Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 Review – Awesomely Refined Fashionable Flagship

We previously unboxed and took a quick look at what the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 had to offer. After putting it through its paces, here’s our Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 review where we see if it’s worth your money!

 

@hitechcentury Checking out the new Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 that’s now on preorder in Malaysia! #techtok #fyp #sembanggadget.#tech #malaysia #firstlook @Samsung Malaysia #flip4 @Hitech Century ♬ Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) – Kate Bush

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 Review – What’s Different from the Galaxy Z Flip3?

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 is a more refined upgrade to last year’s Galaxy Z Flip3 that retains the existing form factor, a similar IPX8 water resistance rating, identical button placements and retains the use of Armor Aluminium for the chassis and Gorilla Glass Victus+ on the backplates and cover screen. 

Where it differs is that the upgraded Galaxy Z Flip4 has the latest Snapdragon 8+ Gen1 processor, has options for upgraded storage options including a huge 512GB option, a 12% larger battery and an improved primary 12MP camera with a larger 1.8um sensor.

While not immediately obvious, the phone is slightly slimmer all around and has thinner bezels for both displays in order to retain a similarly sized 1.9-inch Cover AMOLED screen and 6.7-inch Super AMOLED Dynamic 2X 120Hz display. The phone also adds in faster wireless and reverse wireless charging  which ensures that it has all the perks of a flagship phone

Of more immediate interest to fashionistas is that the Galaxy Z Flip4 is the first phone in Malaysia to have a Bespoke variant, allowing you to choose the hinge and backplate colours from a predefined combination of hues to create up to 75 possible combinations by ordering online at the Samsung online store. In essence, the new Galaxy Z Flip4 is a well considered upgrade that aims to address the shortcomings of its predecessor in almost every way.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 Review – Performance and Benchmarks

Our Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 review sample for Malaysia features the latest Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 processor built on a 4nm process, 8GB RAM and 128GB of non-expandable UFS 3.1 storage with Android 12 running under the hood paired with Samsung’s own OneUI 4.1.1 user interface overlaid on top. 

In keeping with Samsung’s update policy, the phone will enjoy a generous four years of Android updates all the way to Android 16 and will enjoy 5 years of security updates which ensures significant longevity. For consumers who aren’t particularly keen to upgrade their phones annually, this generous OS upgrade policy will ensure that a Samsung phone is an investment that will remain up to date and very capable for a long time to come. 

One of the key benefits of OneUI is the option to add virtual RAM that they’ve dubbed as RAM Plus for faster app swapping with your choice of either 2GB up to 8GB vRAM in 2GB increments. Perhaps the only omission in firmware functionality is the inability to access DeX desktop mode though its larger sibling the Fold4 and every Galaxy S22 variant retain access to DeX mode.

Here’s a quick recap of the specifications of our Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 review sample which is indicative of a standard unit for Malaysia.

Price	RM4,099 (128GB), RM4,399 (256GB), 4,899 (512GB), RM4,599 (256GB Bespoke)
Display	1.9-inch Super AMOLED cover display, 260 x 512 pixels + 6.7-inch foldable Dynamic AMOLED 2X display, 120Hz refresh rate, 2,640 x 1080 pixels, 426ppi
Processor	Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1
OS	Android 12 with One UI 4.1.1
Memory	8GB RAM / 128GB storage (review sample), 256GB and 512GB available
Cameras	12MP F/1.8 w/ Dual Pixel PDAF, OIS 1.8µm + 12MP F/2.2 ultra wide [rear] / 10MP F/2.4 [display selfie cam]
Battery	3,700mAh 25W fast charging, 15W wireless charging, 4.5W reverse wireless charging
Size/Weight	165.2 x 71.9 x 6.9mm (Unfolded) / 84.9 x 71.9 x 15.9mm (folded) / 187g

When subjected to synthetic benchmarks our Galaxy Z Flip4 review sample scored the following with the default 4GB RAM Plus selected.

3DMark Wild Life	Maxed out
3DMark Wild Life Unlimited	10,725
3DMark Wild Life Extreme	2,631
3DMark Wild Life Extreme Unlimited	2,687
Geekbench 5 Single core	789
Geekbench 5 Multi core	3,853
Geekbench 5 Vulkan	6,776
Geekbench 5 OpenCL	6,533
PCMark Work 3.0	13,819
PCMark Battery Life	10 hours 53 minutes

These results are very respectable and well within the margins expected of a flagship phone. Under sustained gaming, our Galaxy Z Flip4 review unit managed to handle the likes of Asphalt 9, Call of Duty Mobile and Diablo Immortal on high settings without being unduly hot or cooking off even without the inclusion of a dedicated cooling solution. It’s not intended as a gaming phone which makes it ideal for short spurts of casual gaming rather than full-on eSports marathons. 

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 Review – Cover Display and main display

The provided 1.9-inch AMOLED Cover Display has a modest 60Hz refresh rate and is the primary means for you to view notifications, alarms and the like without having to flip the phone open.

