Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 — Everything we know so far now

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We are eagerly awaiting Samsung’s next foldable smartphone.

(Image credit: Coupang)

After the release of the Galaxy Z Flip 3 this past summer, the Galaxy Z Flip 4 will have a lot to live up to. Samsung improved its clamshell-style foldable phone and introduced a considerably more affordable $999 starting price with that variant.

A new category of phones like foldables is only getting started. So there’s always opportunity for improvement here as well. It’s clear that Samsung can do better with the Galaxy Z Flip 3 when a new model arrives later this year. Similar to its predecessor, the Galaxy Z Flip 4 might revolutionise the smartphone industry.

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If the Galaxy Z Flip 4 is to become one of the greatest foldable phones on the market, we’ve compiled what we’ve heard and what we’d like to see from it.

Expected cost and availability information for the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4

We can only speculate based on Samsung’s previous Unpacked events, but we believe the Galaxy Z Flip 4 and the Galaxy Z Fold 4 will be unveiled in August. It is possible that Samsung is trying to give itself some time before Apple’s iPhone 14 launches in September by launching the Galaxy Z phones in the middle of the year.

Our suspicions are in line with the statements made by leaker Jon Prosser on the debut of the Z Flip. After that, on August 26, the handset will be available in full retail form. That’s according to him.

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We don’t see Samsung changing the pricing of the Galaxy Z Flip 4 any time soon. After all, the lower starting price of $999 of the Galaxy Z Flip 3 was one of its distinguishing features. A reasonable pricing point is essential if Samsung wants more people to experiment with foldable devices. According to a tweet by Ross Young, a well-known leaker, the price might fall even more.

Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip 4 has a beautiful design.

It’s possible that Samsung will make a modest change to the current model’s design with the Z Flip 4, which we’ve seen and heard so far. Samsung skipped the second generation of the Galaxy Z Flip to align with the Galaxy Z Fold series.

This is beautifully illustrated by a number of renderings. Is the Z Flip 4 going to have the same dimensions as the previous models? For one of the most common criticisms concerning foldable phones, leaker Ice Universe claims that the Galaxy Z Flip 4’s display crease will be significantly less noticeable.

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The only rumour we have is that there will be four colours to choose from. Gold, silver, light blue, and light violet appear to be the colours of choice.

Rumored Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 features and specifications

A report indicates that Samsung will preserve the 6.7-inch internal and 1.9-inch exterior screens of the Galaxy Z Flip 3 in the Galaxy Z Flip 4. That makes sense, given the Flip 3’s attractive appearance and the usefulness of the external display. According to Yogesh Brar, the Galaxy Z Flip 4 will have a 2.1-inch cover display, with Ross Young suggesting it would be at least two inches.

According to reports, Samsung is testing an under-display version of the Galaxy Z Flip 4 that includes a camera. Hope this isn’t it, considering how bad it was with the Galaxy Z Fold 3. In order to reduce the overall weight of the Galaxy Z Flip 3, Samsung is allegedly working on a hinge redesign. The Oppo Find N’s gapless design is exactly what we’re looking for.

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Claims that the Galaxy Z Flip 4 would feature the same 3,300mAh battery as its predecessor have been made in the last several months. There are reports that Samsung plans to improve the overall capacity by 400 mAh. Samsung has to do more to enhance the Z Flip’s battery life, but this is a good step in the right direction.

Samsung might use the speculated Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Plus processor instead of the normal 8 Gen 1 seen in phones like the Galaxy S22 series to operate the phone. If the leaked benchmarks are to be believed, it will provide a noticeable performance gain over the model from last year and the majority of smartphones released so far this year.

Another possible resemblance to the previous generation is a fingerprint sensor that is located on the power button. Under-display fingerprint sensors for Samsung’s foldables have been in the works for a while, but they’ve been put on hold for now because of the Z Flip 4 and Z Fold 4.

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Later this year, it may be renamed to avoid confusion. The Galaxy Flip 3 is currently being marketed in various European nations as a response to Russian authorities using the letter Z to advocate the invasion of Ukraine. It’s probable that Samsung will no longer use the Z suffix when referring to the Galaxy Flip 4 in the future.

What we’d want to see in the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4:

The Galaxy Z Flip 3 was a pretty good improvement over the original Galaxy Z Flip. However, it was far from flawless. With the debut of the Galaxy Z Flip 4, we believe Samsung should fix some of these shortcomings.

More time between charges

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The battery life of the Galaxy Z Flip 3 was awful. Even in adaptive refresh rate mode, it failed the Tom’s Guide battery life test in under six hours. That’s a bad sign. The 120Hz internal screens and the bigger cover display, which all consume more power, were a contributing factor, we believe. If you purchased the Galaxy Z Flip 3, we advised that you have a charger nearby.

We’d want to see the battery life of the Galaxy Z Flip 4 improve. Simple, but if Samsung doesn’t provide bigger batteries, it may be a tall job. This isn’t going to be a game changer on its own with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1.
Improved resistance

We’ve seen complaints that Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip 3 devices are cracking after only a few months of ownership, despite the fact that the company improved the durability of its last wave of foldables. Even if we can’t corroborate these claims with our own experience, hearing that phones don’t last a year is troubling. For foldables, this is another area that needs improvement.

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In a perfect world, the durability and longevity of the Galaxy Z Flip 4 would be improved. A year or even a few months after spending $999 on a phone, no one wants it to fail or become unusable.

a gapless hinge

A crucial area of innovation for Oppo overtook Samsung’s when it came to the foldable phone form factor: its hinge design. The hinge of the Oppo Find N is completely gapless. In other words, there isn’t a void exactly at the hinge where dust and debris might enter the internal screens.

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Gapless hinges are something we’d want to see on the Galaxy Z Flip 4 and Galaxy Z Fold 4. Take a leaf from Oppo’s playbook, Samsung.

faster recharging

Wired charging was limited to 15W on the Galaxy Z Flip 3, which is embarrassingly sluggish compared to other premium smartphones, much alone those that cost close to or more than $1,000. Flip 3’s battery life was so awful that we wanted it to charge significantly quicker than the OnePlus 9 Pro, which can charge at 65W.

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At the absolute least, the Galaxy Z Flip 4 should have a battery capacity of at least 25W, which is the same as the Galaxy S22. (The wired charging power of the Galaxy S22 Ultra and Galaxy S22 Plus is 45 watts.)

A wide-angle lens

imag credits: tomsguide

Samsung’s decision to exclude a telephoto lens on the Galaxy Z Flip 3 is likely due to a desire to keep prices low. Both the primary and ultrawide-angle cameras were on the phone. The loss of a 3x telephoto lens on the Flip 3 is obvious when compared to the $999 Galaxy S22 Plus.

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We want a telephoto lens for the Galaxy Z Flip 4, even if it’s simply 2x or 2.5x. Samsung may have to make some compromises in order to make the switch to a foldable, but the loss of camera functionality seems like a more difficult one to justify.

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