Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 Hands-on By TWiT Tech Podcast Network

This is twit. Last week there was a huge Samsung event. I forgot that that happened last week and then this week I ended up with this flipping phone and I don't mean that flipping in the way you think you might be saying a flipping phone flow. So Flo, can I ask you before you get into it um, have you been able to use the best feature of that phone which is uh too angrily? Hang up on someone by flipping the phone closed? Yes, you have okay right. Was it with a family member, or what tell us about the conversation? Why were you? No, it wasn't uh. Well, admittedly, I haven't had a phone call yet, but I have um.

You know I've done some social media and dramatically just be like ugh, I'm over this Instagram dm and just done that. But I mean you have to hang up on someone. You have to be like. No we're done goodbye right. So here's the point I'm trying to make Ron, which is that in 2021 our flip phone has changed the meaning of the flip phone.

Oh, yeah completely. How has it changed? Well, like I said now, you can angrily hang up on an Instagram dm uh. If you know you don't get that Pok?mon in Pok?mon, go, you could just? How does the hinge feel does it feel? Does it be it sturdy? Does it feel secure like what is it, so it feels so sturdy. But here's the thing remember back in the day we had our flip phones, and you would get it and the flip phone felt like it came fresh off the factory belt. You know it was um, it was smooth, and it was a fluid motion, but it wasn't loose, and you know you're just kind of waiting.

You would wait for a little while, for those hinges, just kind of wear, sometimes you'd end up with a phone where the hinges we get too loose, and then the darn thing just never stay closed, but I'm waiting for this to soften, and I tried really hard yesterday. I was taking photos of it for my review, which I'm working on right now for gizmo do, and I was trying really hard to like open it one-handed, and it takes effort man. I do not have that satisfaction that I did back in what 2008 2009 yeah, but it's actually kind of hard by the way to close it without the case. The case that I'm using, which is the signature Samsung case, they're um, releasing it's a silicone case, fits it very well, and it has a little belt loop on the back, or in this case this is a keychain which you can kind of loop. Your finger through like a pop socket to hold on to it.

So this case actually adds a tiny bit of density to it to be able to actually flip it closed, but without it is takes a little pressure, which is just a further reminder that what is making this phone flip is not a hinge as in the flip phones of your but an actual, it's a screen with a bend in it, and I'm very curious how this thing is going to hold up after a year of use, because always the consideration with the modern foldable right, whether it's justified or not, that is always on the mind of, I would say the majority of people that either look at them or think about buying. One is like how long is this going to stay? Okay, before that fold becomes an issue, it's a new form factor, and so I showed it to a couple folks on video chat last week and a lot of the folks that gave me the oh, my gosh reactions were people who had iPhones, and I appreciated that. But then there were also a tiny subset of people in my life who saw this and were like. No, no, no, absolutely not! I will not go near it. I refuse so um.

I'm first, I'm jealous because I of the two foldable last week the flip was the one that I was really excited about. Actually of all the announcements. The flip was the one that I was like. Okay, that that's actually pretty cool. I love that they, cracked, the 999 dollar price point, but I haven't had my hands on one of the oh sorry, but also not only the price, but we were talking about in the pre-show.

Is that, with all the incentives and stuff like that, yeah different carriers, you can get, you could potentially get the price on the flip down to sub five hundred dollars, so 4.99 uh yeah after trading and stuff yeah, with trade-ins on Verizon they're they're, offering up to 500 in rebates like they're, trying like yes, it's 9.99, but they're really trying hard to get it as close to 4.99 as possible. So they want you to know by the way that you can trade in all your old stuff like they really want you to go around the house, pull up the couch cushions and like look for any old tech, you have around that you could trade in so right. You probably have something. So I'm curious Damien, because you had some hands-on time with both the flip and the fold right. I did yes, I did um.

What did you think? I really like the flip. I think the flip is the that's the fiesta resistance of the new, the zed series, as I would say, um, but there's just something about it. Like uh, like you, said, flow you just kind of want to close it, even though if it is a screen. So like the kind of the trying to slap it closed, like you would you know the wrist motion, you'd use with an old folding, yeah flip phone, you just kind of go like that and slap it around, and maybe I was the only person did this. Maybe I no you could do this, but I found that really difficult to do and obviously the Samsung reps were like.

