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- (Dieter Bohn) This right here
is the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip.
It is the third folding phone that I have reviewed
and it is the second flip phone.
And it's the best of that bunch.
But that's not saying much.
The weird thing about this phone
is that it doesn't feel all that special.
It's kind of normal
but for folding phones,
normal might not be that bad.
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I want to explain what I mean by that
but let's just be clear that normal does not mean
that it's good enough to buy.
I mean, look, you already know where this video
is going to end up.
Basically, nobody should spend $1,380 on this phone.
So, when I say this phone feels normal,
I mean that it performs normally
and I have pretty normal complaints
about things like the camera.
And it also looks kinda super normal.
I think normal is an important step for folding phones.
It means that you actually imagine buying it
instead of treating it like a concept phone.
Anyway, let's get into the screen
because it has been the source of some controversy
with this phone.
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So it really is glass that folds
but to make glass bend,
you have to make it really, really thin.
Samsung's ultra thin glass' is 30 microns thick
which is in the range of a very thin human hair.
And that means that it doesn't really hold up
like the glass that you're used to on a smartphone screen.
Glass this thin is obviously gonna be really delicate.
A tiny nick or a scratch
and it will lose its structural integrity
and crack when you try and bend it.
So, Samsung put a protective plastic coating
on top of it and that coating well,
it's fairly soft.
It feels like a screen protector so,
put all that together and what it means
is that this thing can pick up indentations
from your fingernail if you press into it too firmly
and it definitely will not hold up to serious scratching.
You've probably seen a JerryRigEverything video
that shows this point way better than I could.
So, what's the point of all this effort
if the screen scratches just as easily
and it can get punctured really easily anyway.
Well, Samsung gets to say that it's glass.
That's one reason.
For me, the big difference is that it does feel firmer
under my thumb than other plastic screens.
It just feels a little more solid.
It's not as solid as a glass on your current phone
but it's a step in the right direction.
Now don't hold me to this
but I think the glass might help a little bit
with overall sharpness and clarity too.
Now, as for the crease, it's there.
I see it when I look for it
but I don't see it when I'm not looking for it.
But that might just be my brain compensating for it
like in a blind spot.
I mentioned this in my Razor View
but I'm gonna say it again,
I genuinely don't know what the standard
for these phone screen should be.
I mean, take a look at this bezel.
It is a big, dumb plastic reel that holds the screen down
and on a non-folding phone,
I would definitely make fun of this bezel.
But here, it keeps the screen down
and it also keeps the phone from clacking into itself
when you fold it,
so should I make fun of it?
Probably not.
And as for overall screen quality,
it's better and sharper than a razor.
Yup, but it obviously can't stand up to a
regular Samsung screen.
Let's move on to the next unique thing about this phone
which is the hinge.
There are four things to know about it.
One, it's pretty stiff.
It makes the phone really hard to flip out one-handed.
You can do it but it's kinda hard.
Two, Samsung says the main reason the hinge is so stiff
is so that you can stand it up like this
in this thing they call flex mode
which let's you do stuff with the top half of the screen.
You can use it for taking photos and duo calls
and it's kind of good
for watching YouTube and I mean
I don't know.
Propping you phone up is kind of a hassle sometimes
but this solution is just overkill.
Three, there is a gap when the phone is closed
and that is a little bit scary because
the screen is fragile remember.
On the bright side, the gap is narrow enough
so that it doesn't add that much thickness
when it's fully closed.
It's not like offensive to me.
Fourth, Samsung has added brushes and caps
and other gee-gaws to keep dust
and dirt out of the hinge mechanism.
Will that work?
I don't know.
It's been fine for the four or five days
that I've been using this.
But it definitely didn't hold up to iFixit
putting it in a plastic bag with a bunch of purple dust
and shaking it,
but admittedly that's a very extreme test.
Add those four things together and what you get
is that this is the best hinge ever on a folding phone,
which means,
what exactly?
I don't know.
