Having used the phone as my day-to-day for more than a week now, it’s obvious the latest of Samsung’s flip series, the Galaxy Z Flip4 had more ‘yays’ than ‘nays’. But ultimately, is this phone worth your money and time to upgrade (if you are an existing Flip user) or get accustomed to it? (if you are thinking of trying out the Flip series for the first time).

TLDR: If I am to narrow it down to two aspects I loved the most about the phone, it would be its flagship-level performance and flipping structure and I’ll share in a moment below why that is. The one major dislike or concern about the phone is definitely the battery life that could be better.

Price and Model

Specs Overview

Design and Build

As I’ve said previously in my Quick Impression write-up about the phone, the Galaxy Z Flip4 looks almost identical to its older Z Flip3 sibling from last year except for the noticeable raised bumps circling the camera lenses that serve as the lens’ protection. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing depending on how you see it because the Z Flip3 was a beautifully designed device and having the Flip4 inheriting that quality means we are still getting a beautiful phone.

Colour-wise, the phone comes in 4 colours, Graphite (Black), Pink Gold, Blue, and the brand’s now famous signature colour, Bora Purple. For this review, we got the graceful-looking Pink Gold model that looked really elegant with a smooth hazy surface finish surrounded by its sleek Aluminium frame.

For those of you who want more colour options, you can even customise your own Z Flip4 colour scheme, there is the Bespoke Edition of the phone that allows you to do just that. You can choose between customise the phone into 3 colour tones if you want; one for each panel (top and bottom) as well as the hinges’.

Weighing at just 187g and the dimension of 71.9mm x 165.2mm x 6.9mm in its unfolded form, the Flip4 is quite light and slim. In its folded form, the phone has a dimension of 71.9mm x 84.9mm x 17.1mm and one of the biggest practical advantages of having a phone that folds into half for me is how comfortable and convenient it feels when I bring the phone with me during my jog and long walks.

I was using the S22 Ultra before this, a goliath-sized phone that I can’t easily settle comfortably in my pants for jogs/walks. So I got myself a phone case that I can wrap around my arm sleeve to carry it around. The Z Flip4’s folded form advantage here makes it easier to just pocket it and go.

The phone is made of Armor aluminium frames and hinge and is armed with a Corning Gorilla Glass Victus+. Despite its structure that flips, the phone’s build feels sturdy and convincing enough that its body won’t easily fail to physical stress but I’ll still recommend against challenging it.

The Z Flip4 body is largely resistant to any staining, but as you can probably guess, metal finishes and the cover screen are the two parts that are vulnerable to these intrusions, so I found myself maintaining its appearance rather regularly by wiping off the fingerprint from the metal hinges and making sure the cover screen wasn’t blurred by any stains. This, of course, can be easily remedied with a good phone cover but then again, I’d be dammed if I don’t show off my graceful-looking Pink Gold Z Flip4 whenever I can.

With a safety rating of IPX8 water resistant, the phone also enjoys some form of protection even if you accidentally dropped it into a sink. The rating means the phone is good for up to 1.5m submersions in fresh water for up to 30 minutes. Be warned though, that Samsung does not advise the phone to be used on the beach and pool. It’s probably for the better anyway considering any specks of sand landing between the screens unnoticed will just invite disaster when closed together.

Display & Cover Screen

Armed with two screens, one being the main display and the other the cover screen, the Flip series is perhaps the most versatile branch of any Samsung phone series where screen usage is concerned.

The main display features an impressive Dynamic AMOLED 2X on its 6.7″ FHD+ screen that provides 2460 x 1080 resolution on 120Hz refresh rates (Adaptive). Entertainment media and games look amazing on this screen but for first-time Z Flip/Fold users, there is the question of the crease in the middle of the screen for you to decide.

I used to find it hard to imagine myself getting used to having a crease travelling down the middle of my screen but as it turns out from my experience with the Z Fold3, I am actually okay with it. Naturally, with the Z Flip4, I had no trouble automatically ignoring it except whenever my thumb reaches up to scroll down, noticing the curved space but it wasn’t off-putting.

The 1.9″ Super AMOLED cover screen is my favourite element of the Flip series so far. It’s small but it provided such a convenient tool for me to quickly check my steps counter on the Samsung Health app that I can easily set it to appear on the cover screen. For Apple music users like myself, the phone also conveniently hosts the app’s interface on its cover screen for easy music control which was surprising, considering my older S22 Ultra no longer supports Apple Music on the lock screen.

Other than the health and musical benefits that I enjoyed, the cover screen also allows various widgets to be installed on it like a speed dial of up to 3 contacts, a voice recorder, message notifications and a stopwatch to name a few. I could also set from a selection of choices how I want to face of the clock to appear, as well as the colour of the text overlaying the clock.

