Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4: Everything we know so far about Samsung’s next clamshell foldable
For many, the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 was the first foldable they could put their money on. In fact, XDA’s Content Chief Nirave was so impressed with the Galaxy Z Flip 3 that he ended up buying two of them. It’s the first foldable flagship that felt like it was made for the mainstream market, and it was largely considered a successful device for Samsung. And with a starting price that was less than the launch price of the Galaxy Z Flip 5G it replaced, it was almost a no-brainer for those who were looking to buy a flagship in 2021. It’s safe to say that the expectations have now been set for the Galaxy Z Flip 4. Samsung’s next clamshell foldable is shaping up to be a great device overall, so let’s take a look at all the rumors and leaks to find out everything we know so far.
Before we begin, it’s worth mentioning that there’s still no official word about the arrival of the Galaxy Z Flip 4 from Samsung just yet. We’re simply putting together all the leaks and rumors in one place to make it easier to get a better understanding of what’s expected from Samsung’s next clamshell foldable. We suggest you take everything that you’re about to read with a pinch of salt since none of it has been officially confirmed unless mentioned otherwise.
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Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4: Release Date and Pricing
Samsung is yet to officially confirm the arrival of the Galaxy Z Flip 4. But if we were to guess, we’d expect this foldable to arrive sometime in August. Samsung is likely to unveil both the Galaxy Z Fold 4 and the Galaxy Z Flip 4 together at an Unpacked event before the end of this year. Expect the phone to go on pre-orders shortly after the announcement, and open sales to begin about 2-3 weeks from the launch event, although this will vary by region.
As for the pricing, we expect the company to retain the same $999 price tag for the Galaxy Z Flip 4 too. Reducing the Galaxy Z Flip 3’s price allowed it to go mainstream but we don’t expect them to reduce it further. If the Galaxy Z Flip 4 fixes some of the issues we had with its predecessor, then it would make it easier for us to recommend it, even at the same price.
We’d also like to point out that Samsung might drop the letter ‘Z’ from its branding like it already has in some European nations. We hope it does as it would make it a lot easier for everyone to identify these phones. We’ll keep an eye on the updates regarding a potential change in branding and update this space with more info once get some clarity on it.
Specifications: Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1?
We’ll update this space with a fully fleshed-out specification table once we have confirmation on the specs for the Galaxy Z Flip 4. But if the leaks and rumors are something to go by, it looks like Samsung will turn to the new Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 chipset for this new foldable. Not only will it make the Z Flip 4 a solid improvement over the Snapdragon 888-powered Galaxy Z Flip 3, but it would also make it better than many other 2022 flagship phones that are powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset. Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 (SM8475) SoC is based on TSMC’s 4nm process. It offers a lot of improvements over the predecessor including power efficiency. We suggest you check out Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 testing to learn more about this particular chipset and the kind of improvements it brings to the table.
I confirm again that Fold4 and Flip4 will use TSMC Snapdragon 8 gen1 plus (SM8475)
— Ice universe (@UniverseIce) May 6, 2022
The Samsung Galaxy Z Fip 4 is also expected to have at least 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. The Galaxy Z Flip 3 topped out at 256GB storage, and it remains to be seen if that’ll be the case with the new phone too. We don’t expect to see the MicroSD card slot making a return, which means you’ll have to be wary of the storage configuration you pick for your device. That, however, has been the case for almost all the flagship devices on the market, so it’s not necessarily an issue that’s exclusive to the Galaxy Z Flip series.
As far as the battery is concerned, Samsung is expected to pack a slightly bigger battery inside the Galaxy Z Flip 4. According to reports, the phone is said to have a 2,400mAh “sub” battery and a 903mAh “main” battery. The Galaxy Z Flip 3, in case you’re wondering, also had a similar battery configuration although its “sub” battery was rated 100 mAh less. Two batteries combined, the Galaxy Z Flip 4 will reportedly offer a rated capacity of 3,300mAh or 3,400mAh “typical” advertised capacity. We’re only looking at a small 100 mAh increase over the Galaxy Z Flip 3, but that — along with the more power-efficient chipset — is expected to offer some good results overall. We’ll have more to talk about the specifications of this phone a bit closer to its release date, so keep an eye on this page for more updates.
