Samsung Galaxy Z Flip7 review

Android 16, enhanced by One UI 8

The Galaxy Z Fold7 and the Z Flip7 are the first devices to launch with Android 16 on board. Samsung's close ties with Google are a good explanation for the Galaxy foldables making it to market with the latest Android before anyone else, and it probably has at least a little to do with the delayed rollout of One UI 7 updates for other Galaxies. The Flip7 has the in-house One UI 8 overlay to go with the latest OS foundation.

As Samsung has been routinely promising lately for its high-end smartphones, the Z Flip7 should be getting 7 major OS upgrades and as many years of ongoing security updates.

When unfolded, the Z Flip7 is no different from any recent Samsung in its operation. In terms of visuals, One UI 8 is the same as Une UI 7 - the previous version having brought the major design overhaul.

One UI basics on the main screen

One UI is quite possibly the most complete, feature-rich and polished Android implementation, and we can see how it can be a major selling point for some people.

More One UI

Now, the Z Flip7 may be bringing a new cover display, but it hasn't made huge gains in terms of cover screen functionality. It's still a widget-based interface with, admittedly, plenty of capabilities when it comes to operating basics like weather and calendar, there's good notification handling and the ubiquitous Gemini assistant can be summoned without opening the phone.

Cover screen

But what is still missing is true full-fledged app support. A handful of apps can be used on the cover 'natively' (Maps, YouTube, Netflix, Messages), but they still sort of reside in their widget-like container and you don't have a real task switcher to go back and forth between apps - you go to another widget screen and your Maps needs to be relaunched (though it does remember where you were).

"Apps" on the cover screen

If you want to use another app other than these four on the cover screen, Samsung redirects you to download MultiStar which is part of the Good Lock suite of sort of official, but not pre-installed and mainstream apps.

What it does is create another widget-like sandbox for your other apps, whose behavior Samsung doesn't want to be directly responsible for. Again, no task switcher here.

For more, there's MultiSTar

Of course, you can count on the whole package of AI capabilities that Samsung has to offer. The features are all bundled into a Galaxy AI menu group where you can go and get information on each.

Galaxy AI

Benchmarks

The Z Flip7 and Z Flip7 FE are the first Galaxy foldables to use in-house chipsets - previously, the bendy handsets remained Snapdragon-powered even when the Galaxy S-series models from the same time had a Snapdragon/Exynos divide. The Z Flip7 is based on the Exynos 2500 platform (first time we see it in use), while the Z Flip7 FE's E2400 was already found on the S24 generation in certain regions. The Z Fold7, meanwhile, features the Snapdragon 8 Elite.

The Exynos 2500 is similar to the 2400, but it's an improved version of it. Manufactured on a 3nm process (4nm for the 2400), it uses a 10-core CPU but the cores are newer and the layout is different - 1+2+5+2 (only the last 2 being 'small' cores), compared to the 1+2+3+4 (last 4 being small) configuration of the E2400. The exact setup is 1x3.3GHz X5 + 2x2.74GHz A725 + 2.36GHz A725 + 2x1.8GHz A520 (all 10 of them Cortexes, of course).

Sort of a positive development is the scrapping of the 128GB storage version - the Z Flip7 comes with either 256GB of UFS 4.0 storage (as reviewed) or 512GB. RAM is 12GB in both cases. The Z Flip7 FE, fittingly, has 8GB/128GB and 8gb/256GB configurations.

In our benchmarks, the Z Flip7 put up a solid showing, with particularly strong results in the GPU department, where it can compete with SD Elite handsets (and especially in ray-tracing, as evidenced by the 3DMark Solar Bay test). Its CPU results weren't too impressive, however, though it still outperformed the Razr 60 Ultra, for what it's worth.

The stress tests returned fairly predictable results - the Z Flip7 isn't exactly your best option for prolonged high loads. That said, it did that little bit better than its predecessor, with a 46% stability rating in the CPU Throttling test and a 54% result in the 3DMark Wild Life Extreme stress test. Even as is, the CPU result is better than that of the Razr 60 Ultra and 54% in the GPU test is better than the Moto's DNF.

CPU Throttling test • 3DMark Wild Life stress test

It wasn't exactly a praiseworthy performance in terms of heat build-up, but it's also not too bad given the form factor and Samsung's push for thinness.