motion, moisture, pressure and location, The output is generally a signal that is converted to use in computing systems, a location sensor, such as a GPS receiver is able to detect current location of your electronic device.

Software

Operating System OS = Every computer system run on a base software called Operating System (OS). Operating System controls all basic operations of the computer (such as smartphone, PDAs, tablet computers and other handheld devices). The Operating System allows the user to install and run third party applications (apps), apps are used to add new functionality to the device.

User Interface UI or user interface of a device is the look and feel of the on-screen menu system. How it works, its color scheme, how it responds to button presses, all of these things are part of the user interface.

Camera

Rear Camera Camera is able to capture photographs and usually videos, The most important characteristics of a camera are the resolution (measured in megapixels), lens FOCUS type (fixed or automatic), higher megapixel cameras are known to capture higher quality photos, but not always a good measurement of the photos quality.

Flash Flash Light = There is commonly two types of flash lights are used in camera mobile phones, LED Flash (LED flash offers lower power consumption with drive circuitry that takes up very little room, LEDs can be strobed faster than any other light source), Xenon Flash (xenon flash produces an extremely intense full-spectrum white light for a very short duration)

Network

SIM SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) is a small card that contains mobile network subscriber’s account information. This allows the phone using the card to attach to a mobile network. The SIM card is most commonly associated with GSM and UMTS mobile networks. Moving a SIM card from one phone to another allows a subscriber to switch mobile phones without having to contact their mobile network carrier. SIM cards can also be used by a phone to store limited amounts of data, such as phone numbers and text messages.

Connectivity

Wi-Fi Wi-Fi is a popular wireless networking technology using radio waves to provide high-speed network connections that allows devices to communicate without cords or cables, Wi-Fi is increasingly becoming the preferred mode of internet connectivity all over the world.

GPS GPS The Global Positioning System is a satellite-based radio navigation system, GPS permits users to determine their position, velocity and the time 24 hours a day, in all weather, anywhere in the world, In order to locate your position, your device or GPS receiver must have a clear view of the sky.

NFC NFC (Near field communication) is a set of standards for smartphones and similar devices to establish peer-to-peer radio communications with each other by touching them together or bringing them into proximity, usually no more than a few inches.

Wireless Charging Wireless Charging (Inductive Charging) uses an electromagnetic field to transfer energy between two objects. This is usually done with a charging station. Energy is sent through an inductive coupling to an electrical device, which can then use that energy to charge batteries or run the device.