Samsung Galaxy Z Flip: 8 Months Later! By Shane Symonds

So, it's been eight months since I first got my hands on Samsung's Galaxy Z, flip Samsung's, foldable, shippable smartphone. In this video. I want to talk to you about some new experiences. I've had with the z flip after eight months of daily usage and share some insight on whether the z-flip is worth considering as your next phone. Let's get started so starting with what makes foldable phones at this point in time, more difficult for people to get their hands on price. At the time of this video, the Galaxy Z flip, which comes in purple or this black color here with 8 gigabytes of ram and 256 gigabytes of storage comes in at 1300, and the z-flip with 5g connectivity and a newer processor, which comes in mystic, bronze or mystic gray, runs that price up to fourteen hundred fifty dollars.

Samsung does provide great trade-in incentives and is currently giving a free leather case with a z-flip purchase at the time of this recording so be sure to check out the links in the description for up-to-date prices, trade-in values and other incentives. So then, what are we getting here for? Well? North of one thousand dollars getting the obvious out of the way we have the similar and, at this price, expected excellent Samsung smartphone experience, which can be found on any Samsung phone, whether foldable or non-foldable Samsung's one UI 2.5 has been an excellent software experience on the z-flip and with Samsung now promising three years of software updates. You don't have to worry about such a pricey phone becoming obsolete in the near future. You won't have to worry about the hardware of this phone becoming obsolete either, as my z-flip has certainly stood the test of time and daily, wear and tear for the past eight months. My flip has zero scratches or marks on the inner display in a use case where I open it anywhere from 50 to 100 times a day.

I am also usually opening and closing the phone with some force each time it is done to get a feel for what the flip can handle, and I'm happy to report that, after thousands of folds and more drops than I am willing to admit, the structural integrity of the phone has not been compromised. One bit the topic of fragility usually seems to be at the forefront for foldable phones, but the z-flip is honestly built like a tank, and I am confident that it will continue to hold up for years to come, but hardware and software aside, what is actual day-to-day usage like on the Galaxy Z flip, starting with just that flipping. The amazing feeling of opening and closing the z flip is still just as exciting as it was when I first got the phone earlier this year. Opening and closing with one hand, is possible here, and you will barely hear any creaks or clicks when doing so opposed to something like the Motorola racer, which makes much more noise when opening and closing to the point where it turns me away from the phone altogether, but once you do open the z-flip, you will immediately be at your home screen, thanks to the excellent fingerprint scanner on the side of the phone. Once you use this phone for a bit.

Your muscle memory will draw your thumb right to the sensor once the flip is opened and if, for whatever reason, you forget to put your thumb on the sensor, the face recognition will kick in to get you to your home screen just as quickly now. The 6.7 inch 1080p AMOLED, display on the z flip for me, is just as impressive as any other Samsung smartphone. I've used this year with vibrant colors, deep blacks and plenty of brightness to go with it. But it's worth noting that this display is a bit more narrow than your conventional smartphone. This means watching YouTube.

Videos will be a little smaller, with extra black bars on the sides and playing games in landscape orientation will give you less room to work with. It becomes especially noticeable when you compare it side by side to something, like my Galaxy Note, 20 ultra. But what I found after eight months is that when you use this phone exclusively without anything else, to compare it to you get used to the aspect ratio of the phone, and you begin to really appreciate how great it is to have a 6.7 inch display packed into such a portable phone. Now. Regarding that portability, the compact design when closed is, of course, the main purpose for purchasing a phone like this, and it's the main reason why I enjoy the z flip so much.

There is no other phone out there with this large of a display that folds down into a form factor this small and there's just something to be said about a phone that can be entirely palmed in your hand. I love being able to easily carry this around, whether it's in the house or out and about, and of course you have the benefit of that compactness when it comes to stowing away the z-flip in a bag purse or your pants. This is especially great for pants or shorts with smaller pockets as the athletic shorts. I often wear can't seem to fully fit the larger phones. I also use in review and often find my phones falling out of my pockets with ease with the z flip.

Furthermore, I have not once had an issue with XS phone sticking out of my pocket or having the phone fall out of my pocket. This reason alone has made the Galaxy Z flip my only choice of phone during the warmer parts of the year. Now there are, of course, some parts of the z-flip that have to be sacrificed in order to achieve this form factor looking at the entire spectrum of Samsung phones. For a point of reference, which personally, I have used and reviewed at least 30 of them over the past couple of years. In addition to having their great displays, they also have great speakers, great cameras, great performance, great battery life and great charging speeds with those five factors considered and thinking back on the past eight months of daily usage, I think the z flip overall comes in at around a b minus in these categories, and my non-scientific just now made up Shane score, will explain to you how I came to this rating with each of these five factors.

