The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 is probably the best clamshell foldable phone out there right now. Considering the Galaxy Fold 3. It has a sturdy design and a good-looking screen, though the cameras aren’t great and the battery is fairly small. People who were thinking about getting foldables would actually get them with Some slight tweaks and a slightly lower price. The Flip 3 just isn’t worth it right now.

Beyond the novelty of a folding smartphone, the Z Flip 3 doesn’t justify its price tag – as well as some issues with the form factor, like the fact there’s a gap in the phone when you close it, how stiff it is to close, the smartphone experience is hurt because of the tiny battery and cameras 

So while the Galaxy Z Flip 3 is pretty good for a fashion statement, not so useful for a normal, day-to-day smartphone. You might like to spend your money on a rigid device because foldables just aren’t there yet.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 comes in two storage sizes: 128GB, which costs $999 / £949 / AU$1,499, or 256GB which will set you back $1,049 / £999 / AU$1,599. For comparison, the original Galaxy Flip cost $1,380 / £1,300 / AU$1,800, and the 5G model was even more at $1,449 / £1,399 / AU$2,599.  The Galaxy Z Flip 3 goes on sale on August 27, with preorders open now. 

Design and display

To look at it, the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 doesn’t seem to offer much that’s different from its predecessor. But looks can be deceiving, and once you get the phone in your hand you’ll notice some improvements.

The phone has a ‘Glasstic’ plastic back with glass surrounding the camera module, unlike the all-glass original, the new phone feels sturdier to hold. Plastic is more drop-resistant than glass and is generally easier to grip too, meaning the Flip won’t slide out of a wet hand.

There’s a lot of reassuring firmness of the phone, thanks to the hinge mechanism, which feels less wobbly, more secure and better than the one on the first Flip. 

Like the original Galaxy Z Flip, the Z Flip 3 has a side-mounted fingerprint scanner; and as on the original, a little hard to reach when the phone is unfolded. The phone comes in a few different colors, including beige, black, green, and purple, though some are exclusive to Samsung’s website depending on your region. 

The main display is the same 6.7-inch FHD+ panel as the 2020 model, with a refresh rate bump to 120Hz. The folding mechanism isn’t really obvious behind the display, unlike on the original Flip and all the Fold models, which is a nice change. 

Bigger improvements have been made to the outer display, which was 1.1 inches on the original Flip but with an increase to 1.9 inches. The new layout for this display is more useful due to new settings letting you change the apps on the cover display. 

Cameras and battery life

The camera specs and the battery are the same on the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 as on its predecessors, which if honest is a shame. On the back are 12MP wide and 12MP ultra-wide snappers, although these sensors have larger pixels than those in the first Flip. The 10MP front snapper is also essentially unchanged, though it’s not an under-display camera like the Galaxy Fold 3. 

There’s Flex Mode, so you can part-fold the phone at a right-angle and use one side as a stand to keep the other, camera-toting side steady, which were available on the previous Flip Device. Along with the standard modes you’ll find on the Galaxy S21. 

The camera setup here isn’t anything like the other recent Samsung flagships like the S21, it has a pretty small set of two cameras, so don’t buy this phone expecting to take fantastic photos.

The Galaxy Z Flip 3 has the same 3,300mAh battery as its predecessor, which is on the light side for a phone with a 6.7-inch display, the form factor restricts how large the power pack can be. The original Flip sometimes struggled to last a whole day, and it seems that the Flip 3 isn’t going to be any different.

There’s no change to the 15W charging either, which we’d consider slow if the battery wasn’t relatively small. There’s also wireless charging here, which works better when the phone is folded shut.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 has very small performance upgrades over its predecessor, it uses the Snapdragon 888 chipset, the top-end Android processor available to it. Thanks to this processor, and 8GB of RAM, the phone is pretty powerful to use when scrolling through menus or apps. The software is Samsung’s OneUI, so that’s a good thing.

Don’t order the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 expecting a hugely different phone to the original Z Flip – it has the same dimensions, cameras, battery, and software.