The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3's biggest drawback was battery life. While the Z Flip 3's price, style, and form factor attracted plenty of buyers, those buyers sacrificed screen-on time for a fashionable form facvtor.
Good news is here: Our first battery tests show the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 as having noticeably better battery life than the Z Flip 3, to the tune of two additional hours, which can really make a difference toward the end of the day.
The Galaxy Z Fold 4, meanwhile, appears to have about the same battery life as the Z Fold 3, which is fine.
Galaxy Z Flip 4 and Fold 4 Battery Tests
Our standard battery test entails running a YouTube video at full screen brightness over a slightly wobbly Wi-Fi connection, with 4G/5G on in the background. It's not quite like real-world use, but it's something we can do that lets us directly compare phones across the years.
The Galaxy Flip 4 ran the video for 9 hours, 25 minutes before hitting 10% battery and entering low-power mode, when it mandatorily reduced screen brightness. It then toddled on for another 2 hours, 7 minutes, for a total of 11 hours and 27 minutes.
The Flip 3 ran for 9 hours and 30 minutes even with the low-power mode period. So what we're seeing is that the Flip 4 has noticeably better screen-on time.
The Fold 4 got a total of 11 hours, 30 minutes of video playback on the main inner screen, with a significantly shorter period of low-power mode toward the end. The overall results were similar to the Z Fold 3 (11 hours, 25 minutes), and actually better than the Samsung Galaxy S22+ (10 hours, 30 minutes).
So, a little hesitantly, I can say that the Flip 4's battery seems to be up to par in a way that the Flip 3's wasn't. It still isn't going to be a major battery leader like the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (12 hours, 14 minutes) or the iPhone 13 Pro Max (18 hours), but it looks like it's not going to struggle the way many smaller phones do, thanks to a somewhat larger battery (3,700mAh vs. 3,300mAh) and the more efficient Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 processor.
Charging: Slow and Steady
Neither Samsung nor Apple has state-of-the-art fast charging. In Samsung's case, I think that's because there's still a hangover from the exploding Galaxy Note 7 debacle; as a result, Samsung is extremely cautious on charging speeds, especially over the final 20% of battery.
While OnePlus is now pushing 125W fast charging speeds, Samsung's phones stay stuck at 25W, and they slow down considerably after the batteries are 80% full.
The Fold got to 42% in half an hour and 80% in an hour, but it took 95 minutes to get to 100%.
The Flip got to 40% in 30 minutes and 71% in an hour, with a total charging time of 100 minutes.
By comparison, the new OnePlus 10T gets a full charge in 25 minutes.
Both phones also feature wireless charging at 15W, according to GSMArena, as well as reverse charging at 4.5W, which lets them wirelessly charge other devices like a smartwatch or earbuds.
We're in the middle of reviewing the Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Z Flip 4 now. Make sure to check back for our full reviews, and see what our first tests have shown in terms of benchmarks, photo quality, and signal strength.