Galaxy Z Flip3 Review

I don’t know about the rest of you; this is a nostalgia-amazing phone style for me, the clamshell. It was *the* phone style you got if you were on the bleeding edge in primary school or high school – and had cool parents. And better – it really works well as a smartphone, particularly if you’re someone who likes collecting your adventures through photos or video.  

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip3 5G was released in Australia for sale on 10 Sep, 2021. 

• At a Glance
• Specs
• Look and Feel
• Features
• Battery and Performance
• Camera
• Responsiveness, Hetz & nitz

This is the phone that can, for once in the last few years, fit comfortably in most of your pockets – though due to the fold over nature of the phone sometimes if you’re wearing tighter pants the Flip3 doesn’t quite make the cut into the pocket…but that’s what bags are for, right?

Outside of the form factor of this phone, one of the features that has me particularly keen is the bigger notification panel on the front, with functions like the selfie camera and recording capabilities straight from the 1.9” notification screen. 

Optus is relying on product information supplied by Samsung in making the representations above.

Is there a headphone jack?

No, there isn’t a headphone jack, wired headphones (sold separately) would need to be USB-C.

Is there expandable memory?

No, the Z Flip3 doesn’t have expandable memory capacity, you can get the Z Flip3 in either 128 or 256GB internal memory. 

Look and Feel

This phone definitely has curb side appeal. It looks good. While the review phone I got was black, I think Samsung made a unique design choice with the two-tone colours of some of the other colours like lavender, where you effectively have black and lavender because of the notification screen.

When I got the review phone and started using it, I was surprised by how thin it was when unfolded and being used primarily as a smartphone (rather than using the notification screen). It took me a bit to get used to how to hold it in a way that didn’t feel like I was going to drop it at a second’s notice. If you’re at all a klutz like me, I’d recommend getting one of either the ring or strap cases for the phone for a bit of added security. 

When using the phone, I found the crease less noticeable (to my eye) than it was for me on the Galaxy Z Fold3 5G. That being said, I always had moments where I noticed it – because of the angle of the light or the colours on the screen – though 95% of the time it didn’t even cross my mind when using the phone.

Now, I don’t have a baseline for how the internal screens were on previous generations of the Flip, but what I can tell you is this screen doesn’t feel plasticky or really even too delicate. This generation is a Dynamic AMOLED 2x display, and is Samsung’s Infinity Flex display, made of Ultra Thin Glass.  And it’s not like those sci-fi liquid plasma screens where if you touch it you can see the give – the internal screen, to me – felt solid.  

Using apps on this screen ratio is relatively straightforward – and you can force the aspect ratio on apps with a “Labs” feature, too, if you don’t want any bumpers. I also found that with video, the best way to watch is holding the phone in landscape – whatever video you’re watching has a lot more space than it would watching vertically.

The foldability of it was easy to get used to for me as well – the resistance of the hinge went from “jeez this is hard to fold” to smooth sailing within a day or two of use, and I appreciate there’s still a bit of resistance in the hinge, because that’s what lets you use flex mode for hands-free selfies (when the phone is sitting on something solid, that is). 

This is one of the phones where the design is a feature with its iconic clamshell folding design and creates space for a lot of cool features on this phone, as with the Z Fold3.

For me, the biggest features of the phone are camera-related – flex mode and the notification bar camera preview. Flex mode both for the ability to take photos and for the ability to split-screen apps. 

As with previous generations of the Flip and Fold, something to be mindful of is there are magnets in the Galaxy Z Flip3 for the form factor, to keep the two sides together securely, so you’ll want to keep your wallet (or any other magnetic objects) and your phone in different pockets (or places), just in case. 

The battery capacity of this phone comes in at (typically) 3,300mAH, which is less than your standard flagship phone, like say the S21. Don’t be fooled by the numbers though! It’s not like this phone is one that died on me in like…2 hours. You shouldn’t get stranded during the day with this phone and this battery, or at least I didn’t experience it myself nor did I expect to.