Design: More of the same
The design of the Galaxy Z Flip 3 was largely the same as the first Galaxy Flip and the Flip 5G that came out before it. And if the rumors are to be believed, then the upcoming Galaxy Z Flip 4 is expected to retain the same design. That’s not necessarily a bad thing because the Galaxy Z Flip phones have all made a strong style statement with their unique form factor. As such, the Z Flip 4 is also expected to turn a large phone into something that fits easier in your pocket or purse. Here’s a quick look at the leaked render of the Galaxy Z Flip 4:
As you can see from the attached image, the Galaxy Z Flip 4 looks very similar to the Galaxy Z Flip 3. According to the leaked dimensions, the Galaxy Z Flip 4 will measure 165.1 x 71.9 x 7.2mm when unfolded. That makes it a hair shorter, wider, and even thicker than the Galaxy Z Flip 3. In comparison, the Galaxy Z Flip 3 measures 166.0 x 72.2 x 6.9mm. We expect the new phone to have a better hinge design too but there’s no official word on that just yet.
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3’s dual-tone design was a huge hit, so it would be great to see the Galaxy Z Flip 4 retaining the same aesthetics. We can already see it in the render above, but we hope it’ll available in other colorways too. The Galaxy Z Flip 3 also had what Samsung called the “Armor Aluminum” chassis along with Gorilla Glass Victus on both halves of the back panel. We expect the Galaxy Z Flip 4 to retain the same build materials and maybe have a better IP rating to include dust resistance too. The IPX8 certification was a huge step up for both the Galaxy Z Flip 3 and the Galaxy Z Fold 3, but it would be nice to have all-around protection for the next phone.
The Galaxy Z Flip 4, just like the Galaxy Z Flip 3, is said to have a side-mounted fingerprint scanner. A physical side-mounted scanner makes sense on foldable phones as it’ll allow you to naturally unlock them while opening the display. Similarly, it’s also said to retain the punch-hole cutout for the camera instead of using an under-display unit, although there’s no official confirmation on the same. An immediate design overall doesn’t feel essential for the Galaxy Z Flip 4, although we wouldn’t mind having a slightly bigger cover display that’ll allow us to do a little bit more than just glance at your notifications.
Before we move on to the next section, we wanted to highlight that the Galaxy Z Flip 4 is also rumored to come in at least four colors — Gold, Gray, Light Blue, and Light Violet. Considering how Samsung is known to offer additional color options for its devices post-launch, we expect the Galaxy Z Flip 4 to also be available in more colorways.
Z Flip 4 colors – Gold, Gray, Light Blue and Light Violet
Fold 4 colors – Beige, Black and GrayGold Z Flip 4 should be interesting.
— Ross Young (@DSCCRoss) May 4, 2022
Display: Bigger and better?
The upcoming Galaxy Z Flip 4 is also said to feature a larger external display. The Galaxy Z Flip 3 sports a 1.9-inch panel on the outside, next to the camera modules. While we don’t have an exact measurement, it looks like the Galaxy Z Flip 4 will arrive with at least a 2-inch external display, though it could be bigger. We don’t quite know if it’s going to be a small or a vast improvement, but we’d take any improvement over the one on the current Galaxy Z Flip 3 phones. Word on the street is that Samsung could keep the same 6.7-inch internal used on the last year’s model. This means we could see the same 6.7-inch FHD+ Dynamic AMOLED 2X display with a resolution of 2640 x 1080 pixels and 120Hz refresh rate. That’s not necessarily much of a surprise, nor is it a bad thing.
