This is a long term review of the new Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4.
It has been a little over a month since I received the new Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 and I have been putting it to the test since. I was looking forward to the review that I often watch the early reviews on YouTube before I receive the unit. And now, I have it. It has been over a month and this will be my full honest review on the new Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4.
Just like all the recent Samsung flagships, the Galaxy Z Flip4 comes in a thin box and doesn’t come with the charging brick. The only items you will get inside the box is the Galaxy Z Flip4 itself and the type-C charging cable along with the nobody-bother-to-read documentations. I received the Graphite colour variant and I am pleased with the colour selection. I love all the other colours available but somehow I prefer to have it in a dark tone for this one.
First look at the Galaxy Z Flip4
The unboxing process was very short and simple. There’s nothing much that I can unbox from the box other than the phone itself, a type-C charger and the documentations. But I was astounded by the familiar design as it looked quite similar to the third iteration of the Flip series. With all the similarities, tech reviewers will notice the differences between the Flip3 and the Flip4 the minute they hold the device. The most obvious difference for me is the size of the flip panel at the back. It is slimmer on the Flip4. It doesn’t protrude as much as before. That made it feel smaller when closed.
And the satisfying feeling of flipping and closing the Galaxy Z Flip4 shell is made better this time, thanks to it being more sturdy and solid. Closing the shell is so satisfying. It only snaps right at the end, just before touching the opposite shell. But I am still careful when handling the Galaxy Z Flip4. I never drop it, yet. I just feel that it needs that extra tender loving care when I hold it in my hand. One reason is that it is expensive. No denying that. And another reason is that I don’t want to damage the flip mechanism. That would be a big ouch to me.
But nonetheless, the Galaxy Z Flip4 is made to be waterproof. On the flip side, pun intended, it is not dust proof. The IPX8 rating is explained as the product is water resistant, but it is not dust proof. So if you’re out on the beach, be careful not to drop the Galaxy Z Flip4 in the sand. I also noticed that the crease in the middle where the display is being folded is slightly less obvious. But when I run my thumb across it while scrolling the pages, I can still feel it’s there. Some people are annoyed by this but I take it as it is. I know it’s a flip and this is bound to happen. So I’m basically okay with it.
When the shell is folded, the Galaxy Z Flip4 measures at 84.9 x 71.9 x 15.9-17.1 mm while it measures 165.2 x 71.9 x 6.9 mm when unfolded. At 6.9mm thickness, the Galaxy Z Flip4 feels super thin and slim. The Galaxy Z Flip4 is also narrow from the sides making it look “tall” when unfolded. Some of the pages on TikTok were being cropped at the sides because of this. That is one thing I noticed when using the Galaxy Z Flip4 to browse the now popular social media platform. This probably can be addressed with some software upgrades later on. Not a big issue for me anyways.
Display
The front cover display is Super AMOLED measuring at 1.9” with 260 x 512 pixels. It is protected by Gorilla Glass Victus+ so that it doesn’t break easily. You can customise the cover display to your liking right from the phone settings. I like to have it minimal and simple. You can go through the front cover widgets by tapping on the screen to activate it and swiping the screen to the left. You can customise the sequence for this as well, depending on which widget you want to see first before the other. As for notifications, it will display on the main screen momentarily before it disappears but you can view them again by swiping the screen to the right.
The inside display is gorgeous. It is a Foldable Dynamic AMOLED 2X, with up to 120Hz refresh rate and HDR10+. It also has a super high 1200 nits peak brightness that will blind you in total darkness. The internal display measures at 6.7” with 85.4% screen-to-body ratio at 1080 x 2640 pixels resolution. There is no other display that is as good as Samsung's AMOLED display. I will give them that. It just looks so good, especially at full 120Hz refresh rate while gaming. More on that later.
