The smartphone market today is brimming with innovation, but few devices capture attention quite like foldable phones. Among them, Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip series has consistently pushed the boundaries of what a compact, yet powerful, smartphone can be. With the introduction of the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7, the company has not just iterated but significantly refined its foldable offering, presenting a compelling alternative to traditional slab phones, especially at its competitive price point of around ₹1,10,000. This detailed review explores how the Z Flip 7 stands out, from its enhanced design and revolutionary displays to its integrated AI features, robust performance, and improved camera capabilities.
Design and Durability: A More Refined and Resilient Foldable
Samsung has truly elevated the design of the Z Flip 7, focusing on both aesthetics and resilience. The device embraces a vibrant new color palette, with the “Blue Shadow” option being a particularly striking and appealing choice. While slightly wider than its predecessor, the Z Flip 6, the Z Flip 7 remarkably maintains its light weight and achieves an even thinner profile when folded. This results in a more compact and pocket-friendly device that users can effortlessly carry and operate with its enhanced cover screen.
A cornerstone of the Z Flip 7’s improved durability is the introduction of the “Armor Flex Hinge.” This new hinge design not only bolsters the phone’s overall sturdiness but also allows the device to fold more tightly, creating a seamless and secure seal. Furthermore, the hinge’s advanced engineering enables the main display to stay open at various angles, offering greater flexibility for different usage scenarios, such as hands-free video calls or media consumption.
Protection is paramount for a foldable device, and Samsung has addressed this by integrating Gorilla Glass Victus 2 on both the outer and folding displays. This represents a significant leap in screen protection, providing enhanced resistance against scratches and drops. The phone retains its IP48 rating and a robust aluminum frame, ensuring consistent durability with its previous model.
From an ergonomic perspective, the slightly wider design of the Z Flip 7 contributes to a more natural in-hand feel, resembling that of a conventional smartphone. This subtle change could be a game-changer, potentially attracting a broader audience who might have been hesitant about the unique form factor of previous flip phones. Basic functionalities, such as the side-mounted fingerprint scanner, operate flawlessly, offering quick and secure access. The speakers deliver commendable clarity, providing a rich audio experience, though the haptic feedback is noted as being average. Connectivity options include support for one physical SIM card and one eSIM, catering to modern communication needs.
Display Innovations: A Seamless and Brilliant Visual Experience
The Z Flip 7 boasts impressive advancements in its display technology, both on its innovative cover screen and its immersive main display.
The Transformed Cover Display
The most notable upgrade is the expansive, edge-to-edge 4.1-inch cover display, which now elegantly extends around the camera cutouts. This aesthetic enhancement is complemented by a slight increase in resolution and significantly reduced bezels, contributing to a more modern and streamlined appearance. Crucially, the cover display now features a smooth 120Hz refresh rate, ensuring fluid animations, seamless scrolling, and an overall more responsive user experience.
Perhaps the most impactful improvement to the cover display is its staggering peak brightness, which has surged to 2600 nits—a remarkable 1000-nit increase over the Z Flip 6. This substantial boost in brightness makes the cover display exceptionally practical for outdoor use, even under direct sunlight, ensuring content remains legible and vibrant. We highlight that this enhanced outer display encourages users to interact with their phone less frequently by unfolding it, as many routine tasks, such as checking notifications, managing calls, viewing notes, or controlling music, can now be performed directly from the convenient cover screen.
The Immersive Inner Display
The main inner display, measuring a generous 6.9 inches, continues Samsung’s commitment to refining the foldable experience. While the crease is still perceptible from certain angles, Samsung has made commendable progress in minimizing its visibility, contributing to a more uninterrupted viewing experience. The display itself is celebrated for its vivid colors and excellent content viewing capabilities, further enhanced by its high peak brightness. While the display is taller than typical smartphone screens, which might result in black bars for some video content, its overall quality remains top-tier.
Software and AI Features: Intelligence at Your Fingertips
The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 runs on One UI 8, based on Android 16, positioning it among the first devices to feature this cutting-edge operating system. This is coupled with Samsung’s industry-leading 7-year update policy, promising prolonged software support and security updates, a significant advantage for long-term users.
A standout aspect of the Z Flip 7 is the seamless integration of AI features, many of which are accessible directly from the innovative cover display.
- Now Bar: A clever addition is the “Now Bar,” a compact capsule on the cover display that provides quick control over various functions, including music playback, map navigation, and call management, streamlining daily interactions.
- Gemini Access and Live Integration: Users can now directly access Gemini, Google’s advanced AI assistant, from the cover display, even supporting voice commands in multiple languages, including Hindi. We showcases real-world applications, such as asking Gemini to locate Italian restaurants or compose and send an SMS. Furthermore, Gemini Live is fully supported, enabling real-time, fluid conversations with the AI. The camera integration with Gemini is particularly impressive, allowing users to point their camera at their surroundings and ask Gemini questions, as demonstrated by us inquiring about his video setup.
