The sixth iteration of Samsung’s modern flip phone is not that different to last year’s, though for the same price it brings a few nice-to-have improvements including a better camera, more premium finish and longer battery life, but that doesn’t mean a phone with a folding screen is for everyone. The Galaxy Z Flip 6 is the best foldable Samsung has made so far, but there are still compromises compared to a regular smartphone.

The premise of a display that folds in half was pure science fiction until five years ago when Samsung released the original book-style Galaxy Fold. Now the firm annually releases Folds and Flips, the latter unfolding on a horizontal crease like the flip phones from the late 1990s and early 2000s. Nostalgia mixed with modern tech is a powerful combination – I can confirm it’s very fun to have a flip phone again, and being able to close the Z Flip 6 down to a more pocketable size is a boon.

I’ve been toting the Z Flip 6 as my main phone for more than a week and have found it both fun to use but also oddly utilitarian. I prefer the matt glass back and aluminium side rails to the glossy Z Flip 5, but with its squared off looks that echo the Galaxy S24 Ultra, the Flip 6 feels more functional than playful, even in the blue hue of my review sample. The green and yellow versions are more fun.

That’s no bad thing if Samsung’s goal was to make this phone feel as close to a ‘normal’ phone as possible. Its large 6.7-inch internal folding screen is excellent, with great colours and brightness, though in direct sunlight the plastic reflects light and makes it harder to read. Because these screens must be made of foldable materials, they’re also more susceptible to scratches and dents from debris and fingernails, damage that is irreversible. That’s a major downside to a £1,049 gadget, and I’ve seen folding screens on older Flips crack in the middle after about a year.

Samsung has at least upgraded the water and dust rating to IP48, which means it has limited dust resistance and can technically survive a submerged dunk. It also offers 256GB storage as standard, and 12GB RAM is more than enough to keep things feeling snappy.

You also get a side-mounted fingerprint sensor on this phone rather than an under screen sensor, and it’s still a great way to quickly unlock your phone.

When closed, the Z Flip 6 protects that inner screen entirely and presents you with a 3.4-inch outer screen that’s not square as it skirts the dual cameras and has rounded corners with some bezel either side – far from the expansive outer display on the recent Motorola Razr 50 Ultra.

The Flip’s screen is useful though, showing key information such as time, date, weather and battery percentage, which you can also set to be ‘always-on’. I was less inclined to pick up my phone and fall into an app blackhole when I could glance down at it and see I’d not missed anything. An orange dot shows if you have any notifications, and you can even answer calls or reply to texts from any messaging app on the dinky display with a hilariously tiny keyboard.

Samsung – unlike Motorola – limits which apps you can use in full on the outer screen, which is annoying. You can use WhatsApp and Google Maps but that’s about it. There’s a way to get any app you want on there but it involves downloading Samsung’s Good Lock app from the Galaxy Store and installing a widget – even if those words mean something to you, it’s not very easy and is a bad decision on Samsung’s part. Let me use my phone how I want!

There’s also a calendar, weather and alarm widget along with other useful tiles, but I mainly only used the small screen to check messages and change tracks on Spotify. You need to open up the Flip when you want to do something, but as I said I value how its form factor makes me think twice about opening the phone in the first place, making me use it less.

Then again, you might want to flip this thing open all day long. You can position the hinge open to 90 degrees and create a mini tripod, using the excellent 50MP main camera to take a group shot while using the outer screen as a viewfinder. These are things normal glass phones simply cannot do, and the hinge here is the best I’ve used on a foldable. Its sturdiness adds to the premium feel.

That 50MP camera is much improved over older Flips and is the same lens used on the Galaxy S24 Plus. It takes superb images in daylight and is great in low light too, though Samsung still boosts the blues and greens, but overall it’s hard to complain. Samsung opts for an ultra-wide second lens rather than a telephoto, so if you love to zoom you will only get digital zoom on the Flip 6.

Again fold it to 90 degrees and you can shoot video like an old-school camcorder, though Samsung pinched this idea from Motorola. You can also take a hands-free video call with the inside screen while the device is folded, or even call up a tiny trackpad on the bottom half and use a cursor on the app that’s on the top half.

Samsung is pushing its Galaxy AI features with the Flip 6, and you can use a real-time interpreter mode that translates what the person you’re talking to is saying on the main screen, while displaying what you say back, translated into their language, on the outer screen. It’s clunkier than Samsung’s marketing, but it works and is a good use of the two screens. You can also try real-time translation during voice calls, which again does work but is confusing for both parties.

AI also offers quick replies to messages on the outer screen, and Samsung claims to scan your last few messages with that person to get the tone of its auto-replies correct. You can also translate messages in several chat apps, change your writing style, or correct your spelling and grammar. I personally dislike the features that do your writing for you (journalist over here), but the ability to get a bullet point summary from written notes or recorded audio is useful – I guess it depends what you want from AI. If you don’t want anything at all, I found the features easy to ignore, at least. It didn’t stop me enjoying using the phone.

New too is drawing assist which lets you “transform simple drawings into captivating works of art”. You can sketch a terrible picture of a cat with your finger and then AI creates an image for you from several artistic styles. I’m not sure why this is needed, and sometimes the results are terrifying. This is the ultimate gimmick.

One of the best things about the Flip 6 is Samsung’s mature One UI software. Running over Android 14, it’s highly customisable and means you can really make this phone your own, including fun designs for the outer screen. The level of polish is noticeable compared to other Android phones, though I found I had to disable a lot of app notifications otherwise Samsung likes to ping you constantly, but after a few days I was happy with my setup.

Samsung is also promising seven years of software support, so you’ll get Android and security updates until 2031, which is very good indeed. If you want to keep this phone this long though you’ll probably need to replace the battery, and I imagine the folding display will have failed by then.

Battery life is excellent here, and if you are a light user you might get two days out of it. Realistically with all that tapping and flipping you’ll have to charge every night, but this is the best battery life on a Z Flip yet. I’m not sure the vapour chamber inside does much to cool the phone down though, as it gets hot when in use or when fast charging (and Samsung’s ‘fast’ charging is slower than most). You can also pop the phone on a wireless charger to top it up slowly.

You’re paying a premium to get a fragile folding phone at £1,049, but you might value the Z Flip 6’s pocketability and the fun of a flip phone more than getting the £799 Galaxy S24 or £999 iPhone 15 Pro. It’s certainly the best Samsung flip phone yet, and with improved camera, battery life and software updates, it’s the best time to invest if you’re been sitting on the flippin’ fence.

You’ll probably want insurance, though.