Samsung is having a pretty solid year with the Galaxy S25 Edge, the Galaxy Z Fold 7, and the upcoming Project Moohan; however, not everything they’ve released this year has been a hit. The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra was a great phone, but very expensive for the experience, and now the Galaxy Z Flip 7 might be a little too late. Though there are some improvements, the company also took a couple of steps back.

Improved design

Samsung has finally taken a design cue from Motorola and has extended the Cover Screen’s 3.4-inch panel to 4.1 inches, matching the likes of Razr flagships. This screen sports a Super AMOLED panel with a 120Hz refresh rate, 2,600 nits of brightness and 948 x 1048-pixel resolution. With the Cover Screen, you can easily check and reply to notifications, check the time, scroll through a variety of widgets and use Google Gemini, even Gemini Live.

Additionally, if you download Good Lock from the Galaxy Store, you can access every single app on your phone, similar to the Razr brand. It’s weird that you have to download another app to be able to do this, considering the Razr has no issue allowing users to add any single app to the Cover Screen.

Still, I’m happy Samsung has improved the Cover Screen experience, and has definitely made it more usable while offering a premium look and experience.

Unfolded, the Z Flip 7 sports a 6.9-inch display with a 1080 x 2520-pixel resolution. As always, you can still see the crease in the middle of flexible planel. The screen doesn’t look much better than its predecessor, but the extra 0.2 inches is a nice addition. The handset’s frame is flat, and it feels similar to the S25 Ultra, but the Moto Razr Ultra feels more comfortable in your hand with its more rounded frame.

The smartphone is lighter than the Razr Ultra, which is a nice touch, but it also lacks the fun eco leather back or the wood back panel on some models.

And compared to its predecessor, the Z Flip 6, the Flip 7 is also thinner, which means it’s not as bulky when folded in your pocket and slimmer when unfolded in your hand. The Z Flip 7 definitely has a better design than its predecessor, but it’s hard to say outright that the Flip 7’s design is any better than the Razr Ultra, its biggest competition on the market. That said, it’s not bad by any means, and the design improvements are definitely worthwhile.

Missing a dragon

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 sports an Exynos 2500 chip, even in Canada, alongside 12GB of RAM and up to 512GB of storage. The phone can handle any task, including scrolling social media, watching videos on YouTube, and playing Marvel Snap. I was pretty shocked to see the Exynos chipset in Canada since Samsung typically uses Snapdragon chips in its flagship devices in North America. While it probably makes the device more affordable since it’s Samsung’s own in-house chip, the Exynos chip seemingly falls short of the Snapdragon 8 Elite.

I noticed that the phone would get warm when it was in my hand or even in my pocket, as well as after a few Marvel Snap games, when taking pictures or even when using Google Maps. I expected better from Samsung, considering the success of handsets like the Galaxy Z Fold 7, and the S25 series. And while I’m not too interested in talking about benchmarks, according to Geekbench, the single-core and multi-core scores are worse than the Z Flip 6. You’re looking at a single-core score of 1,971 and a multi-core score of 6,627, compared to the Z Flip 6’s single-core score of 2,246 and a multi-core score of 6,740. I don’t put a lot of weight into these scores, but it sucks that the successor is pulling worse benchmarks. Although to be fair, in comparison to the Razr Ultra, the Z Flip 7 isn’t that bad. The Razr Ultra had a single-core score of 1,749, and a multi-core score of 6,702, which is pretty bad compared to some of the other Snapdragon 8 Elite devices.

The Galaxy Z Flip 7 has a larger battery than its predecessor, now sporting a 4,300mAh cell compared to the 4,000mAh on the Z Flip 6. Even though the phone has a bigger screens, it hasn’t negatively impacted the battery performance. I can easily get through a day, and it’ll make it to the afternoon the following day without an issue. On days I played a lot of Marvel Snap and took pictures, dealing with the extra warmth of the phone, the Z Flip 7 still made it to the end of the day. Samsung still only offers 25W wired charging, which isn’t a lot compared to other phones on the market. Still, the foldable impressed me by surviving for so long in the day. It lasted longer throughout the day than the Motorola Razr Ultra despite having a smaller battery.

Decent camera, but not the best

And while the Snapdragon 8 Elite is designed to enhance image processing and add AI features, the Z Flip 7 with its duo of cameras and Exynos 2500 chipset with its AI-powered stablization, isn’t that bad. The 50-megapixel primary shooter takes solid pictures with vivid colours, high dynamic range, and it offers enough details for social media pictures. However, if you were a photographer, you might want a device like the S25 Ultra or Z Fold 7 as both handsets can capture far more detail in their pictures. Further, the 12-megapixel ultra-wide camera is a little underwhelming. I preferred the primary shooter on the Z Flip 7, but I wished the cameras had more consistency, similar to the Razr Ultra, where the two cameras were consistent.

Still, if you’re rocking the Z Flip 7, you’ll take some of the best selfies by using the rear-facing shooters for front-facing photos.

The Crownless

Altogether, the Galaxy Z Flip 7 is a solid smartphone, and while some aspects of it aren’t up to par with the Razr Ultra, Samsung’s flip phone is more afforable. The Z Flip 7 costs $1,642.99, while the Razr Ultra is priced at $1,899.99. Both phones are considerably too expensive in my opinion, but at least if you want a solid foldable, and the Razr Ultra is out of your price range, Samsung’s handset might be for you. I would recommend this handset to someone who wants to try this sort of foldable phone, doesn’t mind that they’re not getting top quality pictures and isn’t a mobile gamer.

However, with a longer battery life, and the great 4.1-inch Cover Screen, the Z Flip 7 isn’t a bad option, but I wouldn’t consider it the best flip style foldable on the market anymore, as that crown can easily go to the Razr Ultra this year.

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