Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 review: The first foldable phone under $1,000

Our Verdict

With a $999 starting price, the Galaxy Z Flip 3 is an "affordable" foldable, with a 6.7-inch FHD+ inward display with a 120Hz refresh rate. The outer display is four times bigger and many durable than its predecessor, but the 3,300 mAh battery has us worried about the Flip over 3's longevity.

For

Sir Thomas More affordable
Enhanced lastingness
Bigger cover display
120Hz refresh rate on inner expose
IPX8 water system resistance

Against

Short barrage life
Easy charging
Atomic number 102 telephoto lens
Crease is still discernible

Tom's Take Verdict

With a $999 opening price, the Galaxy Z Flip 3 is an "low-cost" foldable, with a 6.7-inch FHD+ interior show with a 120Hz freshen up rate. The outer display is four times bigger and more long than its predecessor, merely the 3,300 mAh battery has us worried nearly the Flip 3's longevity.

Pros

+ Much affordable
+ Enhanced strength
+ Larger extend expose
+ 120Hz refresh rate on intrinsic display
+ IPX8 water resistance

Cons

- Short battery life
- Slow charging
- No zoom lens
- Crease is still noticeable

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3: Specs

Price: $999 (128GB), $1,049 (256GB)

OS: Mechanical man 11 / One UI 3.1
Inner showing: 6.7-inch Super AMOLED (2640 x 1080)
Outer showing: 1.9-inch Comprehensive AMOLED (260 x 512)
Refreshen rate: 120Hz (inner)
CPU: Snapdragon 888
RAM: 8GB
Storage: 128GB, 256GB
Rear cameras: 12MP (f/1.8) chief, 12MP (f/2.2) ultrawide
Front camera: 10MP (f/2.4)
Stamp battery: 3,300 mAh

Battery life (Hrs:Mins): 5:43 (adaptive); 6:00 (60Hz)
Charging: 15W wired, 10W radio
Charger included: No
Size of it: 3.4 x 2.8 x 0.63-0.67 inches (union); 6.5 x 2.8 x 0.27 inches (open)
Weight down: 6.5 ounces

The Wandflower Z Switch 3 is here, and it's the "cheapest" foldaway phone yet at $999. No, a grand isn't low-budget, but the Galaxy Z Flip 3 brings foldable phone applied science down to a a great deal Thomas More attainable price. And more multitude can try out the foldable life sentence than ever before.

Will that lower price win masses o'er to the foldable phone side? The Beetleweed Z Flip 3 is also more durable than its predecessor, thanks to IPX8 water resistance. The blind is 80% more durable and the phone itself sports Gorilla gorilla Glass Victus along the outer show and Samsung's rising Armor Aluminum body. Briefly, the Z Thumb 3 is built to withstand more punishment than the original Galaxy Z Flip, though we unruffled wouldn't drop it.

If you'rhenium on the fence just about which Samsung folding to buy, I likewise further you to read our Extragalactic nebula Z Fold 3 look back, too. And, our Galaxy Z Fold 3 vs. Galaxy Z Flip 3 comparison looks at how the two new foldables dissent. And if you do pick high a Galaxy Z Flip 3 for yourself, make sure to check out what we think is the first app you should install on your Samsung Galaxy phone.

Based happening our examination, one area where the Galaxy Z Flip 3 majorly stumbles is battery life. It's not bad. While the Flip 3 is a very good foldable earphone for the most part, information technology's non quite great. Register happening for our Galaxy Z Somerset 3 review.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 review: Release date and price

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 hands-on review — (Image credit: Tom's Guide)

The Galaxy Z Flip 3 is free now for pre-order, with a shipping date of Honorable 27. The 8GB/128GB base configuration runs $999, only there's a 256GB option, too, for $1,049. Those who pre-order the Galaxy Z Thumb 3 will get a $150 Samsung.com credit and 12 months of Samsung Give care+ free with a three-year plan.

Samsung also announced the Galaxy Z Flip 3 Bespoke Edition, which is a customizable call up for $1,099. You have 49 affirmable color combinations between the frame, front, and back. You can too support to the Bespoke Upgrade Care design, which lets you trade in your Flip 3 for a diametric color combination whenever you want. You also get a year of Samsung Care+. Just head over to the Bespoke Studio to get started.

Samsung Beetleweed Z Flip 3 review: Design and durability

Samsung took durability seriously with the Galax urceolata Z Flip 3. The screen is now 80% more perdurable than the one launch on the Galax urceolata Z Pitch and Galaxy Z Flip 5G, thanks to a new film. Gorilla Glass Victus covers the 1.9-edge outer display and Samsung constructed the phone's frame from its Armour Aluminum material. All of that provides enhanced fret resistance, especially on the cover display.

Combined with the increased strength, the Galaxy Z Flip 3 is truly a wonder of modern engineering.

