Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 review: Flipping is cool!

Folding phones are back in the spotlight! Samsung has decided to tweak its Flip lineup further and offer some welcome improvements. As a result, their latest Galaxy Z Flip4 is an exciting phone that’s definitely out of the ordinary, not only through its looks but also through the user experience it offers. With it, Samsung aims to please an audience bored with traditional smartphones and avid for something new and exciting. If you like the idea of a phone that flips, has high-end hardware and excellent pocketability, you should read this review:

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4: Who is it good for?

This smartphone is a good choice for:

• People who are interested in fashionable devices that stand out
• Users who appreciate its pocketability and foldable design
• Those who want a flagship smartphone with high-end hardware

Pros and cons

The best things about the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 are:

• Beautiful compact design
• Outstanding long-term software support
• Top-notch performance
• Good battery life
• Super fast Wi-Fi 6 connectivity
• IPX8-certified water resistance

There are some downsides to consider as well:

• The camera system is underwhelming (optical image stabilization only on the main wide camera, no telephoto lens)
• Incompatible with Samsung Dex
• No charger in the box

Verdict

At launch, Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 has no real competition, except for last year’s model, the Flip3. It’s a unique device with a flexible form factor that will please many users. Compared to traditional smartphones in the same price range, its only major weakness is the lack of a telephoto lens. However, the cameras on it are capable and allow for some interesting shots and approaches due to the foldable design of this phone. Furthermore, compared to last year's Flip3, the new model has better battery life, faster charging, IPX8 water resistance, and improved materials and durability. Therefore, if you want a fast and good-looking smartphone, small and pocketable, Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 is the best choice on the market today.

Unboxing the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 comes in a black box made of recycled cardboard. On the top cover, you see the product name. There’s very little information on the sides, except for details like the model number, IMEI code, and the serial number of the specific smartphone you just bought. The packaging for Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 is made of recycled materials When you open the box, you see the Galaxy Z Flip 4 nicely packaged, in a protective coating, and another smaller cardboard box with the Samsung logo printed on it. Open the box and you immediately see your new phone Unpack everything, and you find the following items: the smartphone itself, a USB-Type C cable, the PIN for ejecting the SIM card, the quick start guide, the warranty, and other leaflets. This is everything you find inside the box I appreciate Samsung’s use of recycled materials for packaging the Galaxy Z Flip4. However, while it’s practical and looks good, the unboxing experience is a bit underwhelming, as there’s no charger or headphones inside the box.

Design and build quality

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 is an iterative evolution of the previous Flip3. Therefore, its design is almost identical to last year’s model. The back of the smartphone features a small cover screen, the rear camera system, Gorilla Glass Victus+, and a pleasant matte finish. Welcome to Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 The frame is made of what Samsung calls Armor Aluminum. It’s their toughest aluminum frame to date and features a glossy polish, which is a fingerprint magnet. I totally love the form factor The hinge is made from the same aluminum as the frame; it’s glossy and home to the Samsung logo in the middle. The company says it should last at least 200,000 open-close cycles before it begins to wear down. Also, you can flip the hinge in any position/angle you want. The bezels around the foldable screen are a bit smaller than on the Flip3. When folded, Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 has a size of 71.9 x 84.9 x 15.9 (or 17.1 mm where the hinge is) or 2.83 x 3.34 x 0.62 (or 0.67 inches where the hinge is). This tiny size makes it easy to place in your pocket and carry everywhere. The hinge looks slick Unfolded, this smartphone has a size of 71.9 x 165.2 x 6.9 mm or 2.83 x 6.50 x 0.27 inches and weighs about 187 grams or 6.6 oz, which means that it’s not too heavy, nor too big for one-handed use. Many people, myself included, will appreciate the versatility of the Galaxy Z Flip4. Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 is comfortable for one-handed use An important upside is that Galaxy Z Flip4 offers IPX8 water resistance, meaning you can submerge it in water of no more than 1.5 meters in depth, for up to 30 minutes, without malfunctioning. However, it has no dust resistance, and dust can get caught between the screen’s protective film and the frame. Speaking of it, you must not remove the protective film because you risk damaging the foldable screen. So keep it intact even if you get annoyed by all the smudges it gathers over time. Never remove the protective film If you look for it, you can see the earpiece, which acts as a stereo speaker, on top of the screen. The screen also has a small perforation at the top, right under the earpiece, where you find the selfie camera. The selfie camera is on the top side of the foldable screen On the right side of the Flip4, you can see the Power button, which doubles as a fingerprint reader, and the Volume rocker. The right side of Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 On the left side, you find only the SIM tray. Unfortunately, there’s no support for microSD cards, which may disappoint some users. The left side of Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 On the top side of the Galaxy Z Flip4, there’s a microphone; on the bottom, you find a speaker, the USB Type-C 2.0 port, and two microphones. There's no headphone jack Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 is designed to appeal to young audiences and people interested in using their smartphones as fashion accessories. As a result, this phone comes in four rather subtle color variants: Bora Purple, Graphite, Pink Gold, and Blue. Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 is available in four colors And if those are not enough, there’s also a Galaxy Z Flip4 Bespoke Edition, which widens the color palette even more and allows you to opt for different colors for the frame, front, and back. The Galaxy Z Flip4 Bespoke Edition takes your color options to the next level I very much enjoy how the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 looks, its size, and its versatile form factor. It’s not too big and not too heavy either, making it pleasant to use with one hand too. The only downside is that it doesn’t offer the same grip as traditional smartphones. However, you get used to it rather quickly, and you can buy cases that help with this issue.

