Samsung Galaxy Z Flip: 3 months later By CNET

Hey this is the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip I, really like it, it's uh, it's fun, but you probably shouldn't buy one I've been using it for three months and here's everything you need to know. If you had told me last year, everything that would happen in 2020 I would be pretty skeptical, especially the part where Samsung made a really amazing clamshell style, flip phone with a foldable screen when the Galaxy Z Flip was first announced. I rather know I didn't know what to expect on paper. I thought the Motorola Razr phone looked a lot more compelling yeah it's more expensive and didn't have all the specs, but the design there was just something more personal about it, perhaps not in the execution it's fast for today and well. I. Just can't stop while doing this.

I love doing this even three months later and this, if I'm on a call and also this to open it, there's nothing like it and by the way this phone gets a lot of attention during the day the Galaxy Z flips it's in this position. Next to my computer, it's kinda like it's a little laptop over the past three months. I think probably the biggest surprises was the fact of how much I use this for vertical video and video chats more on both of these later. But this isn't the perfect phone, it's not the most powerful. It doesn't have the best specs the battery life is okay, the cameras are good, but not the best, and this phone is ridiculously expensive, but I am absolutely addicted to it.

And here let me get into the specifics of what it's been like using the Galaxy Z flip for the past three months. First, I love and hate this display when it's clean. It looks amazing and kind of unreal, because apps and the Internet are just right there at the tips of my fingers. Now this is hard to show on camera, but you just have to experience it. The screen, this vibrant videos look outstanding, even though it has a twenty-one point: nine by nine aspect, ratio it's really wide uh-huh, and so, if you're watching YouTube videos and most of them are gonna- have black bars on either side.

However, widescreen movies are absolute treat to watch on this display, but once in a while, the plastic polymer coating starts to get in the way, and this goes from feeling like a cool high-tech phone to more. If I got a movie prop, and it's really apparent when there are fingerprints on the screen, which happens a lot, then there's the crease. Ah, the crease yeah it's there, and it bugs me about as much as a display notch dozen old phones or current Apple and Google phones, meaning I, don't really notice it much anymore or here's a better way of putting it I. Just don't care yeah, there's a crease in fact, because it has a horizontal crease versus a vertical one. Like the Galaxy fold, you see it a lot less, but oh do you feel it, especially in apps where you're scrolling, like Instagram or Twitter, or whatever your favorite endless scrolling app, is you're gonna notice this crease and does it bother me not particularly I mean I've kind of gotten used to it and I don't really baby this phone I tap on it.

I push on I swipe on it just as hard as I would a regular phone, but that crease is kind of like this subtle background music. That is just a little reminder that this phone has. This then there's the outside display, which looks cool and minimalist with its pill shape, but yeah, it's kind of useless I mean yeah, it's nice to see the time, it's nice to see how much battery life I have left and yeah it's nice to like skip tracks on Spotify, but for reading notifications. It's pretty much useless because the screen turns off too fast, and yet it gets really kind of cool to see that little selfie camera pop up, because you're actually not using the selfie camera using the rear cameras which are better quality. But the framing you see in that little display is not indicative of what you're going to get in the final photo.

A part of me likes that the little display can't do much, and I'm reminded of that fact. Every time I see the message open phone for details because I'm like yeah, no duh, because the little screens not going to tell you these details, but if ELISA say Samsung wants to continue on with this little display if they just left it on longer. So you can actually read your notifications. That would be a step in the right direction, or they could go their route and Motorola did and just make it a little bigger and give it a little more functionality. So let's get to the name of this phone, the flip aspect and that's really what defines the phone you could flip it from a phone about the size of the galaxy s 20 ultra at least the height of it and fold it down to something that fits into almost any pocket.

Now, obviously, women's pants pockets. Your mileage may vary, but I found it extremely. Portable and I always grab this phone when I'm going someplace, which these days isn't my company honest? But let's talk about using the flip when I first got it, I was kind of enjoying the fact that had to be a little more selective about what I was doing like. Yet it's not that hard to flip the phone open, but it definitely just do I want to go in and scroll mindlessly on, Instagram I don't know, maybe not so there's a little more purposeful. Maybe this that's the word things.

I was doing, however, over time that purposefulness became tedious, especially when it comes to messaging, because I would close the phone and then get a reply than open the phone and then unlock it and then have to type in their reply, and they'd closed. The phone I do the whole process over, and it started driving me a little nuts and that's where I wished that little front screen well I just wish you had the ability to reply to messages, even if it was voiced to text or just a voice recording. That would be amazing so because of that, when I wasn't using the phone as opposed to leaving it in the closed position, often left it and I caught laptop mode. But Sampson calls it flex mode, and that brings me to a discovery or something that I didn't think that I would be using on this phone much if at all- and that is the video, because when you have a phone that could stand on its own like this, and I can move the cameras any which way, all of a sudden, it's kind of having a built-in tripod and I, don't know if any other phone right now. That can do that.

