Flipping open - or shut - a snazzy new smartphone, never seems to get old. With Samsung undoubtedly making all possible efforts take the helm when it comes to powerful new-age foldable-screen smartphones, the new flagship Flip4 has a lot to offer, and holds a distinctively different appeal to the user.

Design changes

At first sight, there are barely any visible changes compared to the Flip3 - a millimetre or so trimmed from the length and breadth. The thickness remains the same at 6.9 mm, only the hinge is visibly flatter and less conspicuous, as are the sides. At 187 grams, the Flip4 is a couple of grams heavier than its predecessor, but the weight doesn’t bother me too much considering the form factor, folded up, is more compact than a regular smartphone. 

The cover screen remains unchanged at 1.9 inches - a Super AMOLED screen with refresh rates up to 60Hz - and is super convenient to take calls on, without ever needing to flip open the phone. This time, however, I have the option to change the cover screen icons and set it to an animated cover, or even a digital avatar of myself, which is super fun to create and use.

What I have a gripe about is to use so many of the other widgets, I need to open up the full screen anyway. For example, I can only dismiss an alarm from the cover screen, not set an alarm. I can control music once I’ve started playing on an app already, but not access music from a preset app when I hit ‘Play’ on the cover screen.

There are no upgrades to the 6.7-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X display, which supports up to 120Hz refresh rates but I’m not really missing out on much as the quality of visuals is on par with what you’d expect from a flagship foldable. And with that, we come to the crease running horizontally across the screen. Now, there are two types of people in the world - some who can ignore the crease, or rather get used to it the more they use the phone; and some who cannot for the life of them ignore the crease! I’m thankfully in the former category. The crease seems marginally less evident than its predecessors, and the more I watched content on the phone, the more I tended to tune out this visual interruption. The curve. however, each time that my finger glazes over it while scrolling is admittedly a bit weird to touch. While doom-scrolling Instagram reels or YouTube Shorts, I notice that the audio quality on the smartphone is loud and punchy, with clear vocals - definitely flagship-worthy!

Upgraded camera

If I had to pick the one thing I enjoyed the most on the Flip4, it’d be the camera. There’s a 12-MP Ultra-wide lens and a 12-MP Wide lens at the rear and an under-display 10-MP lens on the main display.

With an upgraded primary camera sensor which the company says is “65% brighter” than the Flip3, the photographs were nothing short of stunning. The colours well-saturated, the images crisp, I found myself reaching out to this Flip4 each time I spotted something click-worthy.  The phone has ‘Nightography’ and the visuals taken post-sundown were impressive with minimal blurs and grains. The image stabilisation too, works great - regardless of whether I was shooting while ambling down a road, riding shotgun in a car, or hitching a quick ride in a golf cart. It’s continues to be a cool party trick to quickly double-tap the Power/Bixby button and access the camera through the cover screen. Double-tapping on mini-screen to preview my primary camera selfie in full aspect ratio, swiping right to record a video, and to the left for a ‘Portrait’ shot, was convinient. The smartphone did get a little too warm for my liking while clicking a bunch of photos outside, late afternoon, for about 15-20 minutes.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 image gallery

With the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 under the hood and an 8 GB RAM, the Flip4 is smooth and quick all the time - whether it be browsing multiple tabs or playing games. In the AnTuTu benchmark test, the phone scored 7,32,662 points, ranking in the top 20% category of snappiest smartphones on the block.

Samsung has upgraded the battery capacity to 3700mAhand it definitely goes on for a full day of use with WiFi on, a few voice calls, streaming Spotify for a couple of hours, using the camera intermittently, going through mails, and watching the odd YouTube videoor two. I didn’t find myself plugging this back to recharge, in a hurry at all. 

Verdict

If you currently own the Flip3, the upgrade may not justify the price, however if you’re looking to level up from an older Flip, chances are you’ll love the upgraded camera and longer battery life packed in the Galaxy Flip4. Honestly, If you’re looking for your first foldable smartphone - and money is no object - the Flip4 isn’t a bad choice at all. Available in the cute pastel Bora Purple, the regular ol’ Graphite and an elegant Pink Gold colour, the Galaxy Z Flip4 is priced at ₹89,999 for 8 GB + 128 GB variant and ₹94,999 for the 8 GB + 256 GB variant. In case you have some spare change left, you can have a Bespoke Edition with customised glass colours and frame options starting at ₹97,999.

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