Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 review: flipping into the mainstream

The story of folding phones frankincense far has been one of compromise. Choosing a folding call over a standard slab design has generally meant you compromised on performance, lastingness, and most of all, monetary value. They ’ ve been the knowledge domain of early adopters, the people uncoerced to put up with those compromises .
Samsung ’ s Galaxy Z Flip 3 is the first folding call to challenge all that. It has the same central processing unit as the Galaxy S21 released earlier this year. Its screen runs at a fluent 120Hz, merely like Samsung ’ s early flagships. It has a modern, allegedly more durable construction, plus IP urine resistance, merely like you ’ vitamin d expect on a modern earphone. And most importantly, its depart price is $ 1,000, $ 450 less than the launching price of the Z Flip 5G it replaces. That puts the Flip 3 on the same price level as many high-end, non-folding phones .
The Flip 3 international relations and security network ’ t necessarily a sure count, though. There are things it ’ s not vitamin a good at as other, standard phones. Using a folding earphone like this is a different experience than many of us are used to. But increasingly, those differences boil down to personal preferences and choices, not compromises. And that means this is the first folding telephone that can appeal to mainstream telephone buyers, not just early adopters .

Our reappraisal of
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3

Verge Score

8

out of 10

Good Stuff

  • It folds in half
  • It costs the same as other high-end phones
  • It’s water resistant
  • Inside screen is as good as other premium phones

Bad Stuff

  • Long-term screen durability still a question
  • Cameras aren’t top tier
  • Cover screen still too small and limited
  • Difficult to open one-handed

Buy for $999.99 from Samsung
Buy for $999.99 from Best Buy

Galaxy Z Flip 3 design


Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 5G

The plan of the Flip 3 is largely the same as the first Galaxy Flip and the Flip 5G that both came out last class. The goal of this folding phone is not to turn a normal-sized call into a tablet, like the Galaxy Fold series, but go the opposite steering : turn a large call into something that fits easier in your pocket or purse. When closed, the Flip 3 is roughly the size of my wallet, but open it up and you ’ ve got a roomy, though grandiloquent, 6.7-inch screen .
besides like the earlier Flips, the Flip 3 is rather thick when it ’ south closed — it ’ s efficaciously twice the thickness of normal phones. But that didn ’ triiodothyronine make it hard to handle or slide into my pouch. Since the Flip 3 is only half american samoa improbable as other phones, there ’ s no concern of it poking out the top of my pants scoop. If anything, it stayed in my pants and jacket pockets better than tall, thin phones — I never was concerned about it sliding out when I sat down .
The Flip 3 ’ second hinge is largely unaltered from final clock — it ’ s still quite potent and unmanageable to flick assailable with one hand, though satisfying to snap exclude. ( Samsung recommends using two hands to open the call. ) It can be positioned halfway open and stay there, so you can prop the call up and take selfies, make a video call, or watch a video using only half the display. I never did this and don ’ triiodothyronine suspect many people outside of Samsung ’ s market materials would either .






Most of the lastingness improvements Samsung made are under the hood, including self-curing gaskets to keep out water. You can read about those changes in more detail in my colleague Dieter Bohn ’ s piece, but the takeaway is this : you don ’ t have to worry about getting the Flip 3 wet, which is quite an accomplishment for a delicate objet d’art of electronics that literally folds in half. You do distillery have to be conscious of dust and debris — the Flip 3 has no official dust auspices fink — and there ’ south even a visible gap in the hinge when it ’ south closed. TL ; DR : the Flip 3 is good for the pool, not for the beach .
otherwise, the fit and complete of the Flip 3 is on par with other flagship phones. The cream-colored review unit I have has a unique ex post facto invoke, and its aluminum side rails and hinge have a soft, flatness finish to them. ( Samsung ’ randomness besides providing a variety show of other semblance options if cream international relations and security network ’ t your thing. ) It doesn ’ thyroxine whine or crunch disconcertingly when you open or close it, and the seams and tolerances are dainty and tight .



