Samsung Galaxy Z Flip

This right here is the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip. It is the third folding phone that I have reviewed and it is the second flip phone. And it's the best of that bunch. But that's not saying much. The weird thing about this phone is that it doesn't feel all that special. It's kind of normal but for folding phones, normal might not be that bad.

I want to explain what I mean by that but let's just be clear that normally does not mean that it's good enough to buy. I mean, look, you already know where this video is going to end up. Nobody should spend $1,380 on this phone. So, when I say this phone feels normal, I mean that it performs normally and I have pretty normal complaints about things like the camera. And it also looks kinda super normal. I think normal is an important step for folding phones. It means that you imagine buying it instead of treating it like a concept phone. Anyway, let's get into the screen because it has been the source of some controversy with this phone.

So it is glass that folds but to make glass bend, you have to make it thin. Samsung's ultra-thin glass' is 30 microns thick which is in the range of very thin human hair. And that means that it doesn't hold up like the glass that you'reused to on a smartphone screen. Glass this thin is gonna be delicate. A tiny nick or a scratch and it will lose its structural integrity and crack when you try and bend it. So, Samsung Galaxy Z Flip put a protective plastic coating on top of it and that coating well, it's fairly soft. It feels like a screen protector so, put all that together and what it means is that this thing can pick up indentations from your fingernail if you press into it too firmly and it definitely will not hold up to serious scratching. You've probably seen a JerryRig Everything video that shows this point way better than I could.

So, what's the point of all this effort if the screen scratches just as easily and it can get punctured easily anyway. Well, Samsung Galaxy Z Flip gets to say that it's glass. That's one reason. For me, the big difference is that it does feel firmer under my thumb than other plastic screens. It just feels a little more solid. It's not as solid as a glass on your current phone but it's a step in the right direction. Now don't hold me to this but I think the glass might help a little bit with overall sharpness and clarity too. Now, as for the crease, it's there. I see it when I look for it but I don't see it whenI'm not looking for it. But that might just be my brain compensating for it like in a blind spot. I mentioned this in my Razor View but I'm gonna say it again,

Performance

RAM		8 GB
Processor		Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Plus
Rear Camera		12 MP + 12 MP
Front Camera		10 MP
Battery		3300 mAh
Display		6.7 inches

I genuinely don't know what the standard for these phone screens should be. I mean, take a look at this bezel. It is a big, dumb plastic reel that holds the screen down and on a non-folding phone, I would make fun of this bezel. But here, it keeps the screen down and it also keeps the phone from clacking into itself when you fold it, so should I make fun of it? Probably not. And as for overall screen quality, it's better and sharper than a razor. Yup, but it obviously can't stand up to a regular Samsung screen. Let's move on to the next unique thing about this phone which is the hinge. There are four things to know about it. One, it's pretty stiff.

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It makes the phone really hard to flip out one-handed. You can do it but it's kinda hard. Two, Samsung says the main reason the hinge is so stiff is so that you can stand it up like this in this thing they call flex mode which lets you do stuff with the top half of the screen. You can use it for taking photos and duo calls and it's kind of good for watching YouTube and I mean I don't know. Propping your phone up is kind of a hassle sometimes but this solution is just overkill. Three, there is a gap when the phone is closed and that is a little bit scary because the screen is fragile remember. On the bright side, the gap is narrow enough so that it doesn't add that much thickness when it's fully closed. It's not offensive to me. Fourth, Samsung has added brushes and caps and other gaws to keep dust and dirt out of the hinge mechanism. Will that work? I don't know. It's been fine for the four or five days that I've been using this.

Launch Date		February 26, 2020 (Official)
Brand		Samsung
Model		Galaxy Z Flip
Operating System		Android v10 (Q)
Custom UI		Samsung One UI
SIM Slot(s)		Dual SIM, GSM+GSM
SIM Size		SIM1: Nano SIM2: eSIM
Network		4G: Available (supports Indian bands), 3G: Available, 2G: Available
Fingerprint Sensor
Quick Charging

But it definitely didn't hold up to iFixit putting it in a plastic bag with a bunch of purple dust and shaking it, but admittedly that's a very extreme test. Add those four things together and what you get is that this is the best hinge ever on a folding phone, which means, what exactly? I don't know. The screen is also the best screen ever on a folding phone too and, so what? What counts as good or even good enough for a foldable phone in terms of durability and screen quality, I think it is still too early to say that we have a real baseline to judge these folding phones against. So, here's what I'll say I do think the screen looks good enough for folding phones but I don't think its durable enough to recommend and the hinge, well just don't put it in a bag of dust. (up-tempo music) Now, this might surprise you but really the biggest problem I have day to day with the overall design is that the fingerprint sensor and the power button here on the side It's just too hard to reach. It's too high up. Especially if you have small hands, and if you're left-handedI mean forget about it. You gotta hold it in an areally, weird wacky way.

