Galaxy Z Flip 7 Hands-On: I'm Excited About the Bigger Screens, Battery and FE Variant
That's the question I kept pondering as I held the new Galaxy Z Flip 7 in one hand and the Galaxy Z Flip 7 FE in the other at a Samsung press preview. It's a strategy that's worked well for one of the company's foldable phone competitors, Motorola, which has Razr models starting as low as $700 and as much as $1,300.
The new Galaxy Z Flip 7, which starts at $1,100, has been completely redesigned with a 4.1-inch cover screen, a 6.9-inch main display, a larger battery and a body that's thinner than last year's Galaxy Z Flip 6. It's not quite as thin as the new Galaxy Z Fold 7, which was also announced at the Galaxy Unpacked event.
Watch this: Galaxy Unpacked 2025: Samsung's Key Announcements in 8 Minutes -- Foldables, Wearables and AI Redefined
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Then there's the Galaxy Z Flip 7 FE (which stands for fan edition) that inherits some Galaxy Z Flip 6 looks in a smaller and more modest package, including the classic 3.4-inch cover screen with a file folder tab cut-out for its cameras. It costs $900. There will certainly be people eager to save $200 with the Flip 7 FE. But there'll be others wondering if Samsung has an Apple iPhone 16E-like problem when it comes to its definition of affordable.
In my limited time with each phone, I was especially enamored with the Flip 7 because it seems to have solved for many of the shortcomings of previous Z Flip phones by adding a larger cover screen and battery.
The Galaxy Z Flip 7 and Z Flip 7 FE are now available to preorder and will be on sale starting July 25. Samsung's launch coincides with Amazon's Prime Day event, which has sales on Samsung TVs and laptops.
Watch this: Ultra Thin: First Look at the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Z Flip 7
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Galaxy Z Flip 7
Here is the Z Flip 7 in a tented position with its cover display turned off.
Joe Maldonado/CNET
Samsung's 2025 premium clamshell is a bit of a paradox: Compared to the Flip 6, it has bigger displays inside a thinner body. Even before I opened the Galaxy Z Flip 7, I could tell there had been some major changes. The hinge is nearly 30% smaller than the one on the Flip 6, Samsung said. And because the company applied waterproofing to the Flip 7's internal circuitry (instead of the chassis), the phone's body is thinner, coming in at 6.5mm thick when unfolded, versus 6.9mm on the Flip 6.
The Flip 7 comes in three colors: blue shadow, jet black and coral red. Samsung is offering a fourth color, mint, on its website.
The cover screen is now 4.1 inches, has a refresh rate up to 120Hz (like the main screen) and can reach a peak brightness of 2,600 nits; compare that to the Z Flip 6's outer display, which was 3.4 inches and topped out at 1,600 nits. This should make jumping back and forth between the main and outer screens feel more consistent in terms of brightness (especially outdoors) and system animations such as scrolling a news or social feed.
The FlexWindow, Samsung's name for the cover display, supports Gemini, including Gemini Live. I'm eager to test it out and see what using the larger display is like in real life. I should note that Samsung boasted that there's 1.26mm between the selfie shooters and the edge of the phone – so if you're not into big bezels, there's that.
The Z Flip 7 has a 50-megapixel camera with a wide-angle lens and a 12-megapixel ultra wide camera in its cover screen.
Joe Maldonado/CNET
The Flip 7 has a 50-megapixel main camera with a wide-angle lens and a 12-megapixel ultra-wide camera. In terms of specs, the three cameras are identical to the ones on the Z Flip 6. But Samsung says it's made improvements to image processing, and the Flip 7 supports 10-bit HDR videos and adds portrait enhancements and a new zoom-slider (that's one-handed friendly). There's also a 10-megapixel selfie camera in the 6.9-inch main display.
Powering the phone is a 4,300-mAh battery. This is welcome news because the Flip 6's 4,000-mAh battery did just OK in CNET's tests for my review. The Flip 7 has a Snapdragon 8 Elite chip and 12GB of RAM. In fact, it supports Samsung Dex, which when the phone is connected to a monitor turns the Flip 7 into a computer with its own desktop mode.
The Flip 7 runs on OneUI 8 (Android 16), supports Gemini AI and comes with a number of Galaxy AI customizations:
Auto-curated AI wallpapers with photos from your Gallery
Customized emojis and backgrounds
A clock font that auto-stretches around your wallpaper's image
Galaxy Z Flip 7 FE
The Galaxy Z Flip 7 FE is a new model aimed at saving people money.
Joe Maldonado/CNET
I'm so happy to see Samsung expand its Flip line, especially with a model that comes in at a lower cost. While the $900 Galaxy Z Flip 7 FE is $200 less than the Flip 7, it's also $200 more than the Motorola Razr (2025) -- currently the most affordable clamshell foldable you can buy in the US before discounts.
The new Galaxy Z Flip FE seems like a repackaged Galaxy Z Flip 6 in a thinner body, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, especially as it comes in at a lower price. It has the same cameras (so does the Flip 7) and the same 4,000-mAh battery. It runs on an Exynos 2400 processor, instead of the Flip 6's Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. It comes with either 128GB or 256GB of storage. The Galaxy Z Flip 7 FE comes in either black or white.
I look forward to learning more about the FE and testing the two new Galaxy Z Flip phones when I can get my hands on them.
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