Foldable shows was once one thing you’d see in sci-fi films in a far-off futuristic setting. However as we’ve seen over the previous couple of years from Samsung, shows that actually fold in half are right here, and so they’re getting a lot, significantly better.

Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip 4 is an effective instance of that. The $999 Android-powered smartphone has lots to supply for that value, together with a 6.7-inch show that folds in half, shrinking down the complete footprint of the telephone.

The most effective half? Once you open the Z Flip 4, you’re introduced with a well-known smartphone design and expertise, not like the costlier $1,799 Z Fold 4 that offers you a smartphone on the entrance and a pill within the center, forcing you to make acutely aware choices on which display to make use of.

The Z Flip 4’s dual-screen method isn’t excellent, however there’s rather a lot to love in regards to the trendy flip telephone.

There’s one thing addictive about taking the Z Flip 4 out of your pocket and flipping it open to disclose a show that spans the complete size of the telephone. It’s akin to a $999 fidget toy that additionally occurs to hook up with the web.

Earlier than receiving the Z Flip 4 evaluation unit from Samsung, I’d but to spend quite a lot of minutes with a telephone that folded in half vertically because the Flip 4 does. I’ve a Galaxy Z Fold 3 of my very own and have completely loved utilizing it during the last 12 months, because of the massive tablet-like show when it’s opened.

I’ve all the time thought, nevertheless, that the Z Flip 4’s design made extra sense as a result of when the telephone is opened up, it reveals a 6.7-inch show that appears and works like a conventional smartphone. There’s a fingerprint sensor that doubles as the facility button on the appropriate fringe of the telephone, a quantity rocker simply above that and a USB-C port on the underside of the telephone for charging and information transfers. When it’s open, exterior of the crease that goes throughout the center of the show, the Flip 4 is nearly indistinguishable from the Galaxy S22+.

The 1080p decision of the Z Flip 4’s display is evident and crisp, despite the fact that high-end Samsung telephones are identified for providing larger resolutions. In actual fact, till I seemed up the precise decision, I assumed the Z Flip 4’s show was just like the S22 Extremely’s 1440p decision.

At 6.7 inches there’s loads of room when utilizing the Z Flip 4 with a single app open. Once you begin utilizing two apps in split-screen mode, nevertheless, the show can start to really feel a bit cramped. It’s completely doable to have Chrome open on the highest half and Gmail on the underside to be able to look one thing up and share it, however you gained’t need to do it on a regular basis.

One factor I did discover whereas testing the Z Flip 4 is that the display feels a little bit gentle in comparison with an ordinary smartphone display. That is seemingly a by-product of a foldable show, and it’s simply a part of the general expertise, however I believed I’d point out it.

On the flip facet (sorry, couldn’t assist it), when the Flip 4 is closed, you’ll be able to shortly view notifications and shortly reply to messages with predefined messages, pause or skip tracks and make cellular funds with Samsung Pockets utilizing the 1.9-inch Cowl display. You may even launch the digital camera app from the duvet show by double-pressing the fingerprint sensor and use the display on the entrance of the telephone as a viewfinder to take selfies.

I favored the flexibility to take selfies with the telephone closed, however I didn’t like it. It’s important to faucet and swipe throughout the small show to change between digital camera modes, and I discovered it to be a little bit clunky general. I’m certain with much more observe it’d be one thing I wouldn’t thoughts utilizing in a pinch, but it surely wouldn’t be my go-to technique for taking a selfie.

Despite the fact that the Flip 4 doubles in thickness when it’s closed, the telephone takes up a lot much less house in your pocket and is rather more comfy than a extra conventional smartphone to hold round.

Foldable shows nonetheless have some kinks to iron out — primarily the truth that there’s a crease which you could see and really feel — but it surely’s superb expertise that appears and feels prefer it’s the way forward for smartphone design, solely you need to use it proper now.

Strong efficiency and battery life

Contained in the Galaxy Z Flip 4 is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 processor, 8GB of reminiscence, 128GB of storage and a 3,700mAh battery. All of these elements mix to create a nice expertise, each in the case of general efficiency and battery life.

Over the past week, I’ve but to expire of battery throughout a typical day of use and through two totally different days of touring from Colorado to New York. These days consisted of an abundance of testing the cameras (extra on that in a minute) together with streaming and downloading Spotify playlists whereas testing Samsung’s new Galaxy Buds 2 Professional wi-fi earbuds.

