News: Full Galaxy Z Flip Spec Sheet Review — Samsung's New Clamshell Phone Is a Flagship Even Without the Fold

Samsung decided to jump into the foldable category early, announcing the Galaxy Fold in February 2019. After a major hiccup, Samsung released the phone four months later to praise. But Samsung's not finished with foldables, as the new Galaxy Z Flip is just on the horizon.

Samsung announced the new foldable smartphone alongside the Galaxy S20, S20+, and S20 Ultra. Unlike the Fold, the Z Flip borrows a design of the past, using a clamshell style reminiscent of early 2000s flip phones. And while it's not cheap, it does have the lowest price of any foldable phone on the market.

Jump to a section: Standout Features | Dates | Storage | Price | Body | Basics | Software | Skin | Display | Performance | Battery | Front Camera | Rear Camera | Audio | Media Formats | Sensors | Connectivity | Security | Box Includes

Standout Features

While the Galaxy Z Flip lacks the latest SoC from Qualcomm, it still uses the most powerful SoC on a foldable phone, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855+. Unlike the Motorola RAZR, a phone with a similar design, it uses a foldable glass screen known as Ultra Thin Glass. And at $1,380, it is also the most affordable foldable smartphone on the market.

Important Dates

The Galaxy Z Flip was announced on February 11 alongside the Galaxy S20 series in San Francisco, CA. There is no preorder date, as the phone releases three days after the announcement date on Valentine's Day (February 14).

• Release date: February 14, 2020
• Preorder date: None
• Announcement date: February 11, 2020

Storage Capacity

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip will have one storage option, 256 GB. And like the Galaxy Fold, there is no support for microSD cards.

• Storage available: 256 GB
• Expandable storage: no
• Standard: UFS 3.0

Price for Everything

The Galaxy Z Flip will be priced at $1380, slightly undercutting the Motorola RAZR. That makes it the most affordable foldable right now, but it's still about 40% more than a comparable phone with a non-foldable screen.

• Price: $1,380

Body

Unlike the Galaxy Fold, the Galaxy Z Flip will employ an ultra-thin glass on the Z Flip. If the glass is less than 100 micrometers thick, it can be reliably folded. But the glass Samsung is using here (developed by Dolnsys) is only 30 micrometers, so you can be confident it won't crack when you flip the phone shut.

The Z Flip comes in three colors: Mirror Black, Mirror Purple, and Mirror Gold.

• Frame: aluminum, glass (Gorilla Glass 6)
• Finish: Mirror Purple, Mirror Black, Mirror Gold

Basics

One of the best parts of this design is the ability to compress the phone into a smaller footprint when not in use. Folded, the phone is only 3.44 inches long and 2.90 inches wide. And because of the clamshell design, only the length increases (6.61 inches) when unfolded. It's worth noting the hinge portion is thicker than the bottom edge when folded.

• Height: 3.44 inches (folded) 6.59 inches (unfolded)
• Width: 2.90 inches
• Depth: 0.68 inches (folded), 0.28 inches (unfolded)
• Weight: 6.46 oz
• Dust/water resistance: Unknown
• Supported carriers: Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint
• Infrared blaster: Unknown

Software

Just like the Galaxy S20 series, the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip will run the latest version of Android. Android 10 comes with native support for foldable displays, which means it will be easier for apps to scale to the new design.

• Version: Android 10

Skin

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip will run One UI 2, the latest version of Samsung's skin that runs on top of Android 10.

In addition to the software is the new Flex Mode. To activate, simply place the phone at 90° which it can lock at (in addition to 180°). For apps that support it (such as the Camera app), controls will move to the bottom half and media will move to the top half.

• Version: One UI 2

Display

As with the Galaxy Fold, the Z Flip will have two display, a 6.7-inch main screen, and a 1.06-inch external display. The external display, known as the Cover Screen, is a Super AMOLED panel with a 300 x 116 resolution that displays the time, charing speeds, battery information, and various notifications (basically, it acts as the Always-on display, which is no longer possible with the foldable design). You can even use this display to take selfies, using the screen as a very small viewfinder if you wish.

As for the main display, it has 2636 x 1080 resolution with a new 22:9 aspect ratio. It will use a punch-hole design to house a centered front-facing camera similar to the Galaxy S20 series. The screen uses the newer Dynamic AMOLED panel which is the Super AMOLED with HDR10+. HDR10+ is the latest high dynamic format that uses dynamic metadata, which adjusts brightness boundaries for each frame, so all frames are present in the optimal brightness.

• Screen size: 6.7 inches (unfolded), 1.1 inches (folded)
• Screen resolution: 2636 x 1080 (unfolded), 300 x 112 (folded)
• Total pixels: 2,846,880 pixels (unfolded), 34,800 (folded)
• Pixel density: 425 ppi (unfolded), 303 ppi (folded)
• Screen type: Dynamic AMOLED (unfolded), Super AMOLED (folded)
• Notch: no
• Punch-Hole: yes (folded)
• Screen-to-body ratio: Unknown (unfolded), Unknown (folded)
• Aspect ratio: 21.9:9 (unfolded), 2.59:1 (folded)
• Minimum brightness: Unknown (unfolded), Unknown (folded)
• Maximum brightness:Unknown (unfolded), Unknown (folded)
• Refresh rate: 60 Hz (60 Hz for touch-sensing)
• Color temp: Unknown (unfolded), Unknown (folded)
• Color gamut: Unknown (unfolded), Unknown (folded)

Performance

One aspect of the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip that might displease fans is the use of 2019's flagship SoC, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855+. The 855 Plus is identical to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 but with a slight overclock on both the CPU and GPU side for better gaming performance. It uses a 7 nm process for improved power efficiency.

RAM is more than enough for most users at 8 GB. However, because of the older SoC, it will use the older LPRDDR4 standard instead of the LPRDDR5 found in the Galaxy S20 series.

• Memory: 8 GB RAM
• Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 855+
• Chip size: 7 nanometer
• CPU frequency: 2.95 GHz (Gold) + 2.41 GHz (Gold) + 1.78GHz (Silver)
• CPU cores: 8 (4 Gold + 4 Silver)
• GPU: Adreno 640
• GPU frequency: 672 MHz

Battery

Using two batteries, the Galaxy Z Flip has a total capacity of 3,300 mAh. Unlike the Galaxy S20 series, fast charging is limited to Samsung's Adaptive Fast Charging, a technology based on Quick Charge 2.0 with a maximum output of 15 W. It also supports wireless charging via Qi charging, but at speeds of 9 W.

• Battery: rechargeable lithium-ion
• Capacity: 3300 mAh, 3.86 Volts (12.7 Watts-hours)
• Wired charging: yes, Adaptive Fast Charging 15 W
• Wireless charging: yes, Qi charging (9 W)
• Reverse wireless charging: yes, PowerShare

Front Camera

The front-facing camera is housed in a punch hole on the main display. We suspect it is the same Sony IMX374 camera found in the Galaxy Fold, but so far, this is unconfirmed. Either way, it shares similar specs (10 MP, f/2.4 aperture, a field of view of 80°, and a pixel size of 1.22 µm). For video, you can record up to 4K at 30 fps.

• Resolution: 10 MP
• Aperture: f/2.4
• Pixel Size: 1.22 µm
• Sensor Size: 1/3.2"
• Zoom: no
• Flash: yes, screen flash
• Image stabilization: no
• RAW support: yes
• Object detection: yes, face
• Formats: JPEG, RAW

Rear Camera

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip has dual rear cameras. Each camera is 12 MP, one of which has a wide-angle lens, and the other an ultra-wide lens. The primary camera has an f/1.8 aperture and a 78° field of view, while the ultra-wide has an f/2.2 aperture and a field of view of 123°. For the flash, once again Samsung included its High CRI LED flash. OIS is only available on the primary (wide-angle) camera.

