Hands on with the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Galaxy Z Flip 4

The awesome new Samsung folding phones are being announced today and we already got to try them for a little while last week. We only had about an hour with the new phones, so don’t expect this to be an in-depth review, but it’s still fun to share some first impressions about the new devices.

Incidentally, if you’re in the New York City area, on August 11 through August 31, you can actually go to the Samsung Unpacked Experience exhibit and play with these new devices yourself. The location is 60 Tenth Ave, New York, NY 10014 at the corner of 14th St. It’s about a block away from the Samsung 837 store.

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There are all sorts of interesting exhibit areas where you can see and try out the new Z Fold 4, Z Flip 4, Galaxy Watch 5, and new earbuds in action.

Hands-on video

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4

In the hand, you’d be very hard pressed to tell the difference between the Galaxy Z Fold 4 and last year’s Z Fold 3. This is mainly a spec boost, but the dimensions have changed ever so slightly. You’ll have an updated Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 processor, more RAM/Storage options, and a better camera array on the Z Fold 4 versus the Z Fold 3.

When unfolded, the screen crease in the middle does seem to be less noticeable than it was on the Fold 3, but if you angle the light just right you can still see it. We’ll need to wait for a full review for an accurate comparison. That being said, the new screen should be brighter and more responsive with a 120Hz adaptive refresh rate.

The 3 camera array on the back has seen some improvements on the Z Fold 4. The main lens now has a 50Mp sensor and the telephoto has been bumped up to 3x, now boasting 30x digital zoom capabilities.

The unfolded front-facing camera should be better now as well, but we didn’t have much time to test that in depth yet.

We like this case for the Z Fold 4. It does have a big protruding bump on the back which holds the Samsung S-Pen, but that little piece is removable and can be replaced with another piece that has a kickstand. The case does seem prone to fingerprint grease though. And yes, the Z Fold 4 still supports the S-Pen — and no, it doesn’t have a built-in silo for it.

While the Z Fold 4 is beautiful, durable and very useful, my first impression is that if you’re already a happy Z Fold 3 user, you’re probably not going to see much interest in the fairly minor Z Fold 4 improvements. There’s no in-screen fingerprint scanner, the S-Pen still isn’t built in, and it still only has 3 camera focal lengths in the array instead of four. On the other hand, if you’ve been waiting out for the next big folding phone, this might be the one for you.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4

Like the Z Fold 4, the Galaxy Z Flip 4 is very similar to the Z Flip 3 from last year. It feels virtually identical in hand. You might have to go into the Settings -> About page in order to tell if it’s the Z Flip 4 or the Z Flip 3. Still, the Flip 4 is still going to be an awesome folding phone for those who want something more compact than the enormous Z Fold 4, and even more compact than traditional black-slab smartphones. The big differences between the Flip 4 and the Z Flip 3 are a 65% brighter main sensor, a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 SoC, and a 3,700mAh battery.

One of our favorite things about the Z Flip 4 is the Bespoke Edition’s customization options. The two glass back plates on the Z Flip 4 can be picked from a wide variety of colors. This isn’t new as it was possible with the Z Flip 3 as well, but at the Samsung Unpacked Experience in NYC we got to see a robot arm switching the colored back plates according to the color combination of your choice. One thing that’s new here is that there’s now a wider variety of colors to choose from.

Protective cases for folding phones are getting pretty complex. Twenty years go, phones were designed with a hinge to flip the screen/keypad out in such a way that the back was the protective cover while the inside was home to the more fragile components. As such, you’d keep it closed and protected when not in use and flip it open to use the screen and keypad as needed. Unfortunately, that idea isn’t reality on the Z Flip yet. A more rugged, drop-proof, customizable outer shell with a folding touch screen inside would be pretty nice.

The hinge on the Z Flip 4 is just as robust as on the Z Flip 3. There’s plenty of friction to keep it in position if you want to use half of the phone as a stand for selfies or group photos. It’s not terribly noticeable, but one thing that’s new with the Z Flip 4 is that this hinge is slimmer than the Z Flip 3’s.

The Z Flip 4, despite having few noticeable external differences vs. the Z Flip 3, is still a beautiful compact folding phone. Honestly, we’d carry the Z Flip around versus the larger Z Fold since it’s so much more pocket-friendly. There was a time two decades ago when small phones were very popular. Today, big screens are critical to the user experience because that’s how the software is designed. The Z Flip delivers an innovative way of marrying the best of both worlds when it comes to having a screen big enough for modern software and a collapsed form factor that’s much smaller for easy portability.

Overall, both the Z Fold 4 and Z Flip 4 provide customers with a decent choice between an extra large folding screen in or an extra small portable form factor.

Original Article