Samsung Galaxy Z Flip3 Review – Flipping Fantastic

Introduction

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip was not only a phone, but was also a fashion statement, thanks to its stylish and compact design. This year, the Korean tech giant launched a new and improved version of the Flip. The Galaxy Z Flip3 offers a fresh new look, apart from improved internals and some new nifty features.

Priced starting at PhP52,990, it is still at the upper range of flagship pricing, but it allows those who are not willing to pay the Galaxy Fold3’s price tag or those who prefer the more traditional flip phone factor, experience folding technology.

Specifications

Design and Build Quality

Galaxy Z Flip3 boasts IPX8 water resistance, and now offers a more pocketable design. It is made of Armor Aluminum and uses Gorilla Glass Victus in conjunction with a new protective film and redesigned layer structure all in the name of durability.

When folded, the phone fits into more spaces, but I’m not sure if your jeans’ pocket is where it should go. It may not consume more space lengthwise, but it does, height-wise. That means it makes a larger bulge when it’s in your pocket. Those who will use this will probably put it somewhere else, though.

Another worry I have with this phone is that the bottom edge hits top edge section whenever you fold it. There’s no cushion or anything there, so, provided that you will be closing and opening this a lot, I thought that a little something to absorb the impact would have been a nice addition.

Both the power button and the volume rocker are on the right side, while a USB-C port is placed at the bottom, along with a speaker grille and microphone. As expected, there’s no headphone jack.

Perhaps the most noticeable change from the previous model, is the larger cover screen, which is now more functional as well. Apart from, showing notifications, and giving more space to see your selfies, it also supports a number of widgets that extend its capabilities.

• Music
• Weather
• Schedule
• Alarm
• Samsung Health
• Buds Controller
• Voice Recorder
• Timer

You can even customize the overall theme for your cover screen, or set your own wallpaper for it. Activating it is done with a press of the power button when the phone is folded.

Moving on to the main screen, there is a 6.7-inch FHD+ Dynamic AMOLED 2X Infinity Flex display which now supports 120Hz refresh rate. The crease is still there, visible from some angles, but it is not distracting, nor does it ruin the viewing experience. As expected, you get bright and punchy colors, plus sharp text.

Performance

Galaxy Z Flip3 runs on a Snapdragon 888 SoC, along with 8GB of RAM and up to 256GB of storage. As with similarly-specced devices, the phone runs smooth and snappy with just about anything you’ll throw at it. This is complimented by the phone’s high refresh rate, which makes even the simplest task of scrolling through menus, look more fluid.

The only gripe I have about this department is that the section where the cover is screen is at tends to warm up occasionally, even when I’m not doing anything resource-intensive.

As far as gaming performance is concerned, the phone manages to breeze through almost every game I tested it with. Call of Duty Mobile, Wild Rift, Real Racing 3, and even the new game Pokemon Unite.

Genshin Impact on the other hand, runs on its maximum settings, but with noticeable drops in frame rate especially in areas when you are fighting a lot of enemies. Not something I expected from a flagship device.

Camera

At the back of the Z Flip3 is a dual camera system composed of a 12MP ultra-wide unit, and a 12MP wide-angle lens. While it does not have a dedicated telephoto or portrait lens, this combination is still flexible enough for daily use.

Quality-wise, it still is able to take some great quality shots with lots of detail, good exposure and sharpness. The bokeh effect it produces is also still decently convinvcing.

One of unique things about this phone is that there are two ways to take selfies – with the front camera when it is not folded, and using the rear cameras when it is folded, using the cover screen as your view finder. Selfies also show a good amount of detail and sharpness.

Using its flip form factor, you can place the Galaxy Z Flip3 on a surface half-folded, and then take selfies from a distance using gestures. You can also use the lower half of the phone to navigate your gallery, or for granular control using Pro Mode.

There are also Samsung-exclusive camera features such as Single Take, which lets you take multiple clips and photos in one go, allowing you to quickly share them in social media, and Director’s View, which lets you seamlessly switch from one lens to another while taking a video.

Software

While I do not think of OneUI as the best take on Android, I do agree that it has evolved and improved so much compared to what it was many years back. These days, the UI runs smooth and snappy even in mid-range phones.

Apart from the usual, one of the features I like on this UI is Game Booster, which monitors thermals and resource usage, while also letting you capture screenshots and even record videos in-game.

There are also additional plugins that you can download and install to sort of “enhance” the gaming experience. You’ll be able to personalize some elements of the UI, but it is not as in-depth compared to other brands.

Battery

For how compact and thin this phone is, you would imagine the one area that it would fall short on, and to an extent, you are right. It is battery life.

On PCMark’s Work 3.0 benchmark, it managed to score around 7.5 hours on Adaptive, and around 9 hours in Standard mode, which is hardly impressive for a flagship, but is a totally expected compromise.

Verdict

So, should you get the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip3? that depends. If you are in that club of people who want to make a statement fashion-wise, say, “matchy matchy” with your outfit, or if you are willing to sort of sacrifice practicality for style, or just want to experience folding tech without going all the way to the price of the Fold3, this phone would be for you.

The improvements here are certainly welcome and noticeable – better build quality, the larger cover screen, the performance, and so on. Everything, except battery life, which is still, unimpressive, but totally expected.

Emman Tortoza

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Emman has been writing technical and feature articles since 2010. Prior to this, he became one of the instructors at Asia Pacific College in 2008, and eventually landed a job as Business Analyst and Technical Writer at Integrated Open Source Solutions for almost 3 years.