The Galaxy Unpacked event is over, and the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 has been fully revealed.
The latest generation of foldable flip phone is here, and Samsung hasn’t disappointed with some excellent improvements over the previous generation and a tempting price cut.
But is it enough to tempt you away from a traditional handset? Read on below to find out everything you need to know about the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3.
Colors
The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 will be available in four different colours. Alongside the ever popular black colour scheme, you’ll be able to get one in cream, green or lavender.
Release Date
The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 goes on sale on 27 August. Pre-orders are available at the Samsung store.
Price
Samsung has made no secret of its ambitions to make foldable smartphones go mainstream this generation, and the aggressive pricing of the Galaxy Z Flip 3 should certainly help that along.
The phone starts at £949 for the 128GB version, which is quite a reduction from the £1399 that the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5G cost when it was released last July.
Features
It’s evolution, rather than revolution for the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 – which is to be expected, given the generous price cut the company has applied. The design will certainly look familiar to anybody who has followed Samsung’s flip phone revival over the last couple of years.
But there are a couple of new features that make the phone an elegant refinement of the format, if nothing else. Firstly, the external screen is considerably larger and more practical – it’s now a 1.9-inch 260 x 512 panel, up from a 1.1-inch 112 x 300 screen on the previous version.
This not only means that notifications and the camera viewfinder function of the previous generation should work better, but Samsung says widgets like Samsung Pay, calendars and alarms can now display on the external screen, saving you opening up your handset to check in.
Secondly, Samsung is keen to state that durability has been considerably improved. The body features Armor Aluminum, which the company says is its strongest frame to date, and the device also uses Gorilla Glass Victus to help it weather heavy use too. This generation also adds IPX8 protection for the first time, which means it can be submerged in water of greater than one metre without issue.
Note that the ‘X’ in IPX8 means that there are no guarantees against dust and other small particles, mind.
Specs
Interestingly, there don’t seem to be any regional differences. The 5nm octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 SoC is in use no matter where you buy your Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3. This will be backed by 8GB RAM and either 128- or 256GB onboard storage, depending on how much you’re willing to spend. The handset will support 5G connectivity and run Android 11, with a 3300mAh battery powering things.
The 1.9-inch, 250 x 512 external AMOLED screen compliments a 6.7-inch AMOLED display when opened up. It’s a 120Hz number with a resolution of 2640 x 1080.
There are three cameras in total, though given the format of the phone it’s tricky to say which is front-facing or rear mounted! What you would normally call the selfie camera – the one at the top of the display when opened – is a 10MP sensor with a f/2.4 aperture. The main camera array (which given the external screen’s viewfinder functionality can happily be used for selfies) is a dual-lens setup with 12MP wide and ultra-wide sensors.
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3: How good were the rumours?
When it comes to the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3, the leakers have played a blinder.
It’s testament to how accurate the leaks ahead of time were that there were no real surprises at the Unpacked event, and even the main trump card – the big price cut – was predicted well ahead of time.
So too was the enhanced durability and larger external screen. Samsung will have to do a better job of keeping a lid on plans in future if it wants Unpacked events to be surprise events, rather than just confirmations of what’s already out there.
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Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
