I’ve been waiting for Samsung to produce a foldable clamshell that won’t break the bank, and the Galaxy Z Flip 7 FE appeared to be that time. Now that it has lived with me for a week, I don’t think it’s so much the affordable Flip phone everybody wanted. It’s competent, even friendly in spots, but at $899 this “FE” is priced like a flagship wearing last season’s clothes.
Recycled design, familiar strengths
This is basically the Z Flip 6’s body, right down to its weight and footprint. You have an Armor Aluminum frame, Gorilla Glass Victus 2 for the outer panel and IP48 dust and water resistance. The main 6.7-inch OLED display, meanwhile, is tall and narrow, at 22:9 the kind of you have to use two-handed if possible — though there’s a cover screen in folder style this year that’s big enough to type on in an emergency if still a little cramped.
Durability is on the same level with the latest Flip models; you can see the crease, press your thumb in a little to feel the ultra-thin glass and open and close it several times and still have that smooth hinge experience. The FE has a very well constructed feel to it, and it frankly doesn’t feel “cheap” at all — if anything, however, its build underscores how mature Samsung’s hardware design language has become. That in turn calls attention to the trade-offs elsewhere.
Software polish, cover screen limits
Powered by One UI 8 over Android 16, the Z Flip 7 FE is covered under Samsung’s seven-year commitment to updates ushered for its new flagship cycle. That’s a standout commitment among the foldable class and it might be the FE’s most future-proof feature. On a day-to-day basis, Samsung’s fluency is here: smooth animations, extensive customization thanks to Good Lock (a major key) and a pretty solid system foundation.
But the cover display experience still lags behind major competitors. You can now place multiple widgets in more flexible layouts, but there are few third-party widgets available and you’ll still require Samsung’s MultiStar add-on to force most apps onto the outer screen. Its cover display can run almost anything thanks to being in Motorola’s Razr line by default. For a product sold as “FE,” that friction counts: the second screen is where cheaper flips can feel luxurious by achieving more with less.
Contains Galaxy AI functions of transcription, summarization, generative edits. The available toolkit is wide, yet also somewhat limited in accuracy for voice-to-text, especially with accents or ambient noise. It’s helpful — just not a killer reason to opt for the FE instead of a deal on last year’s Snapdragon variant.
Exynos inside: fast enough, but not fastest around
Samsung has slotted in the Exynos 2400 here, the identical chip we find doing service in some of its variant of S24 phones. In synthetic bench tests, it typically lags behind the Z Flip 6’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 (particularly in multi-core CPU workloads and continued GPU stress runs like those on 3DMark’s Wild Life Extreme). The bright side: the FE tends to run cooler and perform more consistently under extremely heavy load, which is important in the thermally constrained clamshell form factor.
In the real world, I encountered no issues jumping back and forth between the camera, social media apps and multitasking. Demanding games do work fine after short shader stutters, and the phone warms up without becoming uncomfortably hot. If you don’t live in benchmarking apps, the FE’s speed is satisfactory; it’s just that comparison with last year’s Snapdragon model which hurts when we’re also talking about similar pricing.
Battery life and charging are weak points
The 4,000mAh battery lasts a little more than a day with moderate usage, but shoving some gaming or camera use in there makes squeaking into the second day difficult. An average five to six hours of screen-on time in normal to mixed use, and that’s fine, not great. The larger pain point is 25W wired charging: a full tank of fuel tops up just over an hour, and that’s Path Train slow for a $899 phone in 2025.
Wireless charging also is on hand, continuing to be a differentiating feature with some cheaper rivals. By comparison, when brands including Motorola ship faster wired charging and larger batteries in cheaper flip models, the FE’s battery story feels timid.
Cameras: competent basics, no zoom ambition
The camera stack echoes the Flip 6: a 50MP main, 12MP ultrawide and 10MP selfie. Daylight photos look nice; colour is vibrant and the dynamic range is consistent. In mixed or low light, the FE can behave flaky with regard to noise reduction and softness, not to mention: it doesn’t have a telephoto lens while other factors quickly diminish detail after a clean 2x crop.
The extras help. Pros Expert RAW support, custom color profiles and Single Take play well with a clamshell — prop the phone up for hands free pets-and-kids shots and you’ll get some fun results. If, however, you’re hoping for an update to the Flip 6 that includes a camera, this isn’t it.
Price, positioning and alternatives
Here’s where things get sticky: At $899, the Z Flip 7 FE sounds to my already worn-down ears like an Exynos-laced Flip 6 with some added software singsong, not a disruptive new value play. Carriers might fit it into the context of contract renewals, but in open-market terms it awkwardly falls somewhere between incredible deals and real flagships.
The Motorola Razr (2025) steals some of its thunder for about $200 less, including a larger battery and faster charging, higher base storage and a vastly more tactile cover screen experience — it does have an inferior chipset and shorter update period. And the Snapdragon-powered Z Flip 6 is often discounted down to the price band of the FE, while it still outperforms (in a handful of metrics) its new rival.
Foldables are growing — industry trackers like Counterpoint Research have chronicled double-digit growth as prices drop and the designs get less flimsy — but the Z Flip 7 FE doesn’t break open the category’s price barrier. It’s a decent Flip for anyone who can get it on a favorable plan. For everyone else, hold off until a Flip 6 sale or the Razr. Samsung could build a $700 Flip that would feel genuinely “Fan Edition” (and should). This isn’t it.
