The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 combines its cool folding action with a reasonable price, so you’re right to be tempted. This is what it’s like to live with.
Folding smartphones have a reputation, and it’s one of fragility, compromise, and expense, leaving many people to dismiss them as pricey playthings for the most eager early adopters. The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 banishes that reputation thanks to a tougher body, a smaller design, and, most crucially, a lower price. Samsung considers both the Z Flip 3 and its larger sister phone, the Galaxy Z Fold 3, to be mainstream devices. But is this actually true? Yes, it really is. Take your regular mainstream smartphone, something like the Galaxy S21+ or OnePlus 9 Pro, and imagine folding it in half when you’re finished with it. That’s the Galaxy Z Flip 3. It’s not the first phone of its type, but it’s the first that will gain, and deserve, mainstream attention, all due to various enhancements made over the previous models. Therefore, it’s important to understand what benefits it brings to everyday life and the difference between using it and the Z Fold 3. They may both fold up, but Samsung’s two new foldable smartphones are very different from each other. The Z Fold 3 is all about having a bigger screen in a normal-sized phone, while the Z Flip 3 is about having a normal size screen in a smaller than usual phone. It’s not designed to be used when closed up, unlike the Z Fold 3, and its existence is one based on portability and convenience, rather than increased productivity. Living with the Z Flip 3 is not really any different from living with any other smartphone with a 6.7-inch screen, until you finish using it and go to put it in your pocket. Folding the phone up, which is in a way reminiscent of a 1990s flip phone or a makeup compact, is satisfying, different, and actually fun. The action hasn’t got old. You’ll do it without thinking about it, like clicking a pen top, and sometimes you’ll just pick the phone up and open it, despite not actually needing to use it. The Galaxy Z Flip 3 is a tactile, friendly, and interactive piece of mobile tech. Closed, the 4.2-inch Z Flip 3 is just over half the length of what it is when open, but is more than twice as thick at 17.1mm. It’s light at 183 grams, though. The reduced footprint means it takes up less space overall in a bag or pocket, but it’s still noticeable due to the thick case. Folded up, it’s comfortable and natural to hold, especially if you have small hands. The Galaxy Z Flip 3 really is all about convenience, and it succeeds at being way more convenient to live with than other big, modern smartphones. However, I’ve often left the Z Flip 3 open when I’m at home, which feels oddly wrong. Why? You can’t do anything meaningful with the phone when it’s closed, due to the Cover Screen not being as useful as it needs to be, so if I expected to pick the phone up again, it didn’t make sense to keep closing it. This highlights the Z Flip 3’s folding design is about portability, not usability. But not closing the Flip is a bit like telling Placido Domingo not to sing. Many people probably picture the larger Z Fold 3 — a normal phone that turns into a tablet — when thinking about folding smartphones. The Galaxy Z Flip 3 is not like that at all. It’s a 6.7-inch smartphone that folds down into one less bothersome to carry around as other similarly sized, non-folding models. If you’ve ever thought “modern phones are just too big,” but never want to give up the big screen experience, the Galaxy Z Flip 3 is the phone for you. Samsung highlights the increased durability as one of the prime reasons why the Galaxy Z Flip 3 is ready for mainstream audiences and it’s right, but another reason is the emphasis on fashion, style, design, and fun. The Z Fold 3 puts tech before design, but the Z Flip 3 turns that on its head with an equally fun folding motion, a choice of colors, eye-catching accessories, and a delicate and stylish minimalist design. It reminds me of electric cars like the Honda E, which carefully blends modern tech with cool retro design cues for wide appeal. My review model is in cream with a silver frame, and it’s one of seven combinations in total. Each phone is two-tone, with the colored glass panels matched to a black glass camera module and a contrasting chassis color. There is a range of fun silicone covers available with straps or rings to attach the phone to a bag or lanyard, and if you buy a Galaxy Watch 4 or Galaxy Watch 4 Classic, the phone’s Cover Screen wallpaper can be set to match the watch face. This depth of personalization really suits the Z Flip 3’s fun nature. Samsung has used a tougher new aluminum it calls Armor Aluminum for the construction, along with stronger flexible glass over the screen, then given the whole thing an IPX8 rating for water resistance. It makes the Z Flip 3 more durable than previous versions. It feels like it, too. There’s no flex where there shouldn’t be, a solidity to the construction, and no obvious gaps around the hinge either. The smooth glass body makes the phone quite slippery, and it will slide out of loose pockets or across some surfaces. The chassis provides enough grip that it’s not likely to slip from your hand, though. Magnets keep the phone securely closed, the unfolding motion is smooth and almost silent, and it locks itself into place when fully open. It’s satisfying and tactile to open and close the Z Flip 3, and the action feels solid and high quality. At first, the Z Flip 3 required more effort than expected to open but after about a week of use, the hinge has loosened up. However, it’s always going to be a two-handed operation due to the hinge having enough resistance to hold the phone open at any angle. The Z Flip 3 is cuter than any smartphone really has the right to be, it feels supremely solid and well-made, and it’s a phone that makes you smile when you see it sitting around. It has also been expertly designed with some wonderful little touches such as the curved glass around the camera module, the logo stamped into the hinge that disappears when the phone is open so it becomes devoid of any branding, and the fingerprint sensor that’s integrated into the small, slender power key.
