Galaxy Z Flip 5G Review (Is It WORTH it?) By Thoughts On Things

Hey guys, what's up and welcome back to the channel today we're going to be talking about the Samsung Galaxy z2 flip, and I've been using this phone on and off for a few months now. So I wanted to give you guys a long-term review, so, let's get into it so, starting with the specs of this phone, this is essentially a flagship device with eight gigs of ram 256, gigs of storage and dual cameras, a 12 megapixel standard and a 12 megapixel ultra-wide lens as well. It's basically comparable to a galaxy s20. I ran a quick speed test between the s10 s20 and the z-flip, and the z-flip and the s20 were practically identical as starting up with the s10 lagging slightly behind in terms of weight. It's 185 grams, which is the same weight as a s20 and three grams lighter than my iPhone 12 Pro. So, unlike the s10 there's no headphone jack for this phone and I think we're just going to see more and more smartphones, ditching the headphone jack in favor of Bluetooth, Bluetooth connectivity has got a lot faster recently and the battery life of headphones has just improved massively as well.

Finally, in terms of the speaker and microphone quality of this phone, it's okay, but I think Samsung phones generally have always fallen behind when compared to iPhones on this front, and given that one of the key use cases to this phone will be watching video and maybe doing video conferences, the microphone and the speaker could be improved next up. Let's talk about the exterior design, and I'm just going to go all out and say that this phone is easily one of the best design products of 2020. It just looks so slick lying on your desk or on your wireless charger. It's basically like a piece of art ergonomically. Furthermore, it fits so well in the hand- and I feel like I can open and close it easily with just one hand, it's kind of like something out of Star Trek.

Obviously it's a bit fatter in the pocket, but I feel, like that's inevitable, and it's really not a big deal when it comes to the matte finish on this phone. This one is the mystic gray finish, and it's such an awesome color in many ways. I actually prefer this finish to my iPhone 12. One thing to be aware of, though, is that the matte mystic black finish is only available on the 5g model. The older 4g model comes in the mirror finish in either the purple or the black, which I would definitely try and avoid, if you can, if you look online, you'll see loads of reviews about how this just picks up fingerprints like a magnet, the matte finish, looks way better in my opinion, and it means it just doesn't pick up fingerprints as much as the mirror finish or the iPhone 12 for that matter, which seems to also just pick up loads of fingerprints.

The other great thing about the design of this phone is the natural protection of the screen when it's in your pocket or your rucksack, which personally is something I'm really conscious about with my iPhone with the screen getting scratched. I guess for this phone, though it's even more important, really as you're not really going to be easily getting a screen protector or a case for the phone. Having said that, though, there is a perfect, inexpensive, matte black case, which I can recommend and if you really think you want one, then I'll leave a link to it in the description below its super cheap and definitely worth checking out. Let's just briefly cover how good this phone looks on a wireless charger. I know that sounds ridiculous, but when it's folded it just takes up so much less space than other phones.

It also has a side benefit, which means it's just less distracting when you get notifications which brings us on to our next point, which is around the fact that there's no large external display on this phone when it's folded, there's just a tiny one-inch screen available when it's closed in the bottom left hand corner now. I know some people don't like this and want a large external screen, but I personally prefer the limited functionality of this little tiny one-inch display it just means reduced distractions. So when your phone's just lying on the table, and you're talking to someone, it can sometimes just feel really intrusive. If your entire screen is lighting up with notification, you don't get this with the zed flip because of the small screen. It's just really subtle and gently lights up a notification when it comes through.

So if you're in a meeting you can just choose to ignore it or if you do want to do something with it, you can just unfold the phone and take things from there talking of the front screen, it's actually just really nice to touch for some reason. I was expected to be glossy and a contrast, the rest of the map surface, but it feels matte, and it's really in keeping with the rest of the design. It's just such a nice touch from Samsung, and I'm really happy with it. And finally, let's just cover the main design feature of this phone, which is the hinge. The quality of the hinge is way better than I expected it to be.

It feels incredibly sturdy and easy to move around, and it's strong as well, which means the screen just stays in position, which is great when you're making a video call and just want to sit the phone on your desk. Something has happened. A lot more recently is taking video calls from home. I think this phone's just going to come into its own there with its different viewing angles. The only thing to say, of course, is that the jury is still out and whether these hinges will get weaker over time, so I have to let you guys know so, whilst I'm really positive about the exterior design of this phone when it comes to the interior design.

