Samsung’s newest foldable phones, the Galaxy Z Fold 4 and the smaller Galaxy Z Flip 4 were announced in India today. In several ways, the new foldable is better than the Galaxy Fold and Flip from last year. Here’s everything you want to know about the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4.
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 price, availability
The Z Flip 4 costs at least $999 (roughly Rs. 79,000). The phone will come in Blue, Bora Purple, Graphite, and Pink Gold, and there will be three combinations of RAM and storage to choose from 8GB + 128GB, 8GB + 256GB, and 8GB + 512GB.
On August 26, you can buy the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 in a few places worldwide. We don’t know how much the Galaxy Z Flip 4 will cost or when it will be available in India.
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 specifications
The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 has two SIM cards (Nano and eSIM) and runs on Android 12 with OneUI 4.1.1 on top of it. It has a 6.7-inch primary full-HD+ (1,080×2,640 pixels) Dynamic AMOLED 2X Infinity Flex Display with a 120Hz adaptive refresh rate and a 22:9 aspect ratio. The main screen is about the same size as last year’s model. There is a 260 x 512-pixel Super AMOLED screen that is 1.9 inches in size.
Design and build
The Z Flip 4 doesn’t have a very different look from the Flip 3. Instead, it’s more of an improvement.
The phone looks almost the same as last year’s one, but there are some small differences. The cover screen is a little bigger, and the camera lenses stick out more from the body. The phone’s edges are slightly squared off, making it feel thinner. Samsung has also made the bezel on the internal display a bit thinner, but not by much.
The hinge has been redesigned to make it much smaller, which is the biggest change in how it is put together. This makes it less noticeable when the phone is open and the crease in the screen less noticeable.
The improved ultrathin glass that covers the panel should also help it last longer. The outer shell is now made of Gorilla Glass Victus+, but the IPX8 rating stays the same. This means that the phone is resistant to water but not to dust.
The colors of the phone are another big change. At first, the phone will come in Bora Purple, Blue, Pink Gold, and Graphite as standard finishes.
Various colors will be added to the Bespoke Edition of the phone. This gives you more choices than last year, with five main panel colors and three frame colors (black, silver, and gold) (green, navy, red, yellow, and white).
Displays
Samsung’s screens haven’t changed much either. The inner folding screen is still a 6.7-inch AMOLED panel with a 120Hz refresh rate, and the outer screen has grown very slightly from 1.83 inches to 1.9 inches.
Samsung has updated the software for that cover screen, so it can now show custom images, gifs, and even videos. It also has new widgets, such as a speed dial for up to three contacts, controls for the SmartThings smart home system, and switches for things like Bluetooth and airplane mode.
As was already said, the new design of the hinge seems to have made the screen crease less noticeable. The new crease is much shallower, less obvious, and harder to feel when swiping.
Chipset, RAM, and storage
The Z Flip 3’s Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 processor has been upgraded to the new Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, improving performance and power efficiency.
The 8GB of RAM stays the same, but the storage is better. As mentioned above, the 128GB and 256GB storage options are back, and a new 512GB storage option has been added. This is a welcome change since, like the Z Flip 3, there is no MicroSD card slot.
Cameras
At first glance, the cameras in the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 don’t seem to have changed, but there have been some small upgrades, especially to the main sensor.
Again, there is a 10Mp front camera and a pair of 12Mp rear cameras (main and ultrawide). The selfie and ultrawide cameras are mostly the same. They will benefit from the improved image processing of the 8+ Gen 1.
The biggest benefits go to the main camera. This uses a new, bigger sensor that is 65% brighter and has 1.8m pixels, up from 1.4m last year. The result is better detail and dynamic range, especially in low light, but I saw improvements even in brightly lit shots.
Battery and charging
The Z Flip 4 3’s battery life was one of its biggest problems, so it makes sense that Samsung has worked to fix this. For one thing, it has a bigger battery than the Flip 3: 3700mAh instead of 3300mAh.
That doesn’t sound like much, but it should be a good improvement because the 8+ Gen 1 uses less power. Samsung told me that, on average, the 8+ Gen 1 lasts three hours longer than the Flip 3, and one tester was able to keep the phone going for 36 hours.
That’s backed up by the fact that charging has gotten slightly better, going from 15W to 25W. So, wireless charging is also back.