Just one month ago, Samsung unveiled two of its most advanced phones yet, the Galaxy Z Flip 4 and Fold 4. Although they feature plenty of cutting-edge technology, foldables are still somewhat fragile devices. You might want to keep these two away from sharp edges and other pointy objects, given how fragile they are compared to your average slab-of-glass phones. Still, Samsung's been making a point to highlight improvements it's made to durability over previous generations. Curious how true that might be, YouTuber Zack Nelson of JerryRigEverything has put the Galaxy Z Flip 4 through just the sort of trial by fire we'd expect from him.
Samsung's been doing its best to educate new foldable owners about just what they can expect from their phone's durability, complete with plenty of warnings in software — it clearly does not want a repeat of the original Galaxy Fold and incidents with people peeling off the screen protector. But for his tests, Nelson is consciously disregarding all these warnings — for the sake of consumer interest, of course.
In a hardness test, Samsung's Ultra-Thin Glass protecting the inner foldable display scratches at level two of the Mohs scale, with deeper grooves at level three — comparable to a sheet of plastic. That's going to have us thinking twice about even sharp fingernails around the screen when flipping the phone open with one hand.
To little surprise, the flexible layer protecting the foldable display doesn’t take to heat very kindly, physically deforming in seconds under a lighter’s flame. The 1.9-inch cover screen, on the other hand, merely discolors when subject to heat, and Gorilla Glass Victus protection ensures it doesn’t scratch easily, either.
Samsung does seem to have done a great job isolating the Galaxy Z Flip 4’s hinge from the elements. Unlike its predecessors, fold-cycling the hinge with fine sand and dirt on the screen doesn’t lead to scratchiness or affect its functionality. Bend-testing the phone by forcing the hinge backward breaks something inside with an audible "pop" that just sounds all sorts of expensive. On the outside, the phone remains fully functional, at least, thanks to the metallic back panels locking up, preventing the phone from snapping like a cookie.
Three magnets along the upper and lower edges of the Z Flip 4 are designed to hold the phone shut when folded. However, facing the fallout of Zack’s bend test, they proved no longer up to that task. On the bright side, though, the frame, volume rocker, and power button are all made of metal, so as long as you’re reasonably careful with the Z Flip 4, respecting the hinge’s limits and keeping the display far from hot and sharp things, you shouldn’t have any major issues. Like the Z Fold 4, Samsung’s Z Flip 4 ultimately passes Zack’s durability test with flying colors.
Last updated: September 10th, 2022 at 15:22 UTC+02:00
The Galaxy Z Flip 4 has received a couple of design and build quality upgrades over the previous generation. It features Gorilla Glass Victus+ instead of Victus and sports a redesigned hinge. The phone has retained an Armor Aluminum frame and IPX8 water resistance rating, but the bigger question is whether or not it’s just as resilient as the Galaxy Z Flip 3 released last year.
Samsung’s new Galaxy Z Flip 4 was featured in a recent JerryRigEverything durability test video, and the results aren’t all that surprising. The cover screen scratches at level 6 with deeper grooves at level 7, and users can still dent the foldable screen with their fingernails if they’re not careful.
The Galaxy Z Flip 4 is surprisingly resilient against dust, despite the fact that it doesn’t have a dust-resistance IP rating. The hinge design does a fantastic job keeping foreign objects and particles away from the internal mechanism, but speaking of the hinge, it doesn’t seem to be quite as solid as it was last year.
Can the Galaxy Z Flip 4 bend the wrong way?
Last came the bend test, and although the Galaxy Z Flip 4 has a redesigned hinge that takes less internal space, it still seems strong enough to prevent the phone from breaking in half when pushed forcefully from the other side.
The phone does bend a bit, much like the Galaxy Z Flip 3 under similar circumstances, but alarmingly enough, an internal component near the hinge appears to snap or pop out when enough force is placed on the hinge from the back. However, even after all the abuse, this Samsung phone can still function without issues, even though it’s a little bent at the end of it all.
In short, both the Galaxy Z Flip 3 and Z Flip 4 can survive JerryRigEverything’s durability and bend tests in a similar fashion, but the Z Flip 4 sounds like it might suffer from more internal damage in the process. Either way, it’s still impressively strong given its foldable structure, and in fact, it’s even tougher than some standard, non-foldable phones from other brands.
SamsungGalaxy Z Flip 4