I also don't really love this teeny tiny little outer screen. It's fine for showing the time and it can show icons for your notifications and play-pause controls, but it actually sucks for showing the content of your notifications and it really doesn't work as a selfie viewfinder all that well. Which brings me to the camera. It's good, but it can't hang with the best. Now my hope was that these two 12 megapixel cameras on the back of the Z Flip would at least be on par with last year's Galaxy S10. And too often they just can't. Samsung kinda seems to be back to its old Samsung ways of over-smoothing photos. So, it's kind of annoying because I thought Samsung had learned it's a lesson with this stuff. It just seems to be worse on sharpness and the details than even Samsung'sother phones Like the S10 or the Note 10.

Processor

Chipset		Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Plus
Processor		Octa-core (2.95 GHz, Single core, Kryo 485 + 2.41 GHz, Tri core, Kryo 485 + 1.78 GHz, Quad-core, Kryo 485) Excellent ▾
Architecture		64 bit
Graphics		Adreno 640
RAM		8 GB Best in Class ▾
Bootup Time (tested by 91mobiles)		18.0 s

These cameras are good. They're just not keeping up with the times. And that means we're in the zone of doing normal phone criticism now instead of the wacky land of hinges and folding screens that might break and whatever. Here's another normal thing. Battery life. It's fine. I can get through a day pretty easily with four and even five hours of screen time plus decent standby time. It's not gonna hold up to really intense use all day but for this size of a phone, I'm pretty happy. I also like that there is wireless charging and it makes a perfect nightstand clock in this flex mode with the always-on screen. I also have no complaints about performance either. It is a totally normalSnapdragon 855 plus processor with eight gigs of remand 256 gigs of storage.

Camera Performance

Camera Setup		Dual
Resolution		12 MP f/1.8 (up to 8x Digital Zoom), Wide Angle (78° field-of-view) Primary Camera(27 mm focal length, 2.55" sensor size, 1.4µm pixel size)12 MP f/2.2, Wide Angle, Ultra-Wide Angle Camera(12 mm focal length, 1.22µm pixel size)
Sensor		CMOS image sensor
Autofocus		Phase Detection autofocus, Dual Pixel autofocus
Physical Aperture		F1.8
Optical Image Stabilisation
Flash		LED Flash
Image Resolution		4000 x 3000 Pixels
Settings		Exposure compensation, ISO control
Shooting Modes		Continuous Shooting, High Dynamic Range mode (HDR)
Camera Features		8 x Digital Zoom, Auto Flash, Face detection, Touch to focus
Video Recording		3840x2160 @ 60 fps, 1920x1080 @ 60 fps, 1280x720 @ 960 fps

Those are last year's best specs instead of this year's best specs but that doesn't matter I could use this phone all day every day. I have no speed complaints. (upbeat music) Okay. So, is the Galaxy Z Flip a normal phone? Of course not. It folds, it has a 30-micron thick glass screen that has a plastic layer on top of that, it is way more fragile than whatever phone you have right now. It costs $1,380 for a phone that has a camera that's honestly a little bit, meh. But after using it for nearly a week, it felt pretty normal. And that's an important step for these folding phones. The goal is to make them just another normal reasonable option for people that have small pockets and that wanna carry around a bigger phone that actually fits in them.

But Samsung really isn't there yet. If these phones are ever gonna stop being just expensive curiosities they have to start being a little boring and the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip is getting there. It's kind of a little boring. But that doesn't mean that it's normal yet. And that doesn't mean you should buy it. It's still just a curiosity. Even with that glass screen. - Hey, thank you so much for watching. I have great news. I think this is the last folding phone we're gonna have to talk about for a while. Up next is the Galaxy S20. And I'm very excited to test that out.

Saturday, 20 June 2020

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip