I don’t usually come into a review expecting to be underwhelmed — especially not when it’s a foldable flip phone, my favorite flavor of Android experience — but that’s exactly what happened with Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip 6. As much as I liked previous generations of the original reborn flip phone, I’ve been more impressed by Motorola’s Razr Plus line in recent years and figured that Samsung wouldn’t win me over unless it made a few key changes to its sixth-generation flip phone, especially after a $100 price hike over the Galaxy Z Flip 5.
Since heavily testing the Galaxy Z Flip 6, though, I’ve begun to understand why Samsung didn’t make those sweeping changes. I’m realizing that maybe it’s not a step towards perfection but a refinement of a clamshell-style foldable phone that was already the best for most people. It still has some work to do to reach the peak of what this form factor could do, but the Galaxy Z Flip 6 is a much better flip phone than I wanted to give it credit for.