Last month, Samsung revealed two foldable devices in the form of Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy Z Flip 3. While the Galaxy Z Fold 3 goes all out, offering a one-of-a-kind ‘phablet’ experience, the Galaxy Z Flip 3 takes the traditional smartphone route with a twist, or should I say, “Flip”. The Galaxy Z Flip 3 is available in two configurations – 8GB/128GB (Rs 84,999) and 8GB/256GB (Rs 88,999). At a starting price of Rs 84,999, the Galaxy Z Flip 3 demands a flagship’s ransom. But is the Flip 3 really worth a flagship’s ransom, well; stick around and let’s find out.
Design
Starting off with the design, it was nice to see Samsung retain all the best aspects of the Galaxy Z Flip 2 while improving on the not-so-good areas. The clamshell folding mechanism is the same, with two halves of the device separated by a large, and from the looks of it, pretty sturdy hinge. We’ll take a deep dive into the Flip 3’s design in our full review, but straight off the bat, the folding mechanism felt solid.
One noticeable change on the back of the Flip 3 is the size of the cover display. The back of the phone is protected by Gorilla Glass Victus, while the inner screen has a ‘glasstic’ flexible plastic display. The Flip 3 has a volume rocker and power button that doubles as a fingerprint reader on the right and a SIM tray on the left. You don’t get expandable storage, so it might be better to opt for the 256GB model. Additionally, there’s a microphone on the top and a USB Type-C port, speaker, and mic on the bottom.
On the back, you have a two-tone finish with Cream and Phantom Black colour options. Our model arrived in the Phantom Black colour and thanks to the matte finish, fingerprints were easily kept at bay. There’s a hole-punch camera cutout on the inner display, while the rear panel has two vertically aligned cameras.
Apart from the impressive large secondary display, Samsung has also managed to offer an IP8X rating for water resistance, which means the device can be submerged in 1.5 meters of water for up to 30 minutes. Coming from a flagship phone, I cannot stress how beneficial water resistance is, especially in a country with a monsoon season.
Experience
All things considered, the experience of using the Galaxy Z Flip 3 was quite enthralling, it definitely takes you back to the days of flip phones without compromising on the traditional smartphone experience. Because of the second display on the back, you get a full-fledged smartphone experience and some. Once folded, the Flip 3 becomes twice as thick as a regular smartphone, but that’s a small price to pay for the innovation on display here. The strong hinge design also gave me the confidence to fold and unfold the device to my heart's content at different angles.
When using the phone at a 90-degree angle, you can separate the two screens (Flex Mode) but very few apps support this split-screen usage. There are very few use cases where you’d need to use this mode, but it is quite useful for making video calls and taking selfies. One inescapable aspect of the Z Flip 3 is the crease in the middle of the device. You can feel it every time you scroll past it and it becomes a little more noticeable when hit by light. However, in most instances, while watching videos, you won’t notice it.
Display
When using the Z Flip 3 as a regular smartphone, it unfolds into a 6.7-inch FHD+ (2640x1080) display. The AMOLED display here also has a 120Hz refresh rate for super-smooth gaming and navigation. Since the inner display is made of plastic instead of glass, videos can seem less sharp than OLEDs on traditional flagship devices. However, it is still a solid display, which gets plenty bright under direct sunlight and outputs punchy colors and deep blacks. Scrolling is pretty smooth, while the touch response is fast, making it good for gaming.
The Flip 3 has a 9:22 aspect ratio that makes it slightly taller than most smartphones, but I rarely noticed the difference when making the switch. Samsung has also added a layer of protection over the display, in the form of a factory-installed screen protector that’s made from a harder material than the previous Flip. The feel is not very different from a screen protector though. Additionally, Samsung recommends not removing the screen protector and only getting it replaced, if needed, from a certified repair centre.
The outer display on the Z Flip 3 measures 1.9 inches and is quite useful for checking notifications, settings alarms, controlling media, etc. You can reply to messages on the outer display, but you’ll need to use Bixby voice commands, let’s just hope it offers Google Assistant support in the future. Another great aspect of the outer display is that you can preview scenes before taking a photo. It can also be used to check previews before taking selfies on the rear cameras. However, it is rather difficult to get a proper preview on such a tiny display, but that didn’t stop me from using it, nie, abusing it for selfies.
Performance
When it comes to performance, the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 is no slouch. Under the hood, Samsung has equipped this sleek foldable with a Snapdragon 888 SoC, no Exynos comprises this time. The chipset is paired with 8GB of RAM and up to 256GB of UFS 3.1 storage. Plain and simple, the Galaxy Z Flip 3 is quite fast and can handle multitasking or gaming without any hiccups.
