Assessment: The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 foldable is nearly an excessive amount of enjoyable

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip7 is a narrative of one thing outdated, one thing new, one thing borrowed, and one thing blue. The blue half is straightforward — my evaluation pattern, offered by Samsung, is the Blue Shadow colorway. The spotlight of the telephone is unquestionably the “something new.” Samsung massively up to date its pocket-sized foldable telephone with an enormous cowl display. At 4.1 inches, it is the most important exterior show on a flip-style telephone so far.

“Something borrowed” comes within the type of the Exynos processor that lives contained in the telephone. Past variations of Galaxy Z Flips in worldwide markets have been powered by Exynos silicon up to now, however U.S. telephones have sometimes had Snapdragon {hardware} from Qualcomm, which we strongly desire. The “borrowed label” is my hope that Samsung will return to Snapdragon {hardware} sooner or later — extra on that later.

Finally, “Something old” — one among my largest frustrations with the telephone, which is somewhat bit higher this 12 months (however truthfully not that significantly better than the Galaxy Z Flip6). It has to do with the best way apps seem on the exterior show (what Samsung calls the Cover Screen) and Samsung’s refusal to deal with that lovely canvas like a correct display. It’s somewhat maddening, although it did not cease me from having enjoyable with the telephone.

Shortly after Samsung unveiled the Z Flip 7 (and its extremely skinny older sibling, the superb Galaxy Z Fold 7) this July, I hit the highway to sunny (and devastatingly sizzling) St. Louis, dwelling of the Gateway Arch, Six Flags, and Meremec caverns. Over the course of 5 days, I put this “AI Flip Phone” via the ringer for my Galaxy Z Flip 7 evaluation.

The Galaxy Z Flip 7 is the Flex you suppose it’s

Before I dive into the {hardware}, I want to debate the spotlight. Samsung — lastly — responded to market strain within the U.S. (and overseas) by bringing a big Cover Screen show to its flip telephone, and thank goodness. The earlier two generations additionally had bigger screens, however that they had odd notches in them to accommodate the digicam modules, whereas everybody else was simply slicing the show across the cameras.

One of the primary issues you must do if you get this telephone is allow apps to run on this show. The drawback is, it takes 13 steps to do it, and until you are a geek (which, admittedly, for those who’re studying this evaluation, you is likely to be), most individuals will not hassle. That’s honest, however you may be going into this combat with one hand tied behind your again.

The Z Flip 7 has a bigger exterior show with ultra-thin bezels.
Credit: Adam Doud / Mashable

The 4.1-inch AMOLED display is massive, beautiful, and may completely be used to the fullest. Like the primary show, it has 2,600 nits of peak brightness and a 120 Hz refresh price. Not all apps can deal with the Cover Screen (confusingly, Samsung additionally refers to this display because the Flex show and/or FlexWindow), however a lot of them will. The excellent news: when you do these 13 steps, you are accomplished twiddling with settings. You can merely add the apps that you really want. The unhealthy information: Samsung does not really need you to do it in any respect. You is likely to be questioning what I imply by that.

A hobbled expertise

If Samsung needed you to run apps on your private home display, it would not require you to enter the Labs part of your settings and set up a separate app from the Galaxy retailer to do it. It would not drive you to make use of the Samsung keyboard on the Flex show, with its lack of voice typing, no matter which keyboard is your default keyboard (Gboard FTW). Plus, if I needed to see “open your phone to continue” another time, I used to be able to throw the telephone out the window whereas driving in a automotive via central Illinois.

Credit: Adam Doud / Mashable

Everything from including apps to the launcher to organising widgets, to reordering widgets, all needs to be accomplished with the telephone open, for some purpose. It makes me unhappy.

Once you’re employed round these picadillos and get right down to enterprise, the quilt display itself is gorgeous. Most apps work nicely on there, together with Gemini and Gemini Live, which is a enjoyable solution to work with Google’s AI. The show additionally goes proper as much as the sting of the telephone.

The remainder of the {hardware}

Samsung constructed a very strong telephone right here, and it is nice to make use of. The casing is armor aluminum, and the hinge has been redesigned this 12 months, slimming down the telephone only a bit. The {hardware} is extra squared off than Motorola’s Razr, which may make one-handed opening somewhat tougher. But it is tight and useful. When you shut the telephone, you’ll accomplish that with one of the satisfying “Thwaps” you have ever heard. Speaking of which, it makes hanging up on individuals far more satisfying than it already was. 