Hardware specifications

Hardware-wise, Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 is a true powerhouse. Its 6.7-inch foldable screen features a Dynamic AMOLED panel with a resolution of 2640 x 1080 pixels, an adaptive refresh rate up to 120 Hz, and a pixel density of 425 ppi. The display is also HDR10+ certified. However, a foldable screen with a plastic protective layer needs to be handled with more care than usual smartphone displays. Therefore, it is a good idea to read Samsung’s recommendations on how to take care of your phone. See them pictured below. How to take care of your Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 Gorilla Glass Victus+ protects the second screen on the back, and it has a size of 1.9”. It’s also an AMOLED display, with a resolution of 512 x 260 pixels and a pixel density of 302 ppi. On it, you can also see the two main cameras, both with 12 Megapixel sensors: one ultrawide f/2.2 lens with a pixel size of 11.12μm, and one f/1.98 wide lens, with optical image stabilization, dual pixel autofocus, and a pixel size of 1.8μm. Above them, there’s a LED flash. Unfortunately, while the ultra-wide lens has EIS (Electronic Image Stabilization), it doesn’t have optical image stabilization. In addition, none of the cameras has optical zoom, though the main one can digitally zoom up to 10x. The selfie camera has 10 Megapixels and an aperture of f2.4. The screen on the back has some interesting uses The chipset used by Samsung for Galaxy Z Flip4 is excellent: Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 eight-core processor with a maximum clock speed of 3.2 GHz, an Adreno 730 graphics chip that can handle even the most demanding mobile games, and 8 GB of RAM. The storage space varies depending on your budget and the version you purchase: with 128, 256, or 512 GB of storage. As mentioned earlier, the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4, unfortunately, doesn’t have a microSD card slot, so you can’t extend your storage. Keep this in mind when choosing which version you buy. Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 has great hardware inside Galaxy Z Flip4 has stereo speakers tuned by AKG but no headphone jack. However, you can use its Bluetooth 5.2 chip to connect a headset. You also get Wi-Fi 6 on this smartphone, GPS, NFC with support for Samsung Pay, and a long list of sensors. The 3700 mAh battery is non-removable and supports fast charging at 25W, fast wireless charging at 15W, and reverse wireless charging at 4.5W. For more technical information about this smartphone, visit its official page: Galaxy Z Flip4 Specs. Turn the page to see my experience using the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4, what I’ve found about its cameras, and the results the smartphone got in a couple of benchmarks.

