Samsung‘s new clamshell foldable for 2024, the Galaxy Z Flip 6, looks pretty cool. It’s sleeker and comes with a bunch of cool upgrades. Despite the higher price, it seems worth the extra cost. It gets upgraded cameras, a brighter screen, a more rigid design, a bigger battery, 12GB of RAM, the latest Snapdragon chip, improved cooling, Galaxy AI features, and a promise of seven years of updates. But in the real world, is the Galaxy Z Flip 6 the foldable phone we’ve all been waiting for, or should we wait a bit longer to see what Samsung has in store for the future?
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip6 Pros and Cons
Pros
- Enhanced productivity
- Improved AI Features
- Solid performance
- Vibrant displays
- Excellent stabilization
- Durable design
- Improved battery performance
- 7-years Software updates promised
Cons
- Expensive
- Outer screen not suitable for running apps
- No expandable storage
- Slower charging
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip6 Review: Design and Build
The Z Flip6’s design has evolved slightly but is a small change from its predecessor. The aluminum frame now has a brushed finish, and the main cameras have some accent rings, but that’s it. The size and weight are almost the same as before, though it’s a bit thinner when folded. It comes in Blue, Silver Shadow, Mint, and Yellow paint jobs.
The phone is tall when open and has a 22:9 aspect ratio, which is not a big deal, but reaching the top of the screen might require using your other hand. Also, the side buttons and fingerprint reader are a bit hard to reach because of the phone’s design.
The crease on the Flip6 is less noticeable this time, but it might become more noticeable over time. At 187 grams of weight, it feels comfortable while being used for long hours.
The Z Flip 6 is built tough. It has a Gorilla Glass Victus on top of the front screen. As you unfold it, you will feel the hinge is solid and sturdy, allowing you to bend the phone to any angle and hold it steady.
It’s like a submarine door – made to handle pressure. It comes with an IP48 rating, which is better than its predecessor in terms of protection against dust and dirt, and can survive in fresh water for 30 minutes at up to 1.5m of depth.
Samsung Galaxy Flip6 Review: Displays and Audio
The Galaxy Z Flip6 has a 6.7-inch display that can bend in half and a smaller 3.4-inch screen on the cover for easier tasks. Both screens are OLEDs. The main display supports a 120Hz refresh rate, while the cover panel is limited to 60Hz. The maximum brightness exceeds 1100 nits, making it easy to see even in direct sunlight. The display can dim down to 1 nit for comfortable late-night browsing or reading without straining your eyes.
The Galaxy Z Flip 3 cover screen is pretty handy, you know? It’s got widgets for weather, calendar, smart home stuff, and notifications. If you go to Samsung Labs in Settings, you can get apps like WhatsApp, YouTube, and Maps. It’s a bit tight for typing but great for quick messages and directions without opening the device. However, it could use more ways to personalize it and support more apps.
The phone’s color accuracy is impressive and aligns closely with the sRGB color space, while the grayscale accuracy is average. Additionally, the phone can adjust its refresh rate to match video frame rates and is compatible with HDR10 and HDR10+. It supports HDR streaming in apps like Netflix and YouTube and is certified for FullHD playback in DRM-protected content apps.
Flip phones are not known for being loudspeakers. There’s not much of an upgrade over the Flip 5. But it does seem a little clearer and more refined. As for the haptics, not much has changed from the previous model. Typing still gives you a nice buzz but it’s nothing fancy.
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip6 Review: Cameras
The camera on the Z Flip 6 is way better than the Flip 5. The Flip 5 had a 12MP main camera, which wasn’t great for its price. Samsung fixed this by adding a new 50MP main camera to the Flip 6, along with a 12MP ultra-wide camera and a 10MP front-facing selfie camera. The 50MP main camera captures detailed and noise-free photos during the day, with excellent dynamic range and well-balanced colors.
The photos also show more natural detail and less aggressive sharpening compared to the Flip 5. Plus, the 2x zoom on the Flip 6 performs much better than the Flip 5, especially for photographing people.
The Flip 6’s wide-angle camera has received some criticism, but it does a pretty good job overall. One downside is that it doesn’t have autofocus, so it struggles to take clear pictures of subjects closer than about 40cm. Despite this, it offers a good dynamic range and nice colors. The level of detail is solid but a bit oversharpened.
