The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 might just be one of the most exciting phones to come out in 2021 with its flagship competitive pricing,but does the hype around this folding phone last after a month of use? I've been using the Galaxy Z clip 3 for over the past month now. So I'm gonna take you through all of my favorite things about it, the top features, whether or not that initial excitement when you first get your first folding screen phone fades over the course of a month and then finally, I'll take you through who I recommend this phone for.
- The Flip Design & Cover Screen
Now the first and most obvious difference between the Galaxy Z Flip and a traditional smartphone is the flip. When open, this phone is about the same size as my Galaxy S21 Ultra, with the Flip 3’s 6.7 inch display, which is pretty large for a modern smartphone, but when you close it, its obvious what the benefit of having a phone like this is: it's smaller to put in your pocket or bag and it feels less cumbersome to carry thanks to its reasonable 183g of weight compared to the beast of a phone like the Galaxy S21 Ultra which weighs 229g. I also find there's something just satisfying about your phone physically being able to be closed shut, it's almost this subtle register to yourself like okay, I'm done with this task. Now, one worry you might have about a phone like this is with durability. How sturdy is that hinge, and is the screen going to break? So far I haven't had any build quality issues with this phone at all, and the hinge has actually been pretty solid, more solid than I was expecting, because you can’t really fold it one handed. To protect the flexible AMOLED screen, Samsung actually pre-installs a PET film screen protector on the phone. The Z Flip 3 is also waterproof and comes with a one year warranty against any hardware defects including the display and hinge, Now, another part of this phone's exterior that I think is really interesting is the cover screen. It’ll show you the time and battery charge level plus allow you to swipe through widgets to get info at a glance like the weather and you can also use it to dismiss notifications without having to open up your phone which I quite like and it reminds me of the way I use my smartwatch to filter out notifications And speaking of smartwatches, you can customize the style and color of the cover screen clock with some cool designs and cute animations that’ll match your Galaxy Watch watch face as well, which is pretty neat. Navigating the cover screen is easy to pick up as well, swipe down to adjust cover screen brightness or set your device to silent. Swipe right to get to your phone notifications and you swipe right again on a notification to dismiss it, and then swipe left to go through your widgets, which can be customized in the phone’s settings.
- Fingerprint & Face Unlock
To activate the cover screen you’ll need to authenticate into the phone and for this device you do that by using a fingerprint reader on the sleep wake button. And I really dig this Samsung design, I actually found the fingerprint sensor on the sleep / wake button works better for me than the under display fingerprint sensor on my Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra. Now when you open up the phone, it does also have Samsung’s face Unlock which isn’t as secure as Apple or Google’s implementation of face unlock, but works well in my experience.
- Styling And Case
Samsung’s design for the Zip Flip 3 is minimalist and has this classic look iconic to it with it’s two-tone back, and I love that you can get the phone in a variety of colors you can get with this phone, especially the cream color that I got. Samsung also made a clear case for this phone so you can still flash it off and show off its cool design while keeping it protected. Though its a bit weird to put on the first time, there are 3 different parts to it that you’ll need to line up and then snap the sections onto the phone.
- Display & Save 10%
Next up, let's talk about the display. First, its a gorgeous 6.7 dynamic AMOLed flex display with a 1080 by 2640 resolution with a 426 ppi density that can reach 1200 nits at peak brightness, which is pretty good and you should be able to see the screen in direct sunlight. Colors are vibrant on this display as they are with all high-end Samsung phonesnowadays and the 120 hz display makes animations feel smooth and the phone feel fast. Now before we dive into battery life, lets talk about this video’s sponsor Bellroy. I proudly partnered with Bellroy, headquartered in Melbourne, Australia, because they've been focused around improving the ways we carry our tech and belongings for over a decade now. And they make some really great products like their classic backpack, which came nicely packaged with this beautiful limestone color made from a leather free woven fabric and is 100% made from recycled PET bottles. The classic backpack can hold up to a 16 sized laptop, has a padded iPad/A5 document pocket with a pen or Apple Pencil slip, perfect for something like my iPad Air, the exterior material is water resistant, it has a water resistant top pocket for quick access to things like a cell phone or sunglasses, a front pocket for easy access to valuables, plus a key clip, an internal mesh zip pocket for valuables, and best of all, the shoulder straps are soft, comfortable with nice padding and contours to my shoulders and it even has lumbar support, making it easy to carry around for all day. Best of all, the bag comes with a three-year warranty. Bellroy is offering six months later viewers an exclusive 10% off anything on their website by using the link in the description below and they make more than just backpacks somegreat bags, wallets, phone cases, and other accessories, so make sure to check out that link and hurry, the 10% off discount only lasts until the end of October 2021.
- Battery Life & Charging
Next, let's talk about battery life. The Galaxy Z Flip 3 has a 3,300 milliamp hour battery, and for me, it's been enough to get me through the day on just one charge. However, if you do run this phone really hard, it might not last you the entire day. If you’re concerned about battery health and want to limit the level this phone charges to, Samsung rolled out a feature update that allows you to limit the phones’ charging to 85% to protect the battery which is a nice feature to help you prolong the life of your phone. The Z-flip 3 also has wireless charging. However, one downside I found with this is that whether or not the phone is extended, or it's closed, depending on what type of wireless charger you use it with, if you use a stand charger or certain car chargers, it's not going to charge correctly or it just will not wirelessly charge at all because Samsung
placed the wireless charging coils on the back lower part of the phone instead of the center.
