Samsung Galaxy Z Flip7 review

New displays inside and out, cover one finally goes edge to edge

A long-awaited development in the Z Flip lineup finally sees Samsung catching up with Motorola - the Galaxy clamshell's cover display drops the notch and stretches across the entirety of the top half. A new bendy display also tags along, though the change on the inside is easier to miss.

The cover display is now 4.1 inches in diagonal, up from the 3.4 inches of the Z Flip6's cover screen. It's got more pixels too (948x1048px) and maximum refresh rate is 120Hz, compared to the ancient-sounding 60Hz of the Flip6's outer panel.

On the inside, the diagonal has grown too. The 6.9-inch foldable panel is in a slightly shorter aspect ratio (21:9, 1,080x2,560px) compared to the Z Flip6's setup (22:9, 1,080x2,640px) and the net result is a not insignificant increase in display area by about 10%. Sure enough, this panel supports 120Hz refresh rate and HDR10+ (but no Dolby Vision).

Both panels are OLED, of course.

We measured a little under 1,500nits on the internal display of Galaxy Z Flip7 with the Adaptive brightness toggle enabled. Turning it off, we got 745nits with the Extra brightness setting on (447nits otherwise). All in all, the same results as last year and nothing to complain about here.

The cover display more or less matches the main one in terms of brightness, with the exception of the missing Extra brightness - it's 447nits in manual operation with a boost to 1,400nits in Adaptive behavior.

Refresh rate

As usual, you don't get a whole lot of control over refresh rate beyond having two basic modes - Adaptive and Standard - which are effectively 120Hz and 60Hz ceilings. In either mode, the phone will adjust refresh rate adaptively dialing down as low as deems appropriate for the current state, based on content, activity, brightness level and whatnot. The new bit this time around is that you get the same behavior on the cover screen - previously it worked at a fixed 60Hz refresh rate.

Regardless of mode, the phone will adjust to match video frame rates (24, 30, 48, and 60Hz). Browsers and social media apps idle at 60Hz, when there's moving content, but they will get 120Hz for scrolling. When the picture is static, the phone reports "--" which sounds like 1Hz to us. High frame rate gaming is also supported, as long as you have the Flip set to Adaptive mode (and the game itself can go above 60fps, of course).

Streaming and HDR

As Galaxies typically do, the Z Flip7 supports HDR10 and HDR10+, but not Dolby Vision. We got HDR10 streams in Netflix, which also allowed for FullHD playback thanks to the Widevine L1 compliance. YouTube also served HDR content.

Google's Ultra HDR photo standard for metadata-based brightness boost of images in gallery apps or browsers is also supported and we found it to work in the in-house Gallery app and in Google Photos, as well as Chrome and the Samsung Internet browser (a year ago, only the former worked on the Flip6).

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip7 battery life

The Z Flip7 comes with a slight battery capacity upgrade, always a welcome development, particularly on a foldable where battery doesn't normally make the top of the priorities list. The 4,300mAh typical capacity is practically the same as on the much larger Z Fold7 (4,400mAh), which doesn't really look right if you're after the book-style foldable, but should certainly make you feel better about the Z Flip7.

The latest Flip's battery is larger than that of the current small-size S-series model too (S25, 4,000mAh), though the Razr 60 Ultra does boast a 4,700mAh power pack.

In our testing, the Z Flip7 showed a meaningful improvement in video playback and web browsing runtimes - three hours more than the Z Flip6 in either test isn't half bad. In gaming, there was a modest downgrade and so too was the call time, but neither is major. All things considered, the Z Flip7's Active Use Score worked out to 11:52h.

The Razr 60 Ultra does appear to be doing better in terms of endurance compared to the Z Flip7, while the S25 might be better in gaming, but the Flip7 comfortably outlasts its stablemate in the other two screen-on tests.

Our new Active Use Score is an estimate of how long the battery will last if you use the device with a mix of all four test activities. You can adjust the calculation based on your usage pattern using the sliders below. You can read about our current battery life testing procedure here. For a comprehensive list of all tested devices so far, head this way.

Charging speed

The Z Flip7 is rated for 25W wired charging, and we know not to expect crazy speeds from Galaxies. We tested with Samsung's own 25W adapter and measured up to 23W of power (continuously for several minutes even), so at least they're delivering on that promise, modest as it may be.

Obviously, that doesn't mean the phone charges quickly. We clocked a full charge at 91 minutes, though it then took another 16 minutes for the phone to stop drawing significant power after it reported a 100% state. At the half-hour mark we were looking at 46% in the battery indicator. Classic Samsung.

The one positive spin is that at least the new model isn't slower to charge than the old one despite the capacity increase, but it takes a bit of Samsung-loyalist viewpoint to look at it that way, plus we're way past the point when Galaxy charging speeds can be explained by battery capacity.

In the end, if you want a fast-charging clamshell, get a Razr.

As before, the Z Flip7 supports wireless charging, though there appears to be a downgrade of sorts this year. The phone's listing in the WPC database reports Basic Power Profile compliance for up to 5W of power, while the older models adhered to the Extended Power Profile spec for up to 15W with standard-compliant pads. These listings have been known not to be too trustworthy though, and Samsung still mentions 'Fast Wireless Charging 2.0' in the Flip specs - so it should still be able to go up to 15W with proprietary peripherals, it's just that now things are even murkier than usual.

The Z Flip7 adopts the same battery care approach as other recent Samsungs. A single toggle in the battery settings gives access to several levels of protection. The 'Basic' setting prevents constantly charging to 100% if you keep your phone plugged in for a long time - instead, it waits for the battery level to drop below 95%, and then starts to charge again. The 'Maximum' setting limits the charging level to a custom limit such as 80%/85%/90%/95%, while 'Adaptive' uses 'Maximum' during the night (or, you know, whatever your sleeping habits are) and switches to 'Basic' just before you wake up. There are also toggles to disable fast charging (separate settings for wired and wireless).

Speaker test

The speaker setup of the Galaxy Z Flip7 wouldn't surprise anyone who's seen a Samsung phone in recent years. One speaker on the bottom and another one up top (that doubles as an earpiece) team up to make a stereo pair. In portrait orientation, the top speaker is assigned the left channel, while in landscape, channels are assigned dynamically to correspond to the handset's orientation in space - that's when the handset is in its unfolded state, of course.

Bottom speaker • Top speaker/earpiece

The Z Flip7 earned a 'Good' rating for loudness in our test, same as last year's model. We're hearing a bigger, more open soundstage this time though, so there is an improvement. We're also liking the Z Flip7 a lot better than the Razr 60 Ultra (or Razr 2025 Ultra, if you're in North America).

Use the Playback controls to listen to the phone sample recordings (best use headphones). We measure the average loudness of the speakers in LUFS. A lower absolute value means a louder sound. A look at the frequency response chart will tell you how far off the ideal "0db" flat line is the reproduction of the bass, treble, and mid frequencies. You can add more phones to compare how they differ. The scores and ratings are not comparable with our older loudspeaker test. Learn more about how we test here.