The Flip6 can shoot up to 4K videos using all its cameras. It doesn’t do 8K recording like the Fold6, but it has a Pro Video mode with a 24fps frame rate. It uses the H. 265 codec for video recording, and you can choose between quality or file size priority and enable HDR10+ capture. In the settings, you can turn off electronic stabilization.
The 4K videos from the primary and wide-angle cameras are similar to those of the Fold6, with good colors and dynamic range but lacking detail. However, the 2x zoom on the Flip6 gives much better results than the Flip5. The electronic stabilization does a great job of providing stability during movement and panning. The primary camera works well in low-light conditions, and the wide-angle and 2x zoom also deliver decent results.
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip6 Review: Software
The Galaxy Z Flip6 comes with Android 14 and One UI 6.1 on top. It’s got 40+ apps pre-installed including apps from Samsung, Google, and Microsoft. Samsung promises seven years of updates which is the longest for any flip phone in the country.
AI is trending these days and Samsung is working hard to stay ahead of the game with their Galaxy phones, along with some help from Google. The new Galaxy Flip6 has a bunch of cool features under the Galaxy AI umbrella, such as AI transcription, translation, and summarization for voice recordings, as well as PDF overlay translation.
While the Flip6 doesn’t have S Pen support, you can doodle with your fingers and use the Sketch to Image feature to doodle objects on top of images in the Gallery or Notes app and have AI replace them with actual objects.
The Interpreter feature for live translation now has a conversation mode designed specifically for the Z Fold6 and Z Flip6.
Photo Assist also has some enhanced AI-powered capabilities for photo editing, and there’s more to explore on the new Galaxy Z series.
The Composer feature in Samsung Keyboard allows you to write stuff for yourself based on simple keywords. With Circle to Search, you can just draw a circle on anything on the screen and search for it on the web.
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip6 Review: Performance
The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6 is rocking the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy, a top-of-the-line flagship processor. With 12GB of RAM, it’s a step up from last year’s 8GB RAM, and you can really feel the difference when multitasking. You can choose between 256GB and 512GB options, but unfortunately, there’s no option to expand the storage.
The Galaxy Z Flip 6 offers super smooth and robust performance, effortlessly handling all your demanding tasks. During our testing, we didn’t face any hiccups or issues, which is exactly what you’d hope for from a phone with such a powerful chip.
In our Geekbench 6 Single-Core test, the Galaxy Z Flip 6 scored 2247, a big improvement over the Galaxy Z Flip 5’s 1999. Its multi-core performance was just as impressive, with the Flip 6 scoring 6466 well ahead of the Galaxy Z Flip 5’s 5066. On Antutu, the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6 scored 15,97,572 with a jump of 12 percent in temperature and an 8 percent drop in battery.
The 3DMark Wild Life Stress Test benchmark further highlights Flip 6’s power as it scores a best loop score of 16106 and an overall stability of 43.1 percent.
When it comes to gaming, the Flip 6 handles it pretty well. Although it’s not a dedicated gaming device, the Z Flip 6’s large vapor chamber brings a noticeable improvement. After playing some graphics-heavy games like BGMI, Call of Duty, and Asphult 9, the temperature increased by around 6 degrees on average.
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip6 Review: Battery and Charging
The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip6 has a 4,000mAh battery that can last a whole day with regular use. The PCMark battery test lasted 9 hours and 46 minutes until dropping below 20 percent. When it comes to gaming, the difference in battery performance between the Flip6 and its counterpart is negligible. After playing games like BGMI, Call of Duty, and Real Racing 3 for 30 minutes each, the Flip6’s battery was reduced by 21 percent.
The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6 supports 25W wired charging and 15W wireless charging. However, you’ll need to purchase the compatible charger separately. Wired charging takes around 77 minutes to charge the device, from 20 percent to 100 percent.
Should You Buy the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip6?
Smartprix Rating: 8.1/10
Design:
Display:
Cameras:
Performance:
Software
Battery and Charging:
8/10
8/10
8/10
8/10
8.5/10
8/10
The Galaxy Z Flip 6 might not have as many upgrades as some would hope, but it’s more than just an iteration. With a better camera, bigger battery, improved hinge, and Galaxy AI features, it’s currently the best Samsung clamshell foldable. The Flip 6 also looks great, with flat edges, cool colors, and a durable feel. With 12GB of RAM and a speedy Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, it’s a strong contender for the best foldable phone of 2024. If you are looking for a clamshell foldable, you can certainly consider the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip6.
First reviewed in August 2024.
