Samsung Galaxy Z Flip7 Review: A flippin’ fine, fierce flagship!

Samsung had the early mover advantage in the foldables zone. In fact, for some time initially, Samsung was really the only “major” player in the category, and for that time, whatever Samsung offered was considered to be the “be-all, end-all” of foldable tech. But as other notable players entered the foldable arena, Samsung lost its royalty status.

Brands like Google, Motorola, OnePlus, Vivo, amongst others, came with devices that not only matched what Samsung had to offer, but even addressed the complaints many had with Samsung foldables. Samsung found itself having to play catch-up in a race where it had once been a runaway leader. Of course, Samsung has responded to the challenge, and its response can be seen in its latest range of foldables, the Galaxy Z Flip7 and the Z Fold7.

And if the Galaxy Z Flip7 is any evidence, Samsung has not just covered lost ground but has even added some more AI flair to the device. The challenge is that it still comes with a premium starting price of $949/ Rs 1,09,999. With this steep a price tag, does it still stand tall in a more competitive foldable market?

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip7 Appearance and design: Looks premium, feels solid

Right off the bat, the Z Flip7 looks like a more refined flip smartphone than its predecessor. Samsung has made small but significant changes in the design of the Flip7, which enhance the overall look and feel of the smartphone. The phone feels more solid and premium, too. There are four shades to choose from– Mint, Coralred, Jetblack, and Shadow Blue. We received the shadow blue variant, which was beautifully elegant. Regardless of your color choice, the Galaxy Z Flip 7 will turn heads, and the attraction factor amps up if you pick colors like Mint or Coralred, which are relatively rare in the segment.

The phone has the same classic ‘flip’ clamshell form factor that vertically folds in half, turning it from a tall rectangle to a small square. When folded up, the back of the phone remains bare. The hinge between the back and the front carries the Samsung logo, while the front is all about that secondary display, or cover screen, as some call it. And well, there is a lot of it – the cover screen of the Flip 7 is the biggest we have ever seen on a Galaxy Flip. It covers almost the entire front, with the exception of two camera lenses jutting out, along with a tiny LED flash and some razor (pun intended) thin bezels.

The back is glass, even the lower part, which feels almost metallic matte. The two halves also have thin metal framing, which flows from the frame of the phone. Samsung has used Armour Aluminum for the frame, and keeping up with contemporary trends, the sides are flat. The right side of the phone is home to the volume rocker and the lock button, which doubles up as a physical fingerprint scanner, while the right side holds the SIM card tray slot. The base has a small speaker grille and a USB Type-C port, while the top remains bare.

The front of the phone or the ‘unfolded’ version is all about that main display. There is a tall display surrounded by thick (by modern standards) bezels. The display has a small punch hole notch that carries the front camera. The phone is quite sleek at 6.9 mm and is slightly thinner than its predecessor. When shut, it measures 13.7 mm, which is again a smaller number than that of the Galaxy Z Flip6. It is pretty light as well, at 188 grams. The hinge is also smaller compared to last year’s model.

Having a foldable display means the main display is a blend of glass and plastic, while the back comes with Gorilla Glass Victus 2 protection. The Flip7 also comes with IP48 dust and water resistance, allowing it to survive a fall in the water. The Galaxy Z Flip 7 is hands down the most premium version of the Samsung Flip yet, and it shows.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip7 specs: Exynos chip, surrounded by top-notch hardware

The Galaxy Z Flip7 is a flagship phone, and so it brings flagship numbers in its spec sheet. The phone runs on Samsung’s in-house deca-core Exynos 2500 chipset, which might disappoint some, as the previous Z Flip model used Qualcomm’s flagship chipsets. Samsung claims the performance of the processor is as good as flagship models, though, and this is paired with 12 GB RAM and 256 GB storage (this is the only RAM and storage option available).

All of this processing power is paired with two beautiful Samsung displays– main and secondary. Both these displays are bigger than what we have seen on the Galaxy Z Flip 6. The phone boasts a 6.9-inch foldable dynamic LTPO AMOLED 2X FHD+ display with adaptive 120 Hz refresh rate and 2600 nits peak brightness. The secondary display, which is one of the biggest design and spec highlights of the Flip 7, brings a massive jump in size – it comes with a 4.1-inch Super AMOLED display with 120 Hz refresh rate and 2600 nits peak brightness, and also with Gorilla Glass protection.

