Galaxy Z Flip 6 starts at $1,099 with battery, cover display, and camera upgrades

Ben Schoon | Jul 10 2024 - 6:01 am PT

With its new Galaxy Z Flip 6, Samsung is addressing one of the biggest problems with its foldable flip phone, but in what is otherwise a fairly minor upgrade.

Last year’s Galaxy Z Flip 5 brought the debut of a 3.4-inch display on the outside of the device. The “FlexWindow” was the star of the show, and led to a much better experience on the whole. This year, Samsung is further upgrading that.

As a part of One UI 6.1.1, the Galaxy Z Flip 6 gets some new widgets and features for the cover display. This includes AI-powered “Suggested replies” for message notifications. There’s also “Photo Ambient,” which can update your wallpaper in real-time based on the time and weather as first launched on the Galaxy S24, and and “Interactive Wallpaper” with 3D characters that react to moving the device. Samsung says there are “more widgets than ever,” but we’re still waiting to see what the new additions are. One of the upgrades is the ability to show more than one widget on the display at once, though you’re still limited to a select list of widgets.

The display itself is still a 3.4-inch AMOLED panel at 60Hz, and the inner display is still a 6.7-inch FHD+ 120Hz AMOLED display.

The next big upgrade is the camera, with the primary sensor finally ditching the 12MP sensor used in every previous Flip and instead using a 50MP sensor. There’s still a secondary 12MP sensor used for ultrawide, and no telephoto lens. Zoom should still be improved by the added resolution of the main camera, though. On that note, Samsung is upgrading “FlexCam” (activated when propping the device up) with “AutoZoom” which can frame the shot automatically.

Beyond that, Samsung is equipping the Flip 6 with the biggest battery yet in its Flip series. The 4,000 mAh battery is a little over 8% larger than the Flip 5. Combined with the more efficient Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, though, there should be a noticeable battery life boost. Despite the larger cell, though, the Galaxy Z Flip 6 is actually thinner at 14.9mm when closed.

Samsung is also upgrading all Flip 6 models with 12GB of RAM, with the base variant jumping up to 256GB and an upgrade available to 512GB.

The fingerprint sensor is unchanged, as is the overall weight which remains at 187g. But Samsung is now rating the device at IP48. That’s the same level of water resistance, but the first time Samsung has given a rating for objects. Technically, though, an IP5X rating or higher is required for it to be considered dust resistance.

Like the Galaxy S24 series, Samsung is also upgrading support timelines on the Galaxy Z Flip 6. Out of the box it runs Android 14, with 7 years of Android and security updates.

The Galaxy Z Flip 6 starts at $1,099 and will be available from Samsung.com and other retailers such as Amazon starting on July 24, with pre-orders open today. Flip 6 is available in Silver Shadow, Yellow, Blue, and Mint, with Samsung.com exclusive colors including Crafted Black, White, and Peach.