Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip series tempted me more than the Z Fold. Perhaps this flip-phone is catching nostalgia; maybe it’s because I don’t want to watch the video inside the square; maybe it’s just the Z Flip’s more palatable price.
The Z Flip series has been launched in tandem with the Z Fold for several years now, but often with specs that put it below every other flagship family, including the traditionally shaped Galaxy S family. That changes this year, with Samsung addressing some of the Z Flip 5’s biggest shortcomings: battery life and mediocre cameras.
This is a good thing. As we mentioned in our article Z Fold 6 review, there’s more foldable competition than ever. In fact, against Motorola’s latest foldables, Samsung does anythingis it enough
SAMSUNG
While the Z Flip 6’s design remains largely the same, Samsung has made a few under-the-hood upgrades this year with improved battery life and cameras. This is the best case for basic folding devices, but the company could do more, especially when using a secondary front screen.
- Better cameras
- Longer battery life
- Fun generative AI tricks
- More expensive than its predecessor
- The design is almost the same as last year
- Limited front screen utility
- Poor charging
Design and display
Visually, you’d be hard-pressed to tell the difference between the Z Flip 6 and last year’s Z Flip 5, with only some minor design changes. The improved camera array now has a metal rim around each lens, and this year the sides are flatter, compatible with the design of other 2024 Galaxy devices. There’s also a noticeable reduction in thickness when the device is closed, likely down to the newer hinge design. Compared to my old Z Flip 5, the crease is once again less noticeable this year.
While the screen dimensions and resolution remain the same, the Z Flip 6’s main display is 2600 nits compared to the Z Flip 5’s display’s 1750 nits. Samsung claims it’s its brightest foldable display yet, and it’s more than enough to handle the UK’s temperamental summer weather. This is another crisp, smooth, beautifully flexible AMOLED.
The Z Flip 6’s flip display is the same size, brightness and resolution as its predecessor. Does it look as good as the Moto Razr 50 Ultra? I don’t think so, but there’s enough screen real estate to read notifications, frame your photos, and even watch videos.
Also, if you’re worried about the hardness of your new foldable screen, Samsung’s new Z Assurance program is worth mentioning. It’s offering a one-time free replacement of the factory-installed screen protector on Samsung’s Z Flip 6, and even a one-time discount on screen replacement if the worst happens.
As far as utility goes, the Z Flip 6 lacks Flex Window, despite having more widget support (and room for more). do enough. Notifications are still far away and the wide screen (introduced last year) offers enough space to take a selfie without opening the device.
Samsung’s software innovations, such as AI-powered translation, take advantage of the dual-screen Z Flip 6 to show what’s being said in both directions. It’s generally pretty accurate, and combining audio and text should help reduce misunderstandings and mistranslations.
Galaxy AI also powers new photography features tied to the cover screen. AutoZoom takes at least some of the frame’s guesswork out of setting up the Z Flip for time-lapse photography or video recording without direct control, and it works well, crowding out friends or cropping out to focus on your group. Editing and resizing the Flex Window is still unnecessarily complicated. Other features are hidden in the Labs section of settings, and there aren’t enough widgets for a device in its fifth iteration. (Samsung never launched the Z Flip 2.)
But when other foldables offer a cut-down version of your home screen and can (with mixed success) run most apps, some new widgets just aren’t enough. Fortunately, the Samsung Labs settings can run several apps on the cover screen, including YouTube, Netflix, WhatsApp, and Google Maps. It’s a start, but if the cover screen could handle video streaming, I could certainly get a Kindle reading app or a stripped down version of Chrome. If only Samsung would take it further. (There are some tools and apps to work around this, many Galaxy Z Flip users swear by Good Lock, but I don’t want to work around this limitation.)
The Z Flip 6 also gets a RAM upgrade this year, up from 8GB to 12GB last year. Like the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and S24, it has a powerful Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor, and I didn’t notice any performance issues during testing.
Cameras
The main camera sensor on this year’s Z Flip has finally been upgraded to 50 megapixels, putting it on par with this year’s Galaxy S24. It’s better, but it doesn’t quite match the capabilities of flagship camera phones like the Pixel 8 Pro, S24 Ultra, or iPhone 15 Pro.
Putting the Z Flip 6 up against the Z Flip 5, I was surprised at how well the images matched each other. Roughly speaking, if I chose to shoot full 50-megapixel shots on the Z Flip 6, it offered more fidelity than the Z Flip 5. If I shot at 12MP on the Z Flip 6, there was often little difference between the two foldables. The newer phone was less prone to blowing out an entire image when everything was brightly lit. It’s also more reliable in low-light situations, especially when you choose the 12MP setting, allowing the phone to process those extra pixels for a more detailed shot. The Z Flip 6 seemed more capable of picking out finer details, whether it was blades of grass or the soft contours of this patient dog.