Camera

When it comes to the Camera department, the Z Flip4 doesn’t have the best one in the market by a long shot but it does offer some interesting user experience thanks to its flip construct.

Armed with a single 10MP selfie camera at the front, the performance here is understandably underwhelming but here’s the twist; thanks to the existence of the cover screen beside the rear 12MP Dual Cameras, I can just use the rear camera for my selfie needs and it is actually more feasible to use that than flipping the phone open and settle for sub-par photo qualities.

The dual 12MP camera at the back provides noticeably better photo qualities. One of them is an Ultra Wide lens that’s good for landscape and scenery shots and the other one is the standard 12MP Wide lens.

Being a Samsung phone, colour vibrance and sharp images are naturally inherited qualities especially when those images are viewed on the phone’s OLED panel. But there is one huge setback if you are expecting a lot of details from this camera because the absence of a telephoto lens means zooming isn’t going to be ideal if you focus on a particular object or person outside of your phone’s optimal range.

The Z Flip4’s performance under low light conditions is fine as long as I manage my expectations. This really isn’t a phone you’d want if you foresee yourself relying on good photo qualities taken under low light conditions but it will still give you a decent and basic result.

Flipping the phone open at a 90˚ allows the phone to sit safely on any surface like a mini tripod which is convenient if you are to use the front camera for video conferencing or taking a group photo. But since I don’t do video conferencing on my phone all that much, the convenience offered here is meaningless to me.

However, there is another advantage of the 90˚ deployment because it allows me to hold the phone like a classic camcorder to shoot videos. This way of holding the phone provides a safer grip especially when I need to record something in the midst of a busy crowd and don’t want to risk dropping my phone from the slightest bump.

Performance

Performance-wise, the Z Flip4 is nowhere near a ROG Phone 6 but it is still a phone capable of handling most of the multi-tasking requirements I demanded from it. This is not surprising considering the phone carries in it the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1.

All the Z Flip4 models come with 8GB RAM which is more than enough to fulfil any reasonable usage. Unless you are the type who opens your camera app in the background as well as a game and other utility apps in which case go get a PC.

My day-to-day experience with the phone so far has been incredibly satisfying including the occasional on and off gaming sessions that I managed to enjoy on the phone. The phone’s specs and quality in performance will allow you to game on it with no problem. But I’ve had several instances when my Z Flip4’s temperature shot up unnaturally high, forcing me to restart my phone for it to cool down.

This has only happened on Genshin Impact and not other games. I can’t seem to figure out what the problem was because it doesn’t happen consistently. Sometimes I’d get by without an incident, and then the next day I’d get penalised for doing the same. I can only conclude it was a phone-game optimisation problem.

On Diablo Immortals, my sessions went on without any hiccups but I don’t really advise playing FPS games on it especially if you are the type who gets physically stressed easily during a close skirmish. I’ve accidentally flipped the phone closed (not entirely) more than once, after forgetting the nature of its build.

But alas, the one thing that stands between this phone and hitting reliability in performance is the battery.

Battery

At 3,700mAh and charging at a speed of 25W that goes from 0-50% in 30 minutes, the Z Flip4’s limited battery capacity can put you in danger if you don’t discipline yourself in battery management.

Battery capacities have been an ongoing problem with the Flip and Fold series but there are at least two improvements here that are worth celebrating. One is the Flip4 battery of 3,700mAh is an obvious improvement over the Flip3’s 3,300mAh and the fact that the newer Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chip the Flip4 comes with manages the battery better than the 888 chip of the Flip3.

But even so, I still find myself safer being near a power outlet around 3 or 4 pm at the latest, to fill the phone with some juice before my travel home. The slow charging speed (by today’s standard) at 25W is a far cry from the 45W that I used to enjoy on the S22 Ultra, and even further behind some of the Chinese branded phones like Realme, Oppo, Blackshark, and Huawei.

What I Liked About The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4

• Beautiful design and good build quality
• Small but powerful
• IPX8 Water resistant
• Cover Screen is useful
• Decent rear cameras

What Could Be Better

• Front Camera
• Should come with a Zoom lens
• Battery capacity and charging speed

Verdict

If it’s a pocket rocket you want, the latest Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 is an obvious contender for your hard-earned money. Despite its smaller frame, this phone is armed to its teeth with specs that deliver a serious punch and more importantly, it does so elegantly thanks to its beautiful design. Its flipping construct can appeal to a wide range of users be they one with a stylish fashion sense who wants a phone that reflects that side of their personality, or even the gym-going/Sunday-running bunch who wants the convenience the smaller Flip4 can offer compared to conventional devices. The battery life leaves somewhat of a sour aftertaste but it isn’t a dealbreaker, in my opinion, as long as you are disciplined in battery management and are observant of its percentages, you’ll be good to go.