Plus, the chip can push frame rates past the 60fps mark in games, which will enable you to take full advantage of the 120Hz display. But as fast as it is, the benchmark results fall short of other flagships like the Asus ROG Phone 5 (Review) and the OnePlus 9 Pro (Review). That being said, there’s no compromise in performance with the addition of the Snapdragon 888 chipset.
Camera
For optics, the Galaxy Z Flip 3 has a dual-rear camera setup that consists of a 12 MP main camera with f/1.8 aperture Dual Pixel PDAF and OIS and a 12 MP, f/2.2 ultrawide snapper with a 123-degree field of view. On the front, you get a 10 MP selfie camera with an f/2.4 aperture. In terms of video, the Z Flip 3’s rear cameras can record 4K video at 60fps, although the ultrawide camera is limited to 30fps in both 4K and 1080p resolution. The selfie camera can also record 4K video at 30fps. I’ve yet to take an in-depth look at this camera setup and what it can do, but here are a few samples.
In my brief time with the camera, it is easy to notice that pictures here are not quite flagship-grade. Not to say that you won’t be pleased with the results, but you will definitely get more mileage out of something like a Mi 11 Ultra (Review) or an iPhone 12 (Review). However, I doubt the main objective here was to equip the Flip 3 with top-notch cameras.
For a phone that can do so much more, I think the cameras are pretty solid during the day and at night. Another perk of the Z Flip 3 is the ability to use the main camera to get selfies, which I have to admit offers front camera performance comparable and at times, even better than the S21 Ultra (Review).
Battery Life
The Z Flip 3 is powered by a 3,300 mAh battery, which is rather small for a flagship. The 3,300 mAh battery gives you around four to five hours of screen on time depending on the task at hand. I found it just about adequate to cover a full day’s use, but I often had to reach for the charger late in the night or suffer with around 5 percent to take into the next day. Now, when I say reach for the charger, I meant a personal adapter. Because you guessed it, there’s no charger in the box, just a USB Type-C cable. Whether it’s to save cost or the environment, you can be the judge of that.
The phone does support 15W fast-charging and 10W wireless fast-charging as well as reverse wireless charging. I used a 30W brick to power the phone, which took around an hour and a half to go from 5 percent to 100 percent. Charging is relatively slow, but one could argue that faster charging speeds could crank up the heat. It is quite impressive to see the Z Flip 3 last for a full day, you have to remember that this device literally folds in half so there isn’t much room to work with.
Software
The Z Flip 3 runs Android 11 out of the box with Samsung’s OneUI interface on top of it. The interface is not as clean as stock Android and can seem a bit cluttered but brings a ton of features and customisations. The Flip 3 also offers a seamless UI experience and runs just about every app like a normal phone would. Once unfolded, it functions as a regular Samsung device. You can also personalize the outer display with a select few widgets.
Samsung has also worked with third-party developers to allow more apps to take advantage of this horizontal folding form factor. But for now, you get all the multi-tasking features of a regular Samsung device. Unlike the Fold 3, the Flip 3 isn’t attempting to be a phablet, so there are no software hurdles to get past. Side note, when folding the device, the volume buttons are interchanged, and I found to be quite convenient.
Verdict
While the Galaxy Z Flip 3 costs significantly less than the Fold 3, it is by no means affordable, you are still paying the premium price. However, when differentiating it from a run-of-the-mill flagship, there’s not a lot of comprises here. From the design to the hardware, the Z Flip 3 does an excellent job of mimicking a flagship phone. Samsung has gone a long way into normalizing the experience here that it is easy to forget about the innovation and effort that goes into making a perfect horizontal folding phone. And it is perfect, delivering powerful performance, a full day’s worth of battery life, solid camera setup, fast and smooth display, and reliable software experience.
Additionally, the outer display had its fair share of use cases, while the phone feels great in the hand, whether it's folded or unfolded. I wouldn’t say that the Flip 3 is without its issues, the cameras aren’t quite up to the mark for the price, very few apps are supported in Flex Mode, and most importantly, there’s no charger in the box. But the overall experience here didn’t fall too short of flagship level, which is saying a lot considering this is a flip phone. Unless you want the very best in camera performance, I see no other reason to not get the Galaxy Z Flip 3. Stay tuned for a better look at camera capability and performance in our full review of the Z Flip 3, which should be out next week.
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