The Galaxy Z Flip lineup has been the preferred of Samsung’s foldable units, and its enchantment is obvious — who cannot profit from a tool with all of the functionalities of an everyday smartphone that may additionally shape-shift right into a smaller telephone for on a regular basis ease?
With its newest addition to the lineup, the Galaxy Z Flip 7, Samsung leaned into the telephone’s most tasty characteristic, making it much more transportable with a slimmer design, whereas additionally extra succesful, with the intent to enhance person expertise for energy customers and on a regular basis customers on the identical time.
Nevertheless, at $1,099, the Z Flip 7 continues to be within the greater value vary of telephones. To find out whether or not it’s well worth the funding of your cash, I spent 24 hours with the telephone. Let’s dive proper in.
Extremely anticipated FlexWindow refresh
At a look, probably the most seen change is the FlexWindow (the outer display screen). The display screen is now bigger, spanning from one nook of the telephone to the opposite, with the bezels barely seen — a giant improve from its predecessor, as seen within the photograph above. Not solely is it most aesthetic to take a look at, resembling the look of the Moto Razr 60 Extremely, however it’s also extra sensible.
The 4.1-inch FlexWindow can also be brighter, with 2,600 nits of peak brightness and a smoother 120Hz refresh fee. It additionally has VisionBooster, a characteristic that enhances outside visibility, making it the brightest and highest-functioning FlexWindow but. When utilizing the Z Flip 7 at a park on a sunny NYC day, I used to be in a position to take a look at the display screen with out downside.
So, why does this make it a win? To get extra than simply nostalgia out of the clamshell design, you want to have the ability to use the outer display screen for fundamental duties, and the bigger display screen makes this extra doable.
I discovered myself utilizing it to do fundamental duties resembling taking pictures, viewing notifications, and even trying up info greater than with the previous fashions, doubtless as a result of on the older fashions, the restricted display screen dimension wasn’t actually attractive for me to forgo opening the telephone. I additionally discovered that it was an ideal car for accessing the most recent AI features–which leads me to the subsequent part.
Simpler AI entry
Should you care about AI in your cell gadget, this cowl display screen makes it simpler to get the quick help you need with out even opening your telephone. Gemini Dwell is now accessible on the quilt display screen, whether or not by means of a protracted press of the facet button or by means of the app. It will probably reply questions rapidly for you on the go or entry apps that take motion for you, resembling making a notice or including a calendar occasion.
Should you usually use multimodal AI help, like I do, you may be blissful to be taught you can now share the digital camera proper out of your FlexWindow — which means you prop your telephone up and use the digital camera to get multimodal Gemini help from Gemini Dwell. Now, as an alternative of getting to prop my iPhone 16 Professional, which is my every day driver, on a water bottle or different merchandise to take full benefit of the multimodal help, I’m able to simply open the telephone and set it on the closest floor to ask a query.
You can too entry a Personalised Now Bar and Now Transient from the quilt display screen, a characteristic beforehand restricted to the Galaxy S25 Extremely. This makes it straightforward to get a fast rundown of customized insights resembling climate, occasion summaries, and information. Past these, One UI 8 brings different useful AI options resembling improved photograph and audio enhancing.
Moreover, the acquisition of the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Flip 7 can even include six months of Google AI Professional, which retails for $19.99 a month. The plan provides you entry to a few of Google’s most superior AI choices, together with extra entry to Google’s most succesful mannequin, Gemini 2.5 Professional; Move, Google’s AI filmmaking device constructed with Veo 3 Quick, which makes hyper-realistic movies; and extra. So if you’re massive into AI or have been wanting to offer it a strive, the Z Flip 7 makes it simpler to dive into the superior options.
Extra energy in a slimmer bundle
The Flip 7 is thinner, coming in at 13.7mm thick, in comparison with final yr’s 14.9 mm. This makes it extra snug to slide into your pocket, minimizing the uncomfortable feeling of getting two tiny telephones stacked on prime of one another.
Regardless that it’s slimmer, Samsung did not compromise on key parts, together with a bigger internal show of 6.9 inches, in comparison with the 6.7-inch display screen on the Galaxy Z Flip 6, and a bigger 4,300mAh battery (up from 4,000mAh) that may deal with as much as 31 hours of video playback time, in keeping with Samsung.
Sooner or later of constant use just isn’t practically sufficient time to evaluate a battery’s efficiency, so I’ll present an replace in my full evaluation. Nevertheless, I have never seen any indicators of surprising battery decline, and the battery has lasted me by means of the total day with out a difficulty.
As an alternative of the anticipated Snapdragon 8 Elite, the Z Flip 7 is powered by the Exynos 2500, the primary 3nm in-house processor, launched simply two weeks in the past. The efficiency variations between each chipsets should not be noticeable, aside from the in-house processor enabling new experiences resembling DeX assist on the Z Flip for the primary time, permitting customers to plug their telephone right into a monitor and use it like a desktop laptop.
It has the identical digital camera specs as final yr, with a 50MP wide-angle and a 12MP ultrawide sensor. In final yr’s Z Flip 6, this digital camera system was a significant enhance from the Z Flip 5, and ZDNET’s evaluation discovered that whereas it did not supply flagship-tier efficiency, it was nonetheless a succesful system, excelling in well-lit circumstances and producing vibrant, detailed pictures.
Samsung additionally claims to have made upgrades to the picture processing, together with Enhanced Nightography and 10-bit HDR for extra detailed movies, which ought to improve and differentiate the digital camera’s high quality from the previous mannequin. Beneath are some pictures I took in numerous mild circumstances and settings.
Total, within the final 24 hours, I’ve genuinely loved my expertise with the Flip 7. The most important standout within the restricted time was the bigger cowl display screen, which made it straightforward for me to forgo opening the telephone. Total, Samsung upgraded the Galaxy Z Flip 7’s specs in virtually each method, however keep tuned to ZDNET for my deeper dive into the telephone, the place I will be particularly searching for longer-range efficiency, like its battery and digital camera.
If all for buying it, you may preorder yours for a beginning value of $1,099, with a number of promotions and affords already energetic. The colours embrace Coralred, Jetblack, Blue Shadow, and the online-exclusive Mint, and storage sizes are 256GB to 512GB.
