Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 and Z Flip4 hands-on review

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 hands-on

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 brings subtle design changes and major updates under the hood. Samsung has added the Pink Gold, Blue, and Bora Purple (which is the Z Flip4's signature color) to the Phantom Black color. The Green, Lavender, Cream, Gray, and White are now gone as main colors, but just as with the Galaxy Z Flip3, you can create your very own Bespoke edition online with 75 unique glossy color combinations.

The Galaxy Z Flip4 also got bumped to the Gorilla Glass Victus+ treatment on for its outer glass panels. The panels are now all matte, enhancing smudge resistance, but making the Galaxy Z Flip4 a bit more slippery.

Samsung made the hinge of the Galaxy Z Flip4 slimmer than its predecessor's, which results in a slightly smaller package when the Z Flip4 is closed. The control layout is the same as on the Galaxy Z Fold4. The main speaker sits next to the USB-C port at the bottom, and there's a SIM slot on the left, the capacitive fingerprint scanner, and the volume rocker on the right.

The frame itself is flatter than before, though it isn't sharp.

The sides are flatter now

The hideaway hinge stays true to its name, disappearing beneath the two glass halves of the Galaxy Z Flip4 when opened.

The Galaxy Z Flip4 feels sturdy and well-made in the hand. The matte glass panels are lovely to look at and shimmer when hit with the light directly. They also contrast nicely with the glossy frame.

The cover screen stayed the size this year, but Samsung managed to improve its functionality. It's still a Galaxy Watch OS in disguise and not a fully-featured part of Android, but it can do more and look better. Now Galaxy Themes can sync the look of the homescreen to the cover screen.

You can even put one of your own photos or a GIF or video as a cover screen wallpaper - the video needs to be up to 100MB and no more than 15 seconds.

The quick settings panel on the cover screen has some added toggles for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Airplane mode, and Flashlight. You can even unlock your phone through the cover screen with either your face or fingerprint.

The Direct Dial widget can put three favorite contacts on your cover screen, while the SmartThings widget has direct shortcuts to control your smart home devices.

You can check your calendar, and reply to texts using speech-to-text, preloaded sentences, and emojis. There's also a Samsung Wallet widget for contactless payments.

New functionality on the cover screen

The primary camera on the Galaxy Z Flip4 is one of the phone's biggest updates. It's the 12MP f/1.8 camera from the Galaxy S21/S21+/S21 FE and it has a 1/1.76" sensor with 1.8µm individual pixels. Samsung claims a 65% improvement in light gathering, but we'll test that in depth when we get the phone in for review.

Samsung has added Auto FPS for brighter night videos, as well as enhanced optical stabilization and electronic stabilization.

The ultrawide is the same 12MP f/2.2 sensor without autofocus, while the selfie camera is the same fixed-focus 10MP.

That's okay as you should always use the main camera for selfies. The Galaxy Z Flip4 can now capture selfies in any aspect the camera supports, not only in the cover screen's wide aspect - that means main camera selfies in 1:1, the native 4:3, 16:9, and 22:9 aspects.

You can use the cover screen to toggle between Portrait, Photo, and Video modes. Of course you can use the Galaxy Z Flip4's Flex Mode to prop the phone on a level surface and capture a selfie with either camera.

The new main camera

The Galaxy Z Flip4 uses the latest Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, bringing flagship-grade performance. We noticed the same instantaneous performance on the Galaxy Z Flip4 that we saw on the Galaxy Z Fold4. Animations took tangibly less than what we've become accustomed to on the Galaxy S22 Ultra. There's that feeling of smoother performance that you may or may not notice is there. We did and we liked it.

The final, and to some, biggest upgrade to the Galaxy Z Flip4 is the battery capacity and charging. We think it was the must-make update and we're glad Samsung did.

The battery capacity is now 3,700mAh - up 400mAh over the Galaxy Z Flip3's. Samsung claims that adds 3 hours of video streaming to the Galaxy Z Flip4 over its predecessor, which is welcome.

Charging is now up to Samsung's fastest standard of 25W (say 45W, we dare you). It's a nice bump up from 15W and should provide some peace of mind to those with battery anxiety.

Pre-orders for the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 are now open. Just like the Fold4 actual sales start on August 26.