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Hands On With The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip

Samsung has announced its newest foldable smartphone, the Galaxy Z Flip. And you can really see the areas that Samsung learned from the Galaxy Fold and applied it to the Galaxy Z Flip. These are first impressions of the Galaxy Z Flip, live from Samsung’s Unpacked event in San Francisco.

The Galaxy Z Flip is actually using a thin layer of glass, so when you are scrolling on it and tapping on the screen, it does feel a bit different compared to the Galaxy Fold, which was using a plastic display. We have also noticed that the crease isn’t as noticeable as it is with the Galaxy Fold. Now, this could also be because these Galaxy Z Flip models are newer and haven’t been used as long as our Galaxy Fold.

Those Galaxy Fold end caps are present on the Galaxy Z Flip

When Samsung re-launched the Galaxy Fold last year, one of the changes that it made was to add end caps to either side of the hinge. This was made so that dirt and other crud wouldn’t find its way under the screen. An issue that Samsung had with review units it sent out before the device officially went on sale in April.

Those end caps are here on the Galaxy Fold, which should surprise no one. But it should help keep dirt and dust from getting under the display.

Speaking of the display, Samsung also ditched that huge notch on the Galaxy Fold. Instead it is using a hole punch display. Something Samsung thinks it needs to brag about, saying it’s the “first foldable with a hole punch display”. Yeah, you don’t need to brag about that Samsung.

The hinge has also been improved on the Galaxy Z Flip. It now allows the phone to fold almost flat. Which is really great to see. So that there is less of a gap there.

Samsung is improving software for foldables

Last year, with the Galaxy Fold, we saw a number of things that Samsung did with its software to make it better on a foldable display. Like the ability to have three windows, and continuity from the front screen to the inside screen.

Now, with the Galaxy Z Flip, it is doing even more. Working with Google, both Duo and YouTube now support the Galaxy Z Flip, and work well when it is at a 90-degree angle. So on the bottom half of the screen, you can see comments on YouTube, with the upper half having the video that’s playing.

Other than that, not much needed to be done, software-wise for the Galaxy Z Flip, seeing as this is a regular 21:9 aspect ratio display, and it has a small outer display to show notifications. So it won’t use continuity for apps and such.

The software did seem to run really smoothly on the Galaxy Z Flip, during our hands on time, which make for some really good first impressions. Obviously, we’ll need to wait til we get a device in hand to see how well it really works. But as for now, it seems to be really good.

We can’t yet say if this is the foldable to buy, since it is still really like a 1.5 generation device, and not quite second generation yet. But it is pretty incredible how fast Samsung is improving this foldable technology.