Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 review, it changes little but feels a lot

On August 10th, Samsung officially launched the new folding smartphones of the Galaxy line, obviously I am talking about Galaxy Z Flip4 and Z Fold4. Two devices that have already reached maturity the last generation and that in these new versions are therefore simply optimized to bring into the hands of users products that allow to obtain some improvements in the everyday use experience.

For about 3 weeks I have been using the new Z Flip4 as my main smartphone and I must say that, even if numerically they are not particularly substantial, the changes brought by Samsung compared to the previous model (reviewed last year) are felt . Starting with the new hinge, passing through a further optimized software and ending with an increased battery that puts a patch on what was probably the main problem of Flip3. Stay connected because in the next few lines I will tell you everything in detail.

SUMMARY

• AESTHETICS AND ERGONOMICS
• DISPLAY E AUDIO
• SOFTWARE
• EXPERIENCE OF USE
• DATA SHEET
• CAMERAS
• CONSIDERATIONS

AESTHETICS AND ERGONOMICS

Needless to hide it, at first glance, seen simply from the outside, this Flip4 does not differ much from the previous model but it probably would have been quite strange if it had been the other way around. After all, we’re talking about a folding clamshell and there aren’t many different ways to interpret this kind of form factor. However, this does not mean that there is still some difference, starting with the hinge.

As you can well imagine , the hinge is undoubtedly one of the most important elements when we talk about the engineering of a folding smartphone. To all intents and purposes it is the fulcrum of the movement and therefore must be resistant, solid and compact at the same time. Well, with this Flip4 Samsung improves all these aspects. The new hinge that allows the opening and closing of the display is in fact less protruding, more compact even in the parts that hide under the body, without sacrificing excellent solidity and equally good resistance. We continuously bent it far and wide, more or less quickly, making it bang, putting a thickness in the middle, trying to force the opening beyond 180 degrees, but nothing,remained the same hardness of the first use . I did not notice any kind of failure that could cause problems in the linearity of the movement and indeed, from the first opening it seemed to me that this hinge offered greater resistance to opening than last year.

It may seem like a small thing but in reality the feeling of solidity is considerably amplified by this detail which, however, greatly complicates the opening with one hand, an operation which tends to be not recommended. With this hinge so resistant the risk that Flip4 slips out of your hand is in fact even greater and if you don’t want to do like me, and also test the impact resistance, you should follow this indication.

Don’t worry anyway, despite the two small flights without a parachute my Flip is still whole; certainly thanks to the aluminum frame and external walls in Gorilla Glass Victus + , which do their job regardless of the form factor. In order not to have to test beyond the goodness of the materials, however, I dressed it with a beautiful transparent cover that keeps the design intact enough while protecting it from my carelessness. Obviously the latter is not available in the package, you can find it on the Samsung website or, alternatively, you can rely on Amazon as I did. Despite the particular form factor, in fact, the proposals are not lacking. As always I have entrusted myself to dear Spigen but take a look because there are so many alternatives.

Having said that, another of the things that change, albeit slightly, are the dimensions. The less protruding frame, in fact, allows you to reduce the height of the smartphone when closed by a few fractions of a millimeter; which is also very slightly narrower thanks to an optimization of the internal display bezels which are further narrowed compared to Flip3.

The cameras positioned outside, next to the small display, are then a little more protruding . Nothing to worry about, the difference is very subtle but it is still right to point it out. Also because if you use it open on the table without a cover, the thickness of the cameras is enough to make the smartphone swing when we touch it to give commands; one thing that I find quite annoying and another reason why I still recommend a cover.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 72.2 x 166 x 6.9 mm 6.7 pollici – 2640×1080 px	Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 71.9 x 165.2 x 6.9 mm 6.7 pollici – 2640×1080 px

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At this point I must necessarily tell you about ergonomics. I don’t deny it, this form-factor is not my favorite when it comes to folding smartphones but the fact of being able to reduce the vertical size before putting it in your pocket or bag certainly has its advantages.. What is certain is that the external screen is just a little bit small and then in the vast majority of cases you find yourself having to open the phone to be able to read or interact with notifications in complete tranquility. It then depends on the use of each one, of course. If you can ignore most of the notifications, or in any case you already don’t often pick up the phone on your own, then it can certainly be an interesting solution for, as mentioned above, to reduce the clutter. Alternatively you have to find a different method of use or turn to other solutions.

DISPLAY E AUDIO

Well, after having talked to you about what is on the outside of the fold, it is time to instead spend a few words on what we find inside, once the smartphone has been opened. Z Flip4 offers in this sense a 6.7-inch diagonal display , the same size as last year then, but with slightly thinner bezels and with a resolution that is slightly increased and reaches 2640×1080 pixels, with a density of 426 ppi.

It is an AMOLED panel, indeed, to be precise the trade name is Dynamic AMOLED 2x. Basically it is an LTPO OLED panel with dynamic refresh rate that can go up to 120Hz. In this regard, in the settings you will find the possibility to set the refresh rate at 60Hz or to let the system decide when and how to raise or lower the refresh rate.

