Flip and foldable phones have become the new high-end competitors pretty much since Samsung launched its first foldable in the Galaxy Fold back in late 2019 and its first Galaxy Z Flip phone back in 2020. Since then, we have seen foldable and flip phones from other manufacturers, such as Google, Motorola with its Razr brand and OPPO with its Find X series.
Gradually, we have seen flip and foldable phones become slightly bigger, better and more powerful, so when Samsung launched its Galaxy Flip 6, we wanted to see if the Flip 6 could be a daily driver for those who are into flip or fold devices but also if it can handle an Ausdroid review.
What’s inside the box?
Inside the box, you get the device itself, the usual paperwork, instruction manual, SIM eject tool and a 1-metre USB-C to USB-C charger cord. Sadly, you don’t get a charger, which has become the norm now for all high-end Galaxy devices, and you may need to purchase one separately from either Samsung or their retail partners or find other solutions from other retailers to be able to charge up your device.
Also, there are no covers that come in the box, so again, you can purchase these directly through the Samsung website as well. Personally given the cost of this device I would have liked to have seen at least a basic cover but as the saying goes, beggars can’t be choosers.
The Design
The Galaxy Flip 6 is beautiful; its design is flawless. This year’s Galaxy Flip 6 has a more flat aluminium frame that has a more matte finish than a polished, glossy finish, which is a good design choice, however I do note that with the matte finish you still get fingerprint marks on the steel and back, along with the displays.
The front display contains a 3.4-inch Super AMOLED Display (720 x 748 @ 306 PPI) with a 60Hz refresh rate. It’s a great display, not too bright but also not so dark. However, a couple of things did bother me when in full daylight, you could still see the front display when. Not in full direct sunlight but when the sun was baring down on the screen, it can be a little tricky to use or see. Furthermore the finger print marks can be very visibly seen at times, especially when the screen is dull or low light just showing the time.
Furthermore, on the front display you have the main cameras which are a dual 12MP Ultra-Wide camera lens and a 50MP Wide-angle camera lens that is surrounded by a metal casing which looks at least from years Galaxy Flip 5 so this is new and you can’t simply miss them.
The sides of the galaxy Flip6 are made of a matte finish aluminum frame, with the right hand side top half housing the standby/power button and above this is the volume rocker.
The top side of the Galaxy Flip 6 houses two microphone slots, which is located towards the right hand side whilst talking of the right hand side top houses the SIM card tray which sadly doesn’t offer a microSD card slot so you will need to make sure you select a higher memory storage flip6 or have at least expandable cloud storage.
The bottom side of the Flip 6 houses the 2 other microphone slots which are located near the right hand side, with the USB-C power charger slot in the middle and then the speaker grill located to just to the left of the charger slot.
Flipping open the Flip 6, the inside display is a 6.7-inch FHD+ Dynamic AMOLED Infinity Flex Display (2640 x 1080) that offers a 120Hz fresh rate and is very clear, bright and quite beautiful to see and watch and use.
It is important to note right here that the inside display does come with a screen protector already installed in the display and if you do take this off, this could lead to you having warranty issues so you have been warned – do not remove it!
The front display does house the 10MP selfie camera in a pin hole located in the middle top of the inside display. To be honest I get why this is a lower megapixel camera but I would have liked a slightly higher megapixel camera but the outside cameras would be more than sufficient to get some great selfies compared to the inside front facing camera.
I would note that there is al located around the inner display, a rubberised bezel which is slightly raised and is about 1mm surrounding the front display all around. I believe this has been a design choice to make sure that the front display cannot be closed with force and protect it for possible cracking if it is closed with some force and this is genius in my opinion and something I wish other manufacturers would look into.
Talking about the internals, the Galaxy flip 6 is powered by a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Mobile Platform for Galaxy alongside 12GB RAM and for the review device we were given came with 512GB.
Furthermore, the Galaxy Flip 6 comes with Android 14 right out of the box and runs One UI version 6.1.1 as well. There is also Galaxy AI inbuilt and I will go further into the insides further down in the review.
Lights, Camera, Action!
The Galaxy Flip 6 comes with a dual camera setup for the rear cameras which is made up of a 12MP Ultra-Wide camera lens and a 50MP Wide-angle camera lens.
The camera settings include portrait, photo, video, expert raw, pro, pro video, night, food, panorama, slow motion, Hyperlapse, portrait video, dual record and single take.
Of course Samsung has included its Galaxy AI software into the camera which enables you to edit your photos in many ways such as the ability to cut out photos and move people or objects around, allow you to create AI pics that are either cartoon, canvas or sketch plus also turn your photos into stickers and so much more.
Talking about the picture samples taken as part of the review, the pics have turned out close to real life with colours. Brightness and sharpness are all correct. Even in low light the sensor is able to still get some great pics.