The big, visible change Samsung made with the Flip 3 is increasing the size of the report filmdom from a stint 1.1 inches out to 1.9 inches ( measured diagonally ), which translates to a roughly four times larger expose. It ’ randomness much more useful for checking notifications and controlling media than the minuscule ticker screen on the anterior Flips, but it ’ randomness placid quite limit. Though the interface mimics a smartwatch, including swipeable panels for calendar appointments, weather, alarms, and timers, you can ’ t answer to an entrance message without using Bixby voice commands ( no thanks ) or opening up the earphone in full. You can use the screen to frame up selfies, and the clock is customizable with different animations, but the cover sieve itself could stand to be quite a bit larger still .
The cover blind ’ s limitations highlight how using the Flip 3 is different from a standard smartphone. You can ’ thyroxine precisely pick the Flip up and promptly do what you want one-handed — you about always have to open the phone up, which frequently requires two hands. It ’ randomness less commodious than a standard call and takes longer to do childlike tasks because of this. I got around these limitations by equitable leaving the Flip open and treating it like a normal phone when I ’ megabyte sitting at my desk or fair hanging around the house, only bothering to close it when I wanted to put it in my pouch. But that largely defeats the reason you ’ five hundred buy a folding earphone in this style to begin with .
Samsung has a suite of colorful and fun cases for the Flip 3 that include built-in finger straps or rings to make it easier to hold the call when it ’ randomness clear. I got to try one of the strappy models and while the neon colors looked great and it was like having a built-in PopSocket on the phone, it doesn ’ t make it any easier to get the Flip 3 open with one hand .

Galaxy Z Flip 3 display




once the Flip 3 is open, you ’ ra treated to a 6.7-inch, 1080 pixel wide OLED display that gets bright and has a faster refresh rate than the anterior models. It looks and feels just vitamin a decent as Samsung ’ s other OLED screens, with fast allude reaction, punchy colors, bass blacks, and smooth scroll. It ’ sulfur easy to see outdoors, looks great when watching television, and is right up there in performance and choice compared to other flagship phones. The Flip 3 ’ s 9:22 expression ratio is taller than most phones, but other than that, it works barely like any early mod smartphone .
On top of that upgrade display is a new factory-installed screen defender that ’ s made from a harder material than what Samsung used in the past. It ’ randomness a lot more unmanageable to dent or scratch than the old Flip ’ s gummy-feeling screen defender, and it feels much nice to tap and swipe on. It ’ s basically indistinguishable in spirit from the screen protectors many people put on crown of normal phones and Samsung says it should last longer and bubble less than the old one. ( In my week or so of testing I haven ’ triiodothyronine seen any bubbles form. ) The company hush does not recommend you remove the screen defender and if you need to get it replaced, it expects you to go to a license repair kernel to have a new one installed .



You can silent feel the kris in the focus on of the screen and if you look at the earphone from an external oblique muscle slant, you can absolutely see it. But it never got in the way of actually using the telephone and after a day or two, I just forgot about it .
Despite Samsung ’ s claims of improved lastingness with last year ’ randomness Flip phones, a disconcertingly large count of them calm cracked right at the kris, even if they weren ’ thyroxine dropped or damaged. Samsung is putting a set of weight on how it rearranged the screen ’ south layers to make them more durable this time around and claims the new shield defender makes the screen door 80 percentage stronger than earlier. The company is besides giving away a year of its $ 12.99 per calendar month extended guarantee to those who preorder the Flip 3, which lets you get the screen fixed for a $ 249 fee. But I can understand why you might want to wait a few months and see how things shake out with the Flip 3 ’ sulfur screen lastingness before taking the plunge .

Galaxy Z Flip 3 performance

The Galaxy Flip 3 has the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 processor and 8GB of RAM as the Galaxy S21, and its performance is as quick and dapper as any other flagship phone released this year. It ’ randomness besides amply compatible with all of the 5G flavors available in the US, including the still-rare-but-fast-if-you-can-find-it millimeter brandish networks .
performance and battery life are veracious in argumentation with what you ’ five hundred expect from a flagship call
Battery life is besides merely all right, providing between four and five hours of screentime between charges. That ’ south adequate to concluding me a full day without concern and the radio charging makes it easy to top up the battery on my nightstand or when I ’ molarity at my desk. You can get phones that last longer between charges, but most people won ’ t have a problem with the Flip 3 ’ mho stamina. One notice : the Flip 3, like many other high-end phones released in the past couple of years, does not come with a charging brick in the box. It supports up to 15W fast blame, but you ’ ll have to BYOB ( bring your own brick ) .
New for the Flip 3 is a fix of stereo speakers, a noticeable upgrade over the mono loudspeaker on the older Flips. The new speakers are much louder and make watching video recording more enjoyable, though I noticed the earphone speaker was perceptibly louder than the penetrate loudspeaker when I watched YouTube, as if the stereophonic balance was shifted. That could be because the loudspeaker is facing immediately at me, while the penetrate speaker fires off to the side, but Samsung wasn ’ triiodothyronine able to immediately explain it when I asked. inactive not available is a earphone jack, so you ’ five hundred better like those speakers or use Bluetooth headphones with the Flip 3 .

