Galaxy Z Flip7 after 48 hours: my comprehensive first impressions

Samsung’s favorite discipline this year is the long jump: besides the Galaxy Z Fold 7, the Galaxy Z Flip7 also got a serious makeover. At the lounge event I still thought it wasn’t that big a deal. After 48 hours as a daily driver, I have to correct myself: yes, it is.

Bigger: inner and cover display

The Flip7 has grown. It now has a 6.9-inch inner display in 21:9 format and, opened up, resembles the Galaxy S25 Plus, even being a bit wider. Although it is bigger than its predecessor, it has only gotten 1 g heavier.

The cover display has grown from 3.4 to 4.1 inches. At last, like the competition, there is a full-front cover display that wraps completely around the cameras, without ugly cutouts. The 1.25 mm display bezels are said to be the thinnest on a Flip. It has 120 Hz and gets up to 2,600 nits bright.

Until now, you could only use a few widgets and a handful of apps on the cover, which you had to activate in the Labs settings. Now Samsung links the Multistar launcher directly in the settings. With it you bring a great many installed apps to the cover, finally. With a display this big, that is a game changer, because you have to open the phone less and can do a lot one-handed. It feels like a mini smartphone that you can use normally for the most part. I love it. Since I no longer have a Flip6, I can’t say whether the launcher is also available on older models. Feel free to check if you have an older Flip.

Gemini and Gemini Live also run on the cover. You can stand the Flip7 up, activate Gemini Live and ask questions hands-free, for example at the wardrobe about which clothes to combine.

Camera

On the outer display there is a 50-megapixel wide-angle camera with 2x optical zoom, which also takes nice macro shots, and a 12-megapixel ultrawide camera. It does a solid job. The camera of the S25 Ultra or the Z Fold 7 is better, but it is enough for 95% of people. There is still no telephoto camera, so if you’re into zoom photos, you should pick a different smartphone. Videos are possible in 4K at up to 60 fps and, as always with Samsung, really good. The front camera in the inner display has 10 megapixels and is usually enough in good light. One advantage of the Flip is that you can use the main camera and use the cover display as a preview. I now love setting the smartphone up for filming.

Hinge, format and DeX

The hinge is now so flat that the smartphone closes completely, a big difference from its predecessors. The larger inner display with nice thin bezels gives you the feeling of holding a normal smartphone. For the first time, Samsung DeX is on board on a Flip, so for personal use you may no longer need an extra laptop.

Battery

The battery has grown by 300 mAh to 4,300 mAh. My test day was extremely intensive: a lot on the go, shooting, hotspot for the laptop, jogging with music and a long video call in the evening, away from WiFi. The device reached 5.5 hours of screen-on time, with 24% left in the evening. Overnight it lost 10%, the next day added just under half an hour of screen-on time before I put it on the charger at 4%. That is about 6 hours of screen-on time over a day and a half. That’s not a knockout, but the usage was very intensive, and it is progress compared to the Flip6. I’ll keep testing with normal use.

Exynos 2500 instead of Snapdragon

The one catch: instead of the Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy, which is in all current flagships including the Z Fold 7, Samsung put in its own Exynos 2500. Many call that a downgrade. I’ve used the Z Fold 7, the S25 Ultra and other devices with the Snapdragon and notice no difference in everyday use. Everything runs fast, smooth and fluid. Only if you are a hardcore gamer and want to play graphically demanding games should you think about it. For photos, videos, mail, Instagram and YouTube, you won’t notice it in a thousand years.

Price and accessories

At €1,199 for the variant with 12 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage, the Flip7 costs exactly as much as its predecessor. Ad: The links are in the video description.

Ad: For protection, I can recommend the cases from iBLASON. They offer military-grade full protection for the front, back and hinge, an integrated screen protector that doesn’t interfere with the cover display, a kickstand in the hinge cover for portrait and landscape, and a magnet on the back that makes the Flip7 MagSafe-compatible.

Verdict

The Galaxy Z Flip7 is a really successful upgrade, if it weren’t for the processor, which hardly matters in everyday use though.