As a relatively light user of my phone (web browsing, some data-heavy apps like Instagram or Chrome, not regularly watching movies or playing games) the phone lasted me about a day and a half on a single charge. With fast charging, the phone charged up in about 2 hours, so it may be around your desk for a few hours in the afternoon or while you sleep, that’s what I’m used to – and what I would imagine a lot of folks are used to.

The Z Fold3 uses the Snapdragon 888 processor, Snapdragon’s 2021 processor, like the S21 family does in the United States (in Australia the S21 family uses Exynos 2100).

According to Qualcomm, the AI engine behind this 6th generation chip is completely rearchitected, with 16x larger shared AI memory than previous generations. They also boast advancements in smartphone technology with the ability to capture from 3 lenses simultaneously at “multi-gigapixel speeds with a triple ISP,” with video and image capture 35% faster than the 888’s predecessor.

The camera specs for your wide lens and ultrawide are the same between the S21 and the Z Flip3 – both 12MP shooters with the same aperture (letting the same amount of light in). The main difference is there’s no dedicated telephoto lens - you can still shoot up to 10x but the assumption here is that the zoom is software-based rather than optical, which usually means there’s a bit more noise or blurriness on software-based zoom. 

The main camera resolution has a slightly smaller aperture – 2.4 in the Fold3 versus a slightly larger 2.2 in the S21. (The smaller the aperture number, the more light a lens can let in – for more detail, have a read of our camera primer).

So, what you’re getting here is essentially a flagship camera system in a tidy little package that makes taking selfies as easy as pie with the notification screen preview (that seems to default / only take photos in 1:1 aspect ratio, so – a square), 

and flex mode:

For flex mode my little tip (that took me far too long to realise) is to use the timer – 2 seconds if you’re relatively close to your phone once it’s set up on a stable surface, or longer if you have to move a bit further to get into frame.

The notification screen camera mode is relatively intuitive, where you double press the power button (as you would if the phone was open as a shortcut to activate the camera), swipe left or right for video or photo mode and then up or down to change the zoom, double tapping on the preview screen to take the photo.

In terms of photography, as with the Galaxy Z Fold3, for the cameras included, you have the same specs as the S21, so definitely does the trick for every day. Some samples: 

0.5x zoom

1x zoom

2x zoom

4x zoom

10x zoom

As you go from optical zoom to digital zoom, you do see some white noise in quality, so generally if you want to get in close, you may want to go with a wider zoom and then crop in later.

The cover preview screen and photos are particularly good if you’re interested in getting those ~angles~ because you’re able to get as much, if not more, range of motion and choice of angle as you would with a selfie stick if you’re using the preview screen and preview mode. Quick as a snap.

The phone has an adaptive system that adjusts the screen brightness and scrolling smoothness (hertz) up to 120Hz refresh rate. Many phones up until 2020 have been 90 or even 60 Hz, and it’s really only the last 18 months that 120 Hz is becoming more common, so seeing 120Hz on a non-standard smartphone is pretty stand-out.

The screen is a 6.7” FHD+ (full high definition+) with Dynamic AMOLED 2X (which, again, is the same standard as the S21 phone, save for the dimensions of the screen). AMOLED screens are built with technology that increases the colour range, including better blacks (than LED) and deliberately reducing blue light emissions – for more in depth info, we’ve got an explainer on different screen types.

The long and short of it though is the screen will look good, respond well, and probably not strain your eyes as much with super-bright blue light, while still being able to see clearly outdoors in most conditions as this tech also helps increase the overall brightness of the phone.

To me, this phone was an ultimate experience in portability. The compactness of the phone along with the notifications screen (for both notifications and photos) meant that it was easy to see what was going on without having to unleash the full screen – it made life super easy.

This phone would be ideal for travellers who enjoy taking photos at their destination to keep those memories, or content creators who may not always have someone to contort themselves into the perfect angle – flex and preview both help heaps in those instances.

Mobile innovation never stops, with the latest Galaxy S25 Series finally landing in Australia. The new Galaxy S25 Series features new Galaxy AI tools, as well as upgraded processors and camera lenses. Check out the Galaxy S25 Ultra for a look at Samsung’s newest flagship phone.