Foldables used to be all about the hype, right? But this Galaxy Z Flip7 has a full-size outer display, a bigger battery, and is thinner than before.
This brings us to two questions: Number one, did Samsung finally get the Flip Series right? And number two, is it finally time for you to switch from a regular phone to a flippable form factor like this, especially if it’s your first time?
https://youtu.be/qGuII4AhOqc
Flex Window
Let’s talk about the biggest change that Samsung has made. This new Flex Window is no longer a gimmick because it is fully grown up. Not only do you get a full 4.1” Super AMOLED here, but compared to before, it is fully stretched to every side of the phone with barely any bezels. What makes this even better is the fact that it also runs at 120 Hz, so everything feels very smooth and snappy even on this cover screen.
Second of all, it also gets really bright at 2,600 nits of peak brightness, which means that you can see this particular cover screen very nicely outdoors, something that the older Flips struggled with. Even some non-flip phones or regular phones don’t have this high brightness value.
In terms of functionality, this lets you do more compared to how it was before because you can also use things like Gemini directly over here, check notifications, reply to messages, or even control your music and use Google Maps, all without flipping open the phone.
But if you want to have practically everything to run on this particular screen, like say Instagram or YouTube, just like the previous Z Flip, you can always download the Good Lock app on Samsung’s very own Galaxy Store.
While Samsung’s native apps run very well, even apps like YouTube, other apps like TikTok or games like Genshin Impact do not do a very good job, especially with this different or unique aspect ratio.
Despite all of that, it is still a very cool thing to do, especially if you’re someone who’s been on a regular phone. Having this type of easy access screen is definitely nice without really expanding your phone screen.
So my tip is to have your frequently used apps on the Good Lock launcher widget on the cover screen for you to easily access it without opening the whole phone. It will make you feel nice to be able to use your phone most of the time every single day without even opening it, as mentioned earlier.
For my case, it’s opening apps like YouTube or even my messaging apps like Telegram and WhatsApp. So yes, this idea of using this phone like this is “flipping” refreshing.
Design & Build
Apart from the obviously larger cover screen, the phone is very similar to the design of the Z Flip6. Samsung has already perfected the overall design of the modern Flip, so there isn’t much that can be improved on that front.
It has nice flat matte finish sides. Following the previous Flip, it also has a matte glass back, which means no ugly fingerprints or smudges anywhere on the phone.
Among all, I went with this Blue Shadow because I like how it looks. Of course, as a Liverpool fan, this blue looks more like Chelsea, but since I love Vernon, it’s fine.
The hinges this time are smaller than the previous Flip6, but they’re also a lot stronger, too. So, it makes opening and closing the phone very robust and doesn’t have that feeling like the phone will fail you anytime soon. But that was also not the case when it comes to using the Flip6. So, robustness and overall durability, Samsung has always been on top.
It is more than a millimeter thinner than before, and this makes it also less chunky in the hand and a lot less bulky when you put this inside your pocket, something that you might be thinking about or worrying about if you’re using a phone like this for the very first time.
It also comes with an IP48 rating, which means that you can’t swim underwater with this, but a simple light splash or even the rain, you’re totally fine.
Material-wise, you get the Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2 on the outside, and of course, when you open it up, Samsung’s Ultra Thin Glass or UTG on the inside. You also get a very good pair of stereo speakers, and the power button is also a fingerprint sensor.
All in all, Samsung has taken everything good on the Flip6 and gave this a massive booster jab. It’s just like Steve Rogers from Captain America. The good news is that if you’re like me who loves to type on the phone on the surface, because the camera bumps are raised equally, you can type on the phone on the surface without any wobble at all, something that we cannot say about the Z Fold7, but I’ll save that point for my in-depth review of the Z Fold7. So stay tuned for that.
Display
The inner display is a bigger 6.9” compared to 6.7”. It also has the same 120 Hz adaptive refresh rate and the same peak brightness value as the Flex Window.
Samsung also tuned this with the Vision Booster, a very unique thing for a Samsung screen. This is what makes Samsung’s Flip phones nicer to look at compared to any other flips out there because it is very vibrant and very visible even in direct sunlight.
Because it is slightly taller in the overall build, even taller than the Z Fold7 closed, if you want to compare the usage on both, you will see a little more content when scrolling on the new Z Fold7, but it still keeps this at the 21:9 aspect ratio that makes watching videos feel a bit more natural.
Speaking of watching videos naturally, I’m sure if you are a first-time Flip or foldable user, you will be worried about the crease, right? Well, Samsung has really outdone itself with that. This is one of the least obvious creases that I’ve seen on any foldable, like, for example, the Xiaomi Mix Flip. But yes, you’ll only notice the crease when you have the light hitting at a certain angle.
Of course, your experience will be better with this flippable form factor because of the fact that you can play your YouTube videos at the top half and then have a player-type controls and scrolling at the bottom half. This may sound like a small thing, but trust me, when you start using this particular flip form factor, you can’t go back.
Camera
If you’re thinking that this has better cameras than last year, well, here’s where Samsung played it safe. But it is really good for a Flip phone like this. If you are a first-time user of this form factor, the biggest thing that you can do with this is the fact that the phone can stand by itself.