The screen is also the best screen ever
on a folding phone too
and, so what?
What counts as good
or even good enough for a foldable phone
in terms of durability and screen quality,
I think it is still too early
to say that we have a real baseline
to judge these folding phones against.
So, here's what I'll say
I do think the screen looks good enough for folding phones
but I don't think it's durable enough to recommend
and the hinge, well
just don't put it in a bag of dust.
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Now this might surprise you
but really the biggest problem I have day to day
with the overall design
is that the fingerprint sensor
and the power button here on the side
It's just too hard to reach.
It's too high up.
Especially if you have small hands,
and if you're left-handed I mean forget about it.
You gotta hold it in a really, weird wacky way.
I also don't really love this
teeny tiny little outer screen.
It's fine for showing the time
and it can show icons for your notifications
and play-pause controls,
but it actually sucks
for showing the content of your notifications
and it really doesn't work as a selfie view finder
all that well.
Which brings me to the camera.
(up beat music)
(exhales)
It's good, but it can't hang with the best.
Now my hope was that these two 12 megapixel cameras
on the back of the Z Flip
would at least be on par with last year's Galaxy S10.
And too often they just can't.
Samsung kinda seems to be back
to its old Samsung ways of over-smoothing photos.
So, it's kind of annoying
because I thought Samsung had learned it's lesson
with this stuff.
It just seems to be worse on sharpness and the details
than even Samsung's other phones Like the S10
or the Note 10.
And compared to the iPhone 11 Pro
which costs less than this phone
with the same amount of storage
this phone loses every time
especially at night.
Look, I don't wanna give you the wrong impression,
the cameras aren't terrible,
they're just not what I hoped they would be
which is around 2019 flagship levels.
There's a camera mode for taking selfies
with the main camera
but it only shoots square images.
You can also set the outer screen to show a little preview
and a timer if you prop the phone up in flex mode
and sure that's neat.
You can run and take a selfie.
But on the other hand,
this phone is so slippery
It could slide off whatever you set it on
before you can even get the shot.
(up beat music)
But here's the weird thing.
Set aside the $1,400 price tag just for a second
and most of my complaints about this camera are normal.
These cameras are good.
They're just not keeping up with the times.
And that means we're in the zone
of doing normal phone criticism now
instead of the wacky land of hinges and folding screens
that might break and whatever.
Here's another normal thing.
Battery life.
It's fine.
I can get through a day pretty easily with four
and even five hours of screen time
plus decent standby time.
It's not gonna hold up to really intense use all day
but for this size of a phone, I'm pretty happy.
I also like that there is wireless charging
and it makes a perfect night stand clock in this flex mode
with the always-on screen.
I also have no complaints about performance either.
It is a totally normal Snapdragon 855 plus processor
with eight gigs of ram and 256 gigs of storage.
Those are last year's best specs
instead of this year's best specs
but that doesn't matter
I could use this phone all day everyday.
I have no speed complaints.
(upbeat music)
Okay.
So, is the Galaxy Z Flip a normal phone?
Of course not.
It folds,
it has a 30 micron thick glass screen
that has a plastic layer on top of that,
it is way more fragile
than whatever phone you have right now.
It costs $1,380 for a phone
that has a camera that's honestly
a little bit, meh.
But after using it for nearly a week,
it felt pretty normal.
And that's an important step for these folding phones.
The goal is to make them just another normal
reasonable option for people that have small pockets
and that wanna carry around a bigger phone
that actually fits in them.
But Samsung really isn't there yet.
If these phones are ever gonna stop
being just expensive curiosities
they have to start being a little boring
and the Z Flip is getting there.
It's kind of a little boring.
But that doesn't mean that it's normal yet.
And that doesn't mean you should buy it.
It's still just a curiosity.
Even with that glass screen.
- Hey, thank you so much for watching.
I have great news.
I think this is the last folding phone
we're gonna have to talk about for a while.
Up next is the Galaxy S20.
And I'm very excited to test that out.