The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 is stylish, well-made, and has almost everything you expect from a premium smartphone. Oh, and it flips open too.

If you have been following flip phones (formerly known as clamshell), you will know that Motorola pretty well invented the category with its StarTAC (now Razr) back in the 90s. Nokia had a crack at it, and the Star Trek Communicator was a classic flip design.

Then we went ‘bland’ with functional, boring glass slabs because they were the easiest way to deliver the most features at the lowest price point. You can largely blame Apple and Steve Jobs for that, well, not the lowest price!

Samsung’s Flip was a serious attempt to legitimise the category using more modern tech like folding screens, better battery life, reasonable cameras and, importantly, style. It aced the new clamshell Motorola Razr and its second generation.

I have reviewed the original Flip (2020), then it jumped to Flip3 (2021) and now Flip4 (2022). It looks like Flip3 (which was a significant improvement over Flip), and its focus is on getting everything just right. To that end, it has made the subtle upgrades that say Flip has come of age.

It feels good in the hand but is still a two-handed opening. It has IPX8 water resistance, a better and more useful external secondary screen, and the latest Qualcomm SD8+ Gen 1 processor. The clamshell hinge is infinitely adjustable, and using it in an ‘L-shape’ is great for video calls. The only minor downside – yes, you can still feel the middle crease but perhaps less so than previous iterations.

We strongly advise you to buy a genuine model with Australian firmware. It is easy to identify the Australian version – under Settings, About Phone, and Regulatory Labels, there is an Australian RCM C-tick mark. There is also an RCM C-Tick on the box. They also use unique Australian 5G sub-6Ghz and 5G low-band frequencies, requiring local activation first.

It is now in two parts – a summary and a separate 300+ line database-driven spec, including over 70 tests to back up the findings. It also helps us compare different phones and features.

We use Fail (below expectations), Pass (meets expectations) and Exceed (surpasses expectations or is the class leader) against many of the items below. We occasionally give a Pass(able) rating that is not as good as it should be and a Pass ‘+’ rating to show it is good but does not quite make it to Exceed.

You can click on most images for an enlargement.

When we rate a smartphone, we usually rate it in a category loosely related to price – what we expect from entry-level, mid-range, premium etc. That way, we avoid the trap (as most reviewers fall into) of comparing everything to an uber-expensive iPhone or Galaxy S22 Ultra.

If we review it on price, there are a lot of better glass slabs with superb cameras, more power, larger storage, longer battery life, etc. Ditto, if we review it on features, there are phones from under $1000 with similar flagship processors that solidly beat it.

The conundrum here is this is a new category. What do you expect a Flip or Fold to do?

The answer is simple. You expect a Flip to be more stylish, pocketable, have a reasonably premium set of features, a reasonable camera, decent battery life, and you don’t really care what is under the hood. It is all about convenience and style, not necessarily substance.

We must rate this as a Flip and all the benefits and compromises that entails. If that is enough, then Flip is for you.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. This is undeniably a beauty – even the Bora Purple (review unit) is growing on me. It looks stylish, well-made, and when closed, not much larger than make-up compact.

Semi-matte-coloured fingerprint-resistant Gorilla Glass Victus+ covers the outside with a two-tone dual-camera bar housing a 1.9″ OLED display and solid glossy alloy frame. The embossed Samsung Hinge is prominent at the fold. The outer screen can be a clock, show notifications, widgets, charge time, or be a selfie viewfinder.

Opening the Flip is not as easy as a Star Trek communicator. You can do it one-handed, but it is a chore requiring dexterity. It is also safer to do it two-handed, holding the base firmly and lifting the compact lid. Fewer drops that way. PS: Whatever you do, buy a case to protect it.

Once open, it is a tall, slim, 22:9 ratio flat screen (most phones are 20:9). The screen is plastic OLED covered in a layer of ultra-thin folding glass and a plastic pre-applied screen protector. Tests on the screen shows it has a low two-out-of-ten Mohs hardness scale, so it could be easy to scratch with long fingernails (Mohs hardness 2.5). It is also a greasy fingerprint magnet. Take care.

You buy the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 because you want it – not necessarily what is under the bonnet.

Excellent 2640 x 1080 screen with Adaptive 120Hz (10/24/30/48/60/96/120Hz) or fixed 60Hz. We ran all tests on Adaptive as, in theory, it should not affect battery life unless mainly viewing 120Hz content.

Samsung claims (versus test results) brightness nits of Typical 500 (498), Hight Brightness Mode 800 (770) and peak 1200 (920). This is a bright, infinite contrast screen. Colours are over-saturated in sRGB mode, and in Vivid mode is almost 100% of 16.7M of DCI-P3 movie mode (about 60% of 1.07 billion colours). My only comment is that more premium phones are now 4K and 10-bit 1.07 billion colours. Still, it is an excellent, daylight-readable screen.

Forget it for gaming, even though the SoC Processor can do that. It is fragile, and you need to use a very light touch.

It will play Netflix, Prime and Youtube 1080p HDR content.

The latest 4nm Qualcomm SD8+ Gen 1 flagship chip provides both power and reasonable battery efficiency. It nearly earned an Exceed rating, except it throttles terribly (heat issues), losing 38% of its power at 100% load in just 4 minutes. Thankfully it then stabilises at a lower rate to avoid overheating.

As this is not a gamer, videographer/Vlogger’s phone, throttling is not a significant issue as you will seldom hit 100% load. But there is a second caveat: it does not support mountable external storage – just cut and paste OTG, nor does it have microSD, so the storage you buy is what you are stuck with.

Wi-Fi 6 AX, BT 5.2, Dual GPS, NFC – all good. Wi-Fi 5Ghz signal strength is excellent, reaching the maximum 2400Mbps at the router and holding pretty well to 10, even 15 metres.

