The Samsung Z Flip 6 is a significant improvement over its predecessors, offering a refined and durable device that feels like a high-end smartphone. The new design, with a thicker glass display and a new coating, makes it more resistant to scratches and drops. While the performance is not significantly better than previous models, the camera has improved, making it a great option for content creators.

One of the standout features of the Z Flip 6 is its cover display, which allows users to quickly check notifications, respond to messages, or scroll through social media without getting sucked into an hour-long video on Instagram Reels or TikTok. This feature is especially useful when you want to stay connected but don't have time for a full-fledged browsing experience.

The phone's durability has also improved significantly over the years, with fewer issues reported by users. The new hinge design and added protective coating make it more resistant to damage, allowing users to drop their phones without worrying about screen protectors peeling or screens becoming dead.

In terms of usability, the Z Flip 6 feels like a high-end smartphone, with a solid build quality that makes it easy to use on a daily basis. Users can easily open and close the phone, making it convenient for quick access to notifications and messages. The phone's size has also been tweaked to make it more symmetrical when folded, with the bottom sticking out slightly less than before.

While there are some compromises to be made with the Z Flip 6, such as its high price point and potential issues with camera tuning, overall, it is a great option for anyone looking for a premium folding smartphone. The Z Flip 6 is by far the best version of the series, with significant improvements in design, durability, and usability.

In conclusion, the Samsung Z Flip 6 is a top-notch device that offers a unique blend of functionality and style. With its refined design, improved durability, and great camera performance, it is sure to please even the most discerning smartphone users. Whether you're looking for a phone to use every day or just want a premium device to show off at parties, the Z Flip 6 is definitely worth considering.

But $1,100 is a lot of money, and when you look at the resale value of earlier Z Flips, it's probably going to be worth a few hundred dollars in a few years. It might not sit too well with some buyers, but that's just the reality of high-end electronics.