The Power and The Brain
To support it all, the Galaxy Z Flip4 will need all the power it can have. That is why it comes with the current greatest Snapdragon series, the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1. The 4nm processing power of the SD8+ G1 is still unmatched by many and has a reputation at being blazingly fast at graphic processing. It is obvious to see that I am a big fan of this chipset. And to support the awesome chipset, the Galaxy Z Flip4 is equipped with 8GB of RAM and up to 512GB of internal storage. The review unit I have is the base version with 128GB of storage. That is still a lot to start with.
Question here is, do I need more RAM? Providing only 8GB of RAM on the Galaxy Z Flip4 seems like not enough. But after more than a month of testing, I find that 8GB of RAM works really well even when multitasking. Nevertheless, it would be nice to have more RAM. Same goes with the camera. The Galaxy Z Flip4 comes only with a dual camera system. Do we all need a third one?
Just like the Flip3, the Galaxy Z Flip4 comes with an identical and similar looking dual camera system. I do notice that it has slightly bigger lenses on both cameras to bring in more light. The selfie camera is however, the same one from last year’s Flip3. But most of the camera improvements are being done on the software side instead of the hardware. Photos will turn out sharper with better colour balance across the board. Video performance has been improved as well. I notice better autofocus and tracking focus when shooting a moving subject. In my own personal opinion, having a dual camera system on the Galaxy Z Flip4 is just enough.
Usage
More can be done with the camera on the Galaxy Z Flip4. More fun stuff to be precise. Thanks to the gorgeous cover screen display, I can take selfies using the main rear camera with the help of the cover display to get myself in frame. Flip it open halfway and it can stand on its own. Leave your tripod at home because with the Galaxy Z Flip4, you don’t need it. The versatility of the Flip4 and its camera system will excite the social media influencers indefinitely. Even I got excited when I play around with the camera.
On another note, it is not all about fun and taking selfies. The Galaxy Z Flip4 is powerful enough to be a daily driver especially in multitasking. There are many ways that I can use the Flip4, one of which is to use it as my note taking app. Since I use Samsung Notes, all my previous notes from the other Samsung devices that I’ve reviewed are stored in the cloud. Therefore I can still access all my notes across any Samsung phones I’m using. Take note that I also have a Samsung tablet for my personal daily use. Pun intended, again.
Since the Galaxy Z Flip4 is a little narrow on the sides, reading articles on the web browser is very satisfying. I can see more text on the tall(er) screen and I realised that I do a lot more reading on the Galaxy Z Flip4 than on any other phone I have. Plus, the dynamic refresh rate keeps the screen animation smooth and lag-free.
Battery life has been improved too. The Galaxy Z Flip4 is fitted with a 3700mAh battery to power it up as opposed to 3300mAh on the Galaxy Z Flip3. It also supports faster charging at 25W to get up to 50% within 30 minutes, as advertised. As for the wireless charging, it has also been bumped up to support up to 15W from 10W on the previous Flip3. I do notice the significant difference in the wireless charging while using the compatible Qi charger. I got it up to 100% much faster than the Flip3. Overall, the battery performance is all good in my book.
Play Time
Just like Samsung’s other flagships, the Galaxy Z Flip4 also comes with a stereo speaker setup for an immersive entertainment experience. The immersive surround experience is powered by Dolby Atmos, a familiar sound system that is available on all Samsung’s flagship phones today. It would also be great to pair the Galaxy Z Flip4 with Samsung’s latest Galaxy Buds2 Pro to bring you the best of both worlds in audio and visual experience.
Love watching movies on your phone? You will be pleased with the Galaxy Z Flip4 as the screen is wider when viewed in landscape orientation. And the stereo speakers are loud and clear, with good deep bass to give that extra punch. With a display this good, you may never go back to watching regular TVs. Ok, I may exaggerate a little too much there but you’ll know what I mean when you actually use it for that purpose. I spent hours on YouTube and Netflix with this phone. I even ditched my Samsung tablet because the Galaxy Z Flip4 is much lighter and smaller to hold while lying down on my bed. And you do not want to drop a tablet on your face while watching any movies. Been there, done that.
