Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 Review (2024)

The third time was the charm for Samsung’s big-screen Galaxy Z Fold (and the Galaxy Z Fold 4 is even better), but the smaller, more popular Flip needed one more generation of development. The new Z Flip 4 ($999.99) overcomes the battery issues of its predecessor and is still as intriguing as ever. Samsung's mobile exec TM Roh keeps saying he wants foldables to be mainstream, and the Z Flip 4 is as close to that ideal as any yet; I’ve seen this phone at airports, on the subway, and even at a public bus stop outside a housing project in Queens. Yes, you're still paying a premium for the flippable form, but, if you like how the design keeps you focused on life off-screen, no other phone in the US offers quite the same experience.

A Very Touchable Phone

When it is closed, the Galaxy Z Flip 4 measures 3.34 by 2.83 by 0.67 inches (HWD). A new, flatter hinge design makes it slightly smaller and more pocketable than the Galaxy Z Flip 3 (3.38 by 2.83 by 0.67 inches, 6.45 ounces). The new model is a little heavier than the previous one at 6.6 ounces, but I didn't notice any practical weight difference, and the phone still feels sufficiently light to me.

The front display defaults to showing the time, but that's not all it does (Credit: Molly Flores)

The Flip 4 is available in four standard colors: Graphite, Pink Gold, Bora Purple, and Blue. Alternatively, you can also order a bespoke model with custom front and back-panel color combinations. For instance, you can add yellow, navy, red, khaki, or white elements into the mix for a total of 75 possible combinations. The bespoke model costs $40 more.

The front and back covers, which use Gorilla Glass Victus+, are particularly soft and smooth. It's soothing to glide my fingers across the device, and I enjoy having something to fidget with while testing the phone. As for durability, the handset features an IPX8 rating, which means it's fully water-resistant, but not dustproof. Other flagship phones, such as the Apple iPhone 13 and the Google Pixel 6, are fully dust- and water-resistant, but, then again, they don't feature a folding design.

Like on the Fold 4, the right side of the Flip 4 includes a power button and a volume rocker. The home button integrates a physical fingerprint sensor; it works quickly and accurately. A USB-C connector sits on the bottom, but you notably don't get a headphone jack here.

One thing you can't do with the Flip 4 is clack it open and closed one-handed, like with a classic flip phone of the aughts. The hinge is primed to stay stable at any angle, so you can lever the phone open with your thumb a bit, but the best method for unfurling the device is to hold the bottom half in one hand and smoothly open the other half with your other.

Open the phone fully to reveal the very tall 6.7-inch, 120Hz OLED panel with a 2,640-by-1,080-pixel resolution. The screen has an awkward 22:9 aspect ratio. For reference, most recent mainstream Galaxy S models sit somewhere between 19:9 and 20:9, so the Flip 4 is proportionally narrower. The screen is great for scrollable content like social media and webpages, but not ideal for playing games in landscape mode.

Samsung says the main screen glass is 45% stronger than that of the previous model. The folding crease is visible, but not really noticeable if you are looking at anything on the screen straight-on. Like the Galaxy Z Fold 4, a super-bright daylight mode ensures that the Flip’s screen remains usable outdoors.

Front and Centered

The key to the Flip 4 experience is its 1.9-inch front display with a resolution of 512 by 250 pixels; the specs haven't changed from the Flip 3, but new software features help encourage you to open the phone less often.

The three software highlights are message replies, the calendar widget, and Samsung Wallet. Like on a Galaxy Watch 5, you can now check your messages and deliver prewritten or audio replies directly from the front screen. The ability to check your calendar from the outside of the phone also kept me from flipping open the device quite as often.

The front screen can show your calendar, for instance (Credit: Sascha Segan)

Paying for things without opening your phone is another big advantage, but I'm a little confused as to why Samsung insists that you can add a driver's license, car key, vaccination card, or student ID in Samsung Wallet because the app doesn't yet support many services. Samsung Wallet accepted my vaccination card, but I couldn't add my driver's license yet; the car key integration is restricted to a small number of Hyundai and Kia models; and the only boarding passes it accepts are from Korean Air. Samsung needs to expand compatibility before it touts this feature.

Samsung also keeps emphasizing the device's Flex mode; you can enable this by folding the phone halfway into an L-shape. We like that the stance gives you a really stable platform for photos and that the phone conveniently kicks YouTube videos and such onto the top half of the phone. By double-tapping the power button, you can also use the front screen as a viewfinder to take selfies in this orientation.

Staying Alive

The biggest concern with the Z Flip 3 was poor battery life; its 3,300mAh battery only ran for about half a day in our experience. But I have good news: The Flip 4's 3,700mAh battery performs much better. It lasts longer on our video streaming battery rundown test (11 hours, 30 minutes compared with nine hours, 30 minutes). Plus, I estimate that the phone can run for between 22 and 26 hours per charge under normal usage. Just remember to charge the phone every night and you should be perfectly fine.