So, especially if you're into filming vertical video. This thing is amazing, in fact, sometimes when I'm filming a video on a regular camera, I'll put it into Flex mode and sorry Samsung gap tape it to the top of the other camera. So I'm, filming vertical video with this so with Flex mode Samsung, has a couple apps that actually take advantage of the screen at that 90 degree position, but there's not many and the ones that do that argue. They could be better, for example, in the gallery app when you're in that Flex mode position the photos on the top half, and you can use the bottom to see like the dates and stuff or information and swipe back and forth. However, as soon as you go into edit mode, the photo goes right to the mo the screen.

It's so weird, why does it do that? Why doesn't stay at the top, and then you'd have the bottom for all the settings and adjustments you want to do to the photo like that seems like a big miss? Also, there's not a lot of apps that take advantage of that mode. Now, because the Galaxy Z flip runs Android 10, you could actually split screen apps. So, for example, I would often use the Zoom app on the top half for a Zoom call and then have my emails on the bottom. So people are referring to something. I could look at that pretty quickly, but again, there's not a lot of instances where that's going to work and I, don't know.

I just feel like Samson could really push this flex mode more, both with the camera stuff that I mentioned earlier, but also with the software, because it feels like this is a unique feature. You don't see on other phones at least not yet, and so more of these foldable phones come out. It's a flex mode. Is it a gimmick, not really I, think there's some true opportunities there, but I just don't think it's fully fleshed out. However, the one thing I really do like about Flex mode is: this is on a phone call being able to hold the phone at an angle.

It's so delightful, and you can make fun of me all. You want it's almost as fun as ending the phone call by closing the phone all right, but let's get to the big cloud that hangs over these foldable phones, and that is durability. And when this phone launched there was a lot of questions about its durability, because it was the first foldable phone to use foldable glass. Now it turns out that glass is ridiculously thin, and it's covered in a plastic polymer, but it's glass nonetheless. So how has this phone handled the past three months? Well, when I look at my screen, I mean I, don't see a single scratch or nick in it.

Aside from the crease, that's still there, but yeah I don't see anything and when I look on the outside of the phone, there are like there's like one little tiny scuff, it's barely visible and that's because the phone has this horrible habit of sliding off things and dropping to the ground by itself fact: I have never dropped this phone. This phone drops itself, I will leave it on a table or a counter and walk away, and next thing I know it's on the ground. So I don't like that feature of this, but with all those drops it's still going with the glass and the polymer no scratches, so the other concern it launched was the gap when the phone is closed, there's a visible gap and the idea maybe was that things could get in the gap that they could scratch the screen or ruin the hinge kind of like what happened with the Galaxy fold when it first launched. To my delight, nothing like that has happened. However, it is often when I open the phone.

I see it covered and just dust and hair, so between wiping the dust and hair off of it from that little air gap and the smudge is on it. The screen is constantly being clean. So after three months, the screen tailed up really great the hinges. Fine, the outside is pretty good to slip. Things annoying, but the most important thing is I'm able to use this expensive foldable phone like a phone I'm, not babying, if I'm, throwing it in my pockets, I'm putting it in my bag, I'm, leaving it out, it's exposed to dust and hair and all the other stuff that your phones are regularly dealing, and yet it still works.

Just like a phone hey in terms of performance. This is essentially a galaxy s, 10 or maybe more accurately, a galaxy s 10 d, because it has the fingerprint reader on the side and I know. Some people wanted this to be aspects like crazy machine, and it's just not that, but if you're willing to pay 1380 for this, you could get that specs machine for $20 more in the form of the galaxy s 20 ultra now in day-to-day use it was fine, apps, open, fine, animations, never stuttered gaming was fine, editing photos, fine, yeah, I can't, I can't slight anything that is tight performance. It does make me wonder how long the software on this will be supported by Samsung they'll. Thank you for paying $1,380 or phone that is as important as the Flex infolding of that screen.

But that's just me. The other thing is the battery. The battery is okay, sometimes I got a full day charge out of it, but often I'm, finding myself recharging this phone around late afternoon or dinnertime. So there's that I guess you know, there's a compromise if you want to have a small thin folding thing to fit in your pocket, probably has 2 thin batteries ? in terms of cameras, it's essentially the same camera system on this phone, that's found on the galaxy s 10, and they're good. It's a good camera system, it's not the best one you're going to get it's a solid B may be compared to the A+ of a pixel, 4 or iPhone 11 Pro, but I well, I've not been disappointed by the photos, I've taken or the videos I captured, in fact, I love that has the ultra wide-angle camera on here.

I love using that feature, and it even has night mode on a foldable phone. That's pretty cool so to wrap up after three months. Is the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip worth one thousand three hundred eighty dollars? Yes, I think it really is, and that's because it's a phone that can do this, should you pay one thousand three hundred eighty dollars for this phone for most people, I would say no, but for those of you out there who want to flirt with the wild west of mobile phone technology and design yeah you're going to have a lot of fun with this. If you want to learn more about my three months with the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip check out my article on cnet. com, but I want to hear from you.

Do you have a Z flip, or do you like it? Do you love it? Do you hate it, throw your thoughts in the comments?.

Source : CNET