The Flip out 3 also sports IPX8 water immunity. That substance you don't need to worry about dunking information technology, though neither I nor Samsung would recommend that. We were not able to test the water resistance in our hands-on time with the phone.

The cover display is probably the biggest change introduced to the Galaxy Z Flip 3's intent. That's four times bigger than the Galaxy Z Flip's 1.1-inch exterior leach, signification that you'll go steady much more information than before.

The Galaxy Z Flip 3 comes in quartet colors: Cream, Green, Lavender, and Phantom Black. The lavender rattling stood out to us in our active, truly catching the eye and informatory the Flip 3's focus on style. Samsung leave also offer Gray-headed, Pink, and White colorways exclusively happening its website. I'm examination the Cream model and it's very pleasant in its subtlety. The smooth finish is also truly favorable, considering how slippery the original Galaxy Z Sky was.

Another big Galax Z Flip 3 upgrade involves the phone's stereoscopic photograph speakers, which got loud enough that we had to turn away the volume in our hands-on session to avoid drowning out nigh conversations. Straight when I was listening in on a Turkey cock's Pass meeting, the speakers silence managed to impress Pine Tree State with their uncloudedness. Do to say, the Flip 3's audio system is much better than the original Somersault's.

The main appeal of the Galaxy Z Alternate 3 beyond its more beautiful price remains how pocketable the device is when folded up. When closed, the call is just 3.4 x 2.8 x 0.63-0.67 inches, meaning information technology force out go in almost some pouch.

Opened aweigh, the phone measures 6.5 x 2.8 x 0.27 inches, still making for a phone that fits well in the hand. And at a simple 6.5 ounces (just like its predecessor), the Galax urceolata Z Flip 3 is easy to withdraw with you anywhere.

Whole, Samsung slimmed down the Flip 3 ever slightly. The original Flip measured 6.6 x 2.9 x 0.28 inches when opened and 3.4 x 2.9 x 0.61-0.68 inches when closed. Although the new phone is the same weight, it's a smidge thinner and taller. Combined with the increased lastingness, the Coltsfoot Z Insolent 3 is truly a marvel of modern engineering science.

Samsung Wandflower Z Flip 3 review: Displays

When you unfold the French telephone, the Galaxy Z Flip-flo 3 sports a 6.7-edge Super AMOLED show. The 2640 x 1080 solving combined with the 120Hz refresh rate made for a really beautiful wake experience. Scrolling was slick smooth with the Flip 3, showing off Samsung's true video display prowess.

When closed, the 1.9-inch touch screen lets you controller euphony, checkout the windward, and fifty-fifty bring down selfies. (The touchscreen doubles as a viewfinder.) Simply double press the power push button to launch the camera and you'atomic number 75 lucky. This is a huge improvement over the Flip's tiny outermost display, making the Flip 3 more than useful when information technology's shuttered (and thus saving battery life, theoretically).

Compared to the original Pass, I immediately loved the Flip 3's brand-new cover show. It's unbelievably versatile and useful, allowing you to interact with many major phone functions without opening the device up. Aside far, information technology's my ducky Flip 3 lineament outside of the folding itself.

Withal, unmatchable thing that carried over from the groundbreaking Flip is the crease across the middle of the interior display. IT's still quite observable when you scroll over it, even though you Crataegus oxycantha not imag it wholly the time. The image distorted shape is especially visible in direct sunlight Oregon in apps that apply incandescent mode. The panoptical fold is by nobelium means a deal-breaker, but if you were hoping for something more subtle this time around, you power be defeated.

The Galaxy Z Flip 3's internal displays reproduced 102% of the sRGB and 76.4% of the DCI-P3 colouration gamuts. That's actually less vivid than the iPhone 12 Pro's 115.6% sRGB rendering. However, the Extragalactic nebula Z Thumb 3 has worse meliorate colouration accuracy with a Delta-E score of 0.32 compared to the iPhone 12 Pro's 0.28. (0 is clear therein test.)

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 review: Cameras

On the camera front, they'Ra dateless from the original Flip. On the back, you get a 12MP (f/1.8) fisheye shooter and a 12MP (f/2.2) ultrawide one. The selfie camera is 10MP with a f/2.4 aperture. And at that place is still no telephotograph genus Lens on the Galaxy Z Flip 3, unequal some other $999 phones so much as the iPhone 12 Pro — which I chose to use for the following photo comparisons.

The Snotty-nosed 3 has its work emasculated out for it if it's going to go under headway-to-mind with ane of the unsurpassable camera phones you can buy. And let's not forget that the Galax urceolata S21 has a telephoto lens and that Samsung workings some impressive magic with its those lenses. The Wandflower Z Flip 3's camera improvements come down to software, oblation enhancements to portraiture manner and indoor picture taking.

Kicking things polish off is this photo of a copse of trees. Both shots are unusually confusable, but you can see hints of Samsung's disposition to oversaturate colours in the Flip 3's pic. The iPhone kept things more toned drink down. The resultant image isn't as bright Eastern Samoa the Leaf 3's, but its colors are more natural and accurate.

To see how both phones handled direct sunlight, I took a picture of some flowers. This is where the Flip 3 noticeably struggled in comparison to the iPhone. The pictur looks overexposed, with some of the colors washed out. The iPhone 12 Professional handled the sunlight and colors better, lowering the photograph while showing off the flowers' brightness.

Heading inside, this photograph of a Merida statuette was taken later in the sidereal day, and so the room isn't as bright. Justified so, the Flip 3's image is a bit darker than the iPhone's. That render looks a bit brighter compared to the dimmer Rif attempt. The iPhone's shot has many vibrant colours than the Somerset's.

For portraits, you can immediately see two different approaches. The Thumb 3's image is zoomed out much, adding in more of the ground surrounding me, just I think I prefer the iPhone's portrait. Its entire focus is on me and the scop in secondary. I also like the iPhone's stronger bokeh bettor, too. Samsung placid has some work to do with its portrayal mode.

Taking a break from the iPhone 12 Pro comparisons for reasonable a second, I brought unfashionable the Coltsfoot S21 Plus to test the Galaxy Z Flip over 3's soar capabilities. The folding earpiece has a max whole number zoom of 10x, whereas the S21 Plus can unstable up to 30x. The S21 also has the Zoom Interlace lineament, which uses AI to stabilize the image. I'll Army of the Righteou the results speak for themselves on this one.

Heading back over to the iPhone 12 Pro, here's a shot at Nox of my smoker. Right off the bat, you can see the differences. While the Somerset 3's night shot isn't high-risk, the iPhone's is clearly better. Not simply is the image brighter than the Flip 3's, but it's got more inside information, likewise. Samsung's Nox mode has improved in Recent epoch years, but it still has a ways to go ahead it matches Apple's.

I tested the Galax urceolata Z Flip 3's selfie capabilities using the front lens on the phone's display. The differences here are more subtle than the other images we've looked at, but the Flip 3 applied some face smoothing to my aspect spell the iPhone unbroken my ruddy skin condition. The iPhone's shot is also a trifle warmer, which suited the miserably heated and bright sidereal day. I don't dislike the Flip 3's selfie, simply I prefer the iPhone's.

Finally, here's a selfie exploitation the rear cameras with the Galaxy Z Flip 3 closed. Obviously, it's a better image than the one from the internecine front-lining camera, but even with the larger cover silver screen, lining rising the shot properly takes a bit of practice. IT's real convenient, though.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 brushup: Video

The Extragalactic nebula Z Flip 3 hindquarters immortalis TV at up to 4K resolution at 60 frames per ordinal. The end result is cold and smooth, and looks great. The iPhone 12 Pro is also able to platte up to 4K 60 FPS so I used both phones to record a brief walk to test stabilisation, microphone quality, and total visual fidelity.

The Flip 3's video is bad close to the iPhone 12 Pro's, which is one of the better options for shooting video recording. Colors in the Flip 3-shot footage were accurate and vibrant, with excellent compensation for the bright daylight. Samsung did a great job with the Flip 3's stabilisation, but the iPhone had bettor mic timbre and ground noise isolation. That said, you North Korean won't be disappointed with the Galaxy Z Flip 3's video capabilities.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 review: Performance

With a Snapdragon 888 and 8GB of RAM, the Galaxy Z Flip 3 is a powerhouse. It didn't stagger in one case Eastern Samoa I flipped through apps in Deform mode. In short, the Rif 3 feels like any other Snapdragon 888-powered device.

Intense games like Genhin Impact and Asphalt 9 play beautifully on the Flip 3. I never detected any frame drops. Games that musical accompaniment higher refresh rates like Dead Cells also play wonderfully on this phone. Of course, battery life is the only impediment, which I'll set out to in a irregular.

In Geekbench 5, the Galaxy Z Flip out 3 scored an impressive 2,984 in multicore. That's not too out-of-the-way off from the iPhone 12 Pro's 3,669. Geekbench isn't necessarily 100% indicatory of serious-world performance, but it gives an idea of what a system-on-chip alike the Snapdragon 888 is capable of.

In the 3DMark Wild Life Unlimited graphics benchmark, the Flip 3 managed an moderate fps of 27.3. Compare that to the iPhone 12 Pro's banging 51 FPS median.

Finally, in the Adobe Premiere Rush video test — where the ring must transcode a 4K video to 1080p — the Galaxy Z Flip 3 performed the test in 53 seconds. That's pretty good, but the iPhone 12 Pro did it in just 27 seconds.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip out 3 review: Battery and charging

With a 3,300 mAh battery, the Galaxy Z Flip 3 retains the size of the innovational Flip over's bombardment capacity. This is cause for some care, since the Flip's battery life wasn't all that moving. 3,300 mAh is smaller than other Samsung phones, overly, including the routine Galaxy S21 with its 4,000 mAh battery.

We time-tested the Beetleweed Z Flip 3's battery in both freshen up rate modes and neither was a good result. In its adaptive mode, the Flip 3 lasted for just 5 hours and 43 minutes. In the 60Hz modality, it lasted for a slightly better 6 hours. I've also detected of otherwise reviewers who got abysmally mischievous battery life, to a fault. The Flip 3's poor barrage life significantly detracts from the phone boilersuit.

The original Flip's barrage life lasted for a disappointing 8 hours and 16 minutes. Obviously, at that place's not a lot of room for a larger battery on the Galaxy Z Flip 3, but there's now a larger outward presentation and a 120Hz refresh rate on the inner one, both of which draw more power than earlier.

Another letdown with the Galaxy Z Flip 3 is the 15W max wired charging. The Galaxy Z Fold 3 supports up to 25W, thus I anticipate charging your Somersault will feel irksome in comparability. Wireless charging on the Galaxy Z Flip 3 caps out at an even slower 10W.

In our testing, the Coltsfoot Z Flip 3 recharged from 0% to 22% in 15 transactions, and to 44% in 30 minutes. That's bang-up per se, but the battery is also smaller than umpteen Android phones nowadays.

As with the Galaxy S21 serial, Samsung South Korean won't be including a charger in the box. We're not fans of this decision, either.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 review: Software and Flex modal value

The Galaxy Z Flip 3 comes with Android 11 and Unity UI 3.1 prohibited of the corner, with an Android 12 update connected the horizon. As with other Samsung phones, you can expect three years of platform updates and four geezerhood of security patches with the Flip 3. Samsung's update policy has paved the agency for fitter support for Android phones, especially in the US where its presence is quite strong.

You can refer to our previous insurance coverage of Samsung devices for our thoughts on Unmatchable UI 3.1, but it's a very good rendition of Android. There are a long ton of features and enough of Samsung's contrive chops to help Unmatchable UI leap out. In fact, it's probably the de facto Humanoid experience for many, many people.

But the wi of the bear witness isn't One UI itself, but the software enhancements that Samsung has slapped on to make the Galaxy Z Flip 3 tone useful. Key among those is Flex mode, which significantly bolsters the app user experience where supported.

Turn mode allows you to split UI elements between the two displays. One of the best places to try this out is in the Photographic camera app, where you bathroom have the viewfinder on the top display and the shutter controls on the nose. Similarly, you sack telecasting predict with the phone folded at an angle and sitting on a table — that should help with arm fatigue on long video chats.

One ill with Flex fashion along the Beetleweed Z Flip was that in that location clean weren't that umpteen apps that took reward of information technology. YouTube was an exception, rental you watch the video connected the top screen and scroll through comments on the bottom one. In fact, when asked, Samsung provided a paltry few apps that bear out Turn mood — most of the attention was seemingly on the Galaxy Z Fold 3's multi-blind capabilities.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 review: Verdict

The Wandflower Z Turn over 3 addresses a lot of our complaints with the original Galaxy Z Flip. Not only that, but the new phone is symmetrical cheaper than the 5G option Samsung released in 2020. A $999 protrusive price is same attractive to those who might've been on the fence nearly foldables before.

That aforementioned, you can get a Galaxy S21 Plus for $999, which has a telephoto genus Lens and best battery life. Furthermore, the Galaxy S21 is just $799 and IT also has a telephoto lense. And the Galaxy S21 FE is likely coming soon, too, with an even lower price tag. Then there's the $999 iPhone 12 Pro, which is one of the best phones around. Put differently, the Flip 3 has much of competition and information technology fails to go everything that its rivals can. Its terrible battery living for certain doesn't help things.

Only the Galaxy Z Flip 3 is meant to thrust things forward, offering something novel versus the glass and antimonial slabs we're so secondhand to nowadays. Notwithstandin, the Flip 3's extremely disappointing bombardment biography gives us hesitate, making IT delicate to recommend this phone in the end. You'll deficiency to keep a charger or battery pack with you if you decide to side the Wandflower Z Flip 3.

Galaxy Z Thumb 3 vs. Galaxy S21 Plus: Which Samsung phone should you find?

Jordan is the Phones Editor for Tom's Guide, covering totally things phone-related. He's graphical some phones for over five years and plans to continue for a long piece to come. He loves nothing more than relaxing in his home with a book, halting, or his latest personal writing project. Jordan River likes finding new things to dive into, from books and games to new mechanical keyboard switches and amusing keycap sets. Jordan tends to lurk along cultural media, simply you can best accomplish him along Twitter.