Before June this year my day-to-day phone was a flip phone and while not a Samsung Galaxy Z Flip, the form factor had won me over.  So, when I got the chance to check out a Samsung Galaxy Z Flip6, I jumped at the opportunity.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip6 is Samsung’s newest take on the flip phone.  It is available in various colours including Blue, yellow, Silver Shadow (grey) and Mint from all stockists.  It will also be available in Black, Peach and white colours from the Samsung.com store.

Available now it will set you back a cool $1,799 for the 256GB version while the 512GB version will set you back $1,999.

At first, I was very underwhelmed by the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip6 but after using it for a few days I was right into it.  It differs from the other flip phone I reviewed recently in how the operating system is set up but you just have to work within its limitations.

Read on for all of my thoughts on the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip6.

Design and displays

The Galaxy Z Flip6 I tested out was the Silver Shadow colour and boy is a great-looking colour.  The design is extremely stylish and follows the design language of their other flagship phones with square sides and edges.  This design lends to an extremely premium feeling and looking flip phone.

While they look great, I’m not convinced that it is ideal for a foldable device.  It is not easy to get it open in a hurry because the edges are so close together.  The hinge itself is also quite stiff, not making it super easy to open anyway but I like that.  I don’t want my $1,799 phone flipping open too easily.

The outer, or cover, display is smaller than some with some decent-sized bezels but it is still bigger than it has been in the past – except for the Flip5.  It is virtually the same size as the Flip5 cover display which is disappointing that Samsung hasn’t improved it at all.

The phone is barely an incremental difference to last year’s Flip5 and there is certainly nothing groundbreaking with it.  The outer display is a Super AMOLED 60Hz display, 3.4 inches in size.

Samsung missed the boat with this outer display.  It is virtually useless.  You can see the clock and notifications, compose replies to messages in some apps (only those that Samsung deem ok) and view Google Maps.  There is a very small list of widgets you can show along with a fairly useless Spotify widget that shows the last 8 playlists/albums/podcasts and the media controls.  

There are Quick Settings toggles available on the cover display but once again you are at the mercy of Samsung and what they think should be displayed is what will be displayed there.  There is no way to change that up to what you prefer.

You cannot run any other apps from the cover display outside of the five that Samsung have whitelisted – Maps, Messages (Google), Messages (Samsung), WeChat and WhatsApp.  Compared with one other manufacturer where you can run ANY app on a bigger, more useful cover display and you have a big fail from Samsung.  If you have an app open on the main display, close the phone, it is gone and you won’t be able to see it on the outer display.

Now this annoyed me at first given what I was used to using my cover display for but I got used to just using the cover display to see if I had any messages/notifications and then opening the phone to view them.  It’s mostly just a glorified lockscreen with little other functionality.  No big deal when compared to the traditional candy-bar flat smartphone but Samsung really could have done SO much more with it and missed an opportunity to move back to the top of the heap.

If you do get yourself one of these Galaxy Z Flip6 smartphones there are workarounds such as CoverScreen OS app which allows you to run ANY app on the outer display. This app though is what Samsung should have done natively.  

With this third-party launcher, you can run any app on their display so the only hindrance is the smaller display with large bezels.  Unfortunately, the app is not free though and will cost you a subscription of $3.39 per month or $24.99 per year.  There is a lifetime subscription but that lifetime sub only lasts for the phone you are currently using… not really a lifetime but the lifetime of the phone maybe? *shrug*

Open the phone and you have the big, tall 6.7-inch Foldable Dynamic LTPO AMOLED 2X, 120Hz display.  It is vibrant and looks impressive but at this stage, the foldable displays are still not as good as the flagship glass displays.  It is still great to look at though of course so don’t concern yourself with any negative thoughts towards it, but be aware that if you go from a flagship such as a Galaxy S24 you will see a difference in the quality of the display.

The Galaxy Z Flip6 inner display is bright and vibrant making it a joy to use — as you’d hope it would be at the current premium price you are paying for it.

The hinge is good and the crease size seems similar to that of other flagship foldables on the market.  As mentioned above, it is a relatively stiff hinge which I like and it will hold the phone open anywhere from 0 degrees to 135 degrees.  This is handy for so many things and another advantage of the foldable smartphone over the traditional flat phone.

Software

A lot of people are not huge fans of Samsung software and I must admit I used to be one of them but not anymore.  There is still a bit of useless fluff that could and should be removed – for example, why do Samsung need its own messages, calendar, and browser apps.  The free ones from Google are so much better and would require zero investment from Samsung to keep them up-to-date, secure and feature-packed.

One gripe I have is with Bixby.  Is Samsung still trying to make Bixby a thing?  It was never good enough and never will be.  The Galaxy Z Flip6 supports Google’s Gemini and Google Assistant which costs Samsung zero dollars to develop and use – they should just stick with that.  I understand on some level that they don’t want to be beholden to Google in case Google decides to pull the pin on it (remember Inbox? Google Podcasts? etc) but Bixby is just not good.  