Samsung has also stretched the display around the two camera lenses, making the lenses seem like a part of the display, giving it a truly edge-to-edge look as opposed to that on the Galaxy Z Flip 6, where the display used to finish near the cameras, instead of encompassing them. The camera specs of the Galaxy Z Flip 7 are identical to the specs on the Galaxy Z Flip 6. The phone comes with a 50-megapixel main sensor with OIS, which is paired with a 12-megapixel ultrawide sensor. There is a 10-megapixel sensor for selfies on the main display.

Samsung has also slightly improved its battery numbers on the Flip 7. The phone comes with a 4,300 mAh battery (up from 4000 mAh on the Flip Z6) with 25W wired, 15W wireless, and 4.5W reverse charging support, although there is still no charger in the box. The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 is also the first phone that runs the latest version of Android out of the box, Android 16, which is topped with Samsung’s OneUI 8. In best Samsung tradition, the Z Flip7 promises a whopping seven years of major OS and seven years of security updates, an extremely impressive figure, given that Samsung has delivered on its promises in this regard. All said and done, this is a proper flagship, although some might turn their noses up at the Exynos chip.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip7 performance: Everyday star, with flagship muscle to spare!

The Galaxy Z Flip7 turns out to be a fiercely impressive performer. The main display, in best Samsung tradition, is vibrant, rich, and offers very vivid colors. The story remains the same with the outer cover display, which is equally vibrant, if not more, and both displays hold ground very well, even under harsh sunlight. Now, the big question is whether the crease in the inner display is still visible on the seventh rendition of the Flip? Well, the crease’s existence is the price you have to pay to have a foldable phone. The crease is visible, especially when the phone is on a table, but it is definitely smoother than previous versions of the smartphone. And it feels more like a very subtle inconvenience than a dent, which you feel only when you run your finger specifically over it. That said, it does become invisible with use, which means you learn to live it as you use the phone more.

The Z Flip7 handles everyday tasks like mail, messaging, Web browsing, and endless social media scrolls, effortlessly. Even photography and videography flow smoothly across its twin displays. We were able to jump from one app to another and run multi-window chores with ease, too. The story remains the same for casual games, and while the high-end gaming performance of the device is pretty solid too, we did face an odd lag and frame drop in Call of Duty and Genshin Impact. The phone does feel a bit pushed after extended hours of gaming and heats up in the process, and this happened when we tried to edit videos for a long period of time – the phone works, but it gets feverishly warm, especially if you are using it outdoors.

As impressive as the main display of the phone is, it is the cover display that really brings in the ‘fold’ factor to the phone. Samsung has definitely moved it up a notch by actually removing the old-fashioned notch on the Z Flip6 and giving it a much more classy look. If the main display on Z Flip7 is great for mainstream smartphone chores, the secondary display absolutely bosses the small task zone. From checking notifications, weather, calendar, time to having a quick access voice recorder, calculator, and Alarm, you can do it all with this secondary screen. You can respond to messages, use WhatsApp, answer calls (on speaker), watch YouTube Videos, and even talk to Gemini, all while the phone is folded shut. You can also keep it simple and use the Flex Window as a viewfinder to take selfies with the primary camera.

The phone has a stereo speaker set up, which is decent but not exactly remarkable. The audio is clean and loud enough, but does not have a lot of body, making the Galaxy Z Flip7 a good smartphone for multimedia consumption, although not an exceptional one. The phone’s call quality is good, and we did not face any call drop issues. One area where we did have issues was with the physical fingerprint scanner and FaceID. Both were quite erratic and failed to work about 30 percent of the time. This was a bummer considering these are features that much more affordable devices have managed to implement smoothly. Hopefully, a software update will fix matters.

The battery of the Flip7 easily lasts a day if you mainly use the cover screen. If you use both displays, it can see you through most of your smartphone chores with moderate to slightly heavy use and still be alive at the end of the day, which is impressive for its battery size and form-factor. While it supports both wired and wireless charging, neither is fast by any standard – 15W wireless and 25W wired. Using a 33W charger, the phone got about an hour and a half to go from zero to full.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip7 Cameras: Main(ly) a one sensor show

The cameras in the Galaxy Z Flip7 can be summed up very, very simply: Main sensor>> ultrawide>> selfie sensor.

