Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6 review: the practical flip phone

Look, fun is fun and all, but sometimes boring is better.

A flip phone dripping with nostalgia that comes in bold colors and lets you run apps all willy-nilly on the cover screen? With inviting wallpapers and playful UI touches? That’s fun. It’s also not the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6. But while I thoroughly enjoyed using the Motorola Razr Plus — the fun flip phone — reliability wins out in the end.

Samsung’s newest clamshell-style foldable is a light update on last year’s model. It costs $1,099, which is a hundred dollars more than last year but also just what flagship phones cost these days. The inner and outer screens get a little brighter in direct sunlight, there’s a slightly bigger battery, and there’s an upgraded main camera, plus the latest Qualcomm chipset, naturally.

That paragraph could describe any number of new Android phones this year. And in the case of the Z Flip 6, that’s actually a good indication of how far Samsung’s flip phone has come. Last year’s update from a small cover screen to the current 3.4-inch OLED took the Flip series from “eh, it’s kinda cool” to “okay this is something.” It’s a far cry from Samsung’s earliest attempts.

But the Z Flip 6 hasn’t totally reached parity with slab phones; it’s certainly not the most fun flip phone. Sure, it’s the best Samsung flip phone — I just wish it would borrow a few ideas from some of the competition.

If I’d never picked up the Motorola Razr Plus, I’d think the Z Flip 6’s outer screen was pretty darn good. But the Razr’s bigger, higher-res screen wraps all the way around the punchouts for the lenses and flash. It makes the Flip 6’s cover screen, which keeps well away from that whole area, look stodgy and cramped by comparison.

And not to get too caught up about wallpapers, but Samsung’s best idea about new wallpapers for the outer screen is… a donut that bounces around when your phone moves? There’s so much more fun stuff you could do with this! Moto’s wallpapers are colorful and inviting, there’s an adorable turntable that spins when you’re playing audio, and I swear one of the background options is blurple. The Z Flip 6 comes with a proper always-on display this time around, but it lacks the sense of fun that I’d expect from a flip phone. Motorola has a mode that turns the whole phone into a retro flip phone, for Pete’s sake. Let’s live a little.