With Gen Z bringing back everything from the early 2000s, it was inevitable that the flip phone would make a comeback.
After three generations and a lot of research, Samsung finally came up with a device under $1000 which can be considered as a truly mainstream flip smartphone.
The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 is currently available at Tk103,339 from Daraz Bangladesh.
Popular review site tom’s guide is calling it the “cheapest“ foldable smartphone yet.
However, with a great price tag comes greater responsibilities. While the flip mechanism is pretty decent on its own, the smartphone has some considerable issues. Here’s a breakdown.
It all went down with battery
To begin with, the major blowoff of the smartphone is its 3,300 mAh battery, which also happens to take a really long time to charge with its 15 watts charging support.
The phone definitely looks durable and it has the same processor as the Galaxy S21. Sleek with a 120Hz screen the design is outstanding and very pocket friendly.
However, things begin to go downhill with real-time use, like when you have to charge in the middle of the day and it takes forever.
Keep in mind that this is one of those smartphones that came with the flagship Snapdragon 888 chipset, and would have really outperformed many other devices if it came with a decent battery.
The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3, a smartphone that was released the same day comes with a 4,400 mAh battery inside with a 25 watts charging support.
While I still don’t think that is as an ideal battery capacity considering that the phone will often provide juice to two displays instead of one, having this kind of battery in the Z Flip 3 would have been really helpful.
Moreover, since Samsung also followed Apple’, there will be no charger included in the box.
Camera, another disappointment
With a phone that costs more than Tk1 lakh, it is normal for people to expect a really good camera from it.
However, Samsung Z Flip 3 has disappointed some of its users in this segment as well.
The phone has only two cameras on its back, a 12MP main camera and a 12MP ultrawide camera. The front selfie camera is a 10MP setup.
The lack of a decent telephoto lens is clearly visible here.
If we compare it to the Z Fold 3, that phone adds a telephoto lens in its back camera setup. However, the selfie camera on that smartphone will disappoint its users since it’s only a 4MP under-display cover camera.
Again, we can’t use the Z Fold 3 as a good example, apart from the fact that it at least gives us a telephoto lens.
However, since it’s a folding phone, you will be able to capture selfies using its main camera with the phone being closed. You will need to just get familiar with framing within the cover screen.
Is it all bad?
Samsung definitely made some smart choices with the Galaxy Z Flip 3. For starters, it provides a really nice 120Hz Super AMOLED display. It supports a peak brightness of 1200 nits, so using the phone under direct sunlight won’t be troublesome.
Samsung implemented its best display technology on the smartphone. The 2640x1080 resolution display with a higher refresh rate makes the scrolling super smooth.
On another note, the phone’s 120Hz display will drain the tiny battery faster than any other smartphone out there.
Moreover, the crease of the foldable display is still very much visible and definitely takes the attention away while consuming multimedia content like watching videos or playing games.
Don’t get me wrong, the viewing experience is definitely beautiful. But the crease is something that needed to be mentioned.
Samsung also did a nice thing by putting the IPX8 water resistance to the device. Though it is fully water-resistant, unlike IP68, the phone does not provide protection against dust
Who is this device for?
Samsung Z Flip 3 is basically targeted towards people who aim to use a smartphone that looks nice and can provide a really nice user experience.
If a user is looking for a phone that will last all day with a single charge, this is clearly not recommended.
However, if someone’s been looking for a compact device in the age of massive smartphones and don’t want to buy an iPhone, they can definitely check this out, if nothing but for the novelty value of this.