Backing up my private expertise with stable battery life is the take a look at results of working down the Z Flip 4’s battery by enjoying a 4K video on loop. The end result? Fourteen hours of steady playback. Whereas that rating isn’t so long as the OnePlus 10 Professional’s 18 hours and 46 minutes, it’s on par with the Galaxy S22+ and S22 Extremely, each of which have larger-capacity batteries.

So far as efficiency is anxious, I used to be impressed with how clean the Z Flip 4 was in use. From opening video games to shortly switching between the likes of Slack and Twitter whereas enjoying a YouTube video in picture-in-picture mode, I by no means seen any slowdowns.

I used the benchmarking app Geekbench 5 to check the Z Flip 4’s efficiency scores to different smartphones — and, as anticipated, the Z Flip 4 performs barely higher than the Galaxy S22+ and S22 Extremely, each of which use the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 (be aware it’s not the 8 Plus Gen 1) processor. The Z Flip 4 scored a median of 1,315 for single-core and three,838 for multi-core use, which is forward of what we obtained from the S22+ by a very good margin. Nonetheless, the iPhone 13 Professional Max and its A15 Bionic processor nonetheless delivered considerably quicker benchmark speeds than Samsung’s telephones, scoring 1,739 and 4,675 on single- and multi-core efficiency, respectively.

There are two principal cameras which might be on the again of the Z Flip 4 — or the entrance of the telephone when it’s closed. However for the needs of this evaluation, I’ll simply name them the rear-facing cameras.

There’s a 12-megapixel principal digital camera and a 12-megapixel ultrawide digital camera, with a complete of 10x digital zoom doable. For the file, the outlet punch digital camera that’s in the primary show is 10 megapixels.

The rear cameras are dependable in that when you get used to their barely oversaturated pictures (which is typical of a Samsung telephone), you should have loads of confidence that the Z Flip 4 will seize the shot you need.

The 10x digital zoom stays a disappointment, with the ultimate 10x zoom degree leading to grainy, disagreeable photographs. Nonetheless, portrait mode is correct in detecting a topic and including the pretend blur impact that creates depth.

I took a handful of photographs whereas strolling alongside the Excessive Line in Manhattan, all of which got here out fairly good. There are some photographs the place a brightly lit background by means of the bushes is blown out, displaying solely white rather than what needs to be a constructing or daylight. However when the complete picture was evenly lit, corresponding to when capturing photographs of random buildings, the Z Flip 4’s cameras obtained it proper.

I additionally examined portrait mode by taking a photograph of a random stranger and I got here away fairly darn impressed. If that’s you within the picture, please attain out so I can ship you a full copy!

As for night time photographs, I wasn’t blown away by the outcomes. I took a few photographs throughout a late-night little league sport underneath the lights and the scene was decently lit; nevertheless, the overhead lights had been overexposed. That stated, the photographs I captured are one thing I’d haven’t any points sharing on-line.

The Z Flip 4 can file 4K video, and from a number of quick clips of my youngsters goofing round or my canine working throughout my yard, I can say it appears on par with the everyday 4K video you’d count on from a smartphone. Nothing overly fancy or spectacular, but it surely will get the job performed.

I’ll put it one other method: There are higher smartphone cameras, together with on Samsung’s very personal Galaxy units such because the Galaxy S22 and Z Fold 4. But when I had to make use of solely a Z Flip 4 and its present digital camera association, I wouldn’t thoughts one bit.

I beforehand talked about how a lot you may get performed on the Cowl display with out opening the Z Flip 4 to disclose the primary show inside. And whereas there’s rather a lot you are able to do, it feels as if the Cowl display is proscribed in its performance.

You wake the Cowl display with a fast double faucet on the show to examine the time, date and battery degree of the Z Flip 4. If there’s a yellow dot current, you will have pending notifications which you could examine by swiping in from the left fringe of the display. Open an alert and you may clear it, or for apps that help fast replies, you’ll be able to reply instantly from the Cowl display by deciding on a predefined message.

Swiping down on the Cowl display reveals fast settings shortcuts for issues like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or your telephone’s flashlight. Swiping up on the display will set off Samsung Pockets (previously Samsung Pay) and let you make a cellular fee on any NFC-compatible fee terminal. This ended up being my most well-liked technique for cellular funds on the Z Flip 4 primarily as a result of the NFC chip contained in the telephone is positioned within the backside half, which makes it awkward to pay with when the Flip 4 is opened all the way in which. Sometimes the NFC chip in smartphones is close to the highest of the telephone.

