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
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.
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.