Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6 first impressions: Do more with the cover screen

Samsung has launched its new foldable phones — Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Z Flip 6 — at an event hosted in Paris, France. Both the devices retain the core of last year’s Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Galaxy Z Flip 5 but also have the latest hardware and new AI capabilities on offer. Samsung’s clamshell phone has definitely found a wider audience in India and I am sure there will be a lot of interest around the Galaxy Z Flip 6 as well. While the India pricing of the phone is yet to be announced, I got a chance to test the device on the sidelines of Galaxy Unpacked 2024. 

Samsung has once again come up with a really cute, compact, lifestyle-focused foldable phone that looks superb in pastel colours. It has a great finish and is light, thin, and easy to use. At 187 grams, it’s lighter than most candy bar flagship phones. 

However, there is not a major change in terms of display specs. The Z Flip 6 comes with a 3.4-inch AMOLED screen on the cover with a 120Hz refresh rate while the main screen has a 6.7-inch FHD+ AMOLED panel with a 120Hz refresh rate. But, you can now add more widgets to the cover screen, and put multiple widgets on the same tab and there is AI support here as well. 

So, you may not have to open the phone every single time to engage with it. How much screen time does it eventually reduce is something we will have to wait and see. 

What all can you do with the cover screen now? A lot

• Samsung is introducing new interactive wallpapers for the cover screen. Elements on these wallpapers respond when you touch them. This is cool and a lot of fun at the same time. You can also apply Ambient wallpapers now.
• There is AI support for wallpapers as well. So, you can generate wallpapers of your choice and get suggestions to convert existing images into wallpapers as well.
• The interpreter app can also be accessed through the cover screen itself. It translates in-person conversations in real-time.
• Then, there are suggested replies. So, if you get a message, the phone will compose and suggest a reply which you can send from the cover screen itself.

While there are other phones that are offering AI features these days, I don’t think anyone apart from Google has been able to optimise them as well as Samsung within the Android ecosystem. 

There are also hardware changes across the board. The Z Flip 6 is now powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset, gets a 50-megapixel main camera with OIS, and packs a bigger 4000mAh battery. All of this comes with 7 years of software updates.

We will test these features once when we have the phone with us. So, stay tuned for the full review.