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip6is easily the best foldingphone that they've ever made.But at a new, more expensiveprice, is it actually worth it?So I'm out here in Paris forSamsung's Unpacked event.Now, I probably don't need to tell youthat I'm a massive,massive fan of the Z Flip.I've been rocking a ZFlip in one iterationor another since the very beginning.But the downside hasalways been that the Z Flipfeels like you're compromisingwhen you're using it.You know, compare it tosomething like an S24,an S24 Ultra, you've always had downsides.But a lot of those have beenrectified with the Z Flip6.We're talking about asignificantly better main sensor,so it's now like 50 megapixel main camera,which is the same as the Galaxy S24and should delivertheoretically, we'll see,but similar sort of performance.You also have the sameSnapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxywith a full vapor chamber.But I will say thatthere's one concern I have,which is price.So the Z Flip, for thelast several generations,starting with the ZFlip3, has cost $1,000.A good price, especially consideringthat the first generationwas like 14, 1500 bucks.But it's finally caught up with us.This is now an $1,100 phone.Now that's not just $100increase for nothing.It now comes with 12 gigs of RAMinstead of eight gigabytes of RAM,and 256 gigs of storage standard.So you know, certainly an improvement.But that's a substantial price increase.And so my real question,as I spend the next weekor two with this phone andhopefully, the next year,is the Galaxy Z Flip6 actually worth it?But let's see what otherpeople at Unpacked have to say.Do you think it's worth the extra $100?- Maybe some of the newfeatures are worth it,but I have to try it out.- Is it worth, on your firstimpression, the extra $100?- No.- I feel like it's a hardthing to justify just yet'cause we haven't tested it out,but it actually seems,for the first time ever,that it's an actual flagship device,which I'm really excited about.- Is it worth it?I don't know.- No, I'm not sure whatthe extra $100 went to,to be honest with you.- Worth the extra $100,I'm not sure about,but I think out of the two phones,the Flip is definitelythe one to get this year.- I mean, I would probably pay it.For the average consumer,that's gonna be up to you,but I mean, I still really like it.- So at this point, it'sbeen a little over a weekusing the Z Flip as my daily driverand I have a lot of thoughts.Now it should be no surprise to youas the guy who has been dailydriving Z Flips since 2020that I like the phone.You know, there's a lot that's good here.And when you look at the evolutionof the Z Flips over time,it shouldn't really be a huge surprise.You know, that first Z Flipwas incredibly under baked,but by the time the Z Flip 3 came out,and especially now that we've gottenwith the Z Flip5 and the Z Flip6,these are really quite refined devices.And one of the big things thatSamsung really tried to pushwith this model is parity.Now in the past Z Flips,while they've been terrific devices,really felt like they hadquite a few limitations.So specifically when itcame to the form factor,you always felt like youwere losing something.So for me, it was alwaysin a few key areasand specifically with the Z Flip6,they tried to address a lot of that.So we'll start out with the camera.The Z Flip6 now has thesame 50 megapixel camerafrom the Galaxy S24, as wellas, I think, the Z Fold 6.And this is a far cry fromthe 12 megapixel camerathat was on pretty much everyearlier version of the Z Flip.And I'll be honest, itwas always kind of bad.The problem was that the Z Flipalways was using a severalyear old lens and sensor,which meant that itwas always just behind.Now we actually haveparity on the camera side.Now I say that, there's notelephoto on the Z Flip6,but because you havea 50 megapixel camera,it actually does mean that you can geta little bit more of that digital zoomusing some of their space zoom processing.It actually is quite decent.I was able to get somepretty nice looking imagesat 1X and 2X, and evena little bit fartherif you don't mind pushingit if you have good light.Something else that we now haveparity with is battery life.So the original Z Flip hadpretty terrible battery.However, this time around the Z Flip6has the exact same size4000mAh batteryfrom the Galaxy S24.What that means is surprise, surprise,battery life is totally solid.Now sure, you're probably not going to gettwo full days of use like you couldon something like a anS24 Ultra if you try.However, I will say that the Z Flipis significantly betterthan last generation,even though it's only abouta 10% larger battery cell.That combined with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3has meant that I'm actually gettinglike significantly better battery life,somewhere in the neighborhoodof like about an hour or soof extra screen on time perday, which is really quite nice.Speaking of that Snapdragon processor,the Z Flips have always hadcutting edge specs, right?So it's got the highestend Snapdragon 8 Gen 3.However, the problem hasbeen, in the past at least,that the cooling solutionscouldn't keep up.You know, if you look at the Z Flip,it actually has a lot less surface areafor cooling than a traditional phonebecause the motherboards all insort of like this sort of spot,which means that as itgets warm playing games,you're recording videooutside, you're running GPS,in earlier iterations,the Z Flip just didn'treally hold up that well.However, with the Z Flip6,it now has a prettysubstantial vapor chamber.And I'll be honest with you,it does make a real difference.Just earlier today, I wasrecording like 20 plus minutesof 4K video using both the innerand the cover displays, inthe sun, it's quite warm,no problems at all, not overheating,not even incredibly warm to the touch.So they've definitelydone a much better jobof getting the thermals under control.And you know, if I left it there,then Samsung I'm surewould be really happy.You know, this is what they were tryingto pitch the Z Flip6 as,is the flip that finally has no compromisecompared to buying a GalaxyS24 or a traditional bar phone.However, it's not quitethat straightforward.So there are other changes here.So the design itself has been updatedin a couple of major ways.So first of all, the actual aesthetichas been changed a little bit.So now the camera lenses havethe same body matching colorsas the rest of the phone,which I think looks nice.The finish has also been changed.They have a lot of colors.My review unit is the blue,although I'll be honest,I've actually pre-ordereda white Z Flip for myself.I actually think the whitelooks really good this year.It's kind of that panda look.But on top of that there's alsoa lot of other customizationand that shouldn't be a big surprise, right.The Z Flip has alwaysbeen about customization.So not only of course canyou change your wallpaperon the outer display, buta lot of cool Samsung casesthey sell like their Flipsuits,which this year, actuallyhave LEDs in them.So it actually pulls power from the phoneand you can have it like dothese little like animationsalmost a little bit like what Nothing do.It's actually very cool.But on top of that, theymade some subtle tweaksthat I actually am a really big fan of.First of all, the soundthat this phone makeswhen it closes is terrific.I'm gonna try to do this with one handand I'm gonna try not toalso drop my review unit.Listen to this.