The smartphone experience on the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4

The key selling point of the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 is its flexible form factor and how easy it is to put it in your pocket. From this perspective, the smartphone is a pleasure to use. Also, taking it out of your pocket, folding it, and using it always attract the attention of others. My friends and neighbors asked me about the phone I was using more than a few times. However, there’s also a downside to this phone’s form factor: after a couple of minutes in a pocket, that gap in the closed Galaxy Z Flip4 accumulates lint and dust, which nestles in the expanse between the edge of the screen protector and the raised edge of the bezel. Therefore, you have to take better care of this smartphone if you want to use it for a long time. The most pocketable smartphone ever Now, let’s talk about using this phone: Android 12 works great on it, thanks to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset, which is very powerful. There’s no lag, and the Adaptive refresh rate of 120 Hz makes everything feel snappy. Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 switches the refresh rate dynamically between 1 Hz and 120 Hz depending on the content shown on the screen. Another plus is that the display supports HDR10+ content, so you won’t have to worry about streaming high-resolution video content on YouTube and other platforms. The Adaptive refresh rate works great When the Galaxy Z Flip4 is folded at 90 degrees, it’s comfortable for video chats. Also, some apps like the Camera have an optimized layout that helps you interact with them in new ways. However, at launch, few apps have specific multi-window optimization for Flip4’s Flex Mode, and its usefulness is a bit limited. So most of the time, you’ll use this phone with its screen completely unfolded for maximum productivity. Taking pictures with your phone folded I don’t like that the foldable screen on the Galaxy Z Flip4 is a fingerprint magnet, and its visibility in direct sunlight is not that great because the screen protector becomes very reflective. Luckily, the screen looks great indoors, offering vivid colors, solid brightness, and smooth animations. Games work surprisingly well, even if you’re dealing with a foldable screen. However, the Galaxy Z Flip4 tends to get hotter slightly faster than traditional smartphones, so lengthy gaming sessions might become problematic temperature-wise, and you may want to take a break now and then. Gaming is surprisingly pleasant The secondary OLED screen on the back displays notifications like who’s calling or texting you and a couple of widgets you can interact with: calendar, weather forecast, music controls, and so on. However, its most interesting feature is that you can use it to take selfies with the main camera system, which is better than the selfie cam on the main screen. The secondary screen is great for selfies Battery life was better than I expected, and Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 had no trouble lasting for a full day, even when used more intensively. In light-usage scenarios, it can last up to 36 hours on a single charge, which is great, considering the powerful hardware it packs. Unfortunately, there’s no charger in the box, but you can use any 25W Samsung charger to benefit from fast charging, which usually takes you from 0% to 50% in about 30-35 minutes. A full charge usually takes between 75 to 80 minutes. It’s not as fast as what you get from a Xiaomi 12, for example, but it’s OK for most people. Fast charging is available but you have to buy a Samsung charger Watching movies and listening to music makes for a good experience on the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4. The screen is great at rendering high-quality video content, and the speakers are loud. The top speaker is slightly quieter and has a less pronounced bass than the bottom one. However, they’re well balanced, and the overall audio quality should satisfy most people. On that note, for the best experience, I recommend you to match this smartphone with the newly launched Samsung Galaxy Buds2 Pro. They’re a treat to use, and I’ll provide more details about them in a separate review. Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 is surprisingly loud The phone aspects of the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 are great: calls were of great quality, with stable signal reception, and 5G connectivity, where available. Also, locking and unlocking the phone works well, both with face recognition and the optical fingerprint sensor. My fingerprints were always identified properly, without any errors, except for when my hands were wet. In my experience, face recognition was the better option for faster unlocking, as long as you don’t keep the phone folded at 90 degrees. Then, the selfie camera can’t scan your face, and you must use another method to unlock it. One surprising limitation of the Galaxy Z Flip4 is that it doesn’t work with Samsung Dex. Its hardware can handle it, but Samsung has decided to remove this feature. Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 is a great Android smartphone for everyday use. It offers high-end performance in all apps and mobile games, and its flexible form factor enables new ways to use your phone. Pocketability is another attractive feature that will please many users.

