Samsung Galaxy Fold Smartphone

The Galaxy Z Flip is the best fold able smartphone

Samsung is beginning to hit its stride within the race to perfect the foldable smartphone. The Galaxy Z Flip — following on the heels of the company's tablet-like Galaxy Fold — starts compact and opens to a 6.7-inch display. It's kind of sort of a flip phone, but it performs better than the similar Motorola Razr because of its flagship-level specs.

While it's cheaper than the Galaxy Fold ($1,980) and therefore the Motorola Razr ($1,499), the $1,380 tag still dwarfs those of the iPhone 11 ($699.99), the Galaxy S20 ($999.99) and the Galaxy S10e ($599.99). The Galaxy Z Flip might not fully live up thereto selling price , but with a glass display, a sturdy hinge and flagship-level specs, it stands out because the most developed foldable smartphone yet.

A standard unboxing experience

Samsung packaged its Galaxy Fold during a larger-than-life box befitting the much buzzed about phone. This brought excitement to the unboxing: pulling off the slipcover, lifting off the lid and coming face-to-face with the Galaxy Fold unfolded. It was front and center, and really gave a way of the tablet-sized device.

The company went a more generic route this point around, packing the Z Flip during a standard box. Inside, you get the device, a pair of USB Type-C AKG headphones with a couple of silicone ear tips, a USB Type-C to USB Type-A charging cable, a 16-watt charger, a clear case, a SIM ejector and standard instructions. An insert presents some clear warnings about the Z Flip: it isn't water or dust resistant, it contains magnets, you should not press too hard on the screen and do not close it with keys or coins on the within .

The Z Flip also comes unfolded, showing off the 6.7-inch display encased in plastic. And yes, peeling that plastic is simply nearly as good a sense as it is often been with the unboxing experience.

A sturdy build that's quite reflective

The Z Flip comes in two colors: Mirror Purple and Mirror Black. After using both options, we will say that the Mirror Purple definitely stands out more. While both are astonishing face to face and quite reflective, the purple option gives off the foremost colorful hues, as you'll see within the video below. It can look blue, purple and even blueish purple, which may be a sight to behold. The black option may be a bit more subdued with a touch of stealthiness to the planning . Fingerprints, though, are a drag with both colors from the instant you choose up the phone.

The back bottom portion features the Qi-enabled wireless charging sensor, and it is also where Wireless PowerShare comes into play. This is Samsung's nifty tech that allows you to charge other devices from the smartphone. We tested the Z Flip with AirPods Pro, second-gen AirPods, Galaxy Buds, GalaxyBuds+, a Note 10+ and even an iPhone. They all received a slow-speed charge that's not nearly the speeds of ordinary or fast charging.

What's more: All the devices we charged this manner almost slid right off with no case on the Z Flip. The device's slippery nature also caused the Z Flip to slip off both a flat and vertical wireless charger. That's why we highly recommend a case. The included clear one is decent enough, but we propose learning a leather one from Samsung or a plastic one from third parties like Case-Mate.

The top side of the Z Flip, when closed, has the most dual cameras: a 12-megapixel ultrawide and 12-megapixel wide-angle, which are paired with an LED flash. These are on the proper bottom corner, while the left-hand side features a 1.1-inch Super AMOLED display.

A volume rocker and an influence button embedded into a fingerprint sensor are on the proper side. The fingerprint sensor is analogous to the setup on the Galaxy S10e. We had minimal issues with it (we had to reorient our finger for the sensor to acknowledge it a couple of times) and greatly prefer it over face recognition or typing in a pin.

The volume rocker features a tactile feel thereto that allows you to clearly know the up and down portions without looking. Aside from that, it works like all standard volume rocker. It'll reverse up and down when the device is folded versus unfolded. It will also allow you to easily snap a selfie when the device is folded.

The real magic happens once you unfold, which may be through with only one finger with experience. While the rear is slippery from the glass feel, we found that it didn't pose too many issues with opening it.

The phone's compactness belies its relatively large screen (6.7 inches, on par with the newest iPhone and Galaxy options). When opened, the Z Flips's hinge mechanism disappears, making the device's FHD+ Dynamic AMOLED Infinity Flex display rather seamless. The phone is extremely thin (7.2 millimeters thick unfolded, 17.3 millimeters when folded), yet feels hefty within the hand at 183 grams.