(phone smacks)Oh, it's so much better.They've actually removedthe little rubber bumpersthey used to always have on the Z Flipin favor of something that just clapsmuch, much sort of harder.(crickets chirping)Hmm, could used a different phrase there.Now, other than that, Ithink, for the most part,people are gonna look at this and go,oh yeah, it's just another Z Flip.And that's mostly true, right.Now, there are otherimprovements like Galaxy AI,which is here.And to give Samsung alittle bit of credit,we now have 12 gigs of RAMinstead of eight gigs on the Z Flip6.Largely because theydo want that extra RAMto run a bunch of the AI models on device.There are a lot of Galaxy AI featuresand most of them are kind of half-baked,if I'm honest with you.One that's kind of coolis the translation featurewhere you can have, youknow, people talkingon both sides of the phoneusing the cover display.That's kind of neat.I actually have found someuse for the voice memo featurewhere it will not onlylisten to different speakers,but it'll also like tagthem and stuff, that's cool.But I actually found a really weird bug.So I'm working currently ona video on the ROG Ally X,which may or may not be liveby the time you watch this.And I figured it'd be fun tojust sort of talk out loudsome notes to the Z Flip,let it record the voice memo feature.Kinda use that just to kind of summarizesome of my thoughts.Now the transcription featureworked absolutely no problem,a couple typos here and there,but actually was really, really good.But then there's an AIpowered summarizationand when I clicked on that,I was very surprised to seethat it was kind of hallucinatingstuff based on my notes.It was bringing up a comparisonto the AYA Neo that I didn't make.At one point, it decided that my ROG Allywas in fact an ROG Zephyrus G14,which is not like a small sort of mistake.Legitimately, don't knowhow they're doing that.And like, look, sure,all AI can have problemsfrom time to time, butlike the Galaxy AI stuff,like I'm just being superhonest with you, meh.It's not a reason to buy a Z Flip6.It's nice that it's thereand because you have the 12 gigs of RAMand that very powerful Snapdragon 8 Gen 3,we will probably seemore Galaxy AI featuresbeing added to the Flipover the next, you know,year or two, which is great.I mean, more features are always nice.And you can doodle and create images,or generate your ownwallpapers, like these are fine,but I would say they're a little bitmore like party tricks than like stuffthat you're gonna use everyday, at least for the most part.Hardware-wise, both the cover displayand inner are essentially the same.Now they do actually get alittle bit brighter this year.But the main difference is actuallywith the actual softwareon the cover display.So you still can't runapps by default on it,which is just ridiculous to me.But thankfully, it's asuper easy workaround.You just download Samsung GoodLock and enable the feature,and then fricking load up all the appsyou want on the cover display.And that actually is areally big selling pointfor the Z Flip because for me,I really value the factthat if I'm out and aboutand I want to check anotification or something,I can use the coverdisplay, scroll through,you know, respond to a message, whatever,and then close it withoutgetting sucked into an hourof Instagram Reels or TikTok or something.I think that's a reallyvaluable part of, you know,you can actually get stuff donewith the Z Flip when it's closed.Now I would like it if thescreen was a little bit biggerand maybe a little bit higher resolution.The Moto Razr has, by far, thebest looking cover display,but it's still reallyquite usable on the Z Flip.Durability is something to talk about.Now as someone who'sused a lot of Z Flips,I've had my fair share ofscreen protectors peeling,dead screens, yada yada yada.But I'll say it has been getting better.I've been having fewer and fewer issuesthe last couple of years.To the point where my Z Flip5,I've had zero problemswith it for the last yearand it's actually takensome pretty serious falls.And with the Z Flip6, they'vemade a couple of improvementsincluding, you know, beefing up the hinge,which they do every year tokind of tweak and tune it,but it also has a thickerglass in the displayas well as a new coating,which theoreticallywill help it be a little bit more durable.Obviously, time will tell.But the Z Flip6 feels likethe most refined version.It feels really, really solid.Like I have, at this point, I use a Z Flipjust the same way I woulduse any other phone, right.Drop it, get it wet, whatever.I mean it just, it's a phone, right.It's a tool, it's somethingthat you use on your daily basisand I don't have to babythe Z Flips at all anymore.Besides maybe not liketaking something super sharpto the inner display,but well, just fold it.This is a little bit random,but I've actually noticedthat the Z Flip is no longer symmetrical.And what I mean by that isthat if you look at the bottomversus the top of thephone when it's folded,the bottom sticks out ever soslightly more than the top.And for me, that meansit's actually significantlyeasier to open it up.Now I'll admit it'ssuch a small difference,it's gotta be like a 10th ofa millimeter or something,it could just be my hinge isever so slightly misaligned.But honestly, I hopethat it's a real thingbecause it actually makes it easierfor me to open this phone.And it's something thatI probably used the phonefor like three daysbefore I actually noticed.Now, areas that I would still like to seethe Z Flip improve.I mean, performance is there.I think the camera is still an A,it's not as good assomething like the iPhone,if I'm being entirely honest with you.And as a content creator,I always want to usethe best possible devicethat I can get my hands on.If I'm gonna be really honest with you,I shot this entire videoon the Z Flip earlier todayand then realized it was out of focusand it couldn't focus on my face,which is right in front of the lens.So camera tuning could use maybea little bit more optimization.But I will say though, by and large,it actually is quite good.And I have found myself using the Z Flip6a lot more than I used earlier Z Flipsjust because the camera's actually good,unlike before in whichit was just like goodif I was still in 2021.It to me is really down to,if you really want a Z Flip,the Z Flip6 is by far thebest one they've ever made.The compromises are so muchless than they were in the past.It's a terrific phone.I have very, very little to criticize,but $1,100 is a lot of money.And when you look at the resalevalue of earlier Z Flips,and when you look at thelikely future resale valueof the Z Flip6, it'sprobably gonna be wortha few hundred dollars in a few years.And that might not sit too well with you.Although, if you go down that rabbit hole,everything not called an iPhonealso drops a lot in value too.Bottom line is this, the ZFlip6 is the best folding phoneyou can buy, period.Is it perfect?Of course not.But it is the mostrefined, the best to use,and the best overall packagethat Samsung have ever put together.And I'm happily going tocontinue using the Z Flipfor the next year.But surprise, surprise, right,the Z Flip guy likes the new Z Flip.(Austin chuckles)