Greater screens, larger battery, higher foldable?

As soon as once more, it’s time for Samsung’s mid-year Galaxy foldable showcase. During the last 10 years, Samsung gave us curved edges, curved screens, after which screens that fold (each methods). Whereas we’re nonetheless ready for that rumored tri-fold Galaxy, Samsung has primed two new Flip foldables, the Galaxy Z Flip 7 and (shock!) the Z Flip 7 FE.

First, there’s the Galaxy Z Flip 7. This yr, the most important change is a bigger 4.1-inch second show with cutouts for the twin cameras. This occupies the complete entrance floor of the gadget and is a substantial enhance from the three.4-inch show of final yr’s Z Flip 6. (It additionally appears to be like so much like Moto’s most up-to-date foldable.)

The Flex Window can be higher in virtually each manner. It could actually attain peak brightness ranges of two,600 nits (matching the S25 Extremely), has a 120Hz refresh price and the thinnest bezel but (1.25mm) of any Samsung smartphone. The entrance display is a big enchancment over the Z Flip 6, however refinements additionally lengthen to the primary show.

Samsung has expanded the first inner display to six.9 inches, up from 6.4 inches. It’s now within the extra typical smartphone show ratio of 21:9. Earlier Flips had a extra elongated display, making it more durable to paw on the higher corners. This implies video content material matches higher, too.

What in regards to the crease? Effectively, in particular person, it appears to be like the identical as final yr’s telephones, and, curiously, Samsung isn’t hyping some hard-to-measure crease visibility metric. I did chuckle when the corporate stated that it made the primary display’s ultra-thin glass “50 % thicker.” The wording’s clunky, nevertheless it factors to Samsung’s continued concentrate on bettering toughness and longevity. The Flip 7 now has a brand new waterproof coating beneath the glass and AMOLED show. As soon as once more, the hinge has been additional strengthened.

And but, the Flip 7 is thinner than final yr’s mannequin. It measures 6.4mm (0.25 inches) thick, down from 6.9mm. That is equal to the Galaxy S25 edge, the place the key promoting level was its thinness. I shouldn’t should say, however that thickness doubles whenever you fold it away – Samsung says it’s 13.7mm (0.54 inches) when closed. Nonetheless you measure it, that is the thinnest Flip but.

Regardless of much less area, Samsung has elevated the battery as much as 4,300mAh, 300mAh greater than the Z Flip 6.

Samsung is addressing our points with its current Flip foldables. It’s additionally delivered stable battery life on practically each gadget it has launched within the final yr or so. The corporate additionally talked about that the Flip 7 packs a brand new 3nm processor, the corporate’s personal Exynos 2500 chip.

That is intriguing: final yr’s foldables featured the highly effective Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy that delivered spectacular battery life. I’m keen on seeing whether or not Samsung’s newest silicon delivers related efficiency and effectivity.

Whereas Samsung has outfitted the Z Fold 7 with a brand new sensor, the Flip 7 primarily matches final yr’s mannequin, that includes a 50-megapixel major digital camera with 2X optical zoom and a 12MP ultra-wide secondary digital camera. This yr, the Flip 7 can file video in 10-bit HDR, up from 8-bit, leading to richer colours for these in search of much more polished video from their smartphone.

Digital camera controls have been refined to raised swimsuit the Flex Show on the entrance. There’s now a zoom slider for smoother video punch-ins and extra broadly, an interface tidy-up. In case you’re into utilizing Samsung’s built-in photograph filters, the Flip 7 will present dwell previews in every filter earlier than you even select one. A few of my favourite software program options launched on the Z Flip 6, auto-zoom and auto-frame, are again as soon as once more within the Flip 7. Whereas the Flip is closed, the cameras can detect and observe customers, zooming out and in to concentrate on the topic routinely.

Software program-wise, Samsung is folding within the Gemini AI smarts and Now Brief options that debuted within the S25 collection. As a refresher, it’s Samsung’s rival tackle the iPhone’s Dynamic Island. It’ll current well being info, music and video controls and dwell updates from supported apps like Uber. It’s an ideal match for the Flip, with its small glanceable display. Equally, now you can chat to Google’s Gemini Stay AI assistant with out unfurling the cellphone.

As I discussed in my review of the Galaxy S25, the enchantment of the Now Temporary and Bar depends upon how often you employ it. Hopefully — and I’ve requested Samsung to verify this — transferring information between Galaxy gadgets ought to embrace the profile and data used to populate these two options. With the Flip 7, you’ll be able to faucet into the Now Bar with out opening the cellphone.

Samsung can be including weekly updates to your Now Briefing, though it was arduous to discern from the demo gadgets earlier this week whether or not that may be future-facing summaries of your schedule or extra of a what-you-did-last-week abstract of the week that’s already occurred – it’s one thing we’ll be testing throughout evaluation.

There isn’t a lot new performance for the bigger 4.1-inch secondary display, which is a disgrace. On this regard, Motorola nonetheless manages to supply extra with its flip telephones.

The Flip 7 can be the primary Flip gadget to assist mouse and keyboard peripherals, which implies, sure, Samsung Dex is again. It never left. And Samsung will proceed to inform us all about it. In case you need to plug your foldable into a large monitor, now you can do this.

There’s additionally the Galaxy Z Flip 7 FE, priced at $900, with a 6.7-inch most important show and a 3.4-inch Flex Window on the entrance. And when you assume it appears to be like and sounds acquainted, you’re proper. That is virtually totally the Galaxy Z Flip 6 with a brand new identify. The one vital aesthetic change is that the Z Flip 7 FE lacks the steel accents on the cameras. The one significant spec change is an Exynos chip, changing the Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy.

The Z Flip 7 FE has a 50MP major digital camera and 12MP ultra-wide, with a 10MP digital camera as soon as it’s unfolded. The FE does job of showcasing how a lot thinner the Z Flip 7 is and the way significantly better that full-width cowl show appears to be like, however these aren’t nice promoting factors in and of themselves. The timing sucks, too: in Amazon’s Prime Day sale, the Z Flip 6 is $800. That’s $100 lower than this “new” entry-level foldable, which is nearly equivalent.

The Galaxy Z Flip 7 will launch on the identical value as its predecessor, at $1,100. It’ll are available a number of colours: a really good-looking darkish blue, purple and the standard monochrome black and white choices. There will even be a mint colour, obtainable as an internet unique. Preorders open in the present day, with gadgets transport on July 25.

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