The camera experience on the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4

The biggest issue for the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 is the lack of a telephoto camera. Any standard smartphone at a similar price has one. Even more affordable devices like the Samsung Galaxy S22 do. I didn’t realize how often I use the optical zoom feature when taking pictures until I used the Galaxy Z Flip4 and found it was lacking. Another issue is that you get optical image stabilization only on the wide lens but not on the others. You can only take photos in 0.5x (ultra-wide lens) or 1x (wide lens) The new ways you can take photos are where the Galaxy Z Flip shines due to its flexible form factor. For example, it’s quite cool to take selfies from the cover screen, but they won’t be the best selfies you can take. Folding the phone at 90 degrees and taking pictures is also a fun experience, and you can capture some interesting angles. I enjoyed taking selfies with the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 Leaving the technical limitations behind, the cameras on the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 are capable. When shooting in good lighting conditions, the details are excellent, as are the highlights and shadows. Color recreation is punchy, and the details are well preserved. The selfie camera on the folding screen works well and is reliable but won’t beat similar cameras found on traditional premium smartphones. For the best results, it is better to take selfies with the main camera from the cover screen. Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 offers Auto Night Mode as part of its default Photo mode. You can decide to ignore it by tapping on the small moon icon or leave it on. With Night Mode, pictures have plenty of detail, little noise, good color saturation, and solid dynamic range. When disabling Night Mode, the phone takes pictures faster, and they continue to look good, with minimal differences. If you want to see some sample photos yourself, take a look at the gallery embedded below. The pictures were taken straight from the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 and moved to the cloud without any editing. When recording videos on the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4, the experience is OK but not as great as it is on traditional smartphones in the same price range. This smartphone can record videos at 4K and 1080p resolution and 30 or 60 frames per second (fps) on the main wide camera, while the ultra-wide and the selfie cam can record only at a maximum of 1080p resolution and 60 fps. The optical image stabilization is available only on the main camera, which is a bummer. If you want the best results, I recommend that you always record videos in 1080p resolution. The colors are true to life, the contrast is excellent, and the dynamic range is good. Watch the panoramic video below, shot in 1080p, to get a better idea of the results you get: The primary camera offers relatively good low-light videos, with the image being only a tiny bit noisy. Your videos have plenty of details, and the colors are nicely saturated. However, if you switch from the main camera to the ultra-wide one during recording, your footage will lose focus and become very grainy. Watch the whole video below to see what I mean: Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 can record slow-motion videos at a resolution of 1080p or super slow-motion videos at 720p. Here’s a sample Super Slow-Mo video that I recorded: The cameras on the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 are competent and deliver solid results in almost all lighting conditions. The only major weak spot is the lack of a telephoto lens for optical zoom. However, the flexible form factor makes it easy to take selfies and pictures from different angles than the ones available with traditional smartphones.

Android 12 and bundled apps

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 has Android 12 preinstalled and Samsung’s One UI version 4.1.1 custom interface. Android 13 should become available in the coming months, and users of this smartphone are guaranteed to receive it. According to Samsung, owners of Galaxy Z Flip4 should get four years of Android version updates and five years of security updates. This is outstanding software support, and I hope other vendors follow Samsung’s example. The apps bundled with Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 As always, Samsung bundles many apps on their smartphones, and Galaxy Z Flip4 makes no exception. You can turn most of them off during the initial setup process or remove them afterward, which is great. Here’s the list of apps you get with this smartphone:

• Galaxy Store - Samsung’s app store that’s pushed as an alternative to the Play Store. I don’t enjoy it, and the only thing I use it for is downloading Samsung apps for the devices in my home.
• AR Zone - an app for creating personalized emojis that you can use in your chats with others.
• Bixby - Samsung’s virtual assistant, which most people don’t like to use. It is easy to replace it with the more useful Google Assistant.
• Calculator - a simple app that does math calculus. We all need that now and then, right? Especially when splitting the bill at the restaurant. 🙂
• Samsung Internet - the default browser promoted by Samsung. Most people might prefer Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge instead.
• SmartThings - the company’s app for managing Samsung smart devices like vacuum cleaners and washing machines. It’s useful if you have other Samsung smart devices in your home.
• Samsung Health - Samsung’s health & fitness app, designed for collecting data from your Samsung wearables like the new Samsung Galaxy Watch5.
• Galaxy Wearable - useful for pairing and configuring your Samsung wearables, including the newly launched Galaxy Buds2 Pro.
• Voice Recorder - an app for recording sound/voice using the smartphone’s microphones.
• Samsung Members - helps you connect with other Samsung Galaxy device owners and get help when facing problems.
• Spotify - the popular music streaming service that millions of people use, including our team.
• Facebook - the popular social networking app we love to hate. It is easy to remove if you don’t want to use it.
• Netflix - if you’re not a subscriber to this movie streaming service, you’ll want to skip installing this app or remove it after your phone is set up.
• Gallery - Samsung’s app for browsing and managing your photos and videos.
• My Files - a useful file manager for your smartphone, which you should keep and use when necessary.
• Samsung Notes - useful for taking notes. Many users prefer it to OneNote.
• Game Launcher - allows you to enable Game Booster (blocks notifications and optimizes performance during games), use Discord to chat with your friends while playing, and even play some games without installing them on the device through the Instant Plays feature.
• Samsung Global Goals - an app that lets users donate money to charities or turn on ads whose revenue is then used to fund charity programs worldwide.
• Samsung Free - Samsung’s annoying alternative to Google Discover. Luckily, now it’s easy to switch to Google Discover.
• Tips - a useful app that teaches you how to use the unique features of your Galaxy Z Flip4. I recommend using it, especially if this is your first Galaxy Z Flip phone.

Alongside these Samsung apps, you’ll also find those from Google (Google, Chrome, Gmail, Maps, YouTube, Drive, Duo, Photos, and YouTube Music) and some from Microsoft (Office, OneDrive, LinkedIn, and Outlook). I appreciate that Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 comes with Android 12 installed. Also, it has the best software support in the industry and doesn’t force you to use apps you might not want.

Performance in benchmarks

I’ve shared many things about my subjective experience with the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4. Toward the end of this review, it is time to share some hard numbers from benchmarks and see what they have to say about this smartphone’s performance. As always, I started with Geekbench 5, a popular cross-platform benchmark. Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 scored 1289 points in the single-core test and 3353 points in the multi-core one. These numbers are similar to most flagship devices today and close to those obtained by Xiaomi 12, which we reviewed earlier this year. Geekbench 5 score Next, I wanted to see how powerful the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 is in the graphics department. For that, I ran 3DMark’s Wild Life and Wild Life Extreme. In Wild Life, Flip4 scored 8345 points, and in Wild Life Extreme, 2238 points. These are excellent results, proving that the hardware inside this phone has no trouble handling mobile games. 3DMark scores I also ran GFXBench 5.0 and chose the Car Chase and 1080p Car Chase Offscreen tests. The number of fps (frames per second) rendered by the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 was impressive in both. GFXBench 5.0 results Next, I turned to PCMark for Android, which tests performance and battery life in real-world scenarios. Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 scored 14727 points in the Work 3.0 performance test and managed a runtime of 13 hours and 6 minutes in the Work 3.0 battery life test. Both are excellent results, proving that this smartphone has solid high-end hardware and that its battery should have no problems lasting for a full day of normal usage. Testing performance and battery-life with PCMark For the last benchmark, I chose SpeedTest, which shows how fast Wi-Fi connectivity can be on this smartphone. I was super happy to see that the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 reached a download speed of 848 Mbps when using the ASUS ROG Rapture GT-AX6000 Wi-Fi 6 router. In this regard, Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 is the fastest smartphone I have ever used. Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 is super fast on Wi-Fi 6 Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 offers top-notch performance in benchmarks, worthy of a premium device. It’s fast, powerful, able to run any app or game without issues and at the highest quality. Last but not least, its Wi-Fi 6 connectivity is the fastest I’ve seen on a smartphone.

Do you like the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4?

Now you know what’s great about the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 and what’s not so great. This phone is carving its own place in the foldable phones market niche, and many are interested in at least reading about it, if not testing it and even buying it. Before closing this review, tell me what you think: Did Samsung manage to convince you to buy the Galaxy Z Flip4? Are there any weaknesses that hold you back? Comment below and share your perspective. Also, if you already have this phone or last year’s model, don’t hesitate to comment on your experience so far. It will surely help others in their buying decision.