This time around, the Cover Display has slightly enhanced functionality in the form of additional widgets – Calendar, Direct Dial, and Voice Recorder. The Calendar and Voice Recorder widget work as it says on the tin with Direct Dial acting as a shortcut to three contacts for expedited speed dials. 

The Cover Display also allows you to use it as a viewfinder for the dual cameras by double pressing the power button and then swiping and tapping the cover screen which allows you to take full advantage of the higher resolution of the main cameras for mug shots. It does the job in helping to minimise the need to unfold the food.

The main display benefits from the improved hinge and thinner bezels to have a slightly flatter and less obvious crease along with a dynamic refresh rate that goes as low as 24Hz for static content up to 120Hz when paging through the user interface as well as selected games like Aldo’s Odyssey.

Befitting a Samsung issued AMOLED display, the Galaxy Z Flip4’s main touchscreen is bright, vibrant and delivers wonderfully punchy colour rendition out of the box with good visibility under daylight conditions. It also has a set of stereo speakers which offer good volume and a fair amount of detail and bass that make watching a movie on it a pleasant affair.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 Review – Battery life

The Galaxy Z Flip4 features a 3,700mAh battery that’s 12% larger than its predecessor’s 3,300mAh battery. Samsung has also improved on wireless charging times with 15W wireless fast charging and 4.5W reverse wireless charging along with much faster 25W fast wired charging. In terms of endurance, our Galaxy Z Flip4 review sample lasted 10 hours and 53 minutes in the PCMark benchmark solely with the main display open and in use.

If you’re particularly frugal with usage and rely mostly on the front Cover Display and flip the main one open as needed, you can easily eke out a full day’s worth of use. This was borne out in practical tests which saw heavy use of the main display through the day for emails, social media usage, light gaming and phone calls, allowing it to last until early evening.

In all likelihood, you’re looking at a charging session come sundown though the fast 25W charging means that you can still top it up in the field if needed; a compatible third party charger yielded a decent 50% or so in 30 minutes.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 Review – Cameras

On the imaging side, the Galaxy Z Flip4 enjoys upgrades where it matters the most to improve overall picture quality especially in low light scenarios. Our Galaxy Z Flip4 review sample has a similar dual camera layout to the Flip3 but the primary 12MP F/1.8 camera now has a larger sensor with 1.8µm pixels over the Flip3’s 1.4µm pixels that lets in more light and which offers commensurately better low light performance.

The optical image stabilisation and Dual Pixel PDAF remain unchanged to offer judder free shots and the ability to capture snaps at up to 10X digital zoom and at up to 4K@60fps. 

The 12MP F/2.2 ultra wide angle camera perched just beside the main camera is otherwise identical to the one used in the Flip3. The 10MP F/2.4 selfie camera mounted on top of the display is also identical to that used in the Flip3 with the ability to capture up to 4k@60fps video and video calls on demand which is especially handy when used in Flex mode.

By and large, the improved primary 12MP main camera serves up excellent shots in daylight mode with good colour rendition and detail while the ultrawide camera manages to achieve similar colours as the main camera and a good amount of detail with minimal distortion. 

In dim light conditions, the primary camera still renders the best results with improved colours, shadow and detail retention over the older Flip3 though zoomed in shots lack detail and shots on the ultra wide camera are fair at best. By default, the phone will enable Night mode if there’s not enough light which requires a minor delay as it adds a few additional seconds of exposure time.

If you need more powerful cameras in a foldable form factor, you can opt for the larger Galaxy Z Fold4 or if you’re happy with the standard candy bar form factor, you can opt for this year’s Galaxy S22 series.

There’s a bit of a learning curve required to remember the steps needed to use the Cover Display as a viewfinder for selfies but the benefits are immediate with the high quality 12MP main display offering excellent mugshots even in dim light.

Much like photos, our Galaxy Z Flip4 review unit’s primary dual camera array was able to deliver good 4K video too especially from the primary 12MP camera and this setup will easily cater to most mainstream users short of dedicated content creators.

The addition of Flex mode also makes time lapses and video calls easier too. The internal 10MP video call camera is almost an afterthought but does a decent job for Zoom calls though any shots or actual videos ought to be tackled by the main 12MP cameras.

Should you buy the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4?

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 is an innovative foldable phone that’s primarily intended for mainstream users who would prize its compact form factor that can unfurl into a flagship-grade phone.

It improves significantly on its predecessor the Flip3 especially in terms of battery life and camera performance, which makes it worth a trade-in for existing owners of the Flip3. For those who have yet to hop onto the foldable bandwagon, the Galaxy Z Flip4 and its capabilities are one of the most affordable ways to join the foldable revolution.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 review unit courtesy of Samsung Malaysia. For more details and to purchase please visit their official online store at https://www.samsung.com/my/smartphones/galaxy-z-flip4/buy/