In the event you swipe in from the appropriate fringe of the display you’ll scroll by means of numerous widgets that present you the climate and let you management music playback, examine alarms and set instances. There are solely a handful of widgets, all of which had been created by Samsung. Third-party builders can’t create a widget to show, say, present sports activities scores, or possibly view the final snapshot taken on a house safety digital camera or pet cam. Whereas the Cowl display is helpful, it seems like customers ought to be capable of do extra with it.

… it, too, ought to do extra. For these unfamiliar, Flex Mode on the Z Flip 4 is triggered by solely opening the display midway, with the highest part of the display at a 90-degree angle. In choose apps, Flex mode routinely triggers a unique interface, providing you with controls or choices on the underside portion of the display which might be particular to that app.

As an illustration, within the YouTube app, the highest half of the display is taken up by the video that’s presently enjoying, with the underside half displaying feedback and the video’s description. When the telephone is absolutely open, the video takes up the highest 25% of the display.

Or in Google Meet (or is it Google Duo?) you need to use Flex Mode to hold out a video name with the front-facing digital camera angled good to seize you within the body, with the video feed on the highest half of the display and video controls so as to add results and the like on the underside half of the display.

In every of these apps, the usefulness of Flex Mode is on full show and makes quite a lot of sense. Nonetheless, in the event you activate Flex Mode for apps that don’t formally help Flex Mode, it’s not the identical story.

With Spotify in Flex Mode, there are playback controls proven on the underside half of the display, with further buttons for taking a screenshot, controlling quantity and viewing notifications. It’s considerably useful. Nonetheless, in the event you drive Flex Mode in Google Chrome, the identical button bar with the identical options is out there, and that’s it.

Positive, among the onus is on app builders to higher combine with Flex Mode, however exterior of some apps, it’s a characteristic that’s underutilized.

As spectacular because the Z Flip 4’s foldable show is, there’s nonetheless some room for enchancment with the general expertise. For starters, there’s nonetheless a really obvious crease in the midst of the show. That crease isn’t solely seen, however you’ll be able to bodily really feel it as your finger strikes throughout the display. It’s a clumsy expertise that I assumed I’d study to disregard after a number of days of use, however to date, it’s nonetheless very a lot one thing I discover.

On a number of events I tried to faucet or choose one thing positioned on the display, proper within the crease, and I had a tough time getting the display to register to the faucet or swipe. Different instances, the show reacted precisely the way you’d count on it to — opening a hyperlink or scrolling by means of an extended electronic mail.

Predominant show	Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1	Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1	Snapdragon 8 Gen 1
Cowl display	1.9-inch Tremendous AMOLED	6.2-inch HD+ Dynamic AMOLED w/120Hz adaptive refresh fee	N/A
Processor	6.7-inch FHD+ Dynamic AMOLED w/120Hz adaptive refresh fee	7.6-inch QXGA+ Dynamic AMOLED w/120Hz adaptive refresh fee	6.8-inch Infinity-O Quad HD+ Dynamic AMOLED
Storage	128GB, 256GB, 512GB	256GB, 512GB, 1TB	128GB, 256GB, 512GB, 1TB
Reminiscence	8GB	12GB	8GB, 12GB
Battery	3,700mAh	4,400mAh	5,000mAh
Rear cameras	12-megapixel vast, 12-megapixel ultrawide	50-megapixel vast, 12-megapixel ultrawide, 10-megapixel telephoto	108-megapixel vast, 12-megapixel ultrawide, 10-megapixel telephoto 3x optical zoom, 10-megapixel telephoto 10x optical zoom
Entrance cameras	10-megapixel	4-megapixel underneath show digital camera, 10-megapixel	40-megapixel
Connectivity	5G, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2	5G, Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2	5G, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2
Ports	USB-C	USB-C	USB-C
Colours	Bora Purple, Graphite, Pink Gold, Blue	Graygreen, Phantom Black, Beige	Phantom Black, Burgundy, Phantom White, Inexperienced
Value	$999	$1,799	$1,199

The Galaxy Z Flip 3 was Samsung’s hottest foldable smartphone, and the Z Flip 4 picks up proper the place it left off. The $999 price ticket is steep for a smartphone, but it surely’s a steal in comparison with the $1,799 Z Fold 4, a telephone that’s higher suited to somebody who does quite a lot of multitasking and desires a tool that works extra like a pill or laptop computer. Till Samsung has extra competitors within the foldable telephone market, that’s the kind of pricing we’re going to see.

In the event you’re seeking to break free from the smartphone norm with a stable slab of glass, the Z Flip 4’s efficiency, battery life and dependable digital camera setup — all wrapped up in a compact foldable design — is value the associated fee.