Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 review

Android 12 with OneUI 4.1.1

The Galaxy Z Flip4 runs on Android 12 with Samsung's One UI on top, a proprietary layer that most people seem to be okay with these days. The version that our review unit boots is 4.1.1, and that's .1 more than we have on the Galaxy S22s, a difference that's as minute numerically as it is in look and feel.

Let's start our software exploration with the cover display. You can have an always-on display feature active on the cover screen like you can have it on the main display - there is, in fact, no separate setting for the two. The cover screen does get its own specific clock designs, though, and you can match what's displayed there with the watch face on your, say, Galaxy Watch.

Swipes in all four directions on the cover screen do different things. Swiping up launches Samsung Pay, while swiping down brings up quick toggles - Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Sound. Airplane, Flashlight, and a brightness setting for the cover screen.

Swiping to the right accesses the notifications through which you can then scroll up and down as well as expand. Swiping to the left brings up a selection of up to eight widgets - music player, weather, schedule, alarm, Samsung Health, voice recorder, direct dial, and timer.

Cover screen settings

Clicking on the power button twice when the Flip4 is closed will activate the rear camera, and the external screen will act as a viewfinder. Swiping in different directions switches between shooting modes and cameras. And if you double tap on the screen, you will get full-size photo mode and viewfinder - something that was not possible on the Flip3.

Always-on works on the internal display, too, if you are wondering. It's the familiar simplified version from One UI 3. You can choose between a few clock styles or opt for an Image Clock. Music info is also supported. The feature can be always-off, always-on, scheduled, shown only when new notifications are available, or you can opt for tap to show for 10s.

Always-on display

OneUI 4 looks even cleaner than v.3.x, but the basics remain the same - there are homescreen, widgets, notification center, task switcher and an app drawer.

Homescreen • Folder view • App drawer • Task Switcher • Notifications • Quick toggles

Samsung's Smart Widgets can combine a few different pieces of data and take up less space. They are also much more customizable. The Samsung keyboard is now even more feature-rich and customizable than ever with the inclusion of more emoji and stickers.

Smart Widgets • Smart Widgets • New emoji • Stickers too

One of the new One UI 4 features is Color Palettes, an implementation of the vanilla Android 12's Wallpaper colors. There are usually four Color Palette suggestions in addition to the default One UI Blue/Black one. Those are picked automatically by the software, depending on your current wallpaper. The color you choose will become the main one in the newly created theme (think Windows' "accent color").

These accent colors are applied on the dialer, the quick toggles, and other tiny UI bits. You can choose to apply them to the app icons as well.

Color palettes

The Settings menu contains a new Privacy Dashboard. Here you can easily see which apps are using some of the most important (for privacy) permissions. You can control the camera and control access across apps, opt for clipboard access alerts (useful if you copy passwords, social security numbers, IBANs, among others), and there is, of course, a full-blown permission manager if you like to dig deeper.

Privacy Dashboard

DeX is not supported on the Galaxy Z Flip 4. There is a Link to Windows feature, though, which provides you with an interface to your phone from your computer so you can exchange images, manage notifications on your PC or even make calls from it.

Another option along those lines but with more limited potential is Continue apps on other devices. This requires you to be logged in to your Samsung account on both devices, hook them up to the same Wi-Fi network with Bluetooth enabled and use Samsung Internet browser or Samsung Notes. You'll then be able to copy and paste text and images across and open the same tabs in the browser.

Continue apps on other devices • Link to Windows

Other long-time proprietary Samsung features include the Edge panels - the panes that show up when you swipe in from the side and provide tools and shortcuts to apps and contacts. Game launcher, the hub for all your games, which also provides options for limiting distraction when gaming is here to stay as well. There's an in-house browser (Samsung Internet), which is instrumental to a lot of the advanced S Pen capabilities, as well as a reasonably powerful File manager. The Samsung Gallery also somehow still persists.

Edge panel • Game Launcher • Game Launcher • Internet • File manager • Gallery

Finally, when partially unfolded (between 75 and 115 degrees), the Flip3's Flex mode feature will split an app's interface by placing the 'consumption' portion in the top half and the 'interaction' part in the bottom half.

Some apps support it natively, like YouTube or Samsung's own Gallery and Calendar. For others, you can force a generic Flex mode control panel. We reckon that's a solution in search of a problem, though for video call apps like Google Duo, it can be sort of useful.

Flex mode

Performance and benchmarks

The Galaxy Z Flip4 runs on the most current Qualcomm chipset - the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 - a slight refresh over the non-plus version. Among the key improvements is the better efficiency and a minor bump in performance - we got to experience that on a bunch of devices, including an Asus-built engineering sample for the chip, as well as the ROG Phone 6 Pro, and the Xiaomi 12S Ultra.

