Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Flip 3 Announced: Setting New Standards for Foldables

BY Sanuj Bhatia

Published 11 Aug 2021

samsung galaxy z fold 3 flip 3

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 5G and the Galaxy Z Flip 3 5G are official now. The company just took wraps off both the devices at its Galaxy Unpacked event, where it also announced the new Galaxy Watch 4. The successor to Fold 2 features S Pen support, an under-display camera, premium design, and a lot more at a slightly lower price tag. Here are all the key specifications of the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and the Galaxy Z Flip 3 you need to know about.

Galaxy Z Fold 3: Key Specifications

Galaxy Fold 3 5G is Samsung’s third attempt at cracking the foldable puzzle. While Apple remains silent when it comes to foldables, Samsung has already reached its third iteration of the Galaxy Fold. With Samsung Galaxy Fold 3, the company aims to maintain the lead by incorporating a new under-display camera and support for S-Pen.

Display and Design

Like the previous generation Galaxy Folds, Galaxy Fold 3 features two displays: one on the outer side and one on the inner side (the one that folds). The outer (tall) screen is in dimensions at 6.2-inches. It’s got a resolution of 2,268 x 832 pixels, but the most interesting this time about the outer display is that it supports a 120Hz refresh rate. The outer display has Corning Gorilla Glass protection.

The inner display remains the same at a 7.6-inch diagonal. It’s a Super AMOLED screen with a resolution of 2,208 x 1,768 pixels and comes with a 120Hz refresh rate. There’s also an ultra-thin Victus glass covering from Corning protecting the display.

Samsung has upgraded the Aluminum shell to ‘Armor Aluminum.’ The company says the new Aluminum frame is “the most durable frame ever used in a phone.” The rest of the foldable phone is also covered in Corning Gorilla Glass.

Support for S-Pen

Samsung killed its Note series earlier this year to focus more on its foldable phones and S series smartphone. Thankfully, Samsung hasn’t forgotten the S-Pen fans as the Galaxy Fold 3 supports S-Pen. There’s a separate S-Pen called S-Pen Fold Edition which is compatible with the Z Fold 3. This separate S-Pen is designed for the delicate inner-screen of the Fold 3 and pairs to it via Bluetooth.

Camera

The Galaxy Fold 3 features a three-camera system. The foldable smartphone sports a 12 MP wide-angle camera, a 12 MP ultra-wide-angle lens, and a 12 MP telephoto sensor. The main camera has Dual Pixel AF and OIS, while the telephoto shooter that offers 2x optical zoom comes with PDAF and OIS as well.

But the key highlight is on the inner side. The inner display of the Galaxy Z Fold 3 features an under-display 4MP camera. This is Samsung’s first-ever under-display camera in any smartphone.

Specs

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 is powered by Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 888 processor. Unlike Samsung’s other flagships, the Fold series has been fortunate enough to be powered by Qualcomm’s latest processors. This year too, Samsung has incorporated one of the Qualcomm’s latest chipsets.

Thanks to Snapdragon 888, the device features an integrated 5G modem, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.0, NFC, and more. It is backed by rather a smaller 4,400 mAh battery but it makes up with 25W fast wired charging. All the variants of Galaxy Z Fold 3 feature 12GB of RAM, with either 256GB or 512 GB of internal storage.

Colors and Price

Samsung Galaxy Fold 3 will be available in three colors: Phantom Black, Phantom Silver, and Phantom Green. Surprisingly, Samsung has slashed the selling price of the Galaxy Z Fold 3. The starting variant of the foldable from Samsung now starts at $1,599 with the price going up to $1,799 for the 512GB variant.

Galaxy Z Flip 3: Key Specifications

No, you’re right. This isn’t the third clamshell-style smartphone from Samsung. However, to keep things simple, the company has named both the foldables with ‘3’ — this honestly confuses me more but this is the way Samsung has always been.

Samsung Galaxy Flip 3 is a solid upgrade to the industry-leading Galaxy Flip from last year.

Display and Design

The design of the Galaxy Flip 3 is similar to the first generation. It retains the clamshell-like design with a small screen in front and a large screen when the phone un-flips. The cover screen is a 1.9-inch Super AMOLED panel
with a 260×512 resolution and 302 PPI. The inner screen is the similar one from last year — a 6.7-inch Dynamic AMOLED with Full HD+ resolution. Like the Galaxy Z Fold 3, Galaxy Z Flip 3’s inner screen supports a 120 Hz adaptive refresh rate.

The flip phone features the same Aluminum Armor frame as Fold 3 with Corning Gorilla Glass Victus protection. The smartphone is a bit compact as compared to the last year’s model. It is mm shorter, 1.4 mm narrower and 0.3 mm thinner than its predecessor.

Camera

The dual-camera system on the back is aligned vertically now. It includes a 12MP f/1.8 main camera with 1.4µm pixels, Dual Pixel AF and OIS, and a 12MP f/2.2  ultra-wide-angle lens. The inner display has a punch-hole cutout for the front camera, which is a 10MP sensor behind the f/2.4 lens.

Specs

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 is also powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 888. It will be available in two variants: one with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, and 8GB of RAM and 256GB of internal storage. As for the connectivity front, it has dual-band 5G, NFC, Samsung Pay, Bluetooth 5.1, and the USB Type-C port on the bottom. It’s backed by a 3,300 mAh battery and supports 15W fast wired charging. There’s also support for 10W  wireless charging.

Colors and Price

Galaxy Z Flip 3 will be available in three colors: Cream Green, Lavender, and Phantom Black. It starts at $999 for the base variant with 8GB RAM and 128GB of internal storage and goes up to $1,199 for the 8/256GB variant.


When it comes to foldables, Apple has been pretty silent up until now. There are rumors of Apple debuting a foldable iPhone in 2022, but not much is known. Would you be interested in buying a foldable iPhone? What features would you expect from it? Would you pay a premium price for it? Let us know in the comments section below!

[Via Samsung]