As it turns out, “feel” counts for a lot where foldables are concerned, and Samsung has a surprisingly good handle on it here. While the Z Flip doesn’t click into place quite as convincingly as the Razr does, it also doesn’t make a tell-tale creaking sound. (At least, as far as I could tell — it was pretty loud in there.) And to Samsung’s credit, the hinge system in place here allows for more flexibility than what I’ve seen before. You can, for instance, prop the Z Flip open 90 degrees so you can rest the phone on a table and have it shoot with either of the 12MP rear cameras. That might not sound terribly exciting, but if it saves from having to carry a tripod around, I’m all for it.
Ultimately, though, the Z Flip has two things going for it that make it especially attractive compared to the Razr. For one, it packs a pair of batteries that provide 3,300mAh of power in total. I know we’re not exactly making one-to-one comparisons, but flagship phones we tested with similar specs last year could generally stick around for more than a full day — that’s about the minimum you should accept from a premium smartphone. And speaking of premium, the Z Flip’s price is hard to argue with: At $1,380, it’s more than $100 less expensive than the Razr. Well, for now, anyway.
A few other notes:

  • Instead of a spacious external display like the Razr’s, Samsung chose a much smaller, 1-inch OLED that’s basically just good for glancing at the time. It’s cute, but feels less than ideal.
  • Despite Samsung’s big 5G push with the Galaxy S20s, the Z Flip doesn’t support these next-gen networks at all.
  • The dual-camera setup Samsung is using here isn’t nearly as ambitious as the S20’s, but the Z Flip does have the Single Take feature that captures multiple stills and video clips over a span of about ten seconds.
  • These phones are pretty handsome, all things considered, but man do they pick up fingerprints like crazy.

I can’t say I’m surprised I like the Z Flip as much as I do — few companies have the kind of foldable experience does. I am surprised, though, that the Z Flip feels as uncompromised as it does.