Samsung’s been launching Galaxy Z Flip phones for more than half a decade now, yet it’s always been unclear who they’re for. Are these neo flip phones for people looking to cut down their screen time, those who just want a compact high-end phone, or want a distinctive, whimsical smartphone experience? Its foldable screen was never as versatile as the book-style Fold, and its hardware couldn’t go toe-to-toe with Samsung’s slab flagships.
With the new Galaxy Z Flip 7, however, Samsung wants it to be for anyone who wants a solid phone in a playful form factor. It fixes most of what ailed its predecessors, from an edge-to-edge cover screen that lets you do a lot more without whipping open the hinge, to a bumped-up battery that comfortably lasts a day — all while trimming the body down. After spending a few weeks with it, these changes add up to a far more dependable flip phone experience and bring the Flip series up to speed with the Moto Razr.
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 – Design and Build
Powered off, it’s hard to tell the Flip 7 apart from last year’s Z Flip 6. However, Samsung has made a series of small and significant modifications. Unlike previous models, the Flip 7 folds completely flat and measures a comfortable 0.54 inch in thickness, a hair slimmer than the Flip 6, despite being taller. Weighing just 188 grams, it’s one of the lightest phones out there, and I could barely feel it in my shirt pocket.
Flip phones are some of the most fragile phones you can buy, but I didn’t feel that throughout my Flip 7 use. It’s built like a tank, and its aluminium shell inspires confidence thanks to the grippy matte finish on its back and edges even when I’m operating it without a case, which I did all the time. It’s possibly the only phone that hasn’t slipped out of my sweatpants. It looks the part, too, for a flagship phone, and the new colors, like mint, add to its sleek appearance.
The new Z Flip’s hinge further contributes to its durability. This year, it’s about 30% smaller and a little stronger. It also has just the right amount of magnetic force to produce a satisfying clunk when you close it, hold nearly any angle, and allow you to pry it open with one hand.
Speaking of which, its taller main screen (6.7-inch to 6.9-inch) does make one-handed use challenging. I also had to stretch or reposition my fingers to reach the fingerprint sensor placed on the right side’s upper half. The facial recognition works well as a substitute, but it’s not as secure and rarely functions in low-light scenarios.
What hasn’t changed, unfortunately, is the Z Flip’s dust and water resistance rating. It’s rated for IP48, which means it can only withstand particles larger than 1mm and water immersion up to 1.5m for 30 minutes. So while you may not face any trouble in your day-to-day, this is certainly not a beach or a jungle safari companion.
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 – Displays
Both the Z Flip’s screens have grown this year. The outer one has gone from 3.4-inch to 4.1-inch and wraps around the two rear cameras, covering half of the back. While the size bump may seem minor, this is the Z Flip 7’s most crucial upgrade and lets you do a lot without opening it up, including comfortably operating full-fledged apps. It also looks vivid and bright, even under direct sunlight, and at an improved 120Hz refresh rate, it is a joy to use. Folded, I often placed it upright on my desk, where it doubles as a little smart clock.
You can choose from a variety of interactive wallpapers and homescreen layouts for the cover screen. I was particularly fond of the “Informative presets,” which lay out a series of mini widgets in a grid so that I can instantly glance at the time, unread notifications, battery life, and more. The catalog still lags behind the Moto Razr, though, and I wish Samsung adds more options in the future, especially more playful ones.
You can swipe on the cover screen homescreen to cycle between notifications, widgets, and most importantly, the app launcher. The larger screen real-estate means now it’s easier to use proper apps on it and Samsung even lets you quickly switch between various views, in case an app is not optimized for the cover screen (Gemini threw a giant Play Store review pop-up, for example, and I had to open the inner screen to dismiss it) and ends up hiding buttons behind the cameras. I had no issues navigating through my most frequented apps on the 4.1-inch display, like Google Maps, YouTube Music, contactless payments, Gemini assistant, and WhatsApp. Although I mostly resorted to voice notes over typing.
The cover screen software, however, is far from perfect and even frustrating at times. For starters, the process to add apps on the cover screen is unnecessarily tedious. The option is limited to a handful of apps out of the box, and if you’d like to add others, you will have to enable experimental settings and, on top of that, install an add-on software. Even when I added unoptimized apps to the cover screen, it took me a while to find them. These won’t show up in the outer screen’s default app drawer. You will first have to activate a “Launcher” widget, and from there, access all your apps.
Alerts on the cover screen don’t have the quick shortcuts they do typically in the notification center, and when you tap them, they don’t expand there, instead making you open the phone to continue. Similarly, some, like text messages, will have a “Suggested Replies” button under them, but even that won’t work right on the cover screen and redirects you to the main one.
On the Z Flip 7, the main screen is also a hair taller, but oddly retains last year’s Full HD resolution. Because of the bigger display, it’s less sharp than the Flip 6 on paper. But in real-life use it looks well-calibrated, and at 2,600 nits of peak brightness, perfectly visible outdoors. It’s just hard to imagine a Full HD display on phones that cost over $1,000. The good news is you can barely notice its crease now, although I do still feel a subtle bump when I scroll.
