Galaxy Z Flip 6 Review: A Flip Phone You’ll Like, If You Like Flip Phones

Samsung must be selling millions upon millions of foldables, because even as I want to argue that these devices don’t need to be refreshed each year, here we are about to talk about the brand new Galaxy Z Flip 6. You see, Samsung likes selling phones, so it keeps making new phones.

The Flip 6 isn’t a major upgrade over the Flip 5 from last year, but they did upgrade a couple of internal parts, swap-in a new 50MP main camera, slap in an extra dose of RAM, and slightly increase the battery capacity in order to try and justify a $100 price increase. They brought out the “AI” too as a way to tempt you into believing you need AI (you don’t).

Is it all worth it at a starting price of $1,099? Should you buy the Galaxy Z Flip 6 as someone who hasn’t ever purchased a flip phone before? Should you upgrade from another flip phone? Hey, we’re about to talk about all of that in this here Galaxy Z Flip 6 review.

What do I like about the Galaxy Z Flip 6?

Display. A folding display will never get old as a piece of tech to play with. Whenever I get a new foldable in the office to test out, I always spend the first few folds examining the hinge and smiling a bit as the flexible display performs its little magical move without breaking. On the Flip 6, Samsung has given me that joy once again with a 6.7″ AMOLED display at 1080p (and 120Hz) that is a joy to look at and use.

This display is bright and colorful and fast and smooth and everything you could ask for in a proper flagship display. It also happens to fold, though.

Samsung hasn’t reduced the experience by making it fold, that’s the thing. Your finger touches something on this display and it properly reacts. Swipes are instant, brightness levels hit those necessary lows for those of us who use our phones in bed at night, plus the highs allow for sunny day usability. You can customize the display profile some too, so that means jumping between “Natural” and “Vivid” experiences. You have night modes and adaptive color settings, smoothness options, and some dark mode settings if you prefer your UI to be darker at all times.

Look, this display is as good (and in some cases better) as the displays you’ll find on phones that don’t fold. That’s what is so incredible about how far we’ve come in this foldable space. This is another excellent display from Samsung.

Hardware. The Galaxy Z Flip 6 is without a doubt a premium handset. I’ve been testing out a review sample of the device in Silver Shadow and it is lovely in the hand. The metal exterior that unfolds with such precision, showcases a device from a company who builds foldables on a quality level like no one else. This thing truly does not feel like a foldable when unfolded because of how perfectly it unfolds.

It also has great balance when unfolded, symmetrical bezels, rounded corners for comfort, and a phone width that makes for easy use in a single hand. The Flip 6 is light and comfortable to hold, while also feeling as premium as you’d hope a $1,000 phone would feel.

When folded, it certainly gives off the vibe of a chunky little expensive tech gadget. Again, everything fits so perfectly together when closed up, like the antenna lines that close together to sit directly across from one another. The buttons have a solid click to them, the camera housing silver accent adds a fun contrast to the black cover screen, and the satin or matte finish deflects your greasy fingers.

You want a foldable that tells you it’s worth $1,000 in hardware? This would be it.

Battery life. The battery life found in last year’s Galaxy Z Flip 5 was disappointing to the point that I almost told you to avoid it altogether. For the Galaxy Z Flip 6, Samsung has greatly improved in this area. This thing is a little battery champ. They did increase battery capacity from 3700mAh to 4000mAh, but I think the chipset (Snapdragon 8 Gen 3) and software are doing most of the efficiency work here.

On almost every day I remembered to take a screenshot I had screen-on-time of around 2.5 hours and roughly 45-50% battery remaining when going to bed around 11PM. I know that isn’t heavy use, but it’s consistent. Should you expand the usage, it should mean 4-5 hours of screen on time and 10-20% remaining at night. That’s excellent in my book. On no day did I ever really find nerves around using the phone as much as I wanted to, and that’s without changing my habits much. I’m still crushing Chrome, Instagram, Threads, Google News, Telegram, Pokemon Go sessions, and taking pictures of my cats throughout a day.

Samsung did not improve the charging experience, but if you charge at night, you shouldn’t really care. And the charging experience is fine with both wired and wireless options, it’s just not a blazing fast charging tech like we see from some brands (ex: OnePlus).

Camera. In one of the few areas that Samsung attempted to improve the Flip 6 over the Flip 5, we have a new 50MP main shooter paired with a 12MP ultra-wide instead of the dual 12MP setup we were used to. That’s great, even if it would be hard for me to argue that this is one of the best camera systems in the market. It’s good, don’t get me wrong, but for $1,099, Samsung isn’t matching non-foldable flagships.

