Galaxy Z Flip comes with an unexpectedly low-tech vibe

A period of home isolation is a strange time to be testing Samsung's latest folding phone, the Galaxy Z Flip.

Unfolding away from you to become a standard full-sized smartphone, or collapsing back down into a compact square that can fit in any pocket or handbag, the Z Flip seems ideal for busy commutes or when out and about. In those situations you also get the full benefit of looking fancy with your $2200 folding phone; it really is an amazingly flashy little device and much more functional than the book-like Galaxy Fold.

I suspected that when used primarily at my desk or as the driver of my streaming entertainment needs at home, the folding would bring more sacrifices than satisfaction. Happily I was wrong. While working I left it unfolded and it performed almost identically to a Galaxy S20+, just a little taller and skinnier. The hinge is rock solid, so it stays locked in slate form until you want it to fold.

The display has a visible and tangible crease along the middle, only one speaker and just the two main cameras (a standard wide and ultrawide) in addition to the selfie shooter embedded in the display. This makes it a less solid media machine overall than a non-folding 2019 or 2020 Samsung flagship, but the difference in actual use is hard to tell.

Outside of work hours I was surprised to find I kept it closed most of the time, thanks to a genius little display on the outside cover that lets you access some features of the phone without exposing you to all the distracting notifications and infinitely scrolling feeds.

There's definitely something nostalgic about clutching the chunky little square while listening to music, as though it's an early 2000s MP3 player. Whether I had Bluetooth headphones on or was casting to my stereo over Wi-Fi, at a tap I could bring up a control panel on the cover display to skip tracks or play/pause, and the volume buttons are cleverly flipped when the device is closed to make sure they work as expected.

What I like most about the screen is that, unlike the ambient displays of most other phones, it isn't lighting up constantly with notifications. You can swipe to see what apps are trying to get your attention, it lights up to show you who's calling, and you can even use it as an unexpectedly functional little selfie viewfinder for quick snaps, but the need to physically open the phone to do much else stopped me from gawping aimlessly.

A clever secondary display probably isn't enough to outweigh the potential downsides of the Galaxy Z Flip. Samsung still hasn't worked out a way to protect its foldy phones from being killed by accidental dunks in water for example, and the soft inner screen — while feeling hard like glass — comes with a list of scary warnings that makes me worry about longevity.

But unlike the Galaxy Fold, which worked but offered the choice of pointlessly small phone screen or needlessly large phone screen, the Z Flip demonstrates how a folding phone could add value by augmenting the regular phone experience. Assuming the fragility concerns could be well and truly put to bed, I'm excited to see the future of phones that can be folded away but still useful when you don't need the full experience.