If you’re into gaming, the good news is that the Galaxy Z Flip4 handles heavy graphics superbly. My usual PUBG Mobile feels flawless and super smooth, all thanks to the powerful SD8+ G1 chipset. The better news is that it is just as smooth when playing Genshin Impact, a game known to be very power hungry and is very demanding when it comes to graphic rendering. However on the bad side, the Galaxy Z Flip4 tends to heat up when playing graphic heavy games for a long time. That is one of my worries with this device. I think Samsung needs to look into this in their next generation upgrade.
On testing with Antutu, the Galaxy Z Flip4 passed my expectations with flying colours. I do expect it to breach the 800k mark but did not expect it to score high. At 876225 points, the Galaxy Z Flip4 placed itself among the best in the market at the moment. For such a “small” device, it comes with huge power. All I can say is that you can never go wrong with the Galaxy Z Flip4 this time. But of course, it can be better in some areas.
>> Next Page: Camera and Photography | Conclusion
Camera and Photography
Now we take a dive into photography and camera performance.
As I said earlier, the Galaxy Z Flip4 only comes with a dual camera setup. I don’t mind not having the telephoto camera as I probably won’t use it as much. I do prefer to have the ultra-wide angle camera instead. So to me, having just two camera setup is just nice. And both cameras are exactly the same as the one on the Galaxy Z Flip3, with some tweaks done on the software. Most likely the main 12MP wide angle camera has a few upgrades up its sleeves because I can see some improvements from the previous version.
Here are the specifications for the camera modules:
- Main camera: 12 MP, f/1.8, 24mm (wide), 1/1.76", 1.8µm, Dual Pixel PDAF, OIS
- Ultra-wide camera: 12 MP, f/2.2, 123˚ (ultrawide), 1.12µm
- Rear camera video: 4K - 30/60fps, 1080p - 60/240fps, 720p - 960fps, HDR10+
- Selfie camera: 10 MP, f/2.4, 26mm (wide), 1.22µm
- Selfie video: 4K - 30fps
I prefer to shoot photos at 4:3 ratio because I consider that as “full frame” format. If you’re into photography, you will know what I mean. Shooting at a 16:9 ratio may seem wider, but trust me, it’s not. On a smartphone, the 16:9 ratio is a cropped frame from the full 4:3 ratio. It simply cropped off the top and bottom of the frame to make it look wider, thus becoming a wider angle 16:9 ratio. And usually, you will lose some megapixels too. Now that’s a little tip from me. Hopefully it will be useful for you guys.
Now, using the camera on the Galaxy Z Flip4 is fun. You can simply flip it open halfway and place the phone on any flat surface to take a quick selfie. You don’t need to hold it or press any buttons as you can simply show your palm to take the picture. It is best to set the timer when taking selfies so that you can get ready to pose. Same goes with videos. You can either choose to use the internal selfie camera setup for this or turn the phone around to use the main higher quality cameras with the help of the front cover display to frame your shots. Trust me, the front cover display comes in very handy.
The versatility is endless. And since the Galaxy Z Flip4 is also waterproof, you can stand outside when it rains for a nice rainy day video shoot. It’s more dramatic that way and some people like to play in the rain (like me). But I wouldn’t dare to submerge the phone in a body of water although I know it is safe to do so. I just won’t risk it.
Taking photos on a bright sunny day is absolutely awesome. That is pretty much a no brainer. While being outside, we get tons of good light that can elevate the overall photo quality. With HDR mode turned on, you will get superb looking high quality DSLR-like photos without the need of any post editing. You will find that all of the photos taken with the Galaxy Z Flip4 in the photo gallery below are not edited in any way. Colours are punchy and vibrant, contrasts are well executed and the clarity is simply gorgeous. What I did was simply point and shoot. But of course I frame the photo nicely before I shoot.