Z Flip 4 will have a larger cover display than the z Flip 3. Begins with a 2 rather than 1.9″…
— Ross Young (@DSCCRoss) May 2, 2022
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4: Wishlist
The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3, as we mentioned earlier, is Samsung’s most popular foldable to date, one that many people could buy at a relatively affordable price. Notably, the Z Flip 3 also provided some much-needed upgrades over its predecessor. That being said, there’s still plenty of room for improvement. Here’s a quick look at some of the obvious improvements Samsung can make to the Z Flip 3 to deliver a better clamshell phone this year:
A better hinge
The part about the hinge that we mentioned in our Galaxy Z Fold 4 wishlist can also be mentioned here. Both the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and the Z Flip 3 have a slight gap in between the displays when the phone is folded. Not only will make the phone look more polished, but it’ll also protect the internal screens from dust and damage. An updated hinge will also get rid of the crease in the middle from where the display is folded in half. It’s entirely possible to make a gapless hinge and also a creaseless foldable because of other options like the Oppo Find N ship without those two design flaws. Samsung might need to take a page out of Oppo’s playbook for this one but it would result in a better-looking Galaxy Z Flip 4 overall.
A telephoto lens
The cameras on the Galaxy Z Flip 3 aren’t bad by any means, but they’re also no match to what Samsung’s own Galaxy S22 series offers. The company opted to not include a telephoto lens on the current Flip phone, which at that time, wasn’t necessarily a deal-breaker. But now that we have the Galaxy S22 Plus on the market that carries a telephoto lens and also the same price tag as the Flip 3, the lack of a zoom lens definitely sticks out like a sore thumb. We’d love for the upcoming Flip 4 to have some sort of a telephoto lens, albeit just a basic 2x 2.5x optical lens. Samsung is known to ship out class-leading optics with its phones. And with so many new flagships on the market with some powerful cameras, the lack of a potent camera system will be hard to justify for the South Korean giant.
A bigger battery
The Galaxy Z Flip 3 is good at a lot of things but the battery life isn’t its strong suit. As we mentioned in our review, we think it’s okay-ish at best. Some people might say it’s abysmal as it fails to last for more than 6-7 hours on a busy day. It’s hard to tell if the Z Flip 4 will have a good battery life as the rumors are pointing towards only a slight increase in capacity. But we’re counting on the new Snapdragon chipset and possibly an updated, more power-efficient display to improve things this time around. We think this would also be a good time to mention that we’d like to see support for 25W fast charging at the very least. The Galaxy Z Flip 3 tops out at 15W wired charging, which is quite slow in comparison to other phones in 2022. In fact, even a lot of mid-range phones offer faster-charging speeds, let alone the ones that cost as much as the Z Flip 3 does.
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 Bespoke Edition?
Samsung announced the Galaxy Z Flip 3 Bespoke Edition a few months after the original launch of the Z Flip 3. The Bespoke Edition essentially allowed the customers to choose from 49 color combinations and customize their Galaxy Z Flip 3 to make it look exactly like they want it to. But the fact that the Bespoke Edition costs more than the standard edition and it isn’t available in all regions is somewhat of a bummer. And to make it even better this time around, Samsung could also allow different materials to choose from and perhaps let you add your etching too. Remember the Moto Maker? We want that, but from Samsung on this foldable.
Well, that brings us to the conclusion of the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 wishlist. Rumors and leaks aside, we hope Samsung manages to surprise us with features that we aren’t aware of just yet. We know it’s getting increasingly difficult to keep a smartphone under the wraps before the official unveiling but we wouldn’t count on anyone but Samsung to do it. We’ll continue to keep an eye on more Galaxy Z Flip 4 leaks and rumors and update this page with relevant information. In the meantime, you can check out our collection of the best foldable phones that are available on the market right now.
Featured image: Galaxy Z Flip 3
The post Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4: Everything we know so far about Samsung’s next clamshell foldable appeared first on XDA.
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