Leveling Up The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip6! 💯 

So, I’ve been using the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip6 for close to a month, and I’ve unlocked some secrets to make this flip form factor very usable, to reach its potential from being a regular level 1 to a level 9,000 smartphone, you can take advantage of the cover screen, the Flex Mode settings, and plenty more!

 

Flex Window

Let’s start with the Flex Window or the Cover Screen. This is an improved screen size since last year, so naturally, it makes me use this screen way more compared to just typically using the phone in its particular folded form factor. Now, we can use this screen first when we get any notifications. 

By default, the Flex Window screen is very usable. The notifications are available when you swipe from the left, and you can find other widgets that you set when you swipe from the right. 

But if you want to take the experience of this Flex Window to a whole new level, the first thing you need to do is download Samsung’s Good Lock app. This will make the display transform from a cover screen to an actual usable small and mighty screen. Later, I’ll also show you how to convert this phone into a mini laptop.

Now, this Good Lock app is available exclusively on the Galaxy Store. Once downloaded, load it up and go to the Life Up tab below. Then, download the MultiStar app, which will appear on the top. As soon as you download that, in there, choose the I Love Galaxy Foldable and the Launcher Widget. This will allow you to select other apps in this particular Flex Window. 

1.4 good lock app
1.5 multistar app
1.6 launcher widget

Then, go back to the Flex Window screen, touch and hold, and add the Good Lock Launcher as a widget. You’ll see the additional apps over there, so now you can load all of these apps on this particular screen, such as the YouTube app, Instagram, TikTok, Netflix, and practically every app, thanks to this Good Lock extension app.

After installing the Good Lock app, you can also find the game widget, which will allow you to play games on this particular form factor and screen if you’re into that. 

But my main thing is the fact that I can now play Genshin Impact on this particular screen, which was really mind-blowing to know. Yes, this makes the Flex Window way better and more usable compared to not getting the Good Lock app.

There are also other customizable cover screen options. By touching and holding the home screen, other than the default cover screens, you can choose when you come to the option where it says open phone for more cover screen options. Just flip open the phone and hit the add new option. 

In there, you can do cool things like adding your own photos. You can go up to 15 photos if you want. For example, I choose five photos of Luna and then hit done, which will randomly choose between the five different photos of Luna. This is really cute and sweet because who doesn’t love a good photo shuffle of your pets, right? 

Of course, you can add filters and customize the clock features over here too.

Other than using your photo gallery images, you can also create with AI to generate your unique wallpaper styles. Here, you can also use the Ambient Wallpapers that will change according to your time, location, and the weather forecast.

 

Flex Mode

Now, let’s talk about this Flex Mode and how it will give you unique benefits compared to non-folding smartphones. Why settle for ordinary when you have a flippable form factor? 

Firstly, this Flex Mode panel’s capabilities are supported in almost all apps since the phone is in the 6th generation. That is the benefit of having a device at the 6th generation—it gives developers more time to have their apps featured here. 

For example, I just love using this Flex Mode with Canva. Once you turn the display to almost a folding position, the bottom left will have an icon that looks like the flip. Just select that, and it will transform the whole bottom screen into a virtual trackpad. 

I love the idea of having a little mouse cursor on the top of the screen and a full touchpad at the bottom. That was really lovely and makes this into a tiny little laptop feature. 

Since it’s also a trackpad, you can easily do things like scrolling with two fingers on apps like Instagram or even go back to the typical swipe for going back on a smartphone.

I even tried video editing on CapCut, and the trackpad scrolling was super responsive, once again making this into a mini laptop. If you’re browsing websites, the vertical scroll on the right comes in handy for scrolling up and down very easily. 

If you’re typing something on Gmail, the virtual keyboard will appear to give you that easier typical experience. You can also hide the keyboard and resume using the touchpad right after. 

Speaking of this touchpad, right below it, there are five virtual buttons. 

The first is to open another app in a split-screen mode, where you can switch between the bottom and upper screen easily by touching the three dotted lines in the middle. 

The second virtual button is to bring up the notification menu. 

The third virtual button takes a screenshot of the top half of the screen, and the fourth button toggles the trackpad off and on. 

Finally, the three dotted lines on the right give you further settings for the display brightness, volume adjustments, and toggle for the Flex Mode settings as well.