I’m not a huge fan of Gemini just yet either but Bixby isn’t the answer as Google Assistant works just fine as a backup.  I’m also not entirely convinced of the whole “generational AI” on your smartphone just yet.  Samsung has included some of their own AI features with Galaxy AI and they sound promising but just aren’t there just yet.  The Call Assist real-time translation works mostly but needs a clear call to work well.  The rest of their AI features are basically the same as what Google offers as part of Gemini AI.

As for Chat Assist, who makes that much of an effort to compose their text messages these days?  Transcript Assist is good though, and I use that feature in Google’s Recorder app all the time so that is one that I find useful.  Photo Assist is a huge gimmick and doesn’t seem to work well for me – at least I didn’t think it did. You be the judge:

It will take time before we use these features on a day-to-day basis but I certainly am not.  The background AI features with photography though are much appreciated although at times can lead to the over-processing of images.  As a general rule though it means that Samsung can include lower-quality cameras in the phone and still get decent imagery.

As for foldable software, Samsung has been asleep at the wheel here.  The included flip or even fold-specific software was minimal at best.  Considering they were one of the first to market with a flip phone they should be leading the pack with innovations and new features but they have stagnated, instead going for small incremental improvements.  Maybe next year?

Battery Life

The battery life is good for a day but just that.  Mostly because every time you want to use the phone you have to open it and view the large inner display (which is also time-consuming and annoying to have to do every time).  If you could do quick small (or even large) tasks on the outer display then much less battery would be consumed and battery life would be so much better.

The charging support is just 25W wired with QuickCharge 2.0 which will give you 50% in 30 minutes which is enough I suppose.  There is also 15W wireless charging.  The wireless charging is fine but the wired is a bit slow for my liking when compared to others.  

It would be so much better if they’d included support for faster charging but we all know why they no longer push the limits with charging.  The QC2.0 is also very old now with Qualcomm up to Quick Charge version 5.  We can all guess why Samsung is still using such old charging technology in such an expensive phone and their reticence to upgrade is understandable on some levels they need to get over the Note 8 debacle sometime.

A charger is NOT included in the box so you’ll have to fork out for one if you already don’t have a 25W QC2.0 charger. 

Camera quality

The two outer, main cameras on the Galaxy Z Flip6 are:

  • 50 MP, f/1.8, 23mm (wide), 1.0µm, dual pixel PDAF, OIS
  • 12 MP, f/2.2, 123˚ (ultrawide), 1.12µm

The inner selfie camera is a 10 MP, f/2.2, 23mm (wide), 1.22µm.

On paper, these cameras are far, actually, very far, from impressive. One single half-decent camera does not make a truly acceptable flagship camera system in 2024. The 50MP main camera is better than last year’s offering but don’t expect ultra-premium flagship photography with this camera.

The secondary rear/front camera is a 12MP ultrawide lens which is decent for landscape shots and large group photos but not all that useful in everyday usage.

Now that I’ve said that, the images are pretty good considering the capture system Samsung has used.

One thing Samsung does well is photography and that shows up here, even with the sub-flagship cameras onboard.  They apply a lot of post-processing computational photography to images and although they can seem over-processed and over-saturated at times the resultant images are still good.

Samsung has over-saturated their photos for a long time because people love that vibrant look on their smartphones but side by side with other cameras they look fake.

Samsung has included a lot of AI software for your photos and, just like my experience with Google’s, the results and the ability of them to work is very hit and miss.

The inner selfie camera should have been upgraded, given how useless the cover display is. You cannot use the cover display to run apps natively so you cannot use the outer display for any video calls such as Zoom etc and as such the 10MP on the inside is your only choice. It’s ok but just that. Could have, and should have, been made so much better.

In Samsung’s defence there just isn’t much room in these foldable smartphones for placement of additional lenses and the bigger sensors require greater room, something the Flip6 just does not have. Until someone invents a smaller, more capable camera system we are stuck with solutions such as this. The resultant photos are still good though, just not as good as your photos of other similarly priced flagship devices. Next time Samsung, just give us a better secondary main camera, that would make so much difference.

Should you buy the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip6?

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip6 is a good phone but it is not great. It is held back by Samsung’s reluctance to truly innovate with software and take risks. That is understandable given how much they dominate the Android marketplace but if they don’t begin to innovate again they will be left behind.

The outer screen is the equivalent of a lockscreen of a standard flat smartphone but it could and should be so much more. When you resign yourself to the fact that it is that and not much more then it is good.

The inner display is vibrant and colourful and a great display. The build quality of the phone is incredibly high and the design language is consistent with other Samsung Galaxy flagship smartphones. Using the phone is great and the photos it takes are also good but not great.

Before purchasing the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip6 I would recommend checking out the other options on the market such as the moto razr 50 Ultra, and see which suits you and your style better.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip6 is available from Samsung Australia, and most tech retailers and carriers around Australia in Blue, Yellow, Silver Shadow (Grey) and Mint colours for AU$1,799 for the 256GB version. The 512GB version will set you back AU$1,999.