Samsung announced the new Galaxy Z Flip6 last week and we’ve spent the past few days doing tests non-stop on this phone. I have a lot of data to share with you here today.
Design
Starting off with the design, it’s a bit more boxier than last year and I think this design is fine. In a way, after the phone is unfolded, it kinda reminds me of the Galaxy S24+, but narrower.
Once folded, the phone looks very similar to what we had before. The cover display still has this cutout for the cameras, and those cameras now have colored rings that match the color of the phone.
Our Z Flip6 is blue in color, and I absolutely love how even the frame of the phone is also blue. The same applies to the mint, yellow, and silver shadow color options. There are three more colors that are only available online, and that’s the crafted black color, white, and peach.
Not gonna lie, the peach looks great… except for that silver-colored frame.
Screen
Now, the screens. Just like before, there are two screens on the Z Flip6. The cover display still has the same size and resolution as before – 3.4 inches with a resolution of 748×720 pixels. The actual viewable part is less because of this curved cutout for the cameras.
The inner display is also using the same size and resolution as before, measuring at 6.7-inches with 2640×1080 pixels in resolution, and goes up to 120Hz refresh rate.
While it might look the same on paper, there are a lot of upgrades done under the hood and the maximum brightness on both screens are now much higher than before.
We did a separate video talking about the color accuracy and brightness of the Z Flip6 and Z Fold6, so watch it here.
One thing I think Samsung should have done is to fill up the bezels on the cover display. Currently, there is a lot of blank space at the front and it would’ve been nice if the bezel was smaller. The camera cutout can remain as it is.
Software
Now comes the important part – the software. How well does the One UI 6.1.1 take advantage of the cover display and what’s new?
Basically, the software is the same as what we had previously. It’s One UI – and I still love One UI the most even to this day. It works very well, has all of the features that I needed like Edge Panel, Samsung Wallet which is how I make 99% of my payments nowadays – and also Modes and Routines that automate everything seamlessly.
With Galaxy AI, there are many more features now like voice recording and then transcription and summarization, advanced photo editing, website summarization, and many more.
Oh, the quick replies here are also different as it now suggests replies based on the notification that we received. It’s no longer just the presets of “OK”, “yes”, and “no”. It does take some time to generate the responses, but they’re much better than just generating them in the background all the time and consuming the battery.
What’s entirely new here for the Z Flip6 in particular, is the cover display’s multi-widget functionality. I don’t know how they categorize the grids but there is a 4×4 grid and there are widgets that are 2×2 in size, so we can arrange them in such a manner.
If we have GoodLock installed, then we can enable this option and run whatever apps we want directly on the cover display itself.
There are a few new interactive wallpapers and the new FlipSuit Case accessory that lights up for more customizations.
Oh – one unique feature on the Z Flip6 is to take selfies and with that new 50MP sensor, there’s a new reframe feature that automatically crops in to show your face. It’s a handy feature especially if we set the phone somewhere to take a group video or some TikTok dance.
Samsung even upgraded the software policy of the Z Flip6 to 7 generations of Android OS upgrades and 7 years of security patches – but I am more concerned about the folding screen. Is the folding screen going to last that long?
Camera
Speaking of the cameras, are they good? Samsung upgraded the main camera to a 50MP sensor, and here are the pictures taken with it.
I have to say, the new 50MP sensor – it really elevates the Z Flip6’s camera experience. To have a look at all the pictures and videos taken with the Galaxy Z Flip6, watch our video at the top of this review.
Battery life
As for the battery life, the Galaxy Z Flip6 now has a bigger 4,000mAh battery, and paired with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, it will last even longer when we’re not gaming.
From our standardized battery life test, it lasts around 13 hours, and that is 2 hours more than the Z Flip5. It’s a massive increment!
And I’m also stupid enough this time to do the battery life test on the cover display – and that lasts for 23 hours. Yes, nearly a full day if we just use the cover display alone.
Charging speed
The charging speed though, remains the same as the previous generation. We’re still only getting 25W maximum via USB-PD PPS, and it’ll take around 80 minutes to charge from 15% to completion, just like before.
It also has the battery bypass feature, so you can enable this if you’re gaming on this phone with a supported charger nearby. We’ve talked about this feature previously, so watch this video.
Performance
And the performance. Okay, the Z Flip6 is indeed powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset but because this is a flip phone, the performance is very limited.
As stated in the gaming test, we can mostly only get around 30-ish FPS in Genshin Impact at the highest render resolution and graphical setting. Samsung did say they’ve added a vapor chamber to the Flip6 but that won’t do any magic since the vapor chamber size can’t be bigger than one-half of the phone. We can’t cheat physics.
That means, it’ll thermal throttle really quick. If you want to learn more about thermal throttling, we did a video talking about it – so watch it at the top right corner there.
In truth though, the performance coming out of the Z Flip6 is commendable, despite all the physical limitations.
Oh – the Z Flip6 did get an increase to 12GB LPDDR5X RAM – but that doesn’t actually add any benefit to the performance or in day-to-day usage. To know why, we have another video, so watch it here.
A few more things to mention
And here are a few more things to mention about the Galaxy Z Flip6 – we have a USB 3.0 port at the bottom of the phone and transferring files is super quick.
However, it still doesn’t have any display output via the USB-C port. So, no Samsung DeX just like before.
It does only have a single SIM card slot, which is surprising since most phones come with two nowadays. I guess the space limitation really is a problem.
Should you buy the Galaxy Z Flip6?
Now, the Z Flip6 is an amazing flip phone. Samsung did do some upgrades to it, so if you’re considering getting the Flip5 last year but didn’t go for it, then you can consider the Flip6.
There is a tiny price increment compared to the previous generation, and I think that is justified here. But if you do want to get a better deal rather than paying the full retail price, then I will have links to better deals down below.
Where to buy? (Affiliate links)
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