Is Samsung making a mistake with the Galaxy Z Flip 7? Here’s why I’m worried
Samsung was one of the first device makers to regularly turn out foldable phones, and for a time, the company enjoyed the first mover advantage that made various Galaxy Fold and Galaxy Flip models fixtures at the top of our best foldable phone rankings. But the competition has become a lot fiercer in recent years, and you wonder if Samsung has lost some of its foldable edge — at least when it comes to the Flip.
That’s Samsung’s flip phone-style foldable, and while the current Galaxy Z Flip 6 is a solid device, especially when it comes to photo-taking abilities, it’s not that big a departure from its predecessors. Meanwhile, Motorola has its own lineup of foldable flip phones, which has only gotten better with each recent iteration.
The 2024 iteration of the Motorola Razr proved to be a better option than Samsung’s flip phone, and Motorola has since updated the lineup with a trio of 2025 models highlighted by the Motorola Razr Ultra. At $1,299, it’s more expensive than the Galaxy Z Flip 6, but it’s also got a beefier processor, better battery life and some promising AI capabilities that offer more of a challenge to Samsung’s well-regarded Galaxy AI features.
Samsung has a chance to reclaim the top spot from Motorola later this summer when we’re expecting to see a new version of the Galaxy Flip. (The Galaxy Z Fold 7 should also show up at the same time, though I’m mostly interested in the flip phones, as they’re the more affordable option that’s likely to have a wider audience appeal.) And while Samsung could always have some pleasant surprises in store, a couple recent Galaxy Z Flip 7 rumors don’t sound particularly promising.
Chipset conundrum
Every time a new Samsung phone is in the works, it seems there’s dueling rumors as to whether that device will use a top-of-the-line Snapdragon system-on-chip from Qualcomm or if Samsung will turn to one of its own Exynos chips. It’s not an insignificant question. Snapdragon silicon tends to perform better than Exynos, as we’ve found when testing the same Samsung phones running on different chips. The most recent example here is last year’s Galaxy S24, which featured the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 in versions released in North America and the Exynos 2400 in other parts of the world.
That strategy is relevant to our Galaxy Z Flip 7 discussion, as a report out of Korea suggests that Samsung is about to do the same thing with its flip phone. The Galaxy Z Flip 7 models headed to the U.S. will apparently feature a Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset like the one found across the Galaxy S25 lineup. New Flip models shipping elsewhere will apparently get the Exynos 2500.
In some ways, that’s understandable. Qualcomm chips are reportedly not cheap, so using that silicon in at least some models can keep costs down. But as we’ve seen from testing the best Android phones to come out in 2025, the Snapdragon 8 Elite really delivers big boosts to both performance and battery life — advantages an Exynos 2500-powered handset may not have.
The trade-off might be understandable if it meant Samsung could drop the price of its foldable flip phone after increasing the price of the Galaxy Z Flip 6 by $100 last year to $1,099. But whoever argued that what goes up must come down has apparently never been involved in smartphone pricing. A recent leak posted to X claims that the Galaxy Z Flip is going to keep that $1,099 starting price.
Hey, at least it’s not a price hike.
What else could change
The Galaxy Z Flip 7 is in line to see some noteworthy changes. Both the interior and cover display are supposed to get bigger — noticeably so in the case of the outer screen, which is rumored to be 4 inches compared to 3.4 inches on the current version. That’s a potential productivity booster, in that you’ll be able to get more things done on the outer display without ever having to open up your phone.
The battery inside the Galaxy Z Flip 7 could get larger, too, jumping from 4,000 mAh in the Galaxy Z Flip 6 to 4,300 mAh. Every little bit will help since the current model lasts just a little bit longer than the average smartphone on our battery test.
But other rumored specs seem frustratingly familiar. We’re not expecting any changes to the camera setup, and while the Galaxy Z Flip 6 certainly takes good pictures, you’d still like to see more progress there.
Contrast that with the Motorola Razr Ultra (2025), which gains the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset after the 2024 Razr Plus made do with a slightly scaled back version of Qualcomm’s top silicon at the time. Not only does that provide a big productivity boost, it also helps the new Ultra land on our best phone battery life list — unusual for a foldable phone.
Put another way, Motorola seems to keep finding ways to make its flip phones demonstrably better. Recent Galaxy Z Flip improvements seem more modest by comparison.
Galaxy Z Flip 7 outlook
Samsung could shake things up in other ways. For instance, there’s talk of Galaxy Z Flip FE that would offer the same design as the regular Flip but for a lower cost. That’s a growing need in Samsung’s foldable lineup, especially with Motorola offering the $999 Razr Plus and $699 Razr — both of which are cheaper than the standard Flip.
I’m prepared to eat my words at the next Unpacked should there be a low-cost Flip model or if the standard Galaxy Z Flip 7 delivers an improvement we’ve yet to really hear about. But at the moment, Samsung has a lot to prove if it wants to still set the pace for other foldable phone makers to follow.