The bigger advantage of this large sensor is that the Z Flip 6 can zoom in on a 50MP image by cropping it down to 12MP. You can take great pictures with 2x or even 4x zoom without a special telephoto lens.
Not surprisingly, thanks to Samsung’s processing, the higher-resolution sensors on the Z Flip 6 perform better in low light than last year’s model. Samsung’s image processing was a little too aggressive at times, with clothing and skylines often marred by crease lines and artifacts. It’s not really a leap beyond the Z Flip 5’s cameras, but it wasn’t a terrible imaging setup in the first place. This form factor allows you to use these high-resolution cameras for any selfie or video call, meaning nothing else comes close in terms of quality.
Galaxy AI features come in folds
Samsung’s Galaxy AI software is coming to its foldable devices this year, and the company continues to add and improve. Along with Chat Assist for texting and emailing, the fantastic Google Circle to Search is here, making it easy to explore virtually anything you’re looking at on your phone. These are the camera features I was most impressed with – and pretty much the only Galaxy AI tricks I used with any regularity.
Samsung’s AI-enhanced photo editing tools are easy to use and right where you need them. After opening a photo, you tap on Samsung’s AI glow icon and circle them to select objects. You can then delete your selection or move it to a better location and give the AI button another click, letting Samsung’s AI fill in the blanks.
Unlike the cumbersome widget menus and settings for the front display, it’s very easy to use and does what you want it to do. There is a “view original” button to compare your images after using AI.
Then there’s the delightfully distracting Sketch to image. If you draw a few curved lines or try to draw something specific, Galaxy AI will create an object and apply it to your photo, often in a photorealistic way. Sometimes it even hits nails.
Galaxy phones will add an “AI-generated content” watermark, but the bigger signs of AI objects and editing were scale (hello, giant gas), blurred outlines, or physics rules.
I was surprised at how capable Samsung’s image generation is. Sketching the ghost behind the mesh barrier (successfully!) created my ghost behind the barrier. He would also apply appropriate highlights and shadows for some unusually precise results. Previous dog photo? There was no ball there. Also: lots of photorealistic white hats. It was a shame that I couldn’t change the color of these elements or offer some text-based guidance to recognize my posts. It’s a gimmick, of course, but it’s a good one. Days later, I still use it a lot. It’s a lot of fun.
Not all AI features are so successful: Portrait Studio will automatically detect people’s photos and offer multiple AI-generated drawings/sketches and 3D renderings, all of which make me look like every other white male tech journalist in glasses. Which is harsh but fair.
Battery life: Better, not great
The Z Flip 6 has a larger 4000 mAh battery, and the biggest weakness of the Z Flip series is that it lasts all day, especially during heavy use. Z Flip 6 passes through here. Using it as my primary phone, it lasted through a day of heavy use, always staying at about 10 percent around 10 p.m. I still kept the charger on me, worried I wouldn’t make it to the evening.
In our video summary test, it played for more than 13 hours on the main screen. Unfortunately, the frustratingly slow charging speed is still here. The Z Flip 6 can charge up to 25W, and after years of higher charge rates, I felt it needed time to recharge. It took two hours to fully charge from empty. For comparison, the S24 Ultra can charge up to 45W, while the Pixel 8 Pro can charge up to 40W. I think this would be less of an issue if I wasn’t worried about the Z Flip 6’s battery going the distance.
Foldable devices have typically consumed less power over the years due to how the battery cells are arranged inside the foldable device. However, if the 2024 Motorola Razr+ is capable of 45W, why can’t the Z Flip 6?
Collection
Samsung’s Z Flip series remains the most realistic flagship option when it comes to challenging the smartphone slate status quo. The latest model is a pleasure to use and it’s satisfying to fold up and slip into your pocket. The Z Flip 6 also has better cameras, improved battery life and comes with all the Galaxy AI features that have been shaping up to be Samsung’s USP smartphone.
Perhaps the focus on artificial intelligence meant that the cover display barely evolved from last year’s Z Flip – especially annoying given that the Z Flip 6 costs $100 more than its predecessor. While you can use the experimental features to enable YouTube playback and access to Google Maps, it’s a little difficult, especially when competitors like Motorola have proven that more is possible on the secondary screen of a foldable display.
