Samsung Galaxy Z Flip review - Love for all the wrong reasons - Android

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip is a very strange phone to review. Not because it is bad, but because it is weird.

Usually, a review works as an evaluation between peers. We compare a product against what the company claims it is meant to be, then we stack it up against the competition. Does Product A offer better value versus Product B? Does it have a better camera or battery life? How good is the display? There are a huge variety of options for consumers to choose from in the world of mobile phones, so which one should get your money?

The Samsung Galaxy Flip does a lot of things really well. It has great performance, moderate battery life, and the (almost) latest version of Android. But it does one thing 99% of other phones can’t yet do: It folds in half.

Indeed, the design of the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip is its entire value proposition. The internals from the Z Flip just about match a flagship smartphone from last year, so you’re paying a price premium to get something that, for now, is pretty unique. I could spend this entire review comparing the Flip to the other notable foldable phone, the Motorola Razr. But I’ve already done that. If you want the skinny, it’s that Samsung’s phone has way more brawn and way better build quality, at a cheaper price.

What I would like to do instead, is help you decide whether the prospect of this folding form factor is worth the extra cash.

This is our Samsung Galaxy Z Flip review.

What’s up with the folding?

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip is a breed of folding phone the industry refers to as a clamshell. This means it looks like a normal smartphone while you’re using it, then folds shut like a clam to become roughly half the height it was previously. Folded, of course, the phone is twice as thick as when open. But that’s a trade-off you’ll have to make if you want your phone to fold shut.

To achieve this, Samsung is using a new technology called ultra-thin glass. This is a special type of glass that is nearly as flexible as the plastic OLED display we saw on the Samsung Galaxy Fold and Motorola Razr.

Because it’s so thin, the glass is definitely not as durable as a standard smartphone display. A recent teardown by Zack Nelson of JerryRigEverything revealed that the Galaxy Fold’s screen can be pierced fairly easily. That being said, the glass is mostly protected while the phone is folded, and I haven’t had any issues with my unit so far. In fact, my friends who bought this device haven’t either. Still, it’s natural to have some longevity concerns with new display technology. To combat this, Samsung is offering a one-time replacement of the display for $119 during the first year of ownership.

But is a clamshell-style foldable phone even useful? My answer, as much of a cop-out as it may seem, is it depends.

The benefits

Arguably the biggest benefit of a clamshell foldable phone is that, when not in use, the phone is about half as tall. This means it takes up less vertical space, is better protected, and can fit in smaller pockets and compartments versus conventional smartphones. Considering the Galaxy Z Flip has a fairly massive 6.7-inch 21.9:9 display, the smaller form factor helps it fit in way more places.

During the review period, I had multiple instances where I freaked out, worried that I’d left the phone sitting on a table somewhere. In fact, the phone was just nestled in the bottom of my pocket, much deeper than I was expecting. Once, I forgot I had put it in my breast pocket instead, which is actually a surprisingly convenient place to store a foldable smartphone.

The Z Flip got lost in my pockets when folded, and that's a good thing.

I was immediately inclined to think this phone would be perfect for someone like my mom, who tends to wear pants with pockets too small for the average smartphone. Because of this, she usually keeps her phone in her back pocket. And, well, let’s just say I’m pretty good at replacing iPhone screens now.

Samsung would like you to believe there are multiple other use cases for a phone that folds in half. While I agree with Samsung to some extent, the benefits are really fringe. The biggest secondary use case for me was being able to watch a video or stream an Instagram Live without needing to lean the phone against anything. Instead, I flexed the phone in half and let the bottom hold up the top display. I didn’t do this often, though, and prefer to watch videos in landscape mode. Because the phone is so tall, videos take up less of the display than usual. If you stretch to fill the whole screen, you’ll have a fairly major crop.

Otherwise, Samsung has added native Z Flip support to some of its apps, which ensure that the main elements remain at the top while secondary elements, such as controls, are banished to the bottom while flexed. This works with the camera, gallery, and messages apps. Samsung has partnered with Google to make this feature work with the Duo video messaging app. The feature is also meant to work with YouTube, but it doesn’t seem to quite yet.

Personally, I was hoping that using the Z Flip would encourage me to use my phone less. It takes more effort to mindlessly scroll on this phone than it does on other phones, so I was hopeful the hinge would act as some form of deterrent. Unfortunately, that wasn’t really the case. Turns out bad habits will prevail, even if it means I need to jump through a couple of extra hoops.

Is the front screen useful?

Like the Motorola Razr, there is a front display on the lid of the Galaxy Z Flip. Unlike the Motorola Razr, the Z Flip’s is very, very small. The OLED display is only 1.1-inches and shows basic information like the time, notifications, and media controls. If you tap on a notification, the information contained within it will scroll by, but it doesn’t scroll long enough to read the whole message on most occasions. If you double-tap a notification it will prompt you to open the phone to read it, and the associated app will open automatically.

The front display can also be used as a mini viewfinder, in case you want to take selfies with the phone closed. Because of the display’s weird aspect ratio, the image shown is only the center of the resulting image, but since it’s a selfie that’s all the information you really need to have anyway.

The only use I see in this feature is the ability to take higher-resolution selfies since the front cameras are 12MP, vs. the 10MP sensor on the inside of the phone. The wide-angle camera also gives a much wider field of view than the selfie camera if you need to fit more people in the shot. You can switch between the standard and wide-angle lenses by swiping on the display.