Samsung Galaxy Z Flip7 review: Small, smart, and a little addictive

The foldable story is finally maturing—and Samsung's Galaxy Z-series is living proof. At a starting price of ₹109,999, Samsung's Galaxy Z Flip7 packs in enough practical features to finally justify the folding form factor without it feeling like a gimmick. For once, the hinge isn't a party trick. It's a tool—a natural extension of how you interact with your phone.

The combination of improved hardware design, refined software tricks, and thoughtful AI integration means this little marvel feels less like a sci-fi concept and more like the kind of phone you can actually live with.

The Good Stuff

Design and display

The Galaxy Z Flip7 trims down in all the right places. At 13.7 mm thick when closed, it's slimmer than last year's Flip6 (14.9 mm). Sure, the Fold7's design overhaul still steals the thunder in the "wow" department, but what the Flip7 did is no small feat—literally. The slimming comes courtesy of a redesigned hinge that also happens to make the infamous crease far less visible. The result? A smoother, almost seamless inner display that makes you forget you're looking at a foldable.

The build still screams premium—Armor Aluminum frame, hinge cover, Gorilla Glass Victus 2 on the Flex Window and back, plus IP48 water-and-dust resistance. At 188g, it feels reassuringly solid but not wrist-aching heavy. The port and button placement remains sensible: power/fingerprint combo and volume rockers on the right, SIM slot on the left, USB-C and speaker grille at the bottom, and the secondary mic up top.

Cover display upgrades

The most noticeable change hits you even before you flip it open. Gone is the awkward folder-shaped outer screen; in comes a full 4.1-inch cover display that fills the top half of the phone. That's up from 3.4 inches, and believe me, that 0.7-inch bump is noteworthy. The resolution jumps to a sharp 948×1,048, and the 120Hz refresh rate plus 2,600 nits of peak brightness means this thing is a joy to use—indoors or under blazing sun.

In day-to-day life, I found myself watching quick videos, replying to texts, checking my calendar, making quick calculations, and even gaming without unfolding the phone (for testing purposes). This is the first Flip where the cover display feels like a legitimate screen rather than a glorified notification center. Bonus: Gemini and Now Brief finally work on the cover display — handy for quick AI interactions without flipping open.

Main display

Flip it open and you're greeted by a 6.9-inch FHD+ AMOLED with slimmer bezels and a friendly 21:9 aspect ratio. It finally feels like a "normal" phone when open, without the odd proportions of older Flips. Color reproduction is vivid, sunlight legibility is solid, and the UTG glass feels sturdy.

And yes—folding to answer or hang up calls is still the most satisfying gesture in smartphone history. I'd argue it's even more fun than opening and closing the Fold7.

Cameras

The Flip7 sticks to its dual rear setup—50MP main + 12MP ultra-wide—and a 10MP selfie shooter. Hardware-wise, it's very similar to the Flip6, but usability gets a boost thanks to the improved cover screen. Using the main camera for selfies with a live preview on the cover display is still one of the best foldable party tricks.

Daylight shots are crisp, with excellent detail and dynamic range. Autofocus is snappy, ultra-wide images hold up well, and portraits have accurate edge detection. Low-light performance is better than before, especially with Night Mode. Even the soft LED flash is usable in many cases as it doesn't cast a harsh glare on the skin tones. The inner 10MP selfie cam is fine for video calls, but you'll want to use the main shooters whenever possible.

Performance

Under the hood, the Flip7 runs Samsung's new Exynos 2500 deca-core chipset—not the Snapdragon 8 Elite found in the Fold7. While some may frown at that, the phone handled everything I threw at it without breaking a sweat. Games like Call of Duty and BGMI ran smoothly, day-to-day multitasking was fluid, and OneUI animations felt polished.

OneUI 8 is here with seven years of OS and security updates promised—a huge plus for long-term buyers. Galaxy AI has matured, with tools like Call Transcript, Writing Assist, and Drawing Assist fitting naturally into the workflow. The Flip7 is ideal for the Interpreter feature, which uses the cover display for the person standing in front of you to read the translated text while you interact with the main display in a folded state.

Gemini Live is a standout: you can point your camera at something and ask questions right from the cover display. It's delightfully futuristic, yet practical.

Multi-window and floating apps work seamlessly, RAM Plus boosts memory by up to 12GB, and Samsung's weather app still remains the prettiest of the lot. These little touches add up to a polished experience.

A welcome bump to 4,300 mAh makes this the biggest Flip battery yet. In my tests, it comfortably lasted a full day with 6 hours of screen-on time—impressive for a foldable this slim.

There's room for improvement

As much as I've enjoyed the Flip7, there are some quirks and misses.

The cover display software is still oddly restricted. You can't add new clock faces without Samsung's Good Lock, multitasking is absent, recent apps aren't visible, and orientation lock means you can't flip the screen for landscape use. All software issues — so fixable if Samsung wills. 

The camera hardware, while good, is basically unchanged from the Flip6. No telephoto option still hurts for a flagship in this price range.

Performance-wise, the Exynos 2500 holds up well, but for Rs 1,09,999, not getting the Snapdragon 8 Elite feels like a compromise—especially when its sibling, the Fold7, gets it.

Charging speeds remain stubbornly slow at 25W. While other brands are boasting 4 times that speed on wired charging, Samsung still takes over an hour to fully juice up. And oddly, the phone heats up noticeably while charging—even though gaming or heavy multitasking doesn't cause thermal issues.

Verdict: Who is the Flip7 for?

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip7 is the first Flip I can wholeheartedly call "practical."

The folding mechanism finally feels like it belongs—not as a futuristic flex (pun intended), but as a feature that enhances how you use your phone. From the improved cover screen to AI tools that actually save time, it's a phone that adapts to your life, not the other way around.

If you're a foldable skeptic, this is the model that might change your mind. It's ideal for someone who values portability, enjoys the satisfaction of a flip action, and wants a device that can double as both a conversation starter and a daily driver.

This is the Ant-Man of smartphones—small when it needs to be, big when it matters, and full of clever tricks. And just like the Marvel hero, it's not about the size. It's about how you use it. If this fits your bill, you're looking at your next upgrade—albeit quite an expensive one.