Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip 3 was something new, though it was a vast improvement over the original Z Flip. Samsung managed to make it water resistant, added a bigger cover display, and squeezed in a top-tier display. However, it was far from a usable smartphone, mainly because its battery life was pretty weak and that covered display was just enough for viewing notifications and nothing more.
With the new Galaxy Z Flip 4, Samsung hasn’t changed the design significantly. Most of the changes are internal – battery capacity has increased and charging speed has also increased. However, the design of the hinge has changed. After using this phone for a week, I can conclude that it not only looks good but is also practical enough to use every day. Why over here
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 price in India
The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 price has seen a slight increase from the previous model’s Rs. 84,999 starting price of Rs. 89,999 for the base 8GB RAM and 128GB storage variant. The 256GB storage variant climbs even higher at Rs. 94,999 (from the previous Rs 88,999). The bespoke version comes for a little less than Rs. 1 lakh Rs. 97,999. The phone is available in three finishes – Bora Purple, Graphite and Pink Gold. I got the 8GB RAM and 128GB storage variant in Bora Purple.
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 Design
Samsung has made minor improvements to the design of the Galaxy Z Flip 4. The differences are fairly minor, and most of them seem to be trained to spot. The metal frame of the smartphone is now less rounded with flatter sides and more defined edges. The frame is now polished instead of matte, which makes this phone less slippery than the Z Flip 3. The glass panel now has a soft matte finish that does a good job of resisting fingerprints.
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4’s hinge design improved compared to Galaxy Z Flip 3
While the Galaxy Z Flip 4 feels just as thick as its predecessor when folded or opened, the metal frame of the rear panel around the hinge has become noticeably thinner, giving it a more refined look. The size of the cover display remains the same and the glass covering it remains the same. The cameras appear to be raised slightly off the surface, which does not allow the phone to lie flat on the table.
The hinge seems to have been improved in the sense that it reportedly takes up less space inside the smartphone, allowing Samsung’s engineers to squeeze in a bigger battery. The hinge also feels a bit stiff, which is a good thing for gaming as the older Flip 3 often folded inward when slightly pressed toward the center of the main display. This also means that it is a bit difficult to open this phone with one hand. It’s no longer possible to flip the top half up with just one thumb, but even previous models weren’t meant to actually do this.
The internal display’s bezels remain the same as before but the grooves around the hinge area definitely feel less shallow than those on the Z Flip 3.
The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 (Bora Purple) metal frame has become thinner on all sides than the Galaxy Z Flip 3 (Gold).
As brilliantly as Samsung has refined the design of the Galaxy Z Flip 4, the phone is still a wee bit of dust (the IPX8 rating simply indicates water resistance), which is still a no-brainer for both foldable models this year. there is a problem. The internal display is still quite delicate and requires a screen protector already applied to help prevent damage from nails and sharp objects.
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 Specifications and Software
The Galaxy Z Fold 4, along with the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4, get the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 SoC with slightly better efficiency than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 SoC, unlike the S22 series that was launched earlier this year. Provides better performance. There’s no S Pen stylus support like the Z Fold 4, and there’s no support for Samsung DeX either. The battery has now increased to 3,700mAh from the previous 3,300mAh and it charges faster at 25W instead of the previous 18W.
The phone runs on Samsung’s One UI version 4.1.1 which is based on Android 12. There are no major changes here as compared to what is already available on other premium Samsung smartphones. Customizations that came with the Flip 3 are still available, including the ability to open up to five apps in a floating window. However, this seems pointless given the tall aspect ratio of the display which really only lets you work with one floating window (and one app running in the background) at a time. The tall screen aspect ratio works better with a split-screen implementation if you need to multitask. Samsung has introduced Flex Mode, which basically lets an app (native or third-party) place its content on the top half of the display while using the bottom half as a touchpad or to show controls, among other things. can be used for. This wasn’t always useful on the Flip 4, as you’re left with a small, squarish screen area.
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4’s internal display remains the same, but brighter on the outside
While the size of the cover display remains the same, Samsung has added the ability to respond to messages by tapping on the mic button that appears before template responses. However, it only works with messaging apps such as Slack, Messenger, WhatsApp, etc. But not for email. In other ways, the cover screen is still pretty limited, and very different from Motorola’s cover screen implementation on the Razr 5G. I tried a third-party app called CoverScreen OS, which is available on the Play Store, which lets me run apps and games on the Cover Screen, and even includes an app drawer. However, the 1.9-inch display size still feels pretty restrictive in regular use, degrading the experience. Hopefully, the next Z Flip model will have a bigger and more workable external display, and software that doesn’t force you to open the Flip to complete tasks on the main display.
