Samsung Galaxy Z Flip6 review: Still fun

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It’s a great time to buy a flip phone right now. Motorola smashed it out of the park with its Razr 50 Ultra, but despite its great cameras and stunning design, it was running the slightly lower powered Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 Mobile Platform.

Samsung has packed the same Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 mobile platform into the Flip6. That’s the same processor as the incredible S24 Ultra, and promises to power a lot of Samsung’s AI functionality.

Samsung has also listened to reviews of last year’s Flip5 and given this year’s phone better cameras, a bigger battery and a better IP rating.

With all those boxes ticked, can the Galaxy Z Flip6 lay claim to the best flip phone available right now? Sadly, I think it comes in behind the Razr 50 Ultra in my books, though it’s still a good device in its own right.

What is the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip6 offering?

The Galaxy Z Flip6 is the sixth generation of flip-style folding phone. When you have made six generations of anything, it’s expected you know what you are doing, and Samsung has delivered a fine product here.

The big improvements over the Flip5 come in the form of an improved camera array, bigger battery and better IP rating.

It also comes packed full of Samsung’s Galaxy AI features, though as I’ll rant about later, they are a bit hit-and-miss as a selling point.

On the camera front, Samsung has packed in a main 50MP f/1.8 wide-angle camera, which is a big step up from the 12MP snapper in the Flip 5. The Ultra-wide lens is still a 12MP f/2.2 though, and there’s no change to the 10MP selfie camera either.

Despite packing the same dimensions as last year’s model, Samsung has also managed to increase the battery capacity to 4,000 mAh (up from 3,700 mAh), and added a vapour chamber to help manage the phone’s internal temperature.

This year’s model also gets an IP48 rating, up from IPX8. In day to day situations, that probably doesn’t mean too much, apart from it has been tested and rated against solid objects larger than 1 mm.

Notably, that’s larger than a lot of dust particles (or pocket lint), so it most likely won’t have too big of an impact on your day-to-day usage.

What does the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip6 do well?

In last year’s review of the Flip5, I described the phone as “fun”.

That’s true of this year’s model as well, though it doesn’t feel like quite as much fun.

The Galaxy Z Flip6 is a beautiful piece of hardware that is impeccably built. It folds open and closed easily, though you will need both hands to open it.

Being able to set up the phone to take photos using the new 50MP camera lens is still the highlight of the phone for me. Find a stable location, open up the device half way and use hand gestures like a wave or a smile to take a great photo.

Samsung has introduced an “Auto zoom” feature as well for these photos, which will adjust the framing of your photo to better capture the environment. If you’re taking a selfie in nature, for example, it goes a bit wider so you can see the background.

I honestly didn’t really notice it working when I used the phone, but that’s largely by design. I do think the quality of the photos is pretty good, though. Not quite S24 Ultra-level good, but good enough.

I will note that if you are deciding between this and the Razr 50 Ultra, the Motorola offers a telephoto lens rather than the ultra-wide in the Samsung. I found in my time testing both that the zoom was probably a bit more useful for my shooting style, but that may not be true for everyone.

Solid performance, great battery

The Galaxy Z Flip6 visually not too different from last year’s model, but there are tangible differences. I’m pretty sure the crease in the folding display is far less noticeable, both visually and tactilely.

With every task I threw at it, the Flip6 did an impressive job. Because the folded screen has a 22:9 aspect ratio, it’s perfect for watching videos, playing games and browsing the web.

I spent a bit of time during the review period playing Marvel Strike Force and Call of Duty Mobile, and neither game struggled with frame rates or image quality. The 120Hz adaptive refresh rate and 2640x 1080 resolution make it a gorgeous to look at.

From a benchmarks' perspective, performance is equally impressive. The Flip6 even manages to outperform the S24 Ultra in the GeekBench 6 CPU scores, though isn’t as strong on the GPU front.

Battery life is similarly strong. I comfortably got through a day without any battery stress. It’s still a “charge every day” phone, but you can use the device to take plenty of photos, stream Netflix and listen to music on the go without any dramas.

It also supports 15W wireless charging, though disappointingly doesn’t support Qi2, which is like Apple’s MagSafe wireless charging.

It’s also worth calling out Samsung’s AI Interpreter feature. Being able to translate a conversation in real time is incredible, and I saw this demonstrated by Samsung at the launch event.

But during the 2 weeks testing this phone, I had no opportunity to test this. If I was travelling internationally, or had family that spoke a different language, I could see the benefit, but for many people, this feature — while cool — is impractical.

What could the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip6 improve?

In some ways, I think the fact I reviewed this phone after testing the Razr 50 Ultra had a big impact here.

But the truth is that Samsung hasn’t done enough to capitalise on the external display.

Last year, Samsung made the outer screen bigger, but its functionality was limited to a handful of widgets, plus the selfie camera.

This year, Samsung has added a few more widgets and allowed you to combine multiple widgets on a screen. But that’s about it.

On the Razr, I could control almost any app. There were preloaded games for me to play without opening the phone. If things didn’t quite work, I would be prompted to open the phone and use the larger internal screen.

However, the Flip6’s external screen function was largely limited to some widgets, and AI messaging. As someone who doesn’t send or receive a lot of text messages, this feature was wasted on me.

AI is overrated

Like pretty much every tech company, Samsung has hinged so much of its marketing on AI in 2024. I’m here to say that for the most part, it’s drivel.

Sure, there are cool functions like the Interpreter feature, or being able to transcribe an audio recording. But anything “creative” — think image or text creation — leaves a hollow feeling.

There’s no better example of this than the AI Portrait studio function. Without diving into the fact that this is a whole lot of code for something you would probably only use once anyway, it just isn’t great.

Here’s a lazy picture of me taken with the Flip6 purely to test this feature.

Here are some examples of what was created:

I wouldn’t use any of them. Even with artistic licence, I can’t see why it would unbutton my shirt, either.

But I’m a grumpy old man, so I asked my daughter, who loves stuff like this.

She didn’t like any of them. I took a photo of her and my son and ran through the portrait process, and neither of my children would let me publish the photos here.

That’s damning, right there.

Verdict

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip6 is a good phone. It’s objectively better than last year’s Flip5, and offers better performance than other flip models on the market.

But there’s too much focus on useless features, like AI generation. I know the hype train is in town, and it’s difficult to not get excited, but I would sacrifice every element of AI on this phone for a bigger external display or an even better camera.

If Samsung was the sole player in the flip phone market, I would probably say this is a solid buy. But the fact it launched almost alongside the Motorola Razr 50 Ultra, which is a much better phone to actually use, makes that recommendation harder to make.

If you are locked into the Samsung ecosystem, or want a device to partner with a wearable like the Galaxy Watch Ultra or the upcoming Galaxy Ring, then this is a viable option. Otherwise, I’d recommend the Razr.

Buy the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip6 online

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip6

With a powerful processor and improved camera, the Flip6 is a great option for Samsung fans.

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