Samsung Galaxy Z Flip3 5G review

 This is the Samsung galaxy z flip 3 one

of Samsung's new foldable smartphones

and it aims to bring you an experience

reminiscent of the flip phones of days

past

we saw the first galaxy flip last year

and this time around it's a much more

refined product but is that enough to

convince you to go for this type of

phone over a traditional one I'm will

for gsm marina and let's find out in our

galaxy z flip 3 review

Samsung has found a way to fit a large

display into a small form factor thanks

to its foldable screen technology

the clamshell design is sleek and shiny

and brings that two-tone flavor thanks

to the secondary screen

there are a variety of color options to

choose from too to match your style or

your other devices

one thing that Samsung has emphasized is

that they've taken steps to make the

z-flip 3 is much more durable this time

around the back is protected by sturdy

gorilla glass victims

and while the inner screen is covered by

plastic there's a new protective film

which should be more scratch-resistant

and they've reinforced the hinge

mechanism and the frame itself using a

a material called armor aluminum which is

supposed to be tougher and more

lightweight

another new addition is IP rated

waterproofing it's ipx8 meaning that

there's no protection against dust but

the z-flip 3 can be submerged under

water without breaking a sweat

let's go over the displays starting with

the main one just like last year's model

it's a tall 6.7-inch foldable AMOLED

with a 1080p resolution but this time

around you get a fast 120hz refresh rate

this makes for much smoother swiping and

scrolling and since the refresh rate is

adaptive it will dial down to various

lower refresh rates depending on your

content to save energy

and there's support for a high frame rate

gaming to you can set a global refresh

the rate for games through settings

unlike the galaxy z fold 3 which has a

fancy under-display selfie cam this one

has a standard punch-hole cutout

and of course, you do get a crease in the

middle of the display too where it folds

and while you can ignore it it is

visible especially when looking at an

angle

still, the quality of the screen is

nice blacks are super deep and

colors are quite accurate you get hdr 10

plus support too and Samsung has managed

to make this display much brighter than

last year we measured around 500 nits

maximum with the slider and boost up to

930 nits in auto mode when in bright sun

for audio, the z-flip 3 brings an upgrade

this year in the form of stereo speakers

there's one at the bottom and the other

doubles as the earpiece they are loud

earning a score of very good on our

charts and quality is nice although bass

is a bit lacking

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip3 5G review

waking up and unlocking the z-flip 3 can

be done with a side-mounted fingerprint

a scanner that's built into the power

button it's fast and responsive

but unflipping the fold one-handed and

unlocking it is a bit tricky to do

smoothly and lefties have it even worse

it's more of a two-handed affair

the phone's interfaces Samsung's one UI

on top of Android 11 along with a couple

of extra exclusives to take advantage of

the flip mechanism with the phone

unfolded the home screen and functions

are pretty much the same as

samsung's other phones

for example, you're able to pin apps to

the top of the share screen so you don't

have to hunt for them every time and of

course there's Samsung's edge panel for

holding your important shortcuts

the exclusive features appear when the

the screen is partially folded in this

the position you can set the phone on a desk

or table to watch media content on the

top half while the media controls appear

on the bottom half

this is also handy if you're looking at

your photos in the gallery and you don't

have to swipe on the pictures themselves

to navigate

but probably the most useful way Samsung

has enabled this feature is in the

camera app with the phone rested like

this it's stabilized sort of like it's

on a tripod and the controls are easy to

access

the galaxy z flip 3 runs on a flagship

snapdragon 888 chipset and unlike with

other Samsung phones that are for every

the market there's no split with Exynos

chips here

this is one of the most powerful chips

you can get on a phone and performance

is great but when you compare benchmark

scores to another snapdragon 888 flagships

the z-flip 3 falls behind the others for

some reason as if there's something

holding it back

as far as thermals go the z-flip 3's

performance is far from stellar it tends

to heat up and throttle after just a few

minutes under heavy strain but this is

comparable to other devices we've seen

recently and of course real-life use

shouldn't be as stressful as our

throttling test

powering the phone is a

milliamp-hour battery nothing huge but

the same capacity as last year

unfortunately, it seems that the battery

performance isn't as good on this new

model in our test routines the z-flip 3

