Samsung Galaxy Z Flip7 FE review

Android 16, enhanced by One UI 8

The 7-series foldables from Samsung, this FE included, ship with Android 16 right out of the box - the first devices to do so, thanks to Samsung's tight-knit relationship with Google. Naturally, there's a layer of proprietary software on top - it's One UI 8, just as we saw on the Z Flip7 and Z Fold7. As with those other two phones, the FE should be entitled to 7 major OS version updates, and as many years of regular software patches.

In its unfolded state, the Z Flip7 FE is just like your regular flat-panel Galaxies in terms of UI and operation. In turn, this One UI 8 is the same as One UI 7 - the previous version brought the major design overhaul, this time it's about under-the-hood refinement.

One UI basics on the main screen

We're very much convinced that One UI can be a major part of a Galaxy smartphone's appeal, providing tons of functionality and a hard-to-rival level of general polish and sophistication.

More One UI

What's not as polished or sophisticated as it can be is the cover screen implementation for things that aren't camera. It remains a widget-based interface with plenty of basic functionality like weather, calendar, notifications, and the ubiquitous Gemini assistant.

Cover screen

What remains 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, tweaker's set of options.

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 2400 is made on a 4nm process and features a 10-core CPU in a 1+2+3+4 configuration with 6 big and 4 small cores (unlike the E2500's 1+2+5+2 setup with 8 big and 2 small ones). The Xclipse 940 GPU is 10 fewer than the Xclipse 950 in the Z Flip7's Exynos.

There's one sort of a downgrade in the Z Flip7 FE's hardware compared to its original Z Flip6 incarnation - the FE comes with 8GB of RAM, while the Z Flip6 and the regular Z Flip7 have 12GB. Storage is either 128GB or 256GB (as reviewed) - the Z Flip6 adds a 512GB version on top of those, while the Z Flip7 comes with either 256GB or 512GB.

In our benchmarks, the Z Flip7 FE posted scores that were somewhat below what we got from the S24s last year. We gather that at least part of that was due to how quickly the Flip7 FE would build up heat (which we'll illustrate further down below), though it could also be Samsung pulling the reins a little so that the phone wouldn't heat up as much or as quickly.

In that sense, the Z Flip7 SE is also slightly behind the Z Flip6 in performance, though it's still ahead of last year's Razr 50 Ultra or this year's non-Ultra Razrs (the 2025 Ultra is more into proper Z Flip7 territory, so it's only on this list as another data point, not as a real competitor to the FE).

Overall, the Z Flip7 FE's performance is a textbook case of 'not great, not terrible'.

Now, the continued load tests are more into the below-average category. The Z Flip7 FE gets hot fast, and its performance drops nearly instantly. In the CPU Throttling test, its sustained level of performance was around 50% of its initial result.

In all fairness, the Z Flip7 would also drop pretty low, but it could more or less maintain 60% of its initial output.

The Z Flip6, having to make do with the same body as the Z Flip7 FE, would also throttle hard, but its initial results were higher, and its sustained performance under load was also higher.

In the 3DMark Wild Life Extreme stress test, the Z Flip7 FE also throttles heavily, roughly on par with the Z Flip6, and slightly worse than the Z Flip7.

CPU Throttling test • 3DMark Wild Life stress test

When it comes to the surface temperatures we measured on the Z Flip7 FE, things weren't actually all that dire, so Samsung's temperature/performance balancing act is still easy on your fingertips. Sure, the FE heats up fast, but it doesn't heat up beyond reason, for what that's worth.