The Galaxy Z Flip 4 is the best, most affordable (relatively, of course: $999 is still a lot of money) foldable phone you can buy right now. There's plenty to like about it, but there are two particular aspects of the Z Flip 4 that make it my favorite phone of the year.
First off, I should say that I still prefer Samsung's Galaxy S Ultra smartphones, thanks to their camera (especially zoom) prowess. But I've been loving the Galaxy Z Flip 4 ever since I started using it, and there are two particular aspects that I like.
Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset makes for great performance and thermals
The Galaxy Z Flip 4 and the Galaxy Z Fold 4 are the first — and only — phones from Samsung to be powered by the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset. And using the phone has been an absolute delight. Performance is amazing, and while I don't play games on the phone, I'm sure there's no title out there that will be any trouble for the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1.
Even better is how Qualcomm has struck the perfect balance between performance and thermals. The Z Flip 4 pretty much never heats up (again, I can't say if it does that in games as I don't play any) and keeps its cool in day-to-day use, even when you're using the camera to take a lot of pics and videos for a long time.
It's surprising, in fact. The Galaxy Z Flip is a pretty compact phone, and that means it theoretically has less space inside to keep all of its components at comfortable temperatures. But the real-world use simply won't make you feel that is the case. The only complaint I have is that the Z Flip 4 doesn't support DeX, though that could be because Samsung doesn't consider Galaxy Z Flip 4 to be a proper flagship.
Battery life is excellent, even better than the Galaxy S22 Ultra
The Galaxy S22 Ultra has a 5,000 mAh battery, which is considerably larger than the 3,700 mAh battery powering the Z Flip 4. The S22 Ultra does have a larger screen and higher screen resolution, and the versatility of its camera setup means I use the S22 Ultra's camera much more often.
Still, as I've explained before, the Z Flip 4 has excellent battery life. I have zero anxiety about it running out of juice when I need it the most, and the fact that there's just a 3,700 mAh battery in it is proof of what a great job Qualcomm has done with the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1. Of course, Samsung could also have contributed to it by optimizing the software Z Flip 4 (and the Z Fold 4, which also has superb battery life).
Either way, it almost boggles my mind how the Z Flip 4 manages to last so long. It also gives me great hope for the Galaxy S23 series. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor that is expected to be announced in November and could possibly power the Galaxy S23 smartphones in all markets should be even better and could combine with the S23 Ultra's big battery for endurance that isn't possible on the S22 Ultra.
Do you own the Galaxy Z Flip 4? What are your favorite features? Are you happy with it or are you wishing you could switch back to a regular non-folding phone? Let me know down in the comments!