earned an endurance rating of just 69

hours this score puts the z-flip 3 at

the bottom of the chart but it is

understandable you have this restricting

form factor together with a high refresh

rate screen and power-hungry chipset

the z-flip 3 doesn't ship with a charger

in the box just like Samsung's other

flagships though some retailers are

bundling it with a 25-watt charger the

phone only supports up to 15 watt

charging through so you'd get zero to 40

charge in half an hour even with the

more powerful one there's also support

for wireless charging, if you prefer

now onto the cameras which instead of

being revamped are the same as on last

year's model there's a 12 megapixel main

camera and a 12-megapixel ultra-wide one

daylight photos from the main cam are

very good in quality but still not quite

as nice as you'd expect at this price

they have vivid colors high contrast and

plenty of detail for this resolution

however, some textures like grass have a

messy and over-processed look

dynamic range is good here though other

high-end phones outperform the flip in

In this regard, portraits come with the

the benefit that the subject can see

themselves on the cover display while

you're taking the shot

quality-wise they have great separation

around the subject with well-handled

hair in general the colors are likable

and the dynamic range is wide

the photos from the ultra-wide cam are

decent but again not as good as you'd

expect at this price

colors are pleasing and match the main

cams and the shots are sharp in the

center however there is plenty of corners

softness and dynamic range isn't as wide

as on other flagships

the selfie situation is pretty versatile

on the z flip 3. you can either take a

standard selfie using the 10 megapixel

camera within the main display

or if the phone is folded you can use

the rear cameras to take selfies using

the cover display is a viewfinder for

rough framing

and by rough, I mean that you really

don't see what the photo is going to

look like the aspect ratio doesn't match

and everything outside the center of the

the frame is cropped out

anyway these rear camera selfies come

out in a square 2992 by 29.92 and they

look quite nice

the ultrawide cams face focus has

trouble getting your face to come out

sharp though

in contrast selfies from the

front-facing cam come out in a standard

4x3 aspect ratio they have good detail

but colors are muted and the exposure is

a bit off particularly in brightly lit

scenes

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip3 5G review

in low light, the phone will apply an

automatic night mode if you have seen

optimizer turned on this results in well

exposed shots with excellent colors and

great dynamic range

the level of detail is good but not

great and there is a fair amount of

noise

if you turn off the scene optimizer

there's not a huge difference but some

scenes will come out with a darker

exposure

there's also a dedicated night mode you

can toggle on in darker scenes it

brightens up shadows and gives them a

boost in detail without affecting the

rest of the scene very much

the ultra-wide camera doesn't do a great

job at night but it's decent well

exposed with pleasing colors and good

dynamic range but there is a lot of

visible noise

night mode makes a difference for the

ultra-wide and especially dark or

contrasty scenes in these cases you get

an overall brighter shot with lifted

shadows without over-exposing the

highlights there is some heavy

sharpening applied as well

the z-flip 3 can record videos with this

main cam and up to 4k resolution at

60fps this footage is ok with plenty of

detail spot-on colors and wide dynamic

range but there are processing artifacts

as a result of noise as well as heavy

sharpening

the ultrawide can shoot 4k at up to 30

fps and this is decent in quality with

good colors and dynamic range it isn't

the sharpest footage around but at least

you don't see those artifacts here

electronic stabilization works in 4k and

it does a great job for both the main

cam and the ultra-wide

so that's the Samsung galaxy z flip 3

you get of course that unique flip

a design that provides you with a large

screen as well as a compact form factor

it's all been reinforced to be more

durable than last year and you get water

resistance too

the AMOLED screen is brighter now and it

has a 120hz refresh rate the secondary

the screen is larger and more useful

and on top of it all, you get stereo

speakers now too

there are a few things that we weren't

so thrilled about though like the

lackluster battery life and the cameras

which are just decent for the price and

haven't seen any improvements since last

year

and while you do get a flagship chipset

its performance tends to fall behind

that of other high-end phones still

those phones aren't doing this

if it's the flip design you're after you

can hardly beat the z-flip 3 and it's

well worth recommending but if you're

going for a pure value for money

the perspective you can get much better

specs with a more conventional flagship