We are a little disappointed that the USB-C connector is only 2.0 or 480Mbps (60MBps) half-duplex and does not support alt DP audio and video streams. So that means no DeX (Samsung Android Desktop) or USB-C to HDMI cable mirror to a TV.

It has all Australian 4G LTE and 5G and low bands. Add to that 12 antennas, and it finds the four closest towers at above-average strengths.

Perfect for city, suburb, regional and rural use.

Samsung loses major brownie points for not including a 25W charger inbox. It specifically requires 9V/2.77A/25W to fast charge – something not common to third-party chargers. So yes, you can use them, but it won’t necessarily charge at 25W. We tested a range of PD chargers and invariably charged at 9V/2A/18W or 5V/3A/15W.

Similarly, it should charge at 15W using a Qi charge pad, but we found it tended to charge at 9V/1.3A/11.7W on a Belkin 15W charge pad and 9V/.7A/6.3W on a genuine Samsung 15W charge pad with a genuine Samsung 25W charger. So yes, you can use any Qi charge pad, but it is likely you won’t get 15W charging.

Charge times vary. With a genuine Samsung 25W charger, it will fill 0-100 in 1 hour and 30 minutes. The Belkin Qi pad took 3.45 hours, and a 5V/2A USB charger about 3 hours.

Use times vary. All tests are on Adaptive Screen mode

It is a phone you will need to charge daily.

It has a stereo earpiece and bottom-firing speaker that changes orientation if used in landscape or portrait mode. It uses the same speakers and amplifier as the Galaxy S22 range and can decode Dolby Atmos content and downmix to its two speakers. There are no 3D spatial effects with this content. The sound stage is only as wide as the phone but expands with Dolby Atmos content. The maximum volume is 80dB

Hand-free is good with three mics, but the speaker volume could use a tad more oomph.

BT with SBC, AAC, Qualcomm aptX (and variants), LDAC and Samsung Scalable codec covers all bases and provides excellent volume and left-right separation.

If it only had a little more bass, it would be a neutral signature capable of responding to any EQ setting. As it is (without EQ), it is more Bright Vocal (bass recessed/ mid/ treble boosted) – for vocal tracks and string instruments. Quite listenable, but you will miss the bass.

It is well made, but the screen needs extra care to avoid scratching, and the flip action leads to more potential for drops. Use a case!

It is IPX8 rated. The X means it can get dust into the hinge area, so don’t throw it into the sand and don’t put it in pockets where you may also have tissues. The 8 means 1.5 meters of fresh, still water for up to 30 minutes.

You can read What are the official Android OS and Security update policies? (guide) but suffice it to say it gets four OS updates and five years of security updates – excellent.

Samsung wants to establish a relationship with you, so it strongly encourages you to set up a Samsung account where you can access extra Galaxy Apps and it can advertise to you. The phone works fine if you don’t accept its invitation.

Samsung OneUI 4.1.1 is pretty easy to use and contains a variety of Samsung alternatives to Google Apps. We advise using Google Apps, especially if you ever change brands. It also has Samsung Smart Switch that can bring standard format data over from iPhone or Android.

The Bespoke Edition (from Samsung online only) costs $1729 and gets you 8/256GB and a choice of colours for the frame, front and back glass. You can mix and match yellow, white, navy, khaki and red glass with a silver, gold or black frame.

Samsung offers up to $750 trade-in, but the reality is that it is reserved for 2021 premium flagship iPhone or Galaxy phones.

It also has a Care+ program. It is a two-year device swap $249 subscription program, and you just pay the swap fee ($299) for each swap request. There is a 50% discount incentive at present.

You can also get interest-free pay-by-the-month over 36 months. Or you can get a subscription over 18 months, where you then resubscribe to a new phone.

Other programs include Galaxy Ecosystem bundles (10-20% off), Samsung rewards and a $199 screen replacement.

It is a dual 12MP wide and ultra-wide camera using two different sensors. The wide (primary) has Optical Image Stabilisation (OIS), brighter f/1.8, and larger 1.8um pixels. It takes great daylight and office light image. The 12MP ultra-wide sensor has f/2.2 and smaller 1.12um pixels. Its main function is 112° wide shots, although it helps AI by providing more information during night mode and portrait depth shots.

Some critics have called this setup ‘B-grade’ if you compare it to the Samsung Galaxy S22 series with 50 to 100MP sensors. But the main use for a camera is ‘point-and-shoot’, and this camera is ideal for that. I especially like the selfies with the main camera using the 1.9″ screen as a viewfinder and using it in ‘L-mode’ for video conferences.

Video is 4K@30fps with OIS and Qualcomm’s Electronic Image Stabilisation (Samsung calls this VDIS), which works by cropping the shot to a stable horizon.

The front selfie (O-hole in the top centre of the screen) is a tad underwhelming. It is 10MP, f/2.4, 1.22um with fixed focus. It takes a competent single selfie cropped (9.4x) to 7.1MP or a group selfie at 10MP. It can take 4K@30fps (no OIS or EIS) video.

After a week of use, its pocketability was most impressive. Its screen crease was the least impressive. Would I buy a Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4? Probably not, but that is not to say they have a place with the uber-hip fashion crowd who don’t care how it performs.

It is good, there are no genuine issues apart from throttling, but a phone at this price should be good.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 shows how continuous improvement turns this fashion icon into a very usable smartphone. Lower-cost glass slabs outclass it, but that is not why you buy it.

Samsung has nailed the format, and I am sure it will continue to build on the foldable/flippable category. But there are likely to be many more brands in this space now that Samsung and Motorola have established the category.

Easy battery replacement ruins the IPX8 rating

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