- Dynamic Wallpapers: Adding a touch of personalization and responsiveness, the Z Flip 7 features dynamic wallpapers that intelligently change based on external weather conditions, displaying clouds when it’s cloudy or sunshine when it’s bright.
- Circle to Search: This already popular AI feature has been refined, allowing users to effortlessly circle objects on the screen to initiate a search for information. An illustrative example demonstrates circling a monster in a game to quickly find strategies for defeating it.
- Existing AI Enhancements: The Z Flip 7 also incorporates a suite of existing AI features that have proven their utility, including AI-powered keyboard styles for enhanced typing, Note Assist for intelligent note-taking, Live Call Translation (Call Assist) for real-time communication across languages, and the AI Eraser in the gallery for effortless photo editing.
A significant breakthrough for the Z Flip series is the inclusion of DeX support in the Z Flip 7. This feature transforms the phone into a desktop-like experience when connected to an external monitor, either wirelessly or via a cable, offering enhanced productivity for users on the go. Additionally, we highlight the versatility offered by Good Lock customization, demonstrating its ability to force all applications to run on the cover display, showcasing popular apps like Temple Run and Google Maps functioning seamlessly on the smaller screen.
Performance: Power for Productivity and Play
Under the hood, the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 is powered by Samsung’s proprietary Exynos 2500 processor. Built on a cutting-edge 3nm process, this chip is engineered for enhanced efficiency and power, as claimed by Samsung. We emphasize that while flip phones are inherently designed with productivity in mind rather than extreme gaming, the Exynos 2500 performs exceptionally well, more than adequately handling all productivity-focused tasks with ease.
For gaming enthusiasts, the Z Flip 7 delivers a capable experience:
- BGMI: Initially supporting a maximum of 60 frames per second (fps) in BGMI, a post-launch update has significantly boosted this to 90fps, with testing revealing a stable average of 87fps during gameplay.
- Call of Duty: Currently, Call of Duty runs at a solid 60fps, with anticipation for future updates that might unlock 90fps or even 120fps.
- Genshin Impact: Even demanding titles like Genshin Impact perform admirably, maintaining an average of 53fps after extended gameplay sessions.
Overall, the Z Flip 7’s performance is deemed highly suitable for both intensive productivity tasks and a satisfying gaming experience, handling heavy applications without significant compromise.
Battery and Camera: Endurance and Enhanced Imaging
The battery life and camera capabilities are critical aspects of any modern smartphone, and the Z Flip 7 brings incremental yet meaningful improvements.
Battery
The Z Flip 7 features a slightly increased battery capacity of 4300 mAh, offering a modest but welcome boost over its predecessor. Charging speeds remain consistent at 25W for wired charging and 15W for wireless charging, providing reliable power replenishment.
Camera
The camera hardware on the Z Flip 7 is largely similar to last year’s model, featuring a dual-camera setup with 50MP and 12MP lenses. However, Samsung has introduced a significant software enhancement in the form of the “Pro Visual Engine.” This new color processing technology, first seen in the flagship Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, promises to deliver more accurate and vibrant color reproduction in photos.
New visual elements have been added to the camera experience, such as animated rings appearing around the cameras when activated from the cover display, and clear red indicators signaling video recording. In well-lit conditions, photos captured by the Z Flip 7 are generally impressive, exhibiting Samsung’s characteristic saturated and boosted color profiles that are often aesthetically pleasing.
A distinct advantage of flip phones, and particularly the Z Flip 7, is the unparalleled ability to capture high-quality selfies using the main or ultrawide lenses when the phone is folded. This offers a superior alternative to traditional front-facing cameras. The 10MP inner front camera is primarily optimized for video calls, delivering clear and crisp visuals for communication.
For content creators, the “camcorder mode” is a notable addition. This mode allows users to record videos while seamlessly switching between the front, ultrawide, and main cameras at a fluid 4K 60fps, providing versatility and professional-grade options for video capture.
Conclusion: The Z Flip 7 – A Maturing Foldable Experience
The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 represents a significant leap in the evolution of foldable smartphones. Samsung has meticulously refined nearly every aspect of the device, from its more durable and ergonomic design to its enhanced, brighter displays, deeply integrated AI features, robust performance, and improved camera capabilities. The efforts to make the Z Flip 7 feel more like a “normal phone” while retaining its unique foldable advantage have been largely successful.
For individuals seeking a distinct smartphone experience, or those contemplating a foldable device for the first time, the Z Flip 7 emerges as a highly compelling option. Its blend of cutting-edge technology, user-centric innovations, and refined aesthetics positions it as a strong contender in the premium smartphone segment. We particularly highlight a potential attractive offer for a 512GB storage variant at the price of the 256GB model, available through the Samsung app, making the Z Flip 7 an even more enticing purchase. With the Galaxy Z Flip 7, Samsung is not just selling a phone; it’s offering a glimpse into the future of mobile technology, one fold at a time.