Samsung launched their folding phones a couple of years ago, and while those weren’t perfect, they’ve greatly improved upon those in their newer generations. We’ve been using the Z Flip 3 for a few weeks, and it feels great. I personally like this one more than the Z Fold 3 because of its size. It is compact and can be used with one hand when it’s open. The opening part itself isn’t that comfortable with one hand but still possible.
P.S. In this review, I’ve focused mostly only on the things which are specific to the Galaxy Z Flip 3 and have not mentioned much about things that are common with other Samsung Galaxy phones.
Hardware
The Samsung Z Flip 3 has a 2640 x 1080 (FHD+) 6.7″ main display with an aspect ratio of 22:9 which is a bit tall for my liking. The sub display (cover display) is 1.9″ and has a resolution of 260 x 512. It can be used to view notifications, use a few pre-set widgets, as well as view the camera preview. It can perform certain functions like answering calls, snoozing alarms etc. which can be done with a single tap / swipe. They’ve integrated the camera well with the cover display too. You can open the camera, click photos, take videos, toggle between wide-angle and main cameras using just the cover display itself without having to flip the phone open. More on that later.
The phone has 8GB RAM with 128GB or 256GB on-board storage options and uses the Snapdragon 888 processor. It is dual sim enabled; one is a physical SIM, while the other is an e-SIM.
The battery is split into two parts and has a combined size of 3300 mAh. It’s smaller compared to most flagships out there, and at first I thought it would die out soon, but it was better than expected. It can last a day with moderate usage. I once wanted to completely drain the battery and the last 5% lasted for 20 mins of screen on time.
It has a fingerprint reader on the right side and is conveniently positioned.
Something that is limited to folding phones is the crease on the screen. While you can definitely feel it if you tap in the middle of the phone anytime, it doesn’t show from all angles. Once you get used to it, the crease doesn’t feel like much of a hindrance either.
Camera
The Samsung Z Flip 3 has a dual camera setup. The primary camera as well as the wide angle camera, both are 12 MP. While there is no telephoto camera, you can zoom in using the primary camera and the photos are quite good upto 4x zoom. The cameras perform well during day as well as night photography. While I won’t get into a lot of detail about the camera performance, I’ll surely tell a few things with regards to the Z Flip 3. As mentioned earlier, the camera can be used without having to flip open the phone. You can double press the power key to open the camera and it shows the preview on the cover display. You can click a photo using the volume key or tap on the display which clicks after a 3 sec timer, toggle between video and photo by swiping left / right and toggle between main and wide-angle camera by swiping up / down. The cover display only shows a part of the photo which would suffice for selfies.
When using the camera with the phone open, the cover display can still show the preview so that the person whose photo you’re clicking can see themselves. My favourite part about the Z Flip 3 is that it does not need a tripod when you want to keep the phone stable while using the camera. For eg. When you want to click group photos, with other phones you often have to ask someone else to click, but since this phone folds, you can fold it at a 90 degree angle and keep it on any flat surface and click. The same goes for any other kinds of shooting like a time-lapse or a long exposure photo in the pro mode which would ideally require a tripod for other phones.
When you partially fold the phone while using the camera, you see the camera preview in the upper half of the phone and the controls in the bottom half; you can also switch it and see the preview down and the controls up. This is useful in scenarios where you’re trying to take a low angle shot. You can fold the phone so the camera is pointing upwards and at the same time you can easily see the preview on the lower half of the phone screen.
The front camera is 10 MP and that clicks pretty good selfies. The Z Flip 3 makes it a great experience while having video calls since you can keep the phone down and have the call handsfree.
Real Life usage:
When folded, the phone feels really compact in your hand and it also fits easily in small pockets. The surface is quite slippery, and though it did not fall down from my hand, it sure felt like it would anytime. Given that it is more delicate compared to phones that don’t fold, it might be a good option to buy a protective case for it. That being said, the phone has an IPX8 rating, which means it is water resistant but not dust resistant.
There are a lot of native apps as well as some third party apps which split when folded and the upper and lower half of the phone can be used for different functions. For example in the gallery, you can use the lower half to scroll through pictures, or in YouTube, the upper half takes up the video while the lower half shows you related video suggestions. I didn’t find the folding function of any real usage except for while using the camera as stated above.
Final verdict
The phone feels compact to hold, and the folding part helps while using certain apps, especially the camera. Apart from that, it is big on its cool quotient. Whenever most people saw me use it, they did get curious about the phone. The phone has a top of the line processor, great cameras, good enough battery life. If you’re looking to buy a phone which looks cool, performs well and is compact, then this is a great choice.
Competition
Since there is hardly any competition for foldable phones, the closest competitor among the phones currently in the market would be Samsung’s own Galaxy Fold 3. It compares only because of its cool quotient – i.e. it folds, although it doesn’t compare in price. There are a few foldables which are launching soon, and we recently got our hands on the Oppo Find N which sits somewhere close to the Z Flip 3 in terms of price and close to the Z Fold 3 in terms of form factor. However it is available only in China as of writing this, and we would have to wait for more foldable phones to launch worldwide to have a fair comparison.
The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip3 starts at AED 3,499 and is available in four colours – Cream, Phantom Black, Green, Lavender. Three additional colours are available exclusively on the Samsung website – Grey, White, Pink.