Another fairly standard ability the Z Flip 7 lacks due to its foldable screen is an LTPO OLED. This would have enabled its screen to maintain a high 120Hz refresh rate all the time. In its current state, it alternates between 60Hz and 120Hz depending on the app and battery life.
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 – Software
One of the highlights of the Z Flip 7 is discovering that it already runs Android 16, a mere two months after Google rolled it out to its Pixel phones. It feels like a major step forward in almost a decade-long effort to bring new Android updates quicker to third-party smartphones. Of course, Samsung has layered it with its in-house OneUI skin, which, too, has come a long way and is now much cleaner and thoughtful.
Like most phone makers, Samsung has loaded OneUI with a suite of AI features, like a writing assistant, Gemini chatbot, and web page summarization. I particularly found “Call Assist” handy. It transcribes live calls and allows you to type your responses like you would in a text thread. The AI then automatically narrates them to the other person. Over the last two weeks, I used this in situations where I was unable to speak on calls, such as crowded public transportation and work meetings.
Samsung’s Generative AI features for editing your photos and audio were far less reliable. “Audio Eraser,” for example, lets you remove unwanted noise from videos and audio recordings, but whenever I tried it, it also ended up suppressing the frequencies I wanted to keep.
Similarly, Samsung’s “Now Brief,” a personalized summary of your day so far, was largely unnecessary. Depending on the time, it will send you insights, like the latest weather and recaps of your workouts, which I thought I didn’t need reminding of every few hours. Besides, it requires you to rely heavily on Samsung’s native apps.
Speaking of apps, it’s a shame Samsung still bundles so much bloatware on its phones out of the box. After setting up the phone, I had to take time out to uninstall over a dozen apps I didn’t want, including Facebook, Netflix, Microsoft Outlook, and more.
Some of the Flip 7’s software, of course, is tailored to its unique form factor. Most notably, I had a lot of fun with Flex Mode, which activates when you keep the phone propped up at an angle. Here, the phone shifts the app’s content to the top half and puts a control panel on the bottom, like the playback buttons while watching a YouTube video. You can also have a straightforward touchpad on the bottom as well, and navigate the phone like a miniaturized computer.
Samsung Galaxy Flip 7 – Performance and Battery Life
For the Galaxy Flip 7, Samsung has swapped out a Qualcomm chip for its own Exynos 2500. Historically, this would have been a cause for concern, but I didn’t face any performance hiccups on the Flip 7. Multitasking between apps and dozens of browser tabs was smooth, and the 12GB of RAM ensures AI commands are executed near-instantly. Even when I plugged the Z Flip 7 into a monitor for the Samsung Dex desktop experience, it could comfortably handle the added load and didn’t show any signs of a slowdown. Plus, the base storage has been bumped up to 256GB.
It can also run just about any mobile game out there, from Subway Surfers to Call of Duty: Mobile. The only downside to gaming on this phone is that one of your hands will always rest on the cover screen, which tends to get warm (and sticky) quicker than the other metallic rear half.
Endurance has never been the Galaxy Flip’s strongest suit, but it’s much better this year. The 7th-gen Flip comes equipped with a 4300mAh battery, a marginal jump from its predecessor’s 4000mAh capacity. The upgrade is now just enough to help the Flip last a full day. In my day-to-day testing, which involved about an hour of social media, some photography, a couple of video calls, and a few sessions of Call of Duty, the Flip 7 consistently produced a screen-on time of four hours.
I usually had about 35% of charge left by late evening. So on nights I was planning to go out, I had to plug it in early — cautiously early, in fact, because of the Flip 7’s disappointing 25W charging speeds. While most flagships, like Samsung’s 25 Ultra, now offer double that, the Z Flip takes close to 90 minutes to charge completely. Wireless charging at 15W is available, too, and so is 4.5W of reverse wireless, which comes in handy for quickly topping out a pair of wireless earbuds.
Samsung Galaxy Flip 7 – Cameras
The cameras have stayed the same on the Flip 7. On the back, you’ll find a 50-megapixel main lens, paired with a 12-megapixel ultrawide. Both cameras can capture well-balanced, crisp shots in most scenarios. As is the case with any Samsung phone, they do tend to oversaturate the colors at times to make them look more pleasing to the eye, at the cost of being less true to the scene. However, you can tweak the camera settings to dial this down.
I was also impressed with how well the Flip 7 retained details at night. Even at a dimly lit restaurant, the main sensor had no trouble retaining focus. The ultrawide, due to its smaller sensor, though, does struggle a little at night and produces photos with blurred edges. Its video capabilities are on par with other flagships, too, and I particularly enjoyed recording in the Flex Mode, where the entire viewfinder moves to the top half, and you can turn the phone sideways to hold it like an old-school camcorder.
Another miss is the lack of a telephoto lens. Samsung does offer what it calls “AI Zoom,” which crops from the main wide camera and uses AI to refine the details. In daylight, this can get the job done, especially for sharing social media, but once you zoom in, it simply doesn’t match the quality of an optical zoom.
One of the more disappointing aspects of the Flip 7 is its selfie camera. In my testing, it regularly captured washed-out and oversharpened photos, especially when there was not enough light available. Thankfully, other than video calls, I rarely used it, and clicked selfies with the rear cameras, thanks to the cover screen.
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