Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4: Australian hands-on early verdict

Here are our early thoughts on where Samsung has notably improved the Galaxy Z Flip 4 – and where it could have done more.

Before Samsung's Galaxy Unpacked event, I had a brief chance to try out the Galaxy Z Flip 4 here in Sydney.

The Z Flip 4 is Samsung's fourth bite at the flip-out phone concept. As with the Z Flip 3, the accent is as much on style and cool looks as it is on power and features.

It should be noted that my hands-on time with the Z Flip 4 was very limited and I couldn't take away photos or run benchmarks or battery tests. These are essentially hands-on impressions – nothing more, nothing less. Stay tuned for our more comprehensive review in due course.

So what stood out and what felt like it needed improvement?

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4: Early upsides

• I like big batteries and I cannot lie: The single biggest problem I had with the Z Flip 3 was its woeful battery life relative to its price point. While I couldn't fully test out the battery chops of the Z Flip 4, the fact that it's bumped up the battery size without unduly changing the physical size of the phone is a very welcome step in the right direction. Bumping up charging speed for wired or wireless connectivity is smart too.
• New colours and Bespoke at launch: The Galaxy Z Flip 4 is designed to stand out, and it sure does in its new hues. Where the Z Fold 4 has more serious colours – and the dullest colour names anyone could imagine because seriously, Samsung's going to be selling a model of that phone in "beige", really – the Z Flip's colours are brighter and a lot more fun. Special credit to the eye-catching Bora Purple, especially as Bora means purple in Korean, so it's really Purple Purple. If that's not enough, Samsung's Bespoke service, where you can mix and match colour plates on a custom Z Flip 4 returns. It's going to be available from pre-order, which means if you're lucky and the factory likes you, you could have a Bespoke model on day 1, not months later.
• It's technically a smaller, powerful Android phone: The Galaxy Z Flip 4 runs on the same Snapdragon 8 Plus gen 1 processor as the Fold 4, and that's unusual. It's unusual because if you want the biggest and best processors, you usually have to accommodate a larger phone and that doesn't always suit everyone. If you're one of the many wishing for a smaller powerful Android handset, this is it – especially folded down.
• You can have a video on the cover display: OK, this is kind of a stupid feature, but I like it anyway. The Z Flip 3's cover display could show a photo, but if you want – and if you must – you can alternatively get it to show video on that display.
• Feels nice in the hand: I'm not really the target market for the Z Flip 4. I'm more of a Fold afficionado. But I can't deny that it's a nice phone to hold in the hand, folded or unfolded. The folding is still its party piece, but I can totally see how as a day-to-day device it'd be quite nice to use.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4: Early downsides

• The cameras are only a little better (and there are only 2 of them): The Galaxy Z Fold 4 gets a big boost in camera quality, but the Z Flip 4's cameras are only slightly improved over their predecessors. That's a big problem for a phone that costs what Samsung wants for the Z Flip 4. While my testing time was brief and Samsung insists that the Z Flip 4's low light performance should be better, this was one area where I really wanted Samsung to step up more. Put simply, it didn't.
• It hasn't seen a price cut: One of the great things about the Flip was that it was Samsung's more affordable foldable, bringing the technology to wider markets due to price drops every generation. Except for this one, because the Flip 4 basically costs what the Flip 3 did. Sure, the bonus memory on pre-orders is quite nice, saving you up to $200 for a higher capacity model, but these are still premium-priced phones (the starting price is a hefty $1,499). Samsung absolutely leads the foldables market – its only Australian competition in this space is Motorola's much more expensive and less impressive RAZR line – but it hasn't taken the lead here. I get why, because chip shortages and inflation are a reality, but it's still a disappointing reality.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4: Early conclusions

Has Samsung earned the right to simply iterate on components like processors and batteries?

That's the question that the Galaxy Z Flip 4 poses, because even more so than the Fold 4, it's not that much changed from the 2021 model. It's rarely good value to upgrade after a year's usage, but Flip 3 users really don't seem to be missing out on much by not jumping up to the Galaxy Z Flip 4.

That being said, some of the improvements are welcome. If the boost in battery capacity can make enough of a difference to battery life to get it through a day, my view could change markedly. Stay tuned for our full review.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3

If you don't want to spend up to $1,849 on the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4, you might want to consider buying its daddy instead. The Z Flip 3 contains most of the same features as its successor and is now selling for just $1,115 on Amazon.