Samsung has finally announced the launch of its latest foldable smartphone, the Galaxy Z Flip, in India. The smartphone comes with a price tag of Rs 1,09,999 and it is available for pre-orders starting from today, while delivers for pre-booked units will start on February 26.
With this, Samsung is at the forefront of introducing new foldable mechanisms to its consumers. The company introduced Galaxy Fold with horizontal folding display earlier and now, it has come up with a vertical folding mechanism with Galaxy Z Flip. The smartphone comes loaded with a host of interesting features. But does the premium price tag justify itself? Should you consider this smartphone as your next companion? We spent some time with the phone and here’s everything you need to know about the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip.
Design
The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip comes loaded with a vertical folding mechanism. The back panel is loaded glass finish and the phone is available in three colour options including Mirror Black, Mirro Gold and Mirror Purple. The phone comes with a Hideaway Hinge that allows it to fold in vertically and it also provides a range of angles similar to a laptop screen. The phone, in the unfolded state, is quite compact (almost like the shape of a small wallet). However, the moment you unfold the device, you will see a rather tall display. The display is so tall that it comes one-handed usage impossible. So, if you have long or short fingers, it does not matter as most of the time you will be needing two hands to operate this device.
One drawback we found in the design was the smudges. Yes, the smartphone easily gets smudged with fingerprints and dust. Most of the time, you will have to carry o cloth to clean the display and the back panel of the Galaxy Z Flip. Coming to the folding design, it feels solid and you will enjoy folding and unfolding the Galaxy Z Flip, though you need to do it with a good grip.
Flex Mode
The Hideaway Hinge also paves the way for a new feature known as Flex Mode. In this mode, when the display is opened half, it automatically splits into two 4-inch screens so that one can easily view content or videos on the top half of the display and control them on the bottom half. ‘
This makes it quite interesting as one can take those late-night timelapse videos without a tripod. Just open it halfway and place it on a stable surface. Furthermore, one can also view YouTube videos on the top-half and view comments on the second. That said, the Flex Mode sure looks interesting, though the App compatibility is quite limited. This mode is only supported in the Camera app, YouTube and Google Duo. There is no clarity on when more apps will support this mode.
Cover Display
Another interesting thing about the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip is the new cover display. The phone comes with a 1.1-inch Super AMOLED Display screen with 300 x 112-pixel resolution. The cover display basically showcases date and time along with notifications. You can tap on the notification and open the phone to view it.
Furthermore, one can also control music with the cover display. Most importantly, you can take photos using the rear camera. All you need to do is double press the power button and the cover display will act as a viewfinder for clicking photos. However, it is next to impossible to view anything from the viewfinder, especially when you taking a photo in a group or something.
Display
On the display front, the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip is loaded with a 6.7-inch Full HD+ Dynamic AMOLED Infinity Flex display with a screen Resolution of 2636 x 1080 pixels along with 425ppi pixel density. The display comes with a punch-hole design, similar to what we have seen in other Samsung smartphones. However, the flexible display comes with a tall aspect ratio of 22:9. This makes it difficult to reach the corners of the screen.
That said, you will feel the crease in the middle of the screen, which might look odd at first, but you will get used to it. The company has revealed that it is using Ultra-Thin Glass (UTG) along with a protective layer on top of it. It is not advisable to remove the protective layer and you have to be careful with the display as a scratch or deep mark can spoil the display.
Hardware
The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Processor along with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage. It is good to see that Samsung is opting for a flagship Qualcomm Chipset for its Galaxy Z Flip foldable smartphone. During our brief testing, we found out that the smartphone’s performance was smooth and multitasking was a breeze. However, we haven’t played any game on this smartphone, so we cannot tell the gaming experience for the Galaxy Z Flip.
Software
On the software front, the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip runs on Android 10 with OneUI 2.0 running on top of it. The user interface is similar to what we have seen in other Samsung smartphones. The Galaxy Z Flip comes with Samsung Knox security protection along with Samsung Pay for contactless payment. Multi-tasking is quite interesting in this smartphone as it takes full advantage of the tall aspect ratio. One can also customise the size of the split-screen, which is a useful feature after all.
Camera
On the camera front, the Galaxy Z Flip is loaded with a dual-camera setup on the rear with a combination of 12-megapixel dual pixel sensor with f/1.8 Aperture and a 12-megapixel wide-angle lens with 123-degree Field of View and f/2.2 aperture. For the front, the phone will be loaded with a 10-megapixel selfie camera with f/2.4 aperture and Autofocus feature.
The camera app takes advantage of Flex Mode. With this, you can use the top half of the screen as a viewfinder, while the bottom half can be used to zoom in or out, change camera modes and more. It is fun to use the zoom feature, though the slippery nature makes it a bit difficult to zoom in one go.
Battery
The smartphone is loaded with a 3,300mAh battery with 15W Fast charging support and it also comes with wireless charging support. The company has also given an option to charge other devices like wireless earbuds or fitness Band and more through wireless PowerShare. The battery might be an issue as the high-resolution screen and all the features will sure put stress on the battery performance.
Security and Connectivity
The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip comes with a side-mounted fingerprint sensor, which also acts as a power button. The fingerprint sensor is quite fast to unlock the device (faster than the company’s in-display fingerprint sensors) and the face unlocks works just fine. The only problem we felt was the placement of the fingerprint sensor. It was a bit uncomfortable to reach for the fingerprint sensor. On the connectivity front, it supports Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (2.4/5GHz),VHT80 MU-MIMO,256QAM, Bluetooth v 5.0 (LE up to 2Mbps), ANT+, USB Type-C, NFC, Location (GPS, Galileo, Glonass, BeiDou).
Should you buy it?
So, is worth to buy the new Samsung Galaxy Z Flip? The smartphone is more like a lifestyle product rather than a hardware machine. The foldable smartphone is targeted to that audience, which loves to try new technology and flaunt about it. So, if you have enough bank balance and want to flaunt a new kind of smartphone in front of your friends or foe, then Galaxy Z Flip is meant for you. Otherwise, one can always wait as it is just the first generation of the foldable screen and the coming generations will be more stable and cheaper.