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 Performance
The 6.7-inch foldable Dynamic AMOLED 2X primary display on the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 looks similar to the one used in the Z Flip 3. It has a 120Hz refresh rate, which is the same as before, but when the touch sensitivity is better. Playing FPS games like Call of Duty: Mobile. This display works perfectly well indoors and appears readable outdoors even in bright sunlight, though it’s highly reflective, which can interfere with what you’re doing. The display also supports HDR10+ which works as expected while watching supported content on Netflix and Amazon Prime Video.
The benchmark did not disappoint. The phone managed scores of 1,286 and 4,076 in Geekbench’s single-core and multi-core tests, respectively, as well as 9,21,680 in AnTuTu. The software experience was quite intuitive and surprisingly fluid. The phone did not overheat while playing games (on high settings) or watching movies. It did get hot when recording video outside, but not as much as the Galaxy S22, Galaxy S22+ and Note 22 Ultra, which get quite hot when using the camera app or when loading. Much of this can be attributed to the new processor which is supposed to run cooler and more efficiently.
Outer cover display size Galaxy Z Flip 3. remains the same as
Battery life was pretty impressive for the fashion-forward smartphone that Samsung markets as the Z Flip 4. The bigger battery and more power-efficient SoC meant I didn’t need to change the battery performance profile to Lite mode with regular use. This phone often lasted all day for me, including about an hour of gaming. With regular non-gaming use, the phone lasted me over a day, which makes it far more usable than the Flip 3, which barely lasted a day even with light use. Using the Light Performance Profile definitely increases the battery life by a few hours and doesn’t affect performance much which is a good thing. It took about 1 hour 55 minutes to fully charge the phone using a third-party 61W USB PD charger, which is relatively slow compared to Samsung’s flagships, but still fast enough for most people.
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 Cameras
Another aspect of the Galaxy Z Flip 4 that hasn’t changed much is its cameras. It appears that Samsung has retained the same camera setup as before, with two 12-megapixel sensors for the primary and ultra-wide-angle cameras and a 10-megapixel camera embedded in the internal display for selfies. There is one minor change though, and it has to do with the primary camera – it now appears to have a bigger sensor with a bigger pixel size (1.2μm pixels versus 1.8μm pixels on the Z Flip 3.) Samsung has also retained its OIS.
The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 has a camera layout that resembles the one available on the Z Flip 3
The primary camera gave good detail in daylight. Colors were punchy and dynamic range was decent provided there was enough light. The ultra-wide-angle camera took good photos with less detail around the edges, with noticeable barrel distortion and purple fringing in bright areas. Thankfully, the color tones match those of the primary camera, so Samsung has worked on its consistency. Close-ups of humans as well as objects yielded good detail, edge detection, and blur. Selfies also came out well in all kinds of lighting conditions, but I preferred using the primary camera for selfies as they packed in more detail and appeared sharp. The camera also captured some crisp macro photos but from a distance.
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 daylight camera samples: Primary camera, Ultra-wide-angle camera, Close-up
When shooting in low light with any of the three cameras, the camera app automatically activates Night Mode, and it works really well. The primary camera shot crisp pictures in street-light scenes and showed decent detail with good dynamic range even in dim lighting. The ultra-wide-angle camera managed good quality in street-light scenes, but couldn’t capture much detail in low light.
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 low-light camera sample. Top: Portrait selfie using primary camera, Night mode
Video quality was fairly good across the board, with good detail and stabilization at all shooting resolutions. I also tried HDR10+ Capture (which is an option in the Labs section) and it saved up nicely to some stabilization issues. When shooting at Auto FPS at 1080p or 4K with good stabilization, low-light video was surprisingly low on noise, but 4K 60fps footage appeared noisy and lacked stabilization.
Decision
While its camera performance is pretty impressive, the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 doesn’t offer much flexibility in terms of cameras compared to the Galaxy Z Fold 4 or the Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22+ (Review). Samsung’s current flagship non-foldable phones offer better performance at lower prices, but it’s good to see how Samsung has bridged the camera and general performance gap between the two series this year.
With no competition in sight (Motorola only launched its new Razr 2022 in China), Samsung really took it easy this year with its foldable. It has taken substantial effort to replace or improve parts of previous Flip models that fell short. Everything else remains pretty much the same.
That’s not a bad thing, as the Galaxy Z Flip 3 (Review) was a significantly improved version of the original Galaxy Z Flip and was almost there in terms of being a practical everyday smartphone. Now that most of its issues have been fixed, the Galaxy Z Flip 4 is definitely a unique foldable offering, not just for the fashion-forward buyers, but also for the general user who is looking for something unique in the world of Android smartphones. .