You can see a sample of the pics below:
The front facing selfies camera inside the main display is a 10MP selfie camera and still offers some great selfie pics albeit not as clear as using the outer cameras.
You can view the inside and outside selfie camera pics below:
Performance and Software
As stated, the Galaxy Flip 6 is powered under the hood by a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Mobile Platform for Galaxy alongside 12GB RAM and 512GB internal storage which cannot be expanded via MicroSD card which means you will need to ensure you have enough cloud storage should you need it.
This combination allowed the device to be able to go between apps quite smoothly and effortlessly and even playing high intensity games like Asphalt 9, it didn’t miss a beat at all. Even going between various apps multiple times the Galaxy Flip 6 was able to just keep going and going.
The only other bug I have is the doubling up of certain apps such as Samsungs own apps like the Calendar, calculator, Moyes. Files etc as there is no way to get rid of them if you preference Google’s own version of apps like I do/ O do wish that Samsung would get rid of these and just run with Google’s own apps and I get users should have a choice but when you can’t delete Samsung’s own apps to preference other apps, it can mean you have more apps and space taken up memory and screen wise.
The Galaxy Flip 6 runs Android 13 right out of the box alongside One UI 6.1.1 running over the top and Samsung has given a guarantee to provide up to seven years of both firmware (OS) and security updates which means you won’t have to update your phone anytime soon. There were also a couple of security updates which I downloaded and installed on the device during the review period.
The Samsung Galaxy Flip 6 does offer both 4G & 5G connectivity, VoLTE or Voice over LTE so you’re safe if you buy the device here in Australia with the impending 4G shutdown with the two remaining telcos, Optus and Telstra. The flip 6 also comes with Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth version 5.3 which was able to keep a strong connection to my own Wi-Fi 6 system and Bluetooth earbuds.
The flip 6 does also offer NFC capabilities for mobile payments and whilst you can choose to use Samsung’s own Pay wallet, I did use Google Wallet which is my main preference.
My only other bug was the inclusion of Samsung’s Bixby which I will be honest is not my preference for virtual assistance. There didn’t seem a way to be able to remap or change the Bixby launch button in the setting which is disappointing and I am hoping Samsung does eventually remove Bixby altogether as I just find it isn’t as useful as Google Assistant which is my preference.
GalaxyAI – a useful tool
As stated and very much advertised as a selling point for the Galaxy Flip6 is the inclusion of Samsung Galaxy AI which is useful and handy when needed and during this review I found I didn’t use the Galaxy AI that much.
Granted the Galaxy AI can in photos, give you hat when you draw it or move objects around in the photos but you can also use it to interpret things around you on photos or when someone says something in another language, to also helping you take notes, interpret or find website and read them for you and provide updates but that is mainly limited to Samsung own web browser and not Google Chrome or many Google apps and services.
For me this slightly fragments the Galaxy AI experience and I hope Samsung and Google work together to give better access to each other’s AI services more and I am keeping fingers crossed they will eventually…….well hopefully at best.
Battery Life
4,000mAh (typical) dual battery which is an upgrade over last year’s Galaxy Flip 5 which had a 3700mAh and David in his review of the Flip 5 model having meh battery life, the increase at least for me did help. I found that taking the device off charge at about 7:30am and then coming home from work I would have anywhere between 20% to 40% battery life at the end of the day depending if I used the device part time or medium usage to light usage.
Though I do fear that with heavy usage and the two screens can cause the battery to suffer more or needing to be charged during the day which I did try to avoid if I could. Granted the Galaxy Flip 6 does support 25 watt wired charging, albeit you will need to supply your own charging base is a little bit of a pain but you can find these either through the Samsung store directly or retail partners as well.
Of course there is also wireless charging support alongside Wireless Power Sharing which is limited to a handful of Samsung devices but its an option should the need arise for this.
Should you consider buying one?
There is a lot to like in the Samsung Galaxy Flip6, from the cameras, to the software and performance to battery life are all pluses.
My only issue is there is still duplication of some apps when I would like to see Samsung just adopting Google’s apps or at least have the ability to fully remove their apps such as calendar, calculator etc where possible, alongside Bixby who is just terrible to use and take part in and I am hoping Samsung will eventually remove Bixby in the near future.
Honestly, I am still slightly concerned over the longevity of flip or foldable devices, especially given the cost of living and devices being held on to longer by customers beyond the usual 12-24 months we would normally see.
I just have concerns as to whether the folding or flip mechanism can last 3 + years or if the screen can and whilst yes there has been a lot of design and engineering work to ensure these devices can last longer than its predecessors but I just feel they are real world solutions if that make sense.
I guess only time will tell really.
But all in all, I do like the Samsung Galaxy Flip6, and you can pick the Galaxy Flip 6 from either Samsung directly, or retail partners with prices start from $1,599.
