Samsung has been at the forefront of the foldable revolution for the last five years. Its foldables have become some of the most coveted premium Android phones in the world, including India. However, there has been an impression that the South Korean giant has become slightly complacent with its pioneering lead in the foldable space. In fact, at its recent Unpacked event in Paris where it launched its next-generation Fold and Flip, some were underwhelmed by the minor changes to the devices. I, for one, have been reviewing the Z Flip 6 for the last week in Paris, and my conclusion is different from what the grapevine has been claiming. The devil is in the details, and Samsung’s latest flip-style foldable exudes a level of polish unseen in other phones of its kind, even though visually, from afar, they may not seem dramatic departures from what it has been doing.
Squared-off edges and a symmetry that would be the envy of a conductor of an orchestra are guiding lights of this new design update. One gets that iPhone-sharp feel on these phones, which indeed does sacrifice the ergonomics of these phones by a smidgen. However, what it gains is an ample amount of in-hand feel, which is underpinned by the plush carbon fibre-like weave in the finish and a robust solidity endowed by Samsung’s liberal use of armour aluminium. It feels perfectly solid yet not overtly hefty at 187 grams and 6.9mm in thickness when unfolded. These are also the first foldable phones to get an IP48 water and dust resistance rating, which is impressive. Samsung has further refined the hinge mechanism, which is smoother and is now nearly impervious to intrusions from cumbersome dust particles. Additionally, the side-mounted fingerprint scanner is reliable, adding to the overall usability and security of the device.
In day-to-day usability, these are huge changes, but from afar, only the new colour-matched external camera rings will be the tell-tale giveaway to the untrained eye that this is the new model. The screens may seem the same, but they feel different. In fact, the internal 6.7-inch folding AMOLED screen now gets brighter at 2600 nits of brightness, which works like a charm. I can attest to its vibrancy and usability under the bright Parisian sun that I have experienced in the past week attending Unpacked while also enjoying the odd football match featuring the eventual Euro 2024 champions, Spain. Notably, the crease seems milder, though it is still there. This screen is also more reinforced with Gorilla Glass Victus 2. Generally, Samsung claims it is not as much of a weakling as its predecessor, but don’t count on your chickens not coming home to roost if you drop it flush or try to do some strange gymnastics with the panel. The external screen, or Flex Window, is now more usable at 3.4 inches, with a litany of widgets being added and Samsung’s healthcare and AI features also being enabled for it. It’s a nice touch, but I’d also like more updates to this screen, like it being bigger and brighter.
Performance was never going to be an issue on this phone, considering its mega Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset with a vapour chamber this time around, with Samsung’s special version being overclocked for more peak performance. It’s a minor boost but nonetheless present. It is ably supported by 12GB RAM and 256GB of UFS 4.0 storage, which I encountered on my review unit. Gliding across Samsung’s now attractive and usable OneUI interface is a breeze, and playing a long session of Call of Duty Mobile wasn’t breaking a sweat for the phone, which displayed sublime graphical fidelity with no discernible performance issues. All of this horsepower also helps the phone to execute its Galaxy AI features, which have been expanded with this iteration, with Google bringing a set of updates to its Gemini AI models first to these new phones.
Samsung has focused on bringing its interpreter mode to the external screen called the Flex Window. It has added an AI-powered sketching feature that converts your handmade sketch into graphical art. And it has AI-powered Portrait Lighting effects for the device, which is apt considering the camera has received a major update. Google is also bringing its Gemini-powered assistant to this phone, which will make it more helpful, apart from Circle to Search, which debuted with the Galaxy S24 series.
The primary camera now gets a 50-megapixel sensor, which is the same one as the S24 models. This sensor takes great daylight shots and above-average low-light shots. Samsung’s portrait mode has come a long way and is amongst the best in business, enabling users to take attractive shots. Zooming is a weakness of this phone as it doesn’t have the capability to home in on a subject the way some other phones can. Typically, the images have a warm hue to them with saturated colours that pop on the AMOLED screens. Details are crisp in the photos as well. The wide-angle camera is perfect for landscape photography, allowing me to take picturesque shots of Paris. An added bonus is that with the Flex Window, one can use the main camera as the selfie camera, enabling superlative selfies, a step change over the 10-megapixel primary camera system. Samsung’s phones take some of the best videos on Android, and the Z Flip 6 is no different. Especially with its upgraded cameras, it can shoot 4K video at 60 fps. It gets a camcorder mode, enabling one to use this phone almost like a handycam, with an active steady shot mode built in, further enhancing its video-taking abilities. At the end of the day, this phone takes excellent videos in low light and good lighting and captures clear audio, making it a great phone for vlogging. The unique form factor also enables one to prop up the phone at unique angles, allowing for unique perspectives.
Samsung has increased the size of the battery to 4,000mAh. This is not something mind-blowing by modern standards, but the end result is excellent battery life. For a phone with its size of battery, you’re talking about pure all-day battery life with hefty usage leveraging both screens, for notifications and active use. 12 hours of use is a breeze with this phone, but at times in the 5-6 days I’ve used it as my primary phone in Europe, it even managed to last 15-16 hours, with upwards of 5 hours of screen-on time. It gets charged with a 25W fast-charging system and also supports wireless charging. As always, with Samsung products, there are slim pickings in terms of what comes in the box — use the Type C to Type C cable as you’ll need to buy the charging brick separately.
Samsung’s advantage is its enormous ecosystem — its smart TVs, the Music Frame, smart ACs, smart refrigerators, its new Snapdragon-powered Galaxy Books on Windows, its new Galaxy watch models, the inbound Galaxy Ring, and the new TWS Galaxy Buds 3 Pro. The Z Flip 6 works in perfect harmony with all these gadgets in tandem with its SmartThings IoT platform, making its play even more powerful.
Samsung’s software for foldables is the most evolved, considering its five-year lead in the space. This is reflected in the refinement of the experience it provides with the Galaxy Z Flip 6, with no app issues. Samsung also promises up to seven years of Android updates, which is an industry standard, and with updates to the Knox security suite, this is also amongst the most secure foldable phones in the market, if not the most, which makes it ideal for a corporate user, more so than a Motorola. The addition of Galaxy AI and its constant iteration is making these phones even more helpful with things like interpreter mode, summarisation of notes using AI, live transcripts, and live translator for calls in real-time, a feature which is also extending to third-party calling apps, presumably WhatsApp. It is the software features that define this phone.
At the end of the day, the Galaxy Z Flip 6 may not be a dramatic change from what Samsung has offered in the foldable market, but then it didn’t need to be. It has reported 40 per cent higher pre-bookings in India, which is testament to this fact. Samsung’s pivot away from major hardware changes to AI-focused software also shows where it believes the world is moving, with AI being the core differentiator and hardware being the platform predicated on generative AI.
From a pure hardware perspective, it is an iterative update, but one that keeps it ahead of the pack as the best in the business. From a software point of view, it is a bigger update which refines the experience to the T, making it the best flip-style foldable in the world.
Rating: 8/10