Overall, the Flip 6’s camera is quick to open, focus, and shoot, which is typically what you want to see. No one wants to miss a shot. Most smartphone cameras are good these days, though, so is this one better that most? While I just took a shot at it for being not as good as the top flagships, it’s still quite impressive in most situations.

I found the 50MP main camera to take really fun portrait shots that give a fun softness to my favorite type of photography: food photos. You’ll see below the snaps I took of a bowl of clams and a pizza that are really great. I have portrait shots of my kid too (not pictured), that’d I’d put up next to the best phone cameras in the industry. It’s also solid in low light, at sunsets, and indoors. In fact, for almost all of the shots I took with the Flip 6’s camera, I nodded in approval.

Where my critiques come in are when I compared shots to some I took with an iPhone 15 Pro. And this is where photography becomes so personal, because Samsung tends to leave images more natural, while Apple’s phones like to really add drama by cranking contrast and shadows. To show what I mean, look at these sunset photos (Flip 6, iPhone 15 Pro) and then these of a field (Flip 6, iPhone 15 Pro). You see it, right? But again, that’s a preference thing and I also like the Flip 6’s shots, even if they aren’t quite on the level of the iPhone’s.

I do think this is one of the better Flip phone cameras I’ve used. Samsung tried to give us an upgrade and I think they succeeded in doing so. And for those into selfies, this is kind of the ultimate phone. You can pull it out of your pocket, double-tap the power button and it’ll load the main camera system for those selfies with the cover display as a viewfinder. It’s awesome for that.

Performance. This is a category that is getting silly to try and describe these days. Phones like the Galaxy Z Flip 6 run the best mobile processor available and so they don’t have issues. They have lots of RAM too. In this situation, we’re talking about the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, which is both powerful and very efficient, along with 12GB RAM and super fast internal storage.

With a 1080p display and 120Hz refresh rate, everything in this phone is built to be speedy, look smooth, and handle all tasks. I’ve used this phone for a couple of weeks now and it just doesn’t stutter. It opens the series of apps I use all day, it does so with a smoothness you would hope to see in an expensive phone, it doesn’t overheat, and it manages all of that while pushing impressive battery life.

My kid has gamed on it without complaint. I’ve done my fair share of Pokemon Go sessions in the Portland summer heat. And I’ve taken in plenty of Olympics coverage while using Peacock. The phone runs great.

Software updates. Just a quick note here, but Samsung keeps killing it with updates – the Galaxy Z Flip 6 will receive “seven generations of OS upgrades and seven years of security updates.” Even if that means the first OS update is to Android 15 in a few months, six additional updates beyond that would be Android 21. That’s still wild to think. I cannot wait until we start to see the first devices at 5+ years of updates and how the pressure will be on these companies to fulfill promises. Stick to it, Samsung!

Software (but it’s a mixed bag). The Flip 6 runs Android 14 out of the box with Samsung’s One UI 6.1.1. This One UI skin that Samsung has had and updated over the years is fine. I at one time was a huge fan, but in recent years I’ve noted how it feels bloated and is due for another big refresh. That’s not to say One UI 6.1.1 is bad or anything, it’s just that we have reached a point where there’s too much going on.

I still like the overall vibe of One UI, with its squircle icon shapes, the way settings are separated into their own blocks, and (for the most part) the animations. One UI performs well and looks good while doing it. I’m still a big fan of all of the display features to tweak, the sound options, new lock screen customization tools, and the “Advanced” features that Samsung lets me turn on or disable to act like a power user. Samsung has even started dropping some of their own apps in favor of Google’s (like Messages), that I fully approve of. If we can only get them to do this with their bad calendar and wallet apps, life would be good.

There is a ton to like, and mostly, I like what Samsung is doing.

Where I start to call this a “mixed bag” is in the organization of everything, for one. Nothing makes Samsung’s bad organization more obvious than when you enter a settings area to look for something, don’t find it, and are then given a hint at the bottom of the screen about what you are looking for and the fact that it is in a different area. It’s basically Samsung admitting they are making life difficult.

There’s also just too many settings and fluff to consider changing, the app drawer is a nightmare, and Samsung Wallet is turned on out of the box and lives on every screen in the most obnoxious way for some reason. The app switcher does this awful move where it thinks that because you have opened it, that you want to automatically be shown the next app in the switcher. Why? I have no idea, but I hate it so much. Sometimes, I want to open the app switcher to kill an app, yet Samsung moves it away from me for reasons I can’t explain.

Samsung doesn’t have a quick-access universal search like Google and Apple do on their phones, so I had to install Samsung’s “One Hand Operation +” app in order to be able to quickly search my phone from any screen. The cover screen, which I’ll get more into later, is straight-up unusable still on the Flip 6.