While utilizing the telephone, you will not discover the hinge on the primary show.
Credit: Adam Doud / Mashable

The buttons on the aspect of the telephone aren’t raised by a lot, which may make it onerous to find them with out wanting. I typically missed the fingerprint sensor within the energy button as a result of I had bother discovering it. But the remainder of the {hardware} is totally strong. The 6.9-inch AMOLED predominant display can be bigger than earlier generations at 6.9 inches. The display has the identical teardrop form closing that minimizes the crease, which you’ll see however will not care about.

The telephone is powered by a 4,300 mAh battery that is simply 100 mAh smaller than its bigger sibling, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7. As such, it may possibly simply final all day, particularly for those who carry out most duties on the quilt display. I seen the telephone tended to run sizzling, however solely after I was already exterior baking in a water park or on the St. Louis Zoo, so I believe the climate was simply as possible at fault because the telephone itself.

The software program on the within

Having talked in regards to the software program on the quilt display, the software program when open is… mainly the identical as every other Samsung telephone. OneUI 8.0 is constructed onto Android 16, making these telephones the primary to ship with Android’s newest working system. That’s no shock — Google and Samsung have been joined on the hip for some time now. OneUI 7 was a divisive working system as a result of plenty of Samsung customers preferred how their telephones labored earlier than it rolled out (my spouse amongst them).

Personally, I cherished OneUI 7.0 as a result of it introduced again the vertical scrolling app drawer and the Pill, which apes Apple’s Dynamic Island in plenty of nice methods. OneUI 8 provides all these advantages and takes issues a step additional, bringing 90:10 multitasking to the telephones. What meaning is you’ll be able to run two apps, one on prime and one beneath, however you’ll be able to transfer the separator so that you solely see 10 % of one of many apps. Tap that 10 % and the app pops as much as turn into the 90 %, and vice versa. It works higher on the Galaxy Z Fold 7, but it surely’s additionally fairly good on the Flip 7. 

Credit: Adam Doud / Mashable

When you half-fold the Flip, you activate Flex Mode, which helps you to profit from the foldable design. In Flex Mode, the app lives within the prime half of the display, and the underside half turns into a type of management panel in supported apps. In YouTube, for instance, the underside half will get a play bar and play controls, which is fairly neat.

I additionally love that Dex is obtainable on the Flip7. Samsung Dex mainly turns your telephone right into a CPU if you join a monitor, mouse, and keyboard to it. It provides you a home windows interface just like Windows. I spent a while with Dex on my journey to St Louis, however more often than not I’m utilizing Dex is on long-haul flights, getting some work accomplished with a set of Xreal One glasses. Now that may be a rollicking good time and I’m completely happy Samsung’s smaller foldable has that functionality.

We have to speak in regards to the AI

Credit: Adam Doud / Mashable

The Flip 7 has plenty of the identical AI tips as different Samsung telephones, together with digicam tips and AI photograph enhancing, akin to shifting topics round or utilizing generative AI to fill within the background. Two notable enhancements embrace Gemini on the Flex display, together with Gemini Live. That’s a pleasant bonus. Gemini Live additionally works with the exterior digicam (when the telephone is open, to be clear) to turn into multimodal. At the St. Louis Zoo, I might level the digicam at an animal and ask what I used to be taking a look at, and in each case, it was right, which was stunning, to be completely trustworthy.

What was somewhat annoying was how chatty Gemini Live would get. “That’s an Asian Elephant! You can tell by the size of the ears. Would you like to know more about the Asian elephant? Do you have any questions about it? Please for the love of all things holy talk to me!” That’s not an actual quote, however you get the purpose.

The different AI options, like Samsung’s Now bar, additionally seem on the Flex display, even when the Now Brief remains to be lower than good. It nonetheless returns information tales that are not related to me. It saved me updated with the climate at the same time as I traveled, so that was good, however I nonetheless haven’t got a lot use for it.

Battery life and efficiency

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 comes with an Exynos 2500 processor constructed on a 3nm course of, just like flagship processors from Qualcomm and Mediatek. This is Samsung’s homegrown silicon. What’s odd this 12 months is that each one Flip 7s will likely be sporting the Exynos processor. In the previous, Z Flip telephones offered abroad had Exynos whereas the U.S. variations had Snapdragon processors. Because of this, we all know that Snapdragon often outperforms Exynos. This 12 months, we won’t make that comparability, but it surely’s honest to say historical past isn’t on Samsung’s aspect.

Geekbench is a benchmark device you should utilize to get an thought of how a processor performs. Geekbench returns scores of two,354/7,340 single/multi-core scores on the Flip 7. For context, the Snapdragon 8 Elite within the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 returns a 2,430/8,823 rating, so it does not precisely blow it out of the water. Day to day, the one actual stutters I famous have been within the digicam software program sometimes, and typically when operating a number of home windows in Dex. They have been minor hiccups, however nonetheless noteworthy.

