Samsung’s series of flip and fold phones has long been a standard in the industry, but it has recently been caught up to—and in some cases surpassed—in several key areas. Incremental changes from one generation to the next left room for other manufacturers to make bigger leaps. With its latest series, however, Samsung has made a few leaps of its own, and the Galaxy Z Flip7 is a phone worth your attention.
The Galaxy Z Flip7 introduces some notable changes over the Z Flip6. Most significantly, it’s just under 4 mm wider, giving it more of a bar phone feel when unfolded. The added width also allows for a larger 6.9-inch display, compared to the Flip6’s 6.7-inch screen. It’s also slightly thinner when open, now measuring just 6.5 mm.
The chipset is another major update, moving from Snapdragon CPUs to Samsung’s own Exynos 2500, paired with the Eclipse 950 GPU. The foldable display remains unchanged from the Flip6: a dynamic LTPO AMOLED panel with a 120 Hz refresh rate and up to 2,600 nits of peak brightness.
“Compactness remains the Galaxy Z Flip7’s greatest strength.”
The biggest and most striking change on the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip7 is its cover screen. What was once a small window with more bezel than anyone wanted has grown by nearly an inch and now supports a 120 Hz refresh rate, up from 60 Hz. It’s a genuinely useful part of the phone, and Samsung is taking advantage of it with the new Samsung Now Bar and other compatible apps. If you’re using the Good Lock app, you can also unlock access to even more apps on the cover screen—including streaming apps.
Beyond that, most other features on the Galaxy Z Flip7 remain status quo. It still has a Gorilla Glass Victus 2 back, an aluminum frame and IP48-rated dust and water resistance. The camera hardware is unchanged from the Z Flip6, which is a bit of a letdown—especially for a phone clearly aimed at the social media crowd. Samsung is instead leaning on its ProVisual Engine and processing power to enhance image quality, which we’ll get into shortly.
Compactness remains the Galaxy Z Flip7’s greatest strength. It fits comfortably in your pocket—including, yes, women’s pockets, which are still too small (let’s fix that already). For anyone who wants a phone they can tuck away without it taking up every inch of space—or hanging halfway out of shallow pockets—it’s an easy phone to love.
When it comes to using the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip7, I rarely use the phone unfolded outside of necessary product testing. I got all my notifications on the cover screen. I could see my news, appointments and more. I even accessed Gemini and Gemini Live on the cover screen, so I could stay out of the phone itself and remain mostly disconnected, which actually felt refreshing. You get everything important to you without all the usual distractions.
The ability to half-fold the Galaxy Z Flip7 is also a treat. It turns the phone into its own stand, and many apps adapt with split-screen controls. The camera benefits most from this: when facing the full screen, you get shutter controls, settings and a touchpad right on the surface. Or, you can use the cover screen as a monitor while setting it up for a livestream—or take hands-free photos using gestures.
“The Galaxy Z Flip7 is a phone worth your attention.”
Despite the lack of hardware upgrades, photo quality on the Galaxy Z Flip7 still looks good. The 50 MP main camera with a 1/1.57-inch sensor isn’t quite flagship level, but Samsung delivers strong results through excellent image processing. When using the main camera with the phone folded, it captures square photos by default. I loved the experience of popping it open and snapping Instagram-ready shots with a single swipe. The phone also supports 4K at 60 fps, 1080p at 240 fps and 720p at 960 fps—great for slow-motion video.
The 12 MP ultrawide camera, however, could have used an upgrade. It would have made a great vlogging lens, but the 1/3.2-inch sensor leaves something to be desired, especially in low light. And the 10 MP selfie camera? It could have been dropped entirely—who’s going to use it when the main lens takes better selfies with the cover screen as a viewfinder?
With an upgraded 4,300 mAh battery (up from 4,000 on the Z Flip6), the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip7 should get you through a typical day without any issues. In my daily use—primarily relying on the cover screen—I often ended the day with more than 50% battery remaining. Using the phone unfolded tends to drain the battery faster, especially when the device starts to heat up.
And the Galaxy Z Flip7 can heat up. The lack of proper heat dissipation from the Exynos chipset and limited internal cooling means the phone—particularly the half with the cover screen—can get noticeably warm. That said, it never became uncomfortably hot unless pushed with extended gaming or long video recordings. To its credit, I didn’t experience any performance slowdowns, even when the device was warm.
“Choosing the Flip7 means you need something specific that only this foldable form factor can offer.”
In everyday use, the Galaxy Z Flip7 performs well. It’s responsive across both screens, animations are smooth, and apps feel optimized for the folding format. Benchmark results back this up, with an AnTuTu score of 1,557,976, including a CPU score of 392,919 and a GPU score of 638,435. That places it just below the Samsung Galaxy S24 FE in overall score, although it outperforms the FE in both CPU and GPU benchmarks.
It also delivered a Geekbench 6 single-core CPU score of 1,924, which is comparable to the Z Flip6. The multi-core result was more impressive at 7,437—nearly 800 points higher than the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra. The Z Flip7 also edged out the S24 Ultra in GPU performance, scoring 14,643, just ahead of the last-gen flagship. Overall, these scores are respectable for a niche phone, even compared to Samsung’s top-tier devices.
The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip7 starts at $1,099.99 US for the 256 GB model and $1,219.99 US for the 512 GB version, both with 12 GB of RAM. With the Galaxy S25 Ultra available for just $200 more at the same storage tiers, the Flip7 becomes a tougher sell. The S25 Ultra is clearly the superior device on most fronts—so choosing the Flip7 means you need something specific that only this foldable form factor can offer.
So, who should consider the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip7 over other options? It’s an excellent fit for someone who values a compact design and can take advantage of the half-fold feature to shoot photos or video without needing a tripod. It’s also ideal for those who appreciate the ability to disconnect by closing the phone—while still getting a quick look at what’s going on via the cover screen. Most of all, it’s for anyone who wants to be part of the most significant leap Samsung has made in foldable phones to date.
