Leading up to last year, I spent years staring at concept foldable phones and other devices thinking, “why can’t we just have that already?” It seemed like every year a manufacturer teased the foldable future and said “you’re going to have to wait a couple of years before it’s available to the public”. Then, last year, the Galaxy Fold happened. It started off to a rough start, and likely soured a lot of people on foldable phones. After a few months of tweaking, Samsung re-released it to quite a bit of positive fanfare .
This year, Samsung followed up on the Fold with the Galaxy Z Flip, an oddly-named clamshell at a eye-watering price of $1,379. The Z Flip is closer to a normal smartphone, as it only has one display with a normal screen size. But should you give up your Galaxy or iPhone for what many believe is just a beta test? Maybe.
Design
When unfolded, the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip looks mostly like a normal phone. The design language mirrors that of the Galaxy S10 released last year instead of the S20 that it was concurrently released with, but the S10 had a great design to start. There are round metal sides that are easy to hold onto, and the display doesn’t curve over the edges at all. The back of the phone is made up of two curved squares of glass separated by the metal frame of the hinge. On the front, the Z Flip looks mostly normal, save for some relatively large plastic bezels that protrude outwards and protect the display.
Admittedly, I’ve had a case on this phone for the last month, even though I don’t normally like cases on my phones. There are a few reasons for that. First, it’s $1379. I don’t want to break a $1,400 phone. It’s thinness is nice, but it is also thin enough such that a case doesn’t make it too bulky to hold. It’s also very slick and difficult to hold in one hand. It’s so slick, it has a tendency to slide down even the smallest incline, so I wouldn’t trust leaving it on a slanted table without a case on it.
When folded closed, the Z Flip looks like a modern adaptation of the beepers of old: square, compact, and easy to hold on to. The hinge exposes itself as a beefy piece of metal branded with the Samsung logo, but otherwise there are few adornments outside of the quite small camera bump and mini display.
What does all add up to? An incredible design that feels like the future. Honestly, holding this in my hand just makes me really appreciate the amount of work and attention to detail was put into it. It feels meticulously crafted like no other Samsung device has for me. It’s thinner than a lot of other modern flagships with the same screen size, and fits in one hand very well.
Display
From a standard display standpoint, the Z Flip is good, but not great. While the colors and brightness of the 6.7″ display are good, it doesn’t look quite as clear as many of Samsung’s other phones released in the last year. I have more issues with glare on this phone than I do with others, and there’s some distortion. I can’t tell whether the display is more prone to fingerprints than most glass screen, but it does get fingerprinty pretty easily, and I don’t really like wiping it off for fear of damaging the screen. Outside of those minor gripes, you can fold the display in half, which is quite incredible.
While the 21.5:9 aspect ratio seems quite tall, I actually haven’t minded the extra vertical space, as it allows me to keep a small YouTube video running on the top of the display while I browse the bottom. This still leaves more usable space to navigate the phone than an iPhone SE has, which is pretty cool.
Cameras
It’s worth noting that the Z Flip uses the same camera sensors as last year’s Galaxy S10 series, and only has two cameras, as compared to the 3 or 4 you see on most phones released this year. From my few weeks with it, the camera seems good, but not up to par with the S20 series I reviewed in March. I’m not sure if it’s the sensor or the processor that’s holding it back. It’s a little bit of a disappointment for a $1,400 phone, but this is not a bad camera. Night mode shots look to be quite clear, and portrait mode (or “Live Focus”) as Samsung calls it) is competitive. All in, this won’t compete with phones released this year for best camera, but it should hold up fine for the next couple of years.
Performance, Specs and Battery Life
A major criticism of the Z Flip was that it uses last year’s Snapdragon 855 Plus processor. Personally, I haven’t seen any major drops in performance from the S20 series, but I have noticed it getting a little warmer in normal use. The Flip comes standard with 256GB of storage, which is twice the base storage of the S20 line.
I have been averaging around 6 hours or so screen on time, which is excellent considering the Z Flip’s size, but for some reason it seems charging is slower than my Note 10 or Galaxy S20. Part of it may come from not sitting centered on the wireless charger I occasionally use, but I’ve noticed it with wired charging as well.
Software
The software on the Galaxy Z Flip is mostly the same One UI that appears on all of Samsung’s other flagships, which is good. There are a lot of bundled features that may come in use to you, but it also feels a little bloated at times. There are a few apps that Samsung customized for the Z Flip, that offer a nice experience, like the camera app automatically adjusting if the phone is folded. But the majority of apps are not optimized for a foldable screen. I would love to see more developers produce apps that adjust well to multi window sizes, especially since this display is so tall.
There is also second display on the front of the device which is unfortunately disappointing. The small size is one thing, but it doesn’t seem like I can get any reliable information from it. Notifications give little detail and I often find myself swiping on it without anything happening. The music controls are convenient but I really hope Samsung allows developers to start making custom widgets for it.
Bottom Line
I’ve been really excited to try out foldable phones, because they are the first massive innovation in smartphone technology for a long time. The Galaxy Fold last year felt a little too much like a Beta test and was cost prohibitive at its $2,000 price. The Z Flip on the other side, is a Galaxy S10 folded in half. And that’s not a bad thing. The Galaxy S10 was a fantastic phone.
You might not personally see value in the flipping ability of the Z Flip, but I think there are definitely some good use cases with it, and there is only one other phone on the market that folds like the Z Flip. In a way, the Z Flip is a preview into a future with flexible phones and tablets. What’s most critical for me though is: it doesn’t feel like a compromise. I was expecting to get this phone and be disappointed at how it wouldn’t stand up to the iPhone 11 or the Note 10 that I reviewed last month. But I gave up the Note specifically because I didn’t feel this phone was a compromise and offered something the Note doesn’t.
Importantly, I wouldn’t recommend the Galaxy Z Flip to you, because I still think it is very expensive for its value, and I can’t be totally sure in its durability. But it’s going to stay in my pocket until some manufacturer can come up with something more compelling.
Originally published at https://innoiso.com.