This is, unfortunately, where things seem to fall apart and there's a couple of things. I really don't like that would genuinely put me off using this phone as my full time phone. The first and most noticeable thing to say is that, because of the folding screen of this phone, the crease is unfortunately really noticeable it's right in the middle of the phone, which means when you scroll over it, with your finger you're constantly just bumping over the crease, and alongside this you can clearly see the hinges poking out on either side of the phone, which isn't a big deal. But I hope at some point, Samsung are able to get rid of these or at least reduce their visibility. Samsung have now upgraded the screen as well from plastic to ultra-thin folding glass, so it definitely feels much better in the hand, but there's a ton of warnings when you get the phone about how fragile the screen is and tests online have shown it to be quite susceptible to scratches.

So that's definitely going to be something to watch over time, also in terms of water resistance. Because of the nature of this phone and the hinges, it's just not going to be in the same league water resistant capability as the iPhone or some of the other phones out there on the market. Samsung does say that the phone has a water resistant circuit board, but I think it's pretty likely that's not going to defend itself in a proper submerged situation. The final thing to say about the internal design is the bezels. They just look really clunky and fat.

You kind of get used to them after a while, but switching back and forth from the iPhone they're impossible to unsee once you've seen them, and they just look hideous, there's also rubber foot stoppers that have been used to each corner of the screen to protect the screen as it closes. These are basically very subtle. Little rubber prongs on the lower and upper aspect of the phone to stop the screens. From touching, I can see why they're there from a functional perspective, but from an aesthetic perspective, they just look awful. So next, let's talk about some cool features of this phone, which you may not have heard of in classic Samsung style, there's a whole host of things.

This phone can do through Samsung's one UI capability, pretty much. All of these features are hidden but not turned on by default. I feel like Samsung could do a much better job at telling people about all this great stuff they're doing anyway, something you can do, which is actually a really cool feature, is use the front display as a selfie camera, and although the image is pretty small, it's a really nice feature. If you want to just shoot something quickly. The best thing about this is that you're actually using the rear camera as well, so the selfie quality is just going to be a lot better.

All you do is just double tap the side button to activate it speaking of the front screen when it comes to answering a call, you can actually do this straight from the front screen, which is pretty cool. All you need to do is swipe on the small screen when it's folded to open to answer the call and like an old-school, flip phone, you can also flip the phone to open it and also close it as well. But this is again something you need to activate in the setting. So obviously the phone has wireless charging when folded- and it looks great, but another cool thing you can do is use wireless power share. To be honest, I really rarely use this feature, but it does look quite neat when you've got things on your desk, and you can just stack accessories one on top of the other.

When it comes to split screen and multitasking, you can use the multi window mode that you get by simply swiping the right hand, side of the screen towards the middle. It's really cool, and I feel like Samsung, is definitely ahead of apple when it comes to multitasking on the phone with the hinge. Obviously, some apps have been designed to work in a split screen format as well, which is great, and even when the phone is folded, you can still use all the screen, which is nice, there's a fingerprint reader on the side of this phone. Next to the power button on the right. You can actually customize this as a swipe key as well by enabling gestures, which, to be honest, feels like it's needed.

Given this screen is a little taller than the s20, and it's sometimes hard to get your fingers up to the top. I've found that sometimes this is a bit hit-and-miss the button is quite small, so it doesn't always work very well, and the last feature I wanted to cover is called focus mode which basically lets you set up different modes depending on what you're doing so, you can customize the notifications that you get from different apps. I actually set up a driving mode, which is one of those times. Furthermore, I really want to focus, and I don't really want distractions. In summary guys.

I think this is the most complete and well-built folding phone. Yet I don't think it's a gimmick. I think there's going to be a big audience of people who really like this, but the question still stands. Should you buy one? Well, I actually really like this phone, but at thirteen hundred dollars it's not cheap. Having said that, if you're already someone that uses the s20 or the note I feel like this might be a perfect phone for you, given it's basically a flagship spec already, I wouldn't mind betting in a few years.

This actually replaces the s series phones anyway, in the main lineup the internal specs are similar, and the form factor is a lot nicer when folded. The other thing to consider, though, is that each year Samsung are going to improve the design, and the price will eventually come down as well as folding phones become more mainstream, so it might just be worth waiting for 2021 to upgrade to the flip overall, I'm personally quite invested in the Apple ecosystem with my workflow. So I won't be switching to this as my regular phone. My daily phone will still be my iPhone 12, but if I was going to use a Samsung phone then this would be the one I'd go for, but those are just some of my thoughts, and I'm really keen to hear what you guys think. So let me know in the comments below, as usual, I'll put a link down in the description as well as links to all my gear, so you guys can check that out on your own time.

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Source : Thoughts On Things