Galaxy Z Flip 7 FE launch: All the info on Samsung’s budget folder

While foldable phones have been around for years now, relatively high prices compared to their stiff-screened brethren have meant that they’ve been an unapproachable option for many smartphone shoppers. And for the longest time, we’ve been wondering when a major player in the foldable space might finally tackle the challenge of creating a foldable phone with not just mass-market appeal, but a price tag to match.

For this year’s refresh to its folding lineup, Samsung is bringing us not just its new Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Z Flip 7, but its first attempt at cracking that “budget” foldable nut: the Galaxy Z Flip 7 FE. How does this hardware stack up against the full-blown Z Flip 7, and is it work your consideration? let’s take a look!

Samsung introduced the Galaxy Z Flip 7 FE at its Unpacked event today, premiering alongside the Galaxy Z Fold 7, Galaxy Z Flip 7, and the Galaxy Watch 8 series.

Price

• Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 FE (8GB/128GB): $899.99
• Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 FE (8GB/256GB): $959.99

While the idea behind the Flip 7 FE has been to create a more budget-friendly alternative to Samsung’s flagship Flip and Fold phones, this $900 starting price makes perfectly clear that Samsung is keeping all of its foldables in premium-pricing territory. The full-blown Flip 7 starts at just $1,100, and while $200 is a decent discount on its own, the more appropriate comparison to make here is almost certainly with last year’s Flip 6 — and we’ll get into why in just a moment.

Availability and pre-orders

Just like Samsung’s other new foldables, pre-orders for the Galaxy Z Flip 7 FE open today, ahead of retail availability commencing July 25.

Colors

Unlike the rainbow assortment of option you’ll find on some of Samsung’s other handsets, for the Flip 7 FE the company is keeping things basic: You’ve got your choice of Black or White.

Let’s not beat around the bush here. We’ve got the Z Flip 7 FE on the left here, next to the new Z Flip 7. And if our FE model looks very, very familiar to you, there is a perfectly good reason why: This is essentially the Galaxy Z Flip 6 brought back for round two, with a few very minor hardware changes.

Cameras

If you were happy the cameras on the Flip 6, we’ve got good news for you, because that’s exactly what you get with the Flip 7 FE.

In our review of the Galaxy Z Flip 6 we noted that while there was nothing particular jaw-dropping about the camera package Samsung had put together for its smaller foldable, the combination of the 50MP wide-angle lens and a 12MP ultra-wide option offered a solid pairing.

Even without a dedicated zoom lens, we were largely pleased with the Flip 6’s ability to produce shots at up to 10x zoom. And once again, we’re getting a 10MP front-facer that should work just fine when you need it — but you’ll probably be using the main cameras and the external display for the best selfies possible.

One nice thing about picking up the Galaxy Z Flip 7 FE over the Flip 6 is that it arrives running Samsung’s latest software right out of the box. One UI 8 is based on Android 16, making Samsung a leader in embracing Google’s new release. Sure, you’ll get all that as an update on the Flip 6, too, but first is first.

Some of those upgrades you can look forward to include being able to access Galaxy AI features right from the external FlexWindow display (including Gemini Live), and the convenience of Samsung’s Now Bar and Now Brief in One UI 8.

Considering the extent to which the Z Flip 7 FE is a Flip 6 with a new name, it can be hard to point to concrete reasons to recommend this specific hardware, but software at least brings up one small area where the Flip 7 FE has an advantage: Samsung’s seven years of promised OS and security updates will support this phone one year past the Flip 6’s EOL date.

Performance

Here’s probably the one biggest area where users can expect to find a different experience between the Z Flip 7 FE and last year’s Z Flip 6. While the vast majority of this handset’s hardware is a Flip 6 holdover, Samsung is swapping out the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy with one of its own Exynos 2400 chips.

Beyond the change of SoC, the other notable tweak Samsung has made with the Z Flip 7 FE is downgrading the Z Flip 6’s 12GB of RAM to just 8GB. Considering the meager cost savings that must represent, this one really feels like a bit of slap, and with the increasing focus on on-device AI in 2025, we can’t imagine anyone’s really begging for less memory.

Like the look of that big, expansive FlexWindow display on the right? While the Z Flip 7 there gets a nice exterior-screen upgrade, our Z Flip 7 FE on the left goes with exactly the same screen layout we’re familiar with from the Z Flip 6.

That means a 6.7-inch AMOLED panel on the inside with a resolution of 2640×1080 and supporting up to a 120Hz refresh rate. And out front here, we see the return of a 3.4-inch 720 x 748 AMOLED panel with that wonky file-folder shape.

Samsung tells us it returned to the Z Flip 6’s chassis for the Z Flip 7 FE, and the specs confirm as much: This is a match down to the tenth of a millimeter.

That means the return of the Z Flip 6’s IP48 rating. That was a reasonably big deal last year, and while we’re happy to see Samsung not making any downgrades here, it’s also that much less of a get. On the flip side (pun not intended), the Z Flip 7 isn’t getting any upgrades their, either, and remains in IP48 territory.

Samsung has built the Z Flip 7 FE using Armor Aluminum, and protects the phone’s finish with the help of Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2.

Battery and charging

While the Galaxy Z Flip 7 enjoys a modest battery boost to 4,300mAh, the Z Flip 7 FE returns with the same 4,000mAh solution we saw on the Z Flip 6.

Battery life last year was fine, but not really exceptional, and while the