And then there’s Galaxy AI. It’s here and Samsung really wants you to know that, but I couldn’t tell you about any of it. I haven’t needed call assist or chat assist or the interpreter app. I don’t take notes or voice recordings on my phones. I don’t use Samsung’s browser. I also don’t draw on my flip phones. I have no use for any of this stuff and so I couldn’t tell you if it’s useful or a waste of everyone’s time to focus on it or what. Again, Galaxy AI is here and that’s all I can share with you about it. AI is not as important today as the companies pushing it will tell you.

So look, that’s a lot of complaining, but these are just a list of the little things that annoy the hell out of me with Samsung’s software. I do like it mostly. I’ve been using this Flip 6 for a while and I haven’t wanted to throw it in a drawer yet or anything like that. Once I installed this universal search feature, it has all been pretty solid. You’ll probably like it.

What’s bugging me about it?

It’s a flip phone. For those of you who love this style of phone, that’s great, but since this is my review, I’ll now share why I’ll keep passing on these foldable devices – at least these smaller versions. Not to sour the mood after saying so many good things about the Flip 6, but I keep trying and I’m just not sure I’ll ever come around to this form factor. Flip phones are not for me.

A flip phone is simply a nuisance to use and the Flip 6 is no different. The problem with them is that in order to do anything, you have to open the phone. Unlike the bigger foldables, like the Galaxy Z Fold 6, the inside screen is the only one that truly does anything useful. While there is a cover screen, it is once again bad and a waste of space from Samsung. It offers so little functionality that you simply have to open the phone for everything, outside of a selfie.

Unfolding a phone to take a picture, to properly archive an email, or to dive into any app for a brief session is tiring. If I’m standing in my kitchen and need to check a recipe or message my wife or do anything, I have to open the phone. If I get a notification, in order to fully interact with it, I also have to open the phone because Samsung’s cover screen software is so weak. Imagine having to do that over and over again in more stressful situations or where you only have one hand free. I run and workout frequently, so having to open and close a phone when I might need to quickly with sweaty hands or in a tricky situation is something I just avoid with this phone.

And that’s another thing about opening and closing with this phone is that it’s not easy to do. You can’t do it with a single hand, so you always need two hands to get into it. It takes some strength, which only adds to the fatigue of opening and closing. I’ve just gotten to the point of leaving it unfolded when at my work desk or on the couch, so that I don’t have to open it.

I hate to keep on this hate train of flip phones, but I feel like the sharing of all opinions around this form factor is necessary for those making a decision over buying one. These phones are expensive, and while owning a smaller device might sound appealing, it certainly has plenty of drawbacks. I’d hate for someone to spend $1,000 on one and regret it within a couple of weeks (or days if you are like me).

Cover screen. Like last year, Samsung is still treating its cover display like the software of a smartwatch. It has a barely-customizable main screen with notifications off to the left. You can then add some widgets to the right, including both full page widgets and up to 4 mini widgets. The options are limited for widgets, although I’d imagine there are 3rd party apps you can install to make the experience more robust. I didn’t do that because I try to test devices on how they work out of the box.

I was pretty critical of Samsung’s bigger cover screen last year on the Flip 5 because it felt like they completely missed the mark. For the Flip 6 they are essentially running it back. This cover screen software is once again quite bad. It’s just so limited that it forces you, as I said above, to constantly open the phone. Instead of using the bigger screen to let you do more and open the phone less, it’s just there to take up space and remind you of the wasted opportunity.

An example is of a Gmail notification. These come in all day everyday, right? On any normal Android phone, a notification from Gmail shows you quick actions that let you archive or reply. They are incredibly useful shortcuts. These shortcuts are on the Flip 6, but only in notifications when the phone is opened up. On the cover screen, notifications are limited and simply have “Clear” buttons to make them go away. Like, what?

Again, apologies for continuing on with my frustrations that are almost all the same from last year, but this is what Samsung delivered and people should know about them. Samsung needs a cover screen software overhaul.

Should you buy the Galaxy Z Flip 6?

If you like flip phones, the Galaxy Z Flip 6 is an excellent flip phone. It’s probably the best flip phone because of the overall software experience, the level of support Samsung provides, the camera, battery life, and everything else I just ran through. This is the king of flip phones and I’m not sure anyone is close.

If you haven’t yet found your way into the world of flip phones, then hopefully my obnoxious complaining about the experience lets you know that it isn’t for everyone. You may enjoy it, though, so take what I’ve provided as the opinion of a grumpy old tech man who has been doing this for far too long. Feel free to try new things – or don’t. Non-foldables are still awesome too.

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