To elaborate: the star of the Z Flip 7 show is the main 50-megapixel sensor. It captures a lot of detail in good light conditions. Its performance is consistent, offering good dynamic range, and it is extremely versatile, handling landscape, portrait, food, and street photography equally well.

The colors produced are slightly more punchy than natural, which aligns with Samsung’s photographic tradition. Most will enjoy these slightly more vibrant colors, but those who want slightly more realistic snaps might not like them, as a side-by-side comparison highlights the difference between what is captured and the real subject. Portraits come out especially well on the device, but it is equal parts software magic.

The hinge of the Flip 7 is very sturdy, allowing us to use the phone at a 90-degree angle to capture both photos and videos. Thanks to its foldable form factor, the main sensor can also capture high-quality selfies, which makes the selfie game of the phone very strong. It does deliver slightly brightened-up pictures but absolutely nails details and manages to capture skin texture well. A bit of noise does creep in as the light dims down, but the photos taken remain good and bring in enough detail. Turning the night mode on helps with the noise a little bit, but often brightens up the scene a bit too much, giving it a yellow tint, even though some graininess remains. Videos taken by the main sensor are also good and capture a lot of detail.

The 12-megapixel ultrawide is decent and captures good landscape photos. You do not get the same amount of clarity or consistency as the main sensor, but it surely is a handy add-on. We do miss the presence of a telephoto on the phone, even though it offers up to 10x digital zoom. This is because photos captured beyond 2x turn out very grainy and lack both accurate color and details. The 10-megapixel selfie sensor on the main (inner) display is of limited use. It produces below-average selfies for its price segment and is best used only for video calls. So in sum, stick to the main sensor on the Galaxy Z Flip7, and you will almost never be disappointed.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip7 Software and AI: Second-to-none software

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip7 is the first phone to actually ship with Android 16 in the Indian market. The software experience of the phone is very smooth, feature-rich, and functional, and radiates premiumness, which is what we expect from a phone at this price. There are a number of customisation options present on the device, and although Samsung’s default theme, icons, and widgets look very good right out of the box, one can download themes, customise icons, choose from different AODs, and make the user experience really personal. Samsung has added a number of multitasking features that are based on the Flex mode as well. You can use two apps simultaneously when the phone is half folded and carry out commands on both separately. And this works extremely well, too. You can access more apps using the Edge panel while in this mode. Another major upgrade is the addition of DeX support, which has been missing from the Flip range, allowing you to attach the phone to an external monitor and get a desktop-like experience.

Samsung has taken the productivity of the cover screen up a notch as well. Native widgets dominate the cover screen space, and you can use third-party apps like WhatsApp, Netflix, and YouTube very comfortably. You can add and use more apps on the secondary screen, but you would need to download the Multistar app from the Galaxy Store and set it up, which is still a bit of a surprise when you consider that Motorola lets you have pretty much the same set of apps on both displays of the Razr.

Just like other Samsung flagships, the Galaxy Z Flip7 is also brimming with AI features. We love the Now Brief feature on the cover screen, which puts a small summary of notifications and important information. It brings Gemini and Gemini Live to the FlexWindow, which means one can use and interact with Gemini without actually opening up the phone. Gemini Live also taps into the camera and helps solve problems or explain what one is looking at. Then there are general AI features like Circle to Search, Write Assist, Call Assist, Notes Assist, along with more complex features like Audio Erase, and AI photo editing, which allowed us to change background, move things around in a photo, and add sketches to them. Overall, software experience on the Galaxy Z Flip 7 is as premium as its price tag, and could get even better given Samsung’s update record, making it a software star in our books.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip7 Review Verdict: Pricey, but brings fun and functionality to flip

There is no doubt that the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 is the most polished and perfected version of the phone yet. But at $949/ Rs 1,09,999 for its only variant, it is a pricey buy. Its biggest competitor is the Moto Razr 60 Ultra which not only comes with a smaller price tag at Rs. 89,999 but also offers the perceived-as-better Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite 3 processor, bigger battery with faster charging support, three 50-megapixel sensors and marginally bigger display. Having said that, the Z Flip7 comes with a far more sophisticated software experience, is more likely to get timely updates (Motorola’s record is not the greatest here) and is simply way more fun to use, even while feeling more premium. If you are a flip phone fanatic and have no major budget constraints, the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip7 is the only phone you should be flipping for.

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