The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip7 is a story of something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue. The blue part is easy — my review sample, provided by Samsung, is the Blue Shadow colorway. The highlight of the phone is definitely the “something new.” Samsung massively updated its pocket-sized foldable phone with a huge cover screen. At 4.1 inches, it’s the largest external display on a flip-style phone to date.
“Something borrowed” comes in the form of the Exynos processor that lives inside the phone. Past versions of Galaxy Z Flips in international markets have been powered by Exynos silicon in the past, but U.S. phones have typically had Snapdragon hardware from Qualcomm, which we strongly prefer. The “borrowed label” is my hope that Samsung will go back to Snapdragon hardware in the future — more on that later.
Finally, “Something old” — one of my biggest frustrations with the phone, which is a little bit better this year (but honestly not that much better than the Galaxy Z Flip6). It has to do with the way apps appear on the external display (what Samsung calls the Cover Screen) and Samsung’s refusal to treat that beautiful canvas like a proper screen. It’s a little maddening, though it didn’t stop me from having fun with the phone.
Shortly after Samsung unveiled the Z Flip 7 (and its incredibly thin older sibling, the excellent Galaxy Z Fold 7) this July, I hit the road to sunny (and devastatingly hot) St. Louis, home of the Gateway Arch, Six Flags, and Meremec caverns. Over the course of five days, I put this “AI Flip Phone” through the ringer for my Galaxy Z Flip 7 review.
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