The flip phone is the nostalgic. There’s no getting around it. I remember getting my first one in high-school — it was an LG U8110 — losing it while running away from a broken-up house party, and then begging my parents to get me a new one shortly there afterwards. Thankfully they acquiesced after a few weeks. Those are the memories people don’t forget.
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Of course, most of us haven’t had a flip phone for over a decade. And those old flip phones were simple. You could call, text, play snake and that’s about it. Today’s foldable smartphones are quite a bit different. Most are big screens that fold into even bigger screens. Samsung’s newest Galaxy Z Fold3 is a prime example of this. You can use it as smartphone, then a tablet, then a smartphone again. And at $1,800, it costs twice as much as most flagship smartphones.
Samsung’s “Flip” line is entirely different. It’s not trying to be a tablet, ever. It’s a smartphone that feels on par with Samsung’s other flagship Galaxy smartphones, but it folds into a compact shape so that it can fit into your pocket (or purse). And you don’t have to worry about scratching its screen.
Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip3 is an iteration of the previous Galaxy Z Flip 5G, with improvements in a few key ways. It has squared off edges, an improved hinge mechanism and a display with a 120Hz refresh rate (so it flies when scrolling through Twitter feeds). It has a camera system that’s almost flagship quality. It has a bigger and way more useful cover screen. But most significantly, Samsung dropped the price by $500 — you pick up the new Galaxy Z Flip3 for just shy of $1,000.
After using the Galaxy Z Flip3 for the last two weeks, the best thing I can say about it is that feels like flagship Samsung smartphone. It’s beautifully designed; has a bright and huge OLED display (albeit one that has a noticeable crease where the fold is); and takes pretty darn good photos. The difference is it can also fold in half.