So you can always take a picture like this or even put it on a table, which is perfect for you if you’re always taking pictures or videos of yourself, like TikTok or even Instagram Reels. This Flex Cam software adjustment also helps you to reframe accordingly.
As for the camera itself, just like last year’s Flip6 or even compared to current flagships, it did produce some very nice and great photos during the day and night.
But of course, the biggest flex of this phone is taking photos and videos on your own while having this particular screen to see to make sure that you’re in the frame all the time. But this phone is not only good for that because you can also take some good POV shots, whether or not you’re using this on the Flex Mode or just like a regular phone like this.
Do check out my YouTube video for a vlogging test.
Performance
There’s been a lot of talk about Samsung’s Exynos chips on how it is supposedly inferior to the Snapdragon counterparts, and people have been voicing their concerns, or should I say their disappointment, when it was first announced that this phone would come with the Exynos 2500 chipset rather than the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset like the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7.
But unless you’re a super hardcore mobile gamer who’s totally sensitive to what hardware your phone has, then you won’t really notice any performance issue here at all.
This phone runs everything that I threw at it quite well with rarely any problems, because games like Genshin Impact, COD Mobile, and even the new Persona 5: The Phantom X, all of them ran great on the higher settings at the max frame rates.
But I did notice that the phone got quite warm after an hour of gaming. Not cook your egg hot, but more like warm Milo hot. So yeah, don’t let those loud Snapdragon fans get you down because this Exynos 2500 chipset is a fine chip for a phone like this. So performance-wise, just like your usual flagship that you’re used to, this won’t disappoint.
Battery
The phone comes with a slightly bigger battery compared to last year, a 4,300 mAh versus the Flip6 with 4,000 mAh. I managed to squeeze easily a two-day battery life on this with about 5 hours of screen on time, which was way better than last year’s Flip, which gave me roughly about 3 and a half hours or so.
This is with me using a good mix of continuous gaming, YouTube binging, and of course, a whole lot of emails and messaging on WhatsApp and Telegram. My usage most of the time was on 5G with a physical SIM card when I was using this phone daily, which is really good for a flip form factor like this.
As for charging, Samsung has not made any improvement on the charging speed this time around compared to last year. So yeah, it is still at 25W of the max speed charging, which is rather slow for today’s standards. So, yes, we would definitely prefer a better charging speed, at least the same 45W of charging speed as the S25 series.
But I do understand why they didn’t have a faster charger, because of the very unique form factor and of course, trying to minimize the risk of having a very huge battery in this particular form factor given what has happened in the past. So, yeah, hopefully we will see a better battery size or at least a better charging in the future.
Software
The Flip7 comes with One UI 8.0 out of the box, which means that you get all the latest AI that Samsung has to offer with their Galaxy AI and Google Gemini. This includes the Now Brief, Live Translate, Generative Photo Editing, Circle to Search with Google, and more.
But the big win here is longevity, because Samsung promises 7 years of software and security updates. So, this makes the Flip7 one of the longest supported Android phones ever.
Just like how you can get video player controls when watching YouTube videos at the bottom, you can also get other controls at the bottom as well, where by default you can also act as a trackpad where you have a little mouse. And at the right-hand side, there’s a scroll wheel to scroll down and bottom to navigate around almost with every app.
It’s so useful not only when it comes to navigation or on website navigation, but also very useful for apps like Canva, since it turns this into a sort of a mini laptop. You also have other options as well, like the split screen to open up another app, open the notification menu, take a screenshot at the top area of the screen, or you can even toggle the trackpad and scroll wheel to turn on or off. Finally, there are even more settings that you can access over here, too.
Speaking of Galaxy AI, this particular form factor also makes it very easy to do real-time translation with the translation appearing at this particular cover screen, which I did a whole video series on the Galaxy AI on this particular Flip form factor last year. So do check it out if you guys haven’t.
Then, Samsung DeX has finally arrived on the Samsung Flip phone. In case you didn’t know, it is Samsung’s desktop-like feature where I can just plug this into a monitor just using a USB-C cable where you get a full desktop experience.
And that to me was a really game-changing decision from Samsung, because imagine this small little fella. You can easily put it in your pocket, and when you take it out, you can plug it into your monitor just like a gremlin when it hits water. So, yeah, quite a powerhouse. So, that is a very good reason if you never used a foldable like this, because it does give you that kind of a desktop-like experience very much easily.
Conclusion: Galaxy Z Flip7
With all of this, I feel that Samsung has finally nailed it when it comes to the hardware and software on this Z Flip7. They’ve got almost everything right: a bigger battery, brighter display, a sturdier build, and proper long-term support.
The Flex Window isn’t just for notifications anymore compared to before, because it is now fully functional as a full-fledged phone even when your device is folded in half.
But it’s not perfect because there are some compromises, as mentioned earlier, like the charging speeds.
However, if you want a cool, compact, foldable that is more practical than ever and have been thinking to switch from a regular phone to a flip form factor like this, then the Z Flip7 is definitely it!
Related:
– Galaxy Unpacked 2025: Galaxy Z Fold7, Flip7 & Watch8 Hands-On – The Best Yet or Just Hype? 🤔
– Samsung Unveils Galaxy Z Fold7, Z Flip7, and Z Flip7 FE in Malaysia with Enhanced AI and Design