• Resolution: 12 MP (primary), 12 MP (ultra-wide)
• Sensor size: Unknown
• Aperture: f/1.8 (primary), f/2.2 (ultra-wide)
• Zoom: yes, 1x optical, 8x digital
• Flash: yes, High CRI LED
• Image stabilization: yes, primary
• RAW support: yes
• Lens cover: sapphire crystal
• Object detection: yes, food, faces
• Formats: JPEG, RAW

The maximum resolution for video capture is 4K at 60 fps. HDR10+ is supported for video recording as well. There is support for super slow motion (up to 960 fps) but video capture is limited to 0.4 seconds (this duration doubles to 0.8 seconds if you lower the frame rate to 480 fps). Super Steady, Samsung's improved stabilization, is also available when shooting at 1080p or a lower resolution.

• Resolution: 720p, 1080p, 4K
• Max frame rate: 720p at 30fps, 1080p at 60 fps, 4K at 60 fps
• Slow motion: 720p at 960 fps, 1080p at 240 fps (limited duration)
• Time-lapse: yes, 1080p
• Photos: yes, 9.1 MP still photos during 4K recording
• Zoom: yes, 8x digital zoom
• Flash access: yes, see above
• Image stabilization: yes, VDIS (video digital image stabilization)
• Object detection: Unknown
• Autofocus: tracking AF
• Audio: stereo
• Formats: H.264 (AVC), H.265 (HEVC)

Audio

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip has a single mono speaker located on the bottom edge of the phone. For Bluetooth and USB-C headphones, you can add surround sound using Dolby Atmos. For those who love hi-fi sound, the Galaxy Z Flip supports up to 32-bit audio.

• 3.5 mm headphone jack: no
• Stereo speakers: yes, front and bottom firing
• Mics: Unknown

Media Formats

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip shares the same audio and file formats as the Galaxy S20 series.

• Audio: MP3, M4A, 3GA, AAC, OGG, OGA, WAV, WMA, AMR, AWB, FLAC, MID, MIDI, XMF, MXMF, IMY, RTTTL, RTX, OTA, APE, DSF, DFF
• Video: MP4, M4V, 3GP, 3G2, WMV, ASF, AVI, FLV, MKV, WEBM

Sensors

The usual array of sensors are present in the Galaxy Z Flip.

• Sensors: accelerometer, barometer, gyro sensor, geomagnetic sensor, hall sensor, proximity sensor, RGB light sensor

The Galaxy Z Flip doesn't support dual-frequency satellite navigation. Also, coverage via Galileo and BeiDou satellite navigation systems is limited.

• GPS: yes, L1
• aGPS: yes
• Glonass: yes, L1
• BeiDou: yes, B1
• Galileo: yes, E1
• QZSS: no

Connectivity

The Galaxy Z Flip is limited to Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac). NFC is on board as well as a USB Type-C port for wired connections. The Galaxy Z Flip is a dual SIM device, using both an eSIM and a nano-SIM.

• Wi-Fi: 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
• Bluetooth: 5.0
• NFC: yes
• Cellular: eSIM and nano-SIM
• Port: USB Type-C

Security

Like the Galaxy Fold, it will use a side-mounted fingerprint scanner. There is also a non-3D face unlock using the front-facing camera (in the camera housed in the punch hole).

As usual, Knox is on board for software and hardware security, protecting against tampering and other attacks. There is a built-in antivirus scanner powered by McAfee. And the secure folder is available to keep sensitive files and other data separate from the rest of your data.

• Fingerprint scanner: yes, side-mounted (capacitive)
• Face scanner: no
• Iris scanner: no
• Manual authentication: password, PIN, pattern, swipe

Box Includes

The Galaxy Z Flip will come with a protective case and AKG USB-C earbuds.

• Samsung Galaxy Z Flip
• Data Cable
• Travel Adapter
• Ejection Pin
• USB Connector (OTG)
• Quick Start Guide
• Clear Cover
• Earphones (USB Type-C) with sound by AKG