The history of flip phones is a medium-to-long and vaguely intriguing one.
A story that saw the flippy-flappy ones appear from almost nowhere in 1996 to become the most coveted comms device on the planet, then fall into clichéd disrepute in the early 2000s. Many manufacturers continued to produce a wide range of flippers, though, such as the glorious Motorola V3 razr (of which I owed a few) and the Sony Ericsson w508, but eventually, popularity waned in the early 2010s, with the death knell ultimately being sounded by the arrival of the smartphone with its distinctly unflappable touchscreen display.
That’s about 20 years ago now (an awful fact that makes me feel very old), but in recent years the flip has seen something of an unlikely resurgence in popularity. Whether that’s the nostalgia-drenched likes of the new Nokia 2660 Flip, or the move to merge the past and the present in the shapely form of, first, Samsung’s Z Flip range, closely followed by Motorola’s revived razr, Oppo’s N3 Flip, and Huawei’s Mate Xs 2, to name the more famed manufacturers. But whether it’s the desire for a digital detox or to revel in a fuzzy fusion of fondness for phones past and phones of the here-future, there is now, arguably, a flip phone for all.
Specs
- Processor: Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Mobile Platform for Galaxy
- Main display: 6.7-inch FHD+ Dynamic AMOLED 2x
- Cover display: 3.4-inch Super AMOLED
- OS: Android 14/OneUI 6
- Max network speed: 5G
- Storage: 256GB/512GB
- RAM: 12GB
- Front camera: 10MP
- Dual rear camera: 12MP Ultra-Wide, 50MP Wide-angle
- Connectivity: LTE, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.3
- Sensors: Capacitive Fingerprint, Accelerometer, Barometer, Gyro, Geomagnetic, Hall, Proximity, Light
- Security: Fingerprint sensor, Samsung Knox with Samsung Knox Vault
- Battery: 4000mAh
- IP rating: IP48
- Dimensions: 71.9 x 165.1 x 6.9mm
- Weight: 187g
Design
And, as of the tail-end of July 2024, the latest model to carry the Z Flip name became available from the hallowed halls of South Korea’s Samsung, the Z Flip6 – a shining culmination of the flipping best of the flip technology so far. Weighing in at a somewhat lofty £1049 for the lower-specced option, the Z Flip6 is an undeniable thing of beauty.
With a body hewn from the finest aluminium, complete with the minimalist matt finish available in Blue, Silver Shadow, Mint, Yellow, and ‘online exclusive’ hues of Peach, White, and Crafted Black, the Flip6 feels and looks both classy and well-constructed, while the 3.4-inch Super AMOLED touchscreen sub-display, resplendent with rounded corners and protected from daily life by Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2, oozes understated class and, finally, all the fun-functionality we’ve all been waiting for ever since the very first flip phones invoked Star Trek-esque dreams.
Here, on this 720 x 748-pixel resolution rectangle of delight, you can add your favourite widgets to check your calendar, make calls, view your pics, play from Spotify, etc., all without opening the phone. Also here, you’ll find the 50MP and 12MP camera combo, complete with autofocus, 2x optical and 10x digital zoom, and flash, while you can also film in UHD 4K (3840 x 2160) @60fps and in slow-mo in FHD, too, should that be a thing for you.
Also on the outside sit the basic hard buttons for volume control and the side key for powering on, summoning Bixby and fingerprint recognition, plus the SIM tray, microphone, speaker and USB-C port. So stylish, compact and perfectly formed while unflipped. Which concludes this part of the tour.
Functionality
The raison d'etre of any phone with ‘flip’ in its name is the flippy bit. Now, whilst in the recent past many of this new generation of flip phones have felt, how shall I put this, less than solid/borderline flimsy when you peel them open to feast on the unflipped screen within, the Z Flip6 is reassuringly sturdy and opens with a mechanism like a smooth ballet with just the right amount of resistance before clicking into position to revel the brilliantly vibrant 6.7-inch FHD+ display on the inside in all its Dynamic AMOLED 2x glory – literally the current pinnacle of smartphone screen innovation with Dynamic Tone Mapping producing the most unerring accurate colours, a lightning fast 120Hz refresh rate making scrolling more responsive than ever, and that Full High Definition Plus resolution giving you 2640 x 1080-pixels to play with, meaning incredibly sharp images.
Running on the zippy, generative-AI-enhanced Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Mobile Platform tuned for Galaxy, the Z Flip6 speeds into action with no noticeable delay at all, so for impatient types who start to loosen the grip on their shizzle when an app takes more than mere milliseconds to open (myself all too often included), you’re about to get a lot more relaxed in life.
Previous Android and Galaxy phone owners will find the Android 14 and OneUI OS nicely familiar and intuitive to navigate, and a choice of 256GB or 512GB of storage is available, the latter bumping the price up by £100, though. However, if you plan to take full advantage of that 50MP snapper and have less than full faith in cloud storage, you may want to stump up that additional ton as an investment in your Flip6 photo future.
Translation
Amongst all the usual, expected apps and functions of a smartphone of this pedigree, the Z Flip6 also comes packing that aforementioned AI which makes it spiffy at many exciting things, such as context-aware texting from the cover display, that ‘circle to search’ function you’ve doubtless seen in the adverts with the annoying people, and the ability to have a much more involved relationship with Google Gemini (the AI formerly known as Bard).
But the best bit for me has been endless toying and testing the Interpreter app, which lets you mumble into the mic in any of a whole array of languages and have it instantly translated, both verbally and displayed in script on screen, in your language of choice. Just like that. Want to ask the way to the beach in anything from French to Vietnamese? Looking to order battered sausage and chips in Brazil like any normal Brit abroad? Suddenly need to know how to state “My hovercraft is full of eels” in Chinese? Tap the mic, speak your words and have a translation immediately to hand. Never get lost again, never wonder in trepidation over what you’re eating again, and never endure surrealist watercraft-based nightmares ever again!
Verdict
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip6
Connecting over Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.3, the Z Flip6 is ideally suited to pairing up with wireless speakers or smartwatches, such as the all-new Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra, giving epically strong connections that won’t falter and leave you high and dry. There is also a range of precision sensors and GPS to see to all your location and security needs, while a reasonably capacious 4000mAH battery will stand you in good stead for longer before charges.
Is this Samsung’s opus magnum of opening phones? Yes, yes it is. A stunningly realised thing of ringing beauty, it’s extremely attractive and equally well-built, every part of it is of premium-quality and it simply demands to be picked up, cherished and admired every few minutes in a manner that some from the outside may find obsessive, maybe even weird, but I challenge anyone to resist. Then there’s performance – speed is unsurpassed and functionality comes in smart-spades, instantly making itself at home as the hub of all your tech time.
So, the Z Flip6 is the best Samsung flip phone, that’s a given, but is it the best flip phone on the market full-stop? Well, from the cover screen to the cameras to the way it makes every action feel so utterly effortless, I confidently state the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip6 phone is the flip phone that flip phone fans have been eagerly awaiting for so long; so yes again, yes it is.
Buy now £1049.00, Samsung
