Samsung Galaxy Z Flip review—I think I hate flip phones

The Galaxy Z Flip. [credit: Ron Amadeo ]

After the very public failure of the Samsung Galaxy Fold, Samsung is back, in what seems like record time, with another foldable smartphone. This one is the Galaxy Z Flip, a smartphone that, instead of opening up into a tablet, is a normal-sized smartphone that folds in half, making it a little more portable than normal.

The Fold had a very rocky life, and while it only launched about five months ago, that was after a six-month delay. So really, with the Z Flip being nearly a year removed from the original Fold launch date, you could say this is Samsung's second-generation foldable smartphone. And you know what? It really feels like it. Samsung has made some big technology improvements with the Z Flip, with a flexible glass display cover and some work toward dust ingress. The Z Flip shows the foldables category isn't forever doomed to failures, delays, and recalls. This is an actual, viable product that the industry is slowly working towards improving.

That's not to say the Z Flip is a good foldable yet, but it's better than the complete failure that was the Galaxy Fold. Samsung continues to make some old mistakes, and some new mistakes, but the end result is that the technology is still very expensive and unproven. The new flip phone form factor is a cheaper way to get this foldable display technology out to consumers, but it doesn't offer much of a sales pitch as to why you'd want to spend a premium for this device. The Z Flip quickly gives you a lot to think about—most prominently Samsung's foldable display technology improvements and this weird new form factor straight out of 1999.

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