Samsung Galaxy Z Flip7 review

Design, build quality, handling

Samsung was perfectly happy to not rock the Flip boat last year, and there wasn't a whole lot to separate the Z Flip6 from the Z Flip5 before it, unless you focused on the details. For 2025, there's a bit of a design overhaul, and the Z Flip7 comes with a couple of notable changes.

For starters, the cover display now spills over to the other side of the camera islands, spanning the entirety of the top half of the handset. No more of that notched inbetween solution that the Z Flip5 and Z Flip6 had - quirky, maybe, but somehow unfinished.

The other key bit is part of Samsung's push for thinness this year (the S25 Edge spearheading the trend, and the Z Fold7 joining it too). The Galaxy Z Flip has gotten slimmer indeed, now measuring 6.5mm when opened (previously 6.9mm) and 13.7mm when folded (14.9 on the Z Flip6).

The thinness is only half the story though, because the phone has actually grown wider and a little taller. It's the width increase that's a little bit more tangible than either of the other changes, but we wouldn't say it's detrimental to the Flip's handling. If anything, the new internal screen aspect of 21:9 makes the handset feel more 'conventional' when opened.

In this unfolded state, the Z Flip7 has a gentle waviness in the middle, the kind that shows up in photos and you can feel when you go looking for it, but not the kind that you notice in day-to-day operation. It's not the smoothest crease there is, but it's easily smooth enough.

Samsung says they've done further work on the hinge and the Armor FlexHinge (has to have a name) is now thinner, while also allowing "smoother folds and long-lasting durability". Well, the unfolds have been a little trickier in our experience, with little room between the two halves and what feels like a thinner frame (Armor Aluminum, of course).

The FlexHinge can be left open at a random angle within a certain (pretty wide) range, allowing for tripod-like use cases - think photos/videos from across the room.

The Flip hasn't suddenly adopted an underdisplay fingerprint sensor, instead relying on the side-mounted capacitive solution embedded in the 'power' button. It works fine - there's nothing special about its operation. Well, the fingerprint registering process now involves gently swiping your finger around on the sensor instead of repeatedly tapping, if that counts as special.

The Z Flip7 is sold in 3+1 colorways - three widely available standard ones (Blue Shadow, Jet Black, Coral Red) plus a Samsung.com-exclusive Mint option. All of them feature Gorilla Glass Victus 2 back panels (frosted on the non-display half). The frame is also sort of satin-finished and colored to complement that back half.

Galaxy Z Flip7 colorways: Blue Shadow • Jet Black • Coral Red • Mint

Regardless of colorway, all Z Flip7s are IP48 rated, so they should survive submersion down to 1.5m deep for as long as 30 minutes. No solid particles above 1mm should be able to enter them either, which feels like it should go without saying.