The Galaxy Z Flip4 always comes with 8GB of RAM, though you can purchase it with either 128GB, 256GB or 512GB UFS 3.1 storage.

So, the latest Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset is undeniably the fastest Android platform right now on the market, and it is a chart-topper when it comes to benchmarking.

Note that the Galaxy Z Flip4 has a lot less space than conventional smartphones for the motherboard and chipset and, hence, cooling solution, so we expect throttling along the way.

GeekBench 5 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Asus Zenfone 9 (High Performance)
  4338
• Xiaomi 12S Ultra
  4300
• Realme GT Neo3
  4079
• Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4
  3913
• Poco X4 GT
  3719
• Samsung Galaxy S22
  3682
• Xiaomi 12
  3652
• Asus Zenfone 9 (Dynamic)
  3606
• Samsung Galaxy Z Flip3 5G
  3441
• Poco F4
  3190
• OnePlus Nord 2T
  2790
• Samsung Galaxy Z Flip
  2619

GeekBench 5 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi 12S Ultra
  1324
• Asus Zenfone 9 (High Performance)
  1313
• Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4
  1270
• Xiaomi 12
  1187
• Samsung Galaxy S22
  1171
• Samsung Galaxy Z Flip3 5G
  979
• Poco F4
  975
• Realme GT Neo3
  968
• Asus Zenfone 9 (Dynamic)
  927
• Poco X4 GT
  917
• Samsung Galaxy Z Flip
  750
• OnePlus Nord 2T
  491

The same goes for graphics tests - the Adreno 730 is an outstanding performer.

GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Asus Zenfone 9 (High Performance)
  89
• Xiaomi 12
  75
• Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4
  74
• Samsung Galaxy S22
  69
• Asus Zenfone 9 (Dynamic)
  66
• Realme GT Neo3
  53
• Xiaomi 12S Ultra
  51
• Poco F4
  49
• Poco X4 GT
  46
• Samsung Galaxy Z Flip3 5G
  40
• OnePlus Nord 2T
  40
• Samsung Galaxy Z Flip
  35

GFX Aztek Vulkan High (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Asus Zenfone 9 (High Performance)
  69
• Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4
  62
• Xiaomi 12
  59
• Asus Zenfone 9 (Dynamic)
  47
• Samsung Galaxy S22
  44
• Realme GT Neo3
  43
• Xiaomi 12S Ultra
  39
• Poco X4 GT
  38
• Samsung Galaxy Z Flip3 5G
  29
• OnePlus Nord 2T
  29
• Samsung Galaxy Z Flip
  18

3DMark Wild Life Vulkan 1.1 (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi 12S Ultra
  10533
• Asus Zenfone 9 (High Performance)
  10469
• Asus Zenfone 9 (Dynamic)
  10178
• Xiaomi 12
  9535
• Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4
  8460
• Samsung Galaxy S22
  7526
• Realme GT Neo3
  5428
• Samsung Galaxy Z Flip3 5G
  5261
• OnePlus Nord 2T
  4577
• Poco F4
  4357
• Poco X4 GT
  4301

You may notice that the AnTuTu scores are somewhat lower than on other devices with similar hardware. That's because the Flip4 applies more throttling because of thermal constraints.

AnTuTu 9

Higher is better

• Asus Zenfone 9 (High Performance)
  1083092
• Xiaomi 12S Ultra
  1039412
• Xiaomi 12
  985115
• Samsung Galaxy S22
  881428
• Realme GT Neo3
  819348
• Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4
  800001
• Asus Zenfone 9 (Dynamic)
  783425
• Poco X4 GT
  747871
• Poco F4
  698586
• Samsung Galaxy Z Flip3 5G
  682223
• OnePlus Nord 2T
  604467

AnTuTu 8

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S22
  745496
• Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4
  685754
• Samsung Galaxy Z Flip3 5G
  596866
• Poco F4
  590961
• OnePlus Nord 2T
  490545
• Samsung Galaxy Z Flip
  487908

So, the Galaxy Z Flip4 has the proper hardware to be a full-fledged flagship. We ran a few games for quite a bit, and they were able to keep excellent performance; some of them were even drawn with more than 60fps.

Of course, we ran the usual stability tests, and they are not good for the Z Flip4.

When working at 100% CPU load, the Z Flip4 is able to keep its maximum performance for about 5 minutes. And then it drops down to 41%.

The same goes for the 100% GPU load - after 5 minutes, the performance drops to 40% to prevent overheating.

CPU test • GPU test

The Galaxy Z Flip4 never gets hot, just warm below the camera setup.

No sugar coating here - the Z Flip4 has poor cooling due to space constraints, and it cannot support peak performance for more than 5 minutes. But no app or game really requires that. And the Flip4 is no gaming smartphone after all, though it can play all modern games rather well for long enough time.