Largely praised in our in-depth review a while back for its subtle but important design refinements and other incremental upgrades, the Galaxy Z Flip 4 is today following its bigger and more advanced sibling into Zack Nelson’s JerryRigEverything wringer. Galaxy Z Flip 4: $150 instant Samsung Credit + $700 off enhanced trade-in. Galaxy Z Flip 4: $150 instant Samsung Credit + $700 off enhanced trade-in.
Remember when Samsung’s first-generation foldable, which was never even made available to the general public, catastrophically failed to last a few days of normal use? That was only three years ago, and while the trendy new Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Z Flip 4 5G are undoubtedly not perfect (or inexpensive), they are nevertheless living examples of the astonishingly rapid progress of a class of mobile devices that no one really anticipated would become widely used so soon.
Highlights
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The results are… a little less impressive than you may have expected after watching the Z Fold 4 and Z Flip 3’s durability inspections, although if you treat the more affordable new Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 powerhouse with a reasonable degree of care, you shouldn’t have a whole lot to worry about from this particular standpoint in the long run. Unlike the OnePlus 10 Pro and 10T, this decidedly eye-catching handset is capable of staying in one (foldable) piece when Nelson tries his darndest to break the Galaxy Z Flip 4 in half. But while no amount of bending seems to impact the phone’s general functionality, something does sound seriously off on the inside right from the first such attempt.
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Even with Labor Day in the rearview mirror, Samsung is offering huge discounts on its newest and hottest foldables. The Z Flip 4 is available with up to $700 off with trade-in. On top of that, you get $150 Samsung Credit with the purchase of this phone. In a bundle with the Buds 2 Pro or Watch 5, you get 30% off on the earbuds or smartwatch.
A far bigger concern from a durability standpoint remain your fingernails, which can easily and seriously damage the plastic protective film applied on top of the 6.7-inch foldable screen straight out the box, potentially prompting some people to try to remove that layer, which could in turn cause quite a bit of harm to Samsung’s proprietary Ultra Thin Glass (UTG) technology. On the bright side of things, the Galaxy Z Flip 4 appears to handle dirt a lot better than its IPX8 certification would suggest, although it’s probably still not a good idea to bury the phone in the ground to test its limits.
The Z Flip 4 is evidently not as milar to its predecessor as it might look at a first glance, and we can only assume the subtle hinge design revisions negatively affected the overall durability… a little. Once again, this doesn’t look like anything to worry about too much in everyday use, but it is the kind of small detail that could make a few prospective buyers reconsider their options and “settle” for last year’s slower and slightly more robust Z Flip 3… at the right price.