If you’re like me, who loves to watch videos when you have your lunch or dinner at a dining table, this Flex Mode is great as a sort of “baked-in stand”. I love how the bottom screen has a player mode to scroll through the video timeline easily and has full player controls too. 

If you’re looking to take photos or TikTok videos or Instagram Reels of yourself without grabbing your girlfriend or boyfriend, you don’t have to use them as a human tripod because this Flex Mode is really amazing for that.

Speaking of using this phone as a tripod, let’s go into the camera experience. 

 

Cameras

The biggest upgrade Samsung made on this Z Flip6 is the main camera, which has been upgraded from 12MP to a massive 50MP. This means 50MP selfie photos, my friends!

Because of this Flex Mode, I never use the front selfie camera anymore since I can use the main camera to take photos, whether it’s in 12MP mode or 50MP mode, here’s how. 

3.3 ultrawide selfie
3.4 12MP regular selfie
3.5 50MP regular selfie

Once you’re in the camera app, go into the Flex Mode, and the camera menu settings will be arranged in the middle of the screen. Next, choose the second last option towards the right, and it will toggle the cover screen to turn on. 

The camera will take high-quality selfies using this camera instead of typically using the cover screen. In this particular mode, it gives you the option to use ultra-wide lenses, and it also benefits whoever you’re taking a photo of to see how they look before you take the shot. That was brilliant, my friends.

Speaking of brilliance, I will show you how you can supercharge your productivity with two cool features coming soon as well. 

If you’re taking photos on your own, the Flex Zoom has also been much improved. It will frame you properly depending on how close or far you are from the cameras. 

To activate this, just load the camera app from the cover screen, and then when you use the Flex Window as a viewfinder, it will adjust to frame you accordingly. Imagine the amount of high-quality photos and videos you can take now, not only during the day but also at night.

Just like last year’s model, I love using this on the “camcorder mode” when taking videos, which not only makes it look cool but also gives you a better grip. This year, Samsung has embraced this usability by including a zoom interface at the bottom of the screen, which is another smart move from Samsung. 

If it’s not in “camcorder mode”, you can use this Flex Mode for taking some nice vertical shots by resting the phone nicely in the palm of your hand. That would be really cool for keeping your phone nice and stable and framing yourself in a shot.

[Check out my YouTube video for an audio recording test] 

 

Edge Panels

Switching from the cameras, let’s go into other software-based features to increase your level of multitasking and productivity, and that is through the Edge Panel. 

In the Edge Panel, you can find the Smart Select option by swiping towards the edge of the screen and selecting the second icon from the top. This comes in handy for situations where you’re reading an article and want to copy images and share what you’ve circled with anyone. You can even download it and convert it to text. You can easily do that here, and you can add it to notes or pin it accordingly.

5.2 copy screenshot
5.3 download convert

The apps on the Edge Panel can be set according to what you want by hitting the pen icon to customize which apps appear on these panels.

 

Multi Window

The next setting you must turn on is the Multi-Window option under Advanced Features. Here, make sure to toggle the “Swipe for split screen” and “Swipe for pop-up view”. 

By doing this on any app, you can swipe from the top right and resize the window accordingly. You’ll be able to move the pop-up window wherever on your screen, minimize it to an icon, or expand or close a window. 

By selecting the three dots menu, there are further options to hide the top menu, go to split screen app mode, and adjust the opacity of this window.

 

Sound

The next setting you must adjust is the sound settings because, by default, Dolby Atmos is turned off. Make sure to go to sound quality and effects and toggle that. You can even go to further adjustments on the different EQ settings there. 

There’s also the Boost Dialog toggle, which works amazingly when watching videos on Netflix or Disney Plus, where it uses AI to give that extra boost. This is very handy for watching movies, especially for those low-dialog volumes. 

There’s also the toggle for Adapt Sound, which works best when wearing headphones and is adapted according to your age, or you can add your own personalized sound profile.

 

Galaxy AI

Finally, if you want to take your usage of the Galaxy Z Flip6 to the next level, you can use the myriad of options of the Galaxy AI features, like the new and improved Circle to Search, Drawing Assist, using the Interpreter with the cover display, and more, I’ll cover them in-depth in my upcoming review, so stay tuned!

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