With the unveiling of Samsung’s newest foldable devices, we saw the smaller sibling – the Galaxy Z Flip6. This is more on the compact side when folded and closer to a conventional phone when unfolded. Priced at Rs. 1,09,999 for the base variant, let’s try and see what this latest flip phone from the house of Samsung brings to the table.
The Galaxy Z Flip6, just like the Fold6, is a little slimmer and smaller in curves than its predecessor. You get the same angular 3.4-inch cover display and this time with Corning Gorilla Victus 2 protection on top. Measuring just under 15mm in thickness when folded, the phone has matte-finish aluminium frame. When the 6.7-inch (22:9 aspect ratio) main display is unfolded, the right side features the volume buttons and power/lock key; the dual SIM card tray slot sits on the left.
The bottom houses the primary mics, USB type C port and one outlet for loudspeakers; the top carries secondary mics. The dual rail hinge has the Samsung logo revealed when the phone isn’t fully unfolded. The front-facing camera on the main screen is next to the ear- speaker grille, which is a bit of an eye-sore compared to the other parts of the phone. The cover screen has a dual camera plus dual tone flash that make for the rear cameras.
The phone weighs 187 grams and comes in Silver shadow, yellow, blue, mint, crafted nlack, white, peach colour options – I tried it in blue and liked its overall look. It’s now an IP48-rated (somewhat) dust and water-resistant device and isn’t very slippery but unfolding it with only one hand can be tricky. The 3.4-inch HD (748x720) AMOLED display (FlexWindow) is pretty much unchanged from the last year. It is just bright enough to be used outdoors to view your notifications or change connection toggles, quick replies and so on. The main 6.7-inch fullHD+ (1080x2640) AMOLED display is sharp and vivid to look at, though I preferred using it in the natural screen mode.
It is good for viewing images and watching YouTube videos at their highest resolution without sacrificing on any details. Coming to the camera department, you now have a 50MP (f/1.8) main camera with a 12MP (f/2.2) ultra-wide camera. There’s a 'Camcorder Mode' with which you can access controls in the lower half of the main display when the device is unfolded at 90 degrees and you can record more stable or less shaky videos. Or, like before, get a preview of your selfie on the cover display while using the rear cameras. I liked the colour tones of the photos and preferred the 50MP in daylight but in low light, 12MP mode gave decent shots without too much noise provided your subject isn’t moving. The front-facing 10MP (f/2.2) camera is quick to use and takes detailed shots in decent lighting and is more than good enough for video calling.
The device is powered by Qualcomm’s slightly customized Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset (up to 3.4Ghz octa core processor, Adreno 750 GPU and X75 5G modem) alongside 12GB LPDDR5X RAM and 256GB UFS4.0 storage (also comes in a 512GB storage option). IT is running on One UI 6.1.1. based on Android 14 with June security patch installed. The phone handled having two apps running on the main screen fine and didn’t show any glitches while scrolling inside social media apps, watching high resolution videos or switching between Gallery and messaging apps. You can expect to play a game like Modern Combat 5 without any frame drop issue.
For AI features, translate and draw assist work well, there’s also notes assist for summarising your notes and voice recorder transcript summaries through Galaxy AI, and it worked well on the Flip6 recognizing both Hindi and English when used. The phone has a bigger 4,000mAh battery unit now and clearly has better battery life than the Flip5, with the phone lasting me close to a day 2 out of 3 days with moderate to heavy usage – all this while using the main display for 95% of the tasks.
It charges from 1% to full in nearly 1.5 hours at 25 watts using a compatible fast charger, which you do not get in the box (neither do you get any case). The speakers on the Flip6 are sufficiently loud and with decent depth for videos and gaming use. I also had a good experience the device’s 5G network reception to be shared with other devices over hotspots while on the go.
All in all, the Flip6 does have some meaningful upgrades from the predecessor – a tweaked design, better battery life and an upgraded camera. While this isn’t a huge leap in the Flip series, the reliable software experience and good hinge plus hardware in place could mean Samsung keeping its lead in the fold-flip phones for the time being.