On the downside, the Flip 4, like the Fold 4, charges irritatingly slowly. Samsung claims a charging rate of 25W but, in testing, a McDodo cable showed a rate of only 15W (and declining over time) after we reached a 50% charge. This throttling is due to Samsung's concern about battery health, but it also means the phone takes nearly two hours to fully charge. That's cold comfort when you're about to head out to the club and realize you're at 26%. Competing slate-style phones, such as the OnePlus 10T, can fully charge in mere minutes.

The phone also supports 15W wireless charging and 4.5W reverse charging. And yes, you can charge the Flip 4 while it is folded. Check out our more in-depth story about Flip and Fold battery testing here for further details.

Some Performance Compromises

The Flip 4 runs Android 12 on top of the new Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset. Samsung says the device will get four years of Android feature updates and five years of security updates. We can’t stress enough that that’s the best in the business right now. The phone comes with 8GB of RAM and 128GB, 256GB, or 512GB of non-expandable storage.

Despite the Flip 4's flagship specs, it offers closer to midrange performance in testing. But, that's fine! Remember, this is a phone you are supposed to use less. Samsung opted for Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset with the advanced X65 modem not for its extreme power, which is put to better use on the Asus ROG Phone 6 and Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4, but for its extreme power efficiency. This choice pays off in our signal strength tests and, as mentioned, our battery rundown test.

The back is glass but has a brushed, matte feel (Credit: Molly Flores)

Samsung throttles the chipset severely when it's under load—more than I've seen on any other phone. Using the CPU Throttling Test app, I slammed the Flip's processor for 15 minutes and found that performance fell to about the level of the Galaxy S21. That's also fine! We also evaluated how well the phone ran Genshin Impact using the PerfDog software and averaged between 41fps and 42fps. That's much lower than the results we got with the Fold 4 (48.6fps) and OnePlus 10T (57fps) but, again, this isn't a gaming phone. We have a longer story about Galaxy Flip and Fold performance benchmarks that you should also check out.

Cell quality and cell signal results are pretty much the same as with the Galaxy Z Fold 4, which is to say excellent. The key player here is (again) Qualcomm's X65 modem, which, as we saw on the Galaxy S22 devices, significantly improves cellular performance in low-signal areas and improves the speed of recovery from dead zones. Like the Fold 4, the Flip 4 supports all of the current 5G bands from the three major US wireless providers, including millimeter-wave and AT&T's 3.54GHz mid-band. The device has one nano SIM slot with an additional eSIM option. For the full test results, read our story about Galaxy Flip and Fold signal testing.

The phone supports Wi-Fi 6, but not 6E. That's not a big deal, though, because very few Wi-Fi 6E routers exist. All the usual other standards—GPS, NFC, and Bluetooth 5.2—are here as well. The Flip doesn't offer the same ultra-wideband positioning system as the Fold 4, but that feature isn't overly important. For Bluetooth audio, the special Samsung seamless Bluetooth codec enables hi-res, 24-bit audio in combination with Samsung earbuds like the Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 Pro.

I didn't find multimedia playback nearly as compelling here as on the Fold 4. Specifically, the Flip's single, bottom-firing speaker produces much tinnier sound, and the earpiece doesn’t contribute enough volume to provide a real stereo experience. We recommend you use wireless headphones instead.

Camera Trade-Offs

The Galaxy Z Flip 4 sticks with a 12MP main camera and a 12MP ultra-wide sensor. It lacks the S22+'s 3x zoom lens, which means any photos you zoom in on will be a bit soft.

The cameras here are good, though you can pick out areas where the Z Fold 4 and Galaxy S22+ are better if you look closely. For instance, the edges of ultra-wide shots on the Z Flip 4 show a bit more distortion. Additionally, some night mode shots have a bit less depth of field.

It can be hard to tell the difference between shots from the Galaxy Flip (left), Fold (center), and S22+ (right) (Credit: Sascha Segan)

One particular area of concern is the quality of low-light photos from the front-facing camera; they aren't quite as sharp or well-balanced as those from the Fold and S22+. Selfies from the main camera are distinctly better, so you should take your selfies with the Flip closed.

The selfie camera (left) takes dull shots compared with the main camera (right) (Credit: Sascha Segan)

We have a more in-depth comparison of the Flip, Fold, and Galaxy S22+ cameras if you want to read more about the differences.

The Mainstream Foldable

The Galaxy Z Flip 4 is a fun, flirty phone that encourages you to slip it into a pocket and just live your life. In a lot of ways, it's the opposite of Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold 4 ($1,799.99), which demands your attention as a capable, multitasking machine.

You pay a premium for the innovative folding design, as well as give up some gaming power and image quality compared with the more typical S22+ ($999.99), but no other smartphone offers quite the same moderating experience or portability. The new Motorola Razr seems like a worthy alternative, but we need to wait for that phone to arrive stateside. And Apple is about to stop producing the very pocketable iPhone 13 mini ($699.99). That leaves the Flip 4 in a unique market position and earns it our strong recommendation, even though the Fold 4 gets the Editors' Choice nod between the two.