These are our favorite Galaxy Z Flip 6 features, old and new

The fifth entry in Samsung's foldable flip phone series is finally official, following a few weeks and months of leaks and rumors. Guessing time is over, as people worldwide can now pre-order the Galaxy Z Flip 6 and benefit from early adopter bonuses.

Given the lineup's popularity, the Galaxy Z Flip 6 should be on its way to becoming 2024's most popular foldable phone. The new model may look similar to its predecessor, but beyond that, it brings a handful of key upgrades many fans will want.

And, by the way, to clear any confusion, the Z Flip 6 is indeed the fifth entry in the lineup, as Samsung skipped the “Flip 2” name many years ago and jumped from the original Flip straight to the Z Flip 3.

Back to the main topic, whether you're new to the Galaxy Z Flip series and don't know anything about the previous models or you are a longtime fan, there's plenty to like about the next-gen device. So, without further ado, here is our list of what we believe to be the Galaxy Z Flip 6's best features.

The toughest and best-looking foldable flip phone, now thinner

Beauty might be subjective, but there's no denying that the Galaxy Z Flip 6 looks well-balanced and premium, with a greater attention to detail than its competitors.

We must admit we love the look of the Galaxy Z Flip series, and the Z Flip 6 is no different. Except it is! The new model has a more refined design with a flatter frame and color-matching camera rings, and it is now even thinner at 14.9mm when folded — down from 15.1mm.

Samsung also improved build quality through a strengthened folding edge on the dual rail hinge structure that offers better protection against shock from external impacts. And the phone is now IP48 rated instead of IPX8.

The Armor Aluminum frame is now 10% more resistant to scratches, and the foldable screen has enhanced layers that help minimize the crease without compromising strength. We can confirm that the crease is marginally less visible, but not by a whole lot. Nevertheless, it is an improvement worth considering.

A high-resolution primary camera

With the launch of the Galaxy Z Flip 6, the series has finally received its highly anticipated camera upgrade. The Z Flip lineup has had a 12MP wide shooter ever since the first model went live in February 2020, and it was time for a change.

Samsung gave the Galaxy Z Flip 6 a 50MP primary camera, making the new foldable more comparable to the company's other premium devices like the slab-type Galaxy S24 and S24+.

The new 50MP sensor has Dual Pixel AutoFocus, Optical Image Stabilization, an f/1.8 aperture, 1.0-micron pixels, and an 85-degree FOV.

More power as standard, now with a vapor chamber

The Galaxy Z Flip 6 also brings raw hardware upgrades that help it deliver more power and performance. Samsung's new entry in the series is powered by a dual battery with a larger combined capacity of 4,000mAh, up from 3,700mAh a year ago.

As for performance, Samsung not only equipped the Galaxy Z Flip 6 with the latest Snapdragon chip (the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3) but gave it 12GB of RAM as standard instead of 8GB. It's also the first Flip to have its chip cooled by a vapor chamber.

A new feature to facilitate using the cover screen

Samsung entered the era of mobile AI earlier this year, and you can be sure that the Galaxy Z Flip 6 boasts the same AI features the Galaxy S24 series launched with — and then some.

Interestingly, the Galaxy Z Flip 6 ships with an exclusive Galaxy AI feature you won't find on any other Galaxy phone. It's called Suggested Replies, and it helps users reply to messages more quickly using the cover screen.

Suggested Replies uses Galaxy AI to scan the previous seven messages in the conversation and generate three replies you choose from to respond to the last message.

As a bonus, the cover screen now supports four extra widgets for Samsung Health, SmartThings, Reminder, and News. Four extra apps also got optimized for the FlexWindow, including Facebook, Gmail, Google Maps, and Google Messages.

Great firmware support and all the other good stuff

As expected, given Samsung's firmware policy change for the Galaxy S24 series, the Galaxy Z Flip 6 will also be around longer. It will benefit from major OS upgrades for seven years, meaning you can buy the Flip 6 now and not worry about missing out on major Android OS upgrades for nearly a decade.

The story continues after our Galaxy Z Flip 6 hands-on video…

As for all the other great features we think are worth mentioning, you can find them below. They're not all new for the 2024 model, but they define the Galaxy Z Flip experience, and newcomers to the lineup should know about them.

We're referring to features such as the side-mounted fingerprint scanner that's incredibly responsive — even more so than in-display scanners, Gorilla Glass Victus 2 protection, Samsung Knox security, Multi eSIM capabilities, Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3, the cover screen experience unique to the Flip series, and FlexCam.

If you're ready to join the Flip side or upgrade from an older model, you can now pre-order the Galaxy Z Flip 6 and benefit from one free year of Samsung Care+ coverage. The pre-order period lasts two weeks until July 24. Hit the pre-order button below for more details.