Getting a base score of 20, the speakers get a score of 15 out of 20. The main drawback here is only having a single bottom firing speaker but similar to other Samsung phones with the single speaker setup. It does get pretty loud and is sufficient for watching YouTube videos, occasionally listening to music and turning on the speakerphone for phone calls, which is loud enough, and you can clearly hear the caller. On the other end, the cameras get a score of 17.5 out of 20, as they are very solid cameras for the general user. Like myself, they are not the latest and greatest flagship lenses with 50x zoom or LIDAR sensors, but when I am occasionally taking a photo of a sunset or something or someone cute around the house, I am pleased with the quality every time, and that is what is needed and expected out of a good camera.

The performance of the z-flip gets a 20 out of 20. , regardless of whether you choose the original z-flip or the newer z-flip with 5g, which have the snapdragon, 855, plus and 865 plus, respectively. This is an area without any compromises being made and having great specs and performance in this compact z-flip make it even more future-proof. In addition to the software and hardware future-proofing we discussed earlier, the battery life is definitely the biggest compromise on the z-flip compared to other Samsung smartphones, getting a score of 13 out of 20. , the 3300 William hour battery is smaller than any other Samsung phone I have used and paired up with a 1080p AMOLED display means your battery will drain quicker if you're a heavy user.

Like myself, if you're, not a phone addict like myself and use your phone responsibly, you will certainly have plenty of battery life to get you through the day, but on days that I just couldn't put this phone down for better or for worse. I would have to charge back up before the end of the day, and I don't know if it's, because the battery is actually two separate batteries on this phone, one on the top half and one on the bottom half when you're down to about five percent remaining, it always seems to die on me before. I have enough time to find a charger and when it is time to charge back up, I was relatively happy, but not entirely content with charging. The z flip, therefore getting a score of 15 out of 20. I love that this phone has wireless charging and reverse wireless charging, as its compact size makes it much more user-friendly for wireless charging opposed to many other larger phones, which must be precisely placed on wireless pads for the charging to initiate.

Since this phone is essentially the size of my wireless chargers themselves, I know my phone is definitely charging every time I intend for it to, and I honestly rarely ever use the reverse wireless charging on any smartphone. But I'm glad the feature is available in case it's needed, but the charging speeds when plugged in is the reason for docking points here, since the z-flip is only capable of 15 watt fast charging opposed to 25 watts superfast charging found on many other Samsung smartphones. So all of those factors considered comes out to a Shane score of 80.5 out of 100, and I think that definitely makes sense, as some areas had to sacrifice to achieve this form factor, but we're still getting an overall good experience here, but sacrifices aside, there are a couple other benefits to this phone that I've also enjoyed over the past eight months. When the z flip is closed, you will be able to view a very tiny but relatively useful, 1.1 inch outer display. When you double tap on this display, it will show you the time date and battery percentage.

In addition to any notifications, you may have and being able to access media controls. I know a lot of reviewers have complained about the screen timing out too soon when trying to read notifications, but if you're spending more than five seconds, trying to read a long text, message or email just open the z flip to take a better look at those notifications. While, yes, of course, I would prefer to have a larger display altogether on the front. I think this simple time, teller and notification panel effectively gets the job done for what it is something I have really enjoyed this year on. The flip was playing games in portrait orientation in what is essentially a Game Boy Advance, SP design, for whatever reason this phone, having a slightly more narrow aspect ratio, makes it a perfect fit in the hands for playing some games like this.

I won't spend too much time on this, but just know if this is how you play your mobile games, you will love this phone now because it gets mentioned by many reviewers, and it's essentially how the z flip is advertised by Samsung. Let's address the quote-unquote laptop mode. When I first saw this, I saw it as a 100 gimmick, but now after using it for eight months, I'd say it's about a 50 gimmick. I say this because for most tasks the screen is just too small for this use case, but for the specific use case of front-facing video, I think this is particularly useful for video calls or conferences since the phone acts as a stand itself and placing the phone on a table and propping it to the angle. Your want couldn't be easier.

It's the little things like this that add up to make the z flip such a cool phone. So, with all things considered, I think everyone can agree that this is a very cool phone with enough features to handle real-life day-to-day use, as I personally have done so for the past 8 months. But can I recommend for you to actually go out and purchase the Samsung Galaxy z flip, while practically every other review? I've seen up to this point has had the same narrative of fun phone but don't buy it. My personal answer is yes, you should consider purchasing this phone, but under the condition that you can take advantage of Samsung's trade-in incentives to bring down the price or find one of these on the second-hand market at a significantly reduced price. For example, Samsung gave me 550 for my Galaxy S10 plus to go towards the z-flip 5g, and I personally bought my first z flip in open box condition at Best Buy for around 1 000, and I think, if you can get your z flip down to that price or better, then you will be well more than happy with your purchase.

This is, without a doubt, my favorite tech of the year in 2020, and if you have the money to afford something like this, then I definitely recommend giving it a go. But what are your thoughts on the Samsung Galaxy z, flip? Let me know in the comments below and if you enjoyed this video then be sure to give it a thumbs up, and please consider subscribing to the Shane Simon's YouTube channel today, as only about three percent of you are subscribed, and please consider hitting that bell icon. So you don't miss the next video. I hope to see you guys around for the next video thanks. So much for watching take care.

Source : Shane Symonds