Galaxy Z Flip 3 camera




possibly the area where Samsung made the least forth advancement is with the Flip 3 ’ randomness television camera align. The 12-megapixel standard wide and ultrawide rise cameras and the 10-megapixel front-facing selfie television camera have the lapp spectacles and lenses as last year ’ sulfur Flip 5G. It ’ s an sphere where you are required to make different choices about your priorities compared to standard flagship phones that have more capable or versatile camera systems .
That isn ’ thyroxine to say the Flip 3 ’ south cameras are bad, it ’ second just that if camera timbre or features are the primary concerns for you in a telephone, it ’ s not the best one to choose. Pictures from any of the cameras are characteristically Samsung, with vibrant, about oversaturated colors, lots of sharpen, and obtrusive smooth of faces .

The results are images that many people will find please and want to share right away, without making many edits or adjustments or zooming in to compare all right details. The Flip 3 is not ampere good in low light as an iPhone 12 Pro Max or Pixel 5, nor does it have the versatility of the Samsung S21 Ultra ’ south long telephotograph lens. But for everyday snaps and casual picture take, the Flip 3 is plenty adequate to. Plus, you can use the traverse screen to frame selfies with the independent television camera, though it ’ sulfur placid excessively little for me to do that comfortably .

Galaxy Z Flip 3 software and other stuff

The perch of the Flip 3 ’ s report is distinctive Samsung. It ’ sulfur running Android 11 with Samsung ’ s OneUI interface on top of it. It ’ sulfur all right, if a piece clutter, and Samsung is still using its stock apps as places to jam undesirable ads, which is gross and annoying. ( At least, at launch there will be ads. Samsung says it will be removing them later this year. )
Once it ’ second open, the Z Flip 3 is just like any early Samsung
Unlike the Fold line of phones, the Flip 3 international relations and security network ’ metric ton trying to replace a pill or come up with any new multitasking paradigm, and it doesn ’ t have any issue displaying popular apps like Instagram. Once it ’ sulfur open, it basically just works like any other Samsung earphone, accomplished with Samsung ’ s app shop, browser, mobile payments, notes app, health app, and more. Samsung has committed to delivering four years of security updates and three generations of fresh Android platform updates on its phones, which means your folding earphone ’ s software subscribe might last longer than its screen does .



The original Galaxy Z Flip showed that a folding telephone can feel like a convention telephone, once you get over its wow factor. It can be the kind of thing that you precisely get used to day in and day out .
The Z Flip 3 is Samsung applying its persistent iteration to that theme and making it something that is a normal earphone, justly polish to the price it charges for it. Samsung has systematically checked off the boxes that made earlier Flip models strictly curiosities : performance, features, price, and lastingness .
The Z Flip 3 is the first foldable that ’ second besides a normal earphone
I don ’ metric ton think the Flip 3 is for everyone — there are still people out there who want the absolute best television camera or aren ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate intrigued by the idea of what the Flip offers. And how well its better lastingness holds up over the farseeing term is distillery an loose interrogate. But it ’ s the first close up telephone where I can see a lot of people choosing it, particularly when it ’ s the like monetary value as a phone that looks the lapp as what they ’ ve been using for years .
good a few years ago, it seemed like folding phones were fair a futuristic experiment. With the Z Flip 3, the second phase of the experiment begins, the one where we find out if protein folding phones can appeal to more than just early adopters. It ’ s an significant prove ground for the concept and fortunately the Z Flip 3 appears up to the tax .
photography by Dan Seifert / The scepter

Agree to Continue: Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3

Every smart device now requires you to agree to a series of terms and conditions before you can use it — contracts that no one actually reads. It ’ s impossible for us to read and analyze every unmarried one of these agreements. But we started counting precisely how many times you have to hit “ agree ” to use devices when we review them since these are agreements most people don ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate read and decidedly can ’ metric ton negociate .
To use the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3, you must agree to :

  • Samsung’s Terms and conditions
  • Samsung’s Privacy Policy
  • Google Terms of Service (including Privacy Policy)
  • Google Play Terms of Service

There are many optional agreements. If you use a carrier-specific version, there will be more of them. here are barely a few :

  • Samsung “Information Linking” and sending diagnostic data
  • Google Drive backup, Location services, W-Fi Scanning, diagnostic data
  • Automatic installs (including from Google, Samsung, and your carrier)
  • Bixby privacy policy (required to use Bixby), plus optional for Bixby options like personalized content, data access, and audio recording review

There may be others. For exemplar, if you create a Samsung account, you ’ ll motivation to agree to more terms for that. Samsung ’ s Weather app besides has its own privacy policy that may include sharing data with weather.com.

Final tally : there are four mandate agreements and at least four optional ones .

Correction: An earlier interpretation of this revue stated the Z Flip 3 supported 25W fast charging. Its fast appoint is actually limited to 15W. We regret the error .

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