Unlike the Motorola Razr, which never really feels sturdy, the Z Flip is solid. There are bezels round the display and two nubs on rock bottom , so you'll hear the Z Flip clack once you close it. The hideaway hinge is sturdy and comes to an in depth . The Razr wanted to either be closed or opened, but you'll comfortably move the Z Flip to almost any position.

You can also leave rock bottom half flat and have the highest half at a 90-degree angle. This is great for watching content, making video calls and taking photos with either the interior 10-megapixel camera at the highest of the display or with the twin cameras on the outside.

The hideaway depend on the Galaxy Z Flip is almost fully closed off and Samsung even added internal brushes to stay out pocket lint, rocks, dust or anything that would corrode or cause issues with the display. Samsung calls this a sweeper feature. you would possibly recall issues with the Galaxy Fold, which forced Samsung to travel back to the drafting board . So it's clear Samsung learned from its past mistakes.

All of this working together makes it a smooth experience when folding or unfolding the Z Flip. It seems like the technology is getting tons better, especially since we tested the Fold. The hinge may be a crucial a part of any foldable phone, which goes for the Z Flip. We spent nearly every week with it, and it seems like the simplest hinge during a smartphone yet — leagues better than the Royale Flex Pai, and better than the first Galaxy Fold and therefore the Motorola Razr.

Ultra-Thin Glass display

The display on the Z Flip seems like a standard smartphone more so than the Fold and Razr did. you do not feel bumps or metal plates, which was common — and not during a great way — on the Razr. The Fold, on the opposite hand, felt sort of a plastic display.

But when YouTuber JerryRigEverything got his hands on the Z Flip, he found the device began scratching at A level of plastic, not glass. Zack Nelson, aka JerryRigEverything, began to theorize — and Samsung later confirmed — that there was a protective plastic layer over the display of the Z Flip, almost like the Galaxy Fold.

The 6.7-inch Infinity Flex display on the Z Flip is 30㎛ thick (about the width of a person's hair!) with a special material injected into it that provides it consistent hardness. then a layer of plastic is placed on top to guard it. The glass layer is stronger than the screens on the Fold and therefore the Razr. Simply put, it is a big breakthrough for a foldable. Samsung's release detailed more information on Ultra Thin Glass, calling it "tough but tender," which seems like an honest thanks to explain it. While the ultra thin glass is super thin and stronger than the plastic, it still needs a plastic layer on top of it. So while it's more durable than a plastic OLED, it's still less durable than the standard glass on a smartphone — be it iPhone or a Galaxy.

That said, there's still a crease. That's a drag with foldable displays that's getting to be hard to unravel . With a vertical display, you will find yourself running over it tons , but it isn't nearly as bad because the thick one on the Razr. it is a relatively thin line running across the center and doesn't get within the way when you're consuming content.

In terms of display, the phone's tall ratio allows you to see more on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook — or the other app that uses a vertical orientation. Some apps, like Disney's Emoji Blitz, won't use the entire display, but apps will likely update. We streamed Moana from Disney+ and it had been quite vibrant, offering an excellent thanks to absorb the 3D animation from Disney. It felt much brighter than the Motorola Razr with more crispness to the visuals. Both of those come from the resolution and display technology, two features like Samsung's OLED. The display is certainly on par with the iPhone 11 Pro OLEDs and people of the Galaxy S10 and Note 10 lines.

The display features a 1,080x2,636 resolution with 425 pixels per inch. It supports HDR10+ and supports quite 16 million colors. The display is on par with other flagship devices and is great for everyday use. It's paired with Android 10 running with Samsung's One UI Version 2 on top.

It performs sort of a flagship

The Galaxy Z Flip is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855+ processor with a healthy 8GBs of RAM. That's like a majority of flagship smartphones from last year, including the Galaxy S10. That's paired with an indoor 256GB of storage. There's also a SIM card slot (along with support for an eSIM), but there is no microSD card slot.

We ran the Galaxy Z Flip through GeekBench 5, a typical benchmarking app that puts devices through their paces. The app runs through tests on the CPU, GPU, storage speeds and RAM speeds. It mimics world uses, like checking email (pulling it from the server and rendering it on the display), rendering a video that's being streamed and rendering a game with real-time inputs. it is a standard that CNN Underscored uses for our device reviews. The Galaxy Z Flip scored a 744 on a single-core and a 2,459 on multi-core, which put it squarely in line with the Galaxy S10 family and therefore the Note 10 family.

