Review: Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6 and Galaxy Z Flip6

The Fold6, despite the slightly larger 4,400-mAh battery cell, has considerably more screen to power, so my battery experience has been roughly the same. A full day with average use (maybe a bit extra) or heavier use (aka watching lots of Instagram reels) will likely require a top-up by the evening, especially if you use the 7.6-inch screen a lot. I have been able to take it to two days with minimal use. It’s also great having the option to expand your screen estate on a whim.

I’ve multitasked with split-screen apps and enjoyed the larger view in some apps that take advantage of the bigger screen. There’s still a crease in the middle, but that never gave me much issue. It does bug me that I have to rotate the phone to landscape view to get the much nicer two-pane view in Gmail (where I can see my email list on the left and email contents on the right). I know this isn’t Samsung’s fault, but there’s plenty of collaboration between the two companies and I wish this was resolved by now.

Other annoyances? I don’t love the side-mounted fingerprint sensor on these phones anymore. I’m too used to accessing an in-display sensor, which is easier to reach with any hand holding the phone, but the capacitive sensor on the side often requires me to swap grips or use my other hand to unlock it. (It’s a nitpick, but hey, we’re six years in!)

The cameras now more closely match what you get on the Galaxy S24 series, and they’re pretty great. I rarely had gripes with the resulting photos, though I wish Samsung stuffed a longer telephoto zoom camera here, like the 5X optical zoom on its Galaxy S24 Ultra. That said, I do like the addition of Camcorder Mode on the Flip6—launch the camera, go to video mode, and put the fold at a 90-degree angle and sideways in your hand like you’re holding a camcorder. I find it easier to film and access the onscreen controls one-handedly and get stable footage.

Photograph: Julian Chokkattu

Photograph: Julian Chokkattu

The number-one camera feature is the same as before: You can see your preview on the external screen on either of these phones, allowing you to take your own travel pictures hands-free in front of a subject without giving a stranger your phone. As I was setting up the Flip6 to snap a picture in front of the Eiffel Tower, a fellow tourist asked whether I wanted her to take the photo. I said no thanks; she saw the Flip6 angled to me and said, “Whoa, is that a flip phone? That’s so smart.” Indeed.

It’s a great travel buddy, especially with the new updates to Samsung’s Interpreter mode. Toggle on this mode and you can fold the screen to have your words translated into text on the external screen for the other person to see. They can tap a button on the external display to start talking, and their translated words will pop up on the internal screen. It works well enough to get by when you’re in optimal noise conditions and people speak relatively clearly, though you still have to get through the awkwardness of gesturing how the whole process works first.

The AI Tax

Much of what is new on the Fold6 and Flip6 is Galaxy AI, the wave of artificial intelligence features Samsung first launched on the Galaxy S24 series. I rarely found the need to use most of them, but some are handy, like the Voice Recorder app, which does a decent job of transcribing audio recordings (though it’s not anywhere near as instant as Google Recorder on Pixel phones). More impressively, it can translate those notes into another language.

Photograph: Julian Chokkattu via Portrait Studio app