At its summer Unpacked event, Samsung announced its first “budget” foldable smartphone, the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip FE, for a price that doesn’t exactly scream “budget” to most people.
This phone, which costs $899.99, seems largely the same as the Galaxy Z Flip 6 I reviewed last year, which still costs $1,100. Samsung hasn’t revealed much about the Galaxy Z Flip 7 FE, but one thing we do know is that it doesn’t support the same full-screen apps on the smaller outside screen that the full-fat Z Flip 7 does.
If you want to grab this allegedly budget smartphone, the Z Flip 7 FE starts at $899 for a 128GB option, and jumps to some higher price for the 256GB version. The phone comes in two colorways, Black and White, so you also don’t get the vivid colors that makes the regular Z Flip 7 so appealing.
A Budget Foldable?
With the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 starting at $1,099.99, the Z Flip 7 FE at $899 is certainly a lower price, but I don’t know that I’d call a “budget” device. We’ve basically been living in a world of $1,000-plus smartphones for nearly a decade, since the iPhone X came to store shelves in 2017.
Foldables are also kind of in their own league at this point. Yeah, the Z Flip 7 starts at $1,099, but the flagship Z Fold 7, also announced at Unpacked, starts at $1,999.99. That kind of price tag has lost some of its shock value at this point, but it still nevertheless stings. It’s not surprising, then, that Samsung isn’t even pretending to launch a budget version of that phone.
From what I’ve seen, the Galaxy Z Flip 7 FE might be the version of the phone to get, especially if you’re going to put a case on your device anyways. You still get a 50MP camera, along with an almost-as-powerful chipset, even if the screen is a little smaller than the main device.
Unlike the more pricey Z Flip 7, which is powered by the new Exynos 2500, the Z Flip 7 FE features the Exynos 2400. This is still a 10-core CPU, but it’s built on a chunkier 4nm process, instead of the 2500’s 3nm process. In everyday workloads, this shouldn’t make too much of a difference, but it could lead to slightly worse efficiency and battery life, especially with its slightly smaller 4,000mAh battery (the Z Flip 7 has a 4,300mAh battery).
The Galaxy Z Flip 7 FE does seem like a great entry-level foldable, but a “budget” device with a $900 price tag just rubs me the wrong way. It seems like just yesterday that the iPhone X came out and made everything more expensive, and while we’re mostly all numb to $1,000 flagships by now, I don’t think I’m ready for entry-level devices to cost this much. But with everything getting more expensive this year, that might be something I just have to learn to get used to.
Jackie Thomas is the Hardware and Buying Guides Editor at IGN and the PC components queen. You can follow her @Jackiecobra