We threw tons at the Z flip the past week: playing "Fortnite" on both Wi-Fi and LTE, placing plenty of phone calls (who doesn't love physically closing a tool to finish a call?), sending emails through Gmail and Outlook, firing Slack messages, making Google Duo calls and editing Google Drive documents. We were active on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Messenger, and used other apps like Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, Amazon, Duo, Afterlight, Emoji Blitz, Live Transcribe, Alexa, Google Home, among others. Throughout our time with the phone, we didn't experience any application crashes or slowdowns. The Z Flip performed incredibly well, even with some intense gaming.

And you can multitask with the Z Flip. Let's say you begin by watching a YouTube video. You can slide over from the proper side and open Edge. From there, you'll pick from your five most used apps, or open the drawer for all compatible apps. You can also pull Chrome to rock bottom of the display. This way, you'll comfortably check the news and watch a YouTube video on top, swipe again to possess Outlook during a mini window, to reply to emails, or bring Twitter up to see your most up-to-date mentions. It allows you to do tons without slowing down.

Then there's Flex Mode, which is what Samsung calls it once you have the Z Flip set at a right angle. In this mode, rock bottom half rests flat on a surface and therefore the top half is vertical. This is great for the camera app, as your viewfinder becomes the highest and your shutter and more minute controls take over rock bottom . In Gallery mode, you'll display your photos or videos at the highest and therefore the bottom becomes your trackpad, which allows you to simply swipe through content or maybe high-speed scrub through a video. You can also use Google Duo for video calls. This supports picture-in-picture, so you'll see who you're chatting with during a window that overlays the entire OS.

The front screen doesn't do tons , but it allows you to quickly sign up on the time, answer a call, take a selfie and consider notifications (displayed as a ticker-like stream across the 1.1-inch display). You just tap on one to possess it start scrolling, and opening the Z Flip thereupon on will have it automatically appear on the within . It's an easy transition.

Regarding battery life, the Z Flip has two cells that combine to three ,300mAh. One cell is on the highest half and therefore the larger one is on rock bottom . And the excellent news is that it performs well, though not spectacular. We were ready to get a full outing of the Z Flip on most days, which suggests it lasts from 10 to 12 hours, whereas the iPhone 11, 11 Pro, S10e and Note 10+ all lasted much closer to 14 hours.

Cameras are quite versatile

Make no mistake, the Galaxy Z Flip doesn't have the camera setup of the Galaxy S20 Ultra. You won't find any 108-megapixel lens here. Rather, it is a camera setup that's almost like the Galaxy S10.

The core 12-megapixel ultrawide and 12-megapixel wide-angle lenses do a pleasant job. You can take great standard photos or use the professional Camera choice to customize the settings. The core rear cameras do an honest job of handling direct sunlight and take great portraits and landscapes. Night mode is quite versatile as well.

You can also use the lenses to require selfies when the Z Flip is closed. To switch between wide and ultra-wide, you only swipe on the surface screen. There's no way to change the ratio for those images, though. They're stuck during a square ratio, which is not the end of the planet , but we hope an update arrives soon. It are often comical to use such alittle viewfinder, but you will get the hang of it.

The Galaxy Z Flip also supports Samsung's Single Take Mode, which allows you to tap the shutter button and move the phone around to whatever you would like to shoot. The Z Flip does the diligence of capturing the video and photos.

Overall, the image and video quality was pretty impressive. It's not nearly as good because the S20 Ultra, but it presents a comparatively life-like outcome . It handles color well with the power to represent a full spectrum. As you'll see within the flower shot below, it's ready to get the vibrancy of the petals and place it along a comparatively abstract nature background.

You'll also find that there is a touch of heat with the auto function of the camera. It doesn't cause you to urge a nasty shot, but these are noticeably warmer. iPhones generally , along side Google Pixels, produce a cooler image. The fix? Shooting in "Pro" mode, which allows you to mess with settings on the fly or edit it after you've captured the shot.

Bottom line

Simply put, the Galaxy Z Flip is that the best foldable smartphone. Samsung has done a pleasant job with this device and got an outsized portion of it right.

Samsung will take up to $400 off for a trade-in, but even at the complete $1,380 selling price , you're getting a foldable smartphone that multitasks, is sort of enjoyable to use, can last a full day and has one among the foremost vibrant and sleek designs of any smartphone.

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