- Screen crease
Now, one thing that makes this display different from most phones screens is the crease. When the phone is open theres a little indent in the screen where the crease is that you can feel with your finger and see it when viewing the display at an off angle. Now, it is something I've gotten used to over the past month, especially when you're doing quick things on your phone, like sending a quick text message to somebody or ordering food to be delivered through an app etc, but I still would consider it a slight downside, especially if you plan on doing a lot of reading with your phone. This is where I noticed the crease and I noticed it to the point where I do wish that Samsung had figured out a way to just decrease the amount of a crease that exists like just a bit more. there are instances when reading text where a line of text will scroll into the crease area and almost produce a 3D like effect where the text in the crease looks like it’s slightly behind the other text in three dimensional space, and if you have a lot of ambient light around you and or the screen on the phone is dark, the crease will reflect that light if you’re looking at the screen even dead on sometimes, and that can disrupt what you’re looking at. So while it's not my favorite display or device, for reading text for really long periods of time, having a flexible smartphone display does give you some advantages and features that you would not normally get on a traditional smartphone. For example, you can flip up the top part of the phone while in the camera app to enter flex mode, which is a pretty neat idea to help you take even better selfies or tik tok videos.
- Split screen
Another feature that this display has that Samsung brought over from its other devices is split screen. You can swipe left from the upper right of the phone’s screen to open the multi window tray and then you can drag another app to the top or bottom of the screen and adjusting the windows works rather smoothly. You can also customize what you see in the multi window tray and save your favorite split screen views as well.
- Cameras
Next up, let's talk cameras. Now, let me say this up front, while the Galaxy Z Flip 3 has a flagship level phone price, It does not have flagship level cameras. While it's cameras are good, they're respectable, they are by no means the flagship level quality of Samsung's, S21 Ultra which we’ve reviewed and would likely be a better choice of a phone for those who prize cameras and battery life above all else. The Z Flip 3 has a 10 MP selfie camera, 12 MP ultra wide and 12 MP main wide angle camera.Now on most phones if you want to take a selfie with the better wide-angle camera on the back, it can kind of be a pain but with the galaxy Z Flip 3, thanks to its folding design, you can actually double hit the power button to take a selfie using the cover screen and the main wide camera which is cool. The only downside to this is you have to map the double press power button setting to open the camera and not something like a Google Assistant launcher, so there’s a tradeoff there. Samsung’s camera system on this phone features auto-framing as well which is good to see and overall I think the system does a decent job with Samsung’s night mode and the video quality on it is pretty good. And of course as I stated before, you can use the phone’s flex mode to prop up the cameras for making videos and staging photos which is a pretty unique feature to this type of form factor.
- Storage & Processor
In terms of storage and processing power, this phone starts off with 128 GB of storage, though there is a version of this device available with 256 GB. The processor in the Galaxy Z Flip 3 is a SnapDragon 888 which for me has performed very well and I’ve had no issues with this phone’s performance so far in my day to day use.
- One Ul Software
The Z Flip 3 runs Samsung’s One UI which is one of the more popular Android versions out there and overall Samsung does a pretty good with their software and recently announced they’re getting rid of ads in their apps which was one of my main complaints about the software in my S21 Ultra review, linked in the description below. In general One UI gives you a customization options in settings, and if er Samsung gadgets like a smart watch, tablet or laptop, you’ll benefit from having features that make your Galaxy Z Flip and other Samsung devices work better together.
All right, so those are all of the specs, the things I like about the phone, and the downsides. Now let me talk about whether or not the hype and the excitement around this phone fades after a month. And then, who do I recommend this phone for? Now, when I first got my Galaxy Z Flip 3 and I opened this thing for the first time, and this will apply to anybody who has never actually physically held a folding screen smartphone in their hands and done this in real life before. It's kind of like magic, because you've never been able to just close your phone before and have the screen bend like this, it is an impressive feat of engineering. Now, overtime, yes, that hype and excitement I felt when I first got it did fade for me a bit, and after a month of using this phone and others, it’s not a phone I prefer to use to read on vs. a more convention smartphone. However, it's a great phone to take with you on the go because it takes up less room in your pocket and in a bag and it's also lightweight.I love that Samsung made this phone really easy to hold in your hand and I really like that classic subtle minimalist design aesthetic that they gave this phone. It looks really good in person. So who do I actually recommend get this phone? I’d actually recommend the Galaxy Z Flip 3 to a lot of Android users out there. I think a lot of Android users would enjoy using this phone, especially if you're an Android user that wants to switch it up and try something new, and can appreciate the amount of engineering that went into making a product like this. And of course, you see the benefit of using a flip phone. This phone is also likely going to appeal to some iPhone users who are tempted by the flip screen phone idea and are open to switching to Android, and if that's you, I'd recommend checking out a video I did that goes over my experience switching from iOS to Android for an entire year and I've linked that video down in the description below. The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 retails starting at $999 US dollars and you can check out more details using the purchase on the side of the video or in the description below.