Credit: Adam Doud / Mashable

As for battery life, regardless of spending all day, most days out and about, away from Wi-Fi and in sizzling temperatures in addition to, the telephone by no means died earlier than bedtime. I would not name this a multi-day telephone, but it surely’s very not unhealthy, and you will get much more mileage out of it for those who use the quilt display as typically as attainable.

Cameras are nearly as good as your lighting

There are three cameras on this telephone, however you may solely actually ever want to make use of two of them.

To be trustworthy, I did not discover a lot use for the 10MP selfie digicam.

One of the important thing advantages to utilizing a flip-style foldable telephone is the flexibility to show the Cover Screen right into a preview window for taking selfies. The hinge may be very inflexible, so you’ll be able to even use the telephone as its personal tripod and use gesture controls to take pictures and movies. I took a bunch of enjoyable selfies on the St. Louis Arch, Meremec caverns, and all factors in between utilizing that flex hinge, and I received some nice pictures. You also can maintain the digicam half open at a 90-degree angle for a camcorder grip for those who’re nostalgic (a function you may additionally discover within the Motorola Razr Ultra). 

Credit: Adam Doud / Mashable

Credit: Adam Doud / Mashable

The outcomes you get will likely be extremely dependent in your lighting situations. For instance, at Six Flags throughout the day, my pictures have been sensible. Meremec Caverns and the St. Louis aquarium have been each a bit hit and miss. I’d suggest that for those who’re in low-light situations, take plenty of pictures (to extend your odds of getting one) and ensure your topics are as nonetheless as attainable. Photos of stalactites are going to be superb. Photos of the individuals standing in entrance of them, not a lot.

The digicam software program gives pictures of as much as 10x, however you’ll by no means need to go that prime. In my expertise, the 4x zoom is usable; at 10x you lose all depth and texture. The pictures is likely to be OK for social media, however usually, you may need to keep away from these. As typically as not, they are not good.

Left:
Credit: Adam Doud / Mashable

Right:
Credit: Adam Doud / Mashable

Left:
Credit: Adam Doud / Mashable

Right:
Credit: Adam Doud / Mashable

I additionally noticed a stunning quantity of grain in plenty of my lower-light pictures. Samsung is often fairly good at cleansing these issues up in low mild, however even a number of the daytime pictures, notably ultrawide and macroshots, ended up grainy in darker areas.

Shooting video is far the identical, although much less forgiving. Low-light video isn’t horrible with the primary digicam, however do not transfer or stroll whereas capturing. The judder will get fairly unhealthy if you begin strolling. Good pictures are attainable at the hours of darkness, however that is extra the exception than the rule.

Credit: Adam Doud / Mashable

Overall, this can be a fairly good digicam setup that does very nicely within the day, and even when the solar is beginning to go down. Find your self in a cave — as one does — and your outcomes will fall into the vary of “mixed bag” right down to “dumpster fire.”

So, is the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 value it?

Flip telephones are actually enjoyable. I like utilizing them, particularly when taking selfies with the primary digicam. You can do this with the Fold 7, however holding that telephone open is awkward. Holding a tiny little pocket sq. in your hand is a lot simpler and a significantly better expertise. For $1,099, I feel you’ll like this telephone, too. Plus, it is cheaper than its major competitors, the Motorola Razr Ultra, which has a comparable digicam and a better price ticket.

There are some corners minimize right here. The Exynos processor isn’t unhealthy (Motorola’s flagship foldable has a Snapdragon processor), however not one of the best you should purchase. I can not hate on Samsung’s cowl display software program an excessive amount of as a result of it is a curated expertise that Samsung desires you to have, and it actually solely makes me unhappy as a result of I’m a nerd. The cameras are superb for this class, although it would not harm Samsung to take some notes from abroad opponents.

So, do you have to purchase the Z Flip 7? Again, for those who’re a fan of the shape issue, that is probably the most compelling foldable on provide right here within the United States. If you are already taking a look at one thing just like the Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus, this one folds in half for less than $100 extra. I like what Samsung has lastly accomplished right here, catching as much as its contemporaries and restarting a contest battle through which the patron will in the end win.

Where to purchase the Galaxy Z Flip 7

You should purchase the Z Flip 7 at Samsung, Amazon, and Best Buy (or simply about anywhere that sells telephones) for $1,099.99. The base model solely comes with 256GB of storage, however for those who decide up this telephone at Amazon, you will get a $200 reward card at no additional price, which is difficult to argue with.

At Samsung Galaxy Unpacked, Samsung additionally debuted a mid-range model of the F Flip 7, following Motorola’s lead. The Galaxy Z Flip 7 FE gives a lot of the similar options for $899.99.