While many mobile brands are now entering the foldable smartphone market, Samsung recently released its latest fourth-generation Flip and Fold series smartphones. We get to review the new Samsung Galaxy Flip4 and here are our thoughts about the new foldable smartphone.
Design
The new Samsung Flip4’s design is very similar to the previous generation. When in its unfolded state, the smartphone is only 6.9mm thick. And when folded, the device is between 15.9 and 17.1mm thick. One thing that surprises me is that the new model weighs 187g, which is more than the previous Flip3’s 183g weight.
The smartphone features an aluminum frame and the speaker grills are located at the bottom of the device, along with the USB-C port and the mic holes. The speakers are tuned by AKG. On the right side, there is the volume rocker and the side-mounted fingerprint scanner that doubles as a power button. The SIM slot is located on the top-left side of the smartphone.
The main display of the smartphone is a 6.7-inch foldable Dynamic AMOLED 2X panel that has a native screen resolution of 1080 x 2640 pixels with 426ppi pixel density. The display also has a 120Hz refresh rate to showcase smooth animations when navigating through the menu, while browsing, or during gaming. However, I must mention that as in the previous generation, due to the nature of the design, the dust gets easily accumulated on the edges of the screen.
Samsung mentions that the Flip4 is durable enough to unfold and fold over 200,000 times and the test was counted by the Bureau Veritas. Well, we hope that you never get to cross that threshold over the number of times you unfold and fold the device. Speaking of which, there is the matter of the crease that needs to be checked. And with regards to the Flip4, the crease is barely noticeable unless you really try hard to look for it. When browsing the web or watching videos, the crease is not noticeable. However, when looking at a black background is used, you can slightly see the line.
The smartphone is easy to hold, fold and unfold with just one hand. When in its folded state, there is still a slight gap between both the upper and bottom half of the main screen. There is also the outer cover display that features a 1.9-inch Super AMOLED display with 260 x 512 pixels as its resolution. Both the main display and the cover display come with Gorilla Glass Victus+ for screen protection.
The device is also IPX8 certified for water resistance up to 1.5m with a duration of 30 minutes. Apart from the Bora Purple color that we have here, the Flip4 also comes in Graphite, Pink Gold, and Blue colors.
Performance
The Galaxy Flip4 is powered by Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 SoC, which is a step up from the Flip3’s Snapdragon 888 chip. The new octa-core processor features one Cortex X2 core clocked at 3.19 GHz, three Cortex A710 cores clocked at 2.75 GHz, and four Cortex A510 cores clocked at 1.80 GHz speeds. Along with the computing cores, the SoC also holds the Adreno 730 GPU for high-end smartphone gaming.
The review unit that we got came with 128GB of UFS 3.1 fast internal memory. However, the smartphone does not come with a MicroSD card slot for storage expansion. The Flip4 is available in 128GB, 256GB and 512GB storage models. And all of these models come with 8GB onboard RAM. The smartphone performed very well with no noticeable lags or slow-downs. The device runs on the latest Android 12 OS-based One UI Version 4.1.1.
We ran some benchmarks such as PCMark, 3DMark, and Geekbench 5. On our PCMark benchmark, we ran the Work 3.0 performance test and got a score of 14196. In our 3DMark tests, we ran the Wildlife benchmark and got a “Maxed-Out” score, along with the Wildlife Extreme test with an overall score of 2850 points. With the Geekbench 5 CPU test, our single-core score was 812 points, and the multi-core score with 3841 points. When testing the GPU, the OpenCL and Vulkan test scores are 6367 and 5982 points, respectively.
Camera
Unlike other flagships of the Samsung S-series line-up, the Flip4 only comes with two camera lenses that are located right next to the cover display. While both the cameras come with 12MP shooters, the primary snapper comes with a 1/1.76″ image sensor, an aperture of f/1.8, and 1.8µm as the pixel density for 24mm wide shots. The second 12MP snapper came with a sensor with a 1.12µm pixel density, along with an aperture of f/2.2 for ultrawide shots. The camera is designed to record 4K videos at both 30fps and 60fps modes, along with FHD videos up to 240fps. The main shooter also features Dual Pixel phase detection autofocus and optical image stabilization.
There is also a front-facing selfie camera that holds a 10MP sensor, along with f/2.4 as its aperture. The front camera is capable of also recording 4K videos, but only at 30fps. Samsung has also introduced the FlexCam mode, a hands-free camera experience that lets you capture group photos, selfies, and also videos. Thanks to the flex design, you will be able to use any angle while taking selfies or videos for social media applications. Users will also be able to use the main camera to take high-quality selfies and also use the cover display as a viewfinder to see a preview of their selfies.
Even while attending a video in a sitting-up position, the smartphone splits the video preview of other attendees of the meeting to the upper half, while the controls of the calls are on the bottom half. It’s perfectly optimized for apps such as Google Meet. Take a look at some of the photo samples we took with the Flip4 for day and night time.
Day-time shots
Night-time shots
Battery
As compared to the previous iteration, the Flip4 now comes with a bigger battery capacity of 3700 mAh, thanks to its dual battery setup. Samsung claims that the Flip4 also charges faster than its predecessor, thanks to the 25W that takes only half an hour for a full charge. The device also offers 15W fast wireless charging and also reverse wireless charging at 4.5W. We ran the PCMark Battery Work test and the smartphone ran for 11 hours and 36 minutes. During our normal usage, the device was able to last for about a day of use.
Verdict
If you are planning to purchase any of the latest foldable smartphones in the market with a flip-based design, then Samsung’s latest addition should not disappoint. The Galaxy Flip4 features a 6.7-inch Foldable Dynamic AMOLED 2X display with 120Hz as its refresh rate and 1080 x 2640 as its screen resolution. The device weighs 187g and comes with an aluminum frame. There is also a cover display with a 1.9-inch Super AMOLED panel. Both the main and outer display comes with Gorilla Glass Victus+ for resistance against accidental scratches.
The Flip4 also comes with two 12MP main cameras for normal and ultra-wide shots, along with a 10MP selfie camera with FlexCam mode. The main cameras are capable of recording 4K videos up to 60fps. The device is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 SoC, along with 8GB RAM, 128GB of fast storage, and runs on Android 12 OS-based One UI 4.1.1. And the 3700 mAh battery can last for almost a day of use, along with a 25W fast charge and 15W wireless fast charge.
