The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 improves on the best foldable phone — and it’s up for preorder

The Galaxy Z Flip 3 was one of the few foldable phones we actually recommended to everyday consumers, thanks to an attractive and compact design, an attainable price and a set of features that are as practical as they are fun to use. Samsung is looking to double down on those qualities for the new Galaxy Z Flip 4, which promises better durability, stylish new colors and an even better camera experience.

If our short hands-on time is any indication, the Z Flip 4 could be the new foldable phone to get for the vast majority of people, though existing Flip owners can probably hold off. Here’s everything you need to know about one of 2022’s most anticipated smartphones.

How to preorder the Galaxy Z Flip 4

The Galaxy Z Flip 4 is launching on Aug. 26 starting at $999, and you can preorder it right now from Samsung as well as through various third-party retailers. If you preorder the Flip 4 between now and Aug. 25, you’ll get double the storage at no extra cost, your choice of a free case and up to $900 off with an eligible trade-in. And if you use our exclusive link, you’ll get an extra $100 in Samsung credit as well as an additional $200 in credit if you bundle the Z Flip 4 with a pair of Galaxy Buds 2 Pro or a Galaxy Watch 5.

As with last year’s model, the Z Flip 4 will also be available in a Bespoke Edition that you can customize with your own color options on Samsung’s website. You’ll have a choice of five colors for the front and back as well as three for the hinge and frame, giving you plenty of freedom for making the multi-hued foldable of your dreams.

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More of a good thing

The Galaxy Z Flip — which is essentially a full-size smartphone that folds up into an easy-to-pocket clamshell, much like the flip phones of old — has arguably offered the most practical, attractive take on the foldable phone since it first launched. For 2022, Samsung has made some key upgrades in order to ensure that remains the case.

The Z Flip 4 doesn’t look terribly different from its predecessor at first glance, but my eyes were immediately drawn to it nonetheless. Samsung’s compact foldable continues to be a stunner, especially in its latest lineup of colors that includes returning options Bora Purple and Graphite as well as the new Pink Gold and Blue. The latest Z Flip promises a design that’s 45% stronger than last year’s model, thanks to a display made from Gorilla Glass Victus and a body made from “aircraft-grade” Armor Aluminum. I’ll have to put the Z Flip 3 and 4 side by side to see the real difference, but I can say that the new phone felt both substantial and comfortably lightweight, with a slimmed-down hinge that made it easy to smoothly fold and unfold the display. Samsung also says that the Z Flip 4 and the larger Z Fold 4 are the first water-resistant foldable phones, each sporting an IPX8 rating that means they can survive being submerged in 5 feet of water for 30 minutes.

The latest Samsung foldable slims down the bezels a bit, offering an immersive, extra-tall display that continues to offer more vertical real estate than a traditional smartphone (it’s great for scrolling through long web articles, for example). I continue to be impressed by the Z Flip’s multitasking capabilities, which allowed me to put a YouTube video on one half of the display while flipping through a website on the other. But I had the most fun using the Z Flip 4 when it came to taking photos — and I didn’t even have to open up the phone to do it.

The coolest thing about the Z Flip is that its bendable design lets you take photos in some fun and unique ways, all of which have seen improvements for the Z Flip 4. The Quick Shot mode, which lets you snap selfies while the phone is closed using the cover screen as a viewfinder, now lets you shoot in portrait mode for those perfectly dramatic Instagram posts. What’s even cooler is that you can start recording a video in Quick Shot mode with the phone closed and continue it once you open it up in Flex mode, the latter of which turns the phone into a tripod of sorts that lets you easily take hands-free video. As a relative newbie to the Z Flip family, I had a lot of fun playing around with Quick Shot, and can see these features being a hit with the TikTok generation. And while we already gave the Z Flip 3’s rear 12-megapixel cameras high marks in our review last year, Samsung says the new model has a sensor that’s 65% brighter, allowing for more detailed and stable shots at any time of day.

One of our biggest criticisms of the Z Flip 3 was its battery life, which made it hard to get through a full day without reaching for a charger. Samsung seems to be tackling this issue head-on, promising a larger 3,700mAh battery (up from 3,300mAh) that’s built to offer three more hours of endurance. The company also says the phone will charge up to 50% in just a half hour, so you hopefully won’t have to keep it plugged in for too long.

The takeaway

The Galaxy Z Flip 4 is looking like a nice (but not radical) refinement of the Z Flip 3, which we consider to be the best foldable phone for most people. If you already own last year’s model, we’re not sure that this year’s incremental improvements to things like durability and camera quality will be worth the upgrade alone. But if you’re coming from the original Z Flip — or want to finally jump on the foldable phone bandwagon — the $999 Z Flip 4 is looking like the most promising point of entry yet. We’ll have our full verdict on this unique phone in the coming weeks, so stay tuned.

Galaxy Z Flip 4 and Z Fold 4 specs