Being a folding panel, it is normal for the yield to be a little lower than what we are used to seeing on the top of the Samsung range with the standard format. It does not reach the same brightness as the latter and in general the images still appear a little less sharp. Nothing particularly disabling, indeed, you will only notice it by combining a Flip4 with an S22, and in any case you will certainly not be disappointed.

In fact, there remains a panel capable of reaching 1200 nits peak , with a constant luminance of about 800 nits. Also good is the precision in the reproduction of colors which, in Natural mode, allows to obtain Delta E of less than 3 both for grayscale and for colors, with a total coverage of the Gamut sRGB.

The external display is also good, which is a little less bright than the internal one but which still remains sufficiently visible even under sunlight. The real drawback of this panel are the dimensions, still too small to be able to give us support in any situation.

At the level of compatibility in the reproduction of multimedia contents, we cannot complain. There is support for HDR in the HDR10 + standard and of course we also have full compatibility with Level 1 Widevine DRM .

And I close this chapter with a few words about audio . The reproduction always takes place in stereo mode with one channel that is reproduced by the speaker on the bottom and the other that is instead entrusted to the speaker of the ear capsule, used as a reinforcement. The quality is decent, the mids and highs are reproduced all in all well while the lows suffer from the small size of the speakers. Especially with some types of tracks you can perceive an attempt to amplify the frequencies from 200Hz downwards which, however, brings a bit of confusion in the mid-bass range. On the other hand, the maximum volume is good, even if some vibrations too many at the highest level should be reported, probably the fault of the form factor, which obviously cannot guarantee the same rigidity as standard products.

The audio on call is also good , both for what concerns the microphones and for audio playback. The volume in the capsule is correct and the stamp returned sufficiently faithful. In hands-free the capsule is supported by the system speaker which therefore allows to obtain a high volume.

SOFTWARE

A product like Galaxy Z Flip4, so particular due to its form factor, cannot fail to bring with it unique functions also in terms of interface management. At the base of everything, however, there is Android 12, customized with Samsung’s One UI in version 4.1.1. Within the latter, however, the developers have created an environment specifically designed to make the most of the characteristics of the foldable display: the Flex Mode.

It is a mode of use that manages and resizes the spaces occupied by the elements within the various screens so that they are more functional to the size and position of the display once it is folded. In this regard, by folding the screen we can meet three different situations.

In the first case, that of “non-adaptable” applications, essentially nothing will happen and it will only be possible to take advantage of having a portion of the screen raised and therefore in favor of the eye. In the second case, on the other hand, there are applications that adapt by exploiting the Flex Mode in a standard way; in short, the display is divided into two parts: in the upper one remains a portion of the application while the lower one turns into a sort of toolbar from which you can capture screenshots, open the notification curtain, raise and lower the volume and brightness or use the space as if it were a touchpad, using the cursor that appears to navigate the application reduced to half the screen.

The third case, on the other hand, is that of applications that have already natively introduced tools compatible with Flex Mode. In the case of Flip4 these tools are usually those related to the camera, and in particular to the so-called Flex Cam . In this way, applications that integrate a tool for capturing photos can take advantage of the characteristics of the smartphone to increase flexibility in positioning it during the shooting phase.

Among the apps that have been updated and have introduced new features in this sense we find those of the Meta group: Facebook and Instagram , for example, when we open the camera to capture an image or shoot a video, they resize and rearrange the elements of the interface to be able to make the most of the foldable display. These are small steps forward and there are still few apps that have a dedicated mode, but this continuous update testifies to Samsung’s willingness to work with developers for ever greater integration.

And then there could be no lack of news regarding the small external display . In fact, some widgets have been added to make it more functional. Among these we have a new Widget for quick calls , in which it is possible to insert the icons of the contacts that we consult most frequently, or that of the Smart Things routines, which allows you to control the elements of the connected home via the external display. But perhaps the most interesting novelty is the ability to respond to some notifications directly from the external screen . For the moment these are only the most common messaging apps, e-mails are currently excluded, and you can only use pre-set replies or voice dictation.

For the rest it is always the One UI we know and which probably remains one of the most complete user interfaces in the Android landscape, if not the most complete ever. As with practically all its smartphones, also for this Flip4, Samsung should guarantee 4 years of updates for major releases and 5 years of security patches on a monthly basis.

EXPERIENCE OF USE

Ok, I have already told you above what are in my view the pros and cons of dealing with a product of this type, so now I’m going to tell you how I found myself with the new Flip4 from a point of view more related to the data sheet and performance . And let’s start by going to see what is hidden under the body of this little engineering masterpiece. Yes, because if it is already difficult to fit all the components in a normal smartphone trying to contain the dimensions as much as possible, imagine how much it can be if this smartphone also has to fold.

Despite the hinge hinge inside this Flip4 there is the top of the Qualcomm SoC for this 2022. We are obviously talking about the Snapdragon 8+ Gen1 , which is an updated and optimized version of the Snapdragon 8 Gen1 announced in November last year. We are talking about SoC equipped with a CPU and a GPU that are at the top of the sector in terms of performance and which are accompanied here by 8 GB of LPDDR4X RAM and 128/256/512 GB of storage on UFS 3.1 memories.