Please don't do that. Um, the z, um z, flip three very easily, the z four three felt just I mean it's clearly a marquee device enough, and it's going to overtake the note line, and that's going to be that it makes sense for that to be the note series moving forward, but the flip just feels like it almost feels like a turning point for the potential for normal people to take foldable seriously. I just hope. I just hope that the battery holds out. That was my biggest concern.

Yeah, that's 220 hertz screen 300 million power batteries just yeah. That's that's probably yeah! You know, I'm going to tell you. This is just problematic as a reality TV star on social media, all right. It's its got some issues. Um, I'm going to run the official battery test tonight after we get off the phone, I'm going to run.

The official battery test tonight see how that fares, but I am dubious because just from using it, I've noticed that the battery will shrink string shrink really fast, especially oh, my god, especially if you're watching video and I mean I've, still got some benchmarking and things to do with this device. I love watching video on it, but I'm going to tell you. I barely watch video um laying it out this way you watch. If you watch it on the front on the front screen or um. What am I guess this would be the main screen.

Let me turn it on the brightness just in case you can kind of see this but um. I don't watch video in landscape mode right. I watch it um, let's see. If I can. Let me see if I can at least show you guys, so you can have a little um.

Visual audio for audio listeners flow is fumbling with the phone yeah. So here we go um, I'm just going to launch Pluto TV for funsies and then what I'm going to do is I'm going to hit this hinge. I was watching Pluto romance last because so you watch it, so you watch it in portrait mode in a very in the half screen with yeah the 90 degree hinge kind of it's just awesome, isn't it. It just looks so that that convinced me straight away as soon as I saw that with the original uh z-flip, and now this one's just kind of like taking it to another level, but that that's awesome for, like I've, seen people doing on social media, where you can kind of have it at 90 degrees to take uh top-down photos of your food using Instagram and that or like holding the phone kind of like. I don't even have anything to show you with it kind of like kind of like that and take the image like that and press the shutter button.

That again, that to me, who is a lazy photographer, that's phenomenal yeah, yeah and the thing is, is like now I'm getting some pushback in the chat for going vertical. But let me explain wow that, because I don't so, I have really built my life around, and I'm kind of working out. My thoughts on all you all right now, because there's a lot that I want to say about this phone, and I'm just not quite sure like I have no idea what the thesis is of this thing, because it's its such a new form factor compared to what I've been using over the last 10 years. So I'm re-acquainting myself with a flip phone, but it's a different experience from what I had back in the day in the early aughts like because now I've got a full functionality device in my hands that also can convert in this fun little like pocketable size. By the way this cover screen, it's like 1.9 inches, now super AMOLED. I mean they really like beefed it up, and they put the slow like you guys, can see um yeah camera right now.

I freaking love this ability to be able to take a picture like a selfie. With these, you know with the excuse me. Let me start that over again with the main cameras of the phone, but the bummer is that if my kid is running across like she was the other day- oh my god. Yes, we were in the grocery store, and she was pushing the cart by herself. This tiny little toddler was pushing this giant cart of groceries around the grocery store because she's, somehow like an Iron Man now or something she's in a strong mood, but I could not open the phone fast enough to double press the power button and snap that photo or that video so completely missed moment.

I mean I saw it in my memory, but that's a good point, though I mean how many times do I pull the phone out, and I don't need to think about unfolding. I just tap snap versus here, okay, so I've got this one, plus my one, the one plus nine I've been using right. Furthermore, I carry it around like this with my pop socket all the time. This is the way that I've sort of trained myself to think about how I'm holding this phone, and so I've developed all these maneuvers- and this is like this is my third year fourth year using a pop socket, so I'm very trained on this mechanism, and it took me a long time to just get used to swiveling this, how I'm handling it in my hands. There's all these new.

I have to evolve to use this phone. I have to evolve. It's challenging! You yeah, I think that's a good thing! Yeah, that's good! Yeah, yeah! I mean it's good for overall brain health. You know I'm getting up there into the elder millennial years. So it's good to keep me going a little gym exercise here and there you elder millennial you, but in all sincerity yeah, it's I'll obviously have more to say about it when I finally pen out the entire uh review, but this is a big decision to make before you switch to it, and I think that's also why Samsung's like, by the way trade in your old stuff, if you want to like to try this out, because they really want to encourage you to try it out since that's the whole premise of this release that they did last week, yeah, yeah, okay, so then you're working on the full review, that's going to go up on gizmo do sometime soon, so everybody uh should definitely check out your wait.

For me, when that happens, tomorrow's going to be a very long day. We know you can do this. You got this.

Source : TWiT Tech Podcast Network