My favourite mode will be the portrait mode. This is great when you have a subject such as your other half or your child or your cat. You can also capture portrait shots on inanimate objects like your car or your Star Wars figure collections. In portrait mode, you will get that gorgeous bokeh effect where the subject remains in focus while the background and foreground is blurred. The transition between the subject and the background blur is well executed with the Galaxy Z Flip4. I only notice tiny rough cuts when the background and surrounding areas around the subject look too busy. Else, it will turn up looking great 99% of the time.
As for the selfie photos, it turned out just as good but I can see that it’s a little rough around the edges when zoomed in. But overall, it’s great. With the Galaxy Z Flip4, I prefer taking selfies with the main camera anyway. But I did go live on TikTok using the selfie camera that one time and the live feed turned out looking better than I expected. That is another plus point for the Galaxy Z Flip4. However, I notice that the phone heats up when I shoot videos for a long period of time. I still don’t understand why Samsung has not addressed this matter since the Galaxy S21 Ultra. And I notice that the heat is coming from the camera modules. Anyone else notice this? Comment below.
If you’re into night photography or rather, nightography, I feel that the Galaxy Z Flip4 is good enough to match up with the other flagships that excel in this mode. I hardly noticed any noise on the photos and it managed to capture decent image quality in low light areas. There are two low light modes that you will notice. One is the auto-detected night mode by the camera software and the other is the actual night mode that you select from the sub-menu option. If you want your photos to look great in low lights, go with the actual night mode from the menu. With that, the camera app will be able to process the images better and optimise for night shots.
Enough of talking. Now you will get to see some photos taken with the Galaxy Z Flip4 from the gallery below.
Conclusion
I only have good things to say about the Galaxy Z Flip4 but it is not because I am trying to get on Samsung’s good side. My review is based on my daily use of it for more than a month and it is my honest review. There are some flaws that I’ve mentioned such as the problem with heating up after a long use with the camera. But the positive outweighs the negative for me and all I can say is that I am loving the Galaxy Z Flip4.
As to why I love it, that is based on my whole experience while using it. I love the versatility when using the camera. I can use either the selfie camera or the main camera for self portraits. In portrait mode, most photos turned up looking great as though it was taken with a DSLR at f/2.0. It’s good, not it can never match with a real camera lens. The thing is when I’m out and about for a photo walk, I can’t stop taking photos with the Galaxy Z Flip4. It is so much fun. Choose any mode in the sub-menu and you will like the results. Hint: Try the Super Slow-mo ;-)
Let’s not forget the top notch performance when it comes to multitasking and gaming. As a daily driver, the Galaxy Z Flip4 can do all the things you want it to do. The powerful chip set does not break a sweat when you’re out editing videos on the device and it renders the final cut quickly to give you an excellent outcome. If you like gaming, the level of smoothness during game play is flawless. I really enjoyed gaming on the Galaxy Z Flip4. The wider screen in landscape mode made it even better for some games.
Do take note that the Galaxy Z Flip4 will receive software support for the next 4 years and a promised OS update by Samsung. As I understand it, the Galaxy Z Flip4 will receive the updated OneUI 5.0 based on Android 13 this November. I am so looking forward to that and seeing what improvements are there for the Z series.
If you’re thinking of getting the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4, I would say go for it. The price point may be a little high for some but it will be worth it. You will also have the option to get the Galaxy Z Fold4 instead but I prefer the size and versatility of the Flip4. It’s cheaper and easier to carry around. There are so many colour options for the Galaxy Z Flip4 this time. And of course, there’s the Bespoke Edition as well where you can fully customise the colour and vibe of the phone as you like.
Go get it now at Samsung’s official web store. Price starts from RM4,099.00. If you get it now, you will also get a free Galaxy Watch 4 worth RM799 and Samsung Care+ 1 year extended warranty. I told you it’s worth it.
Know more about the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 here: https://www.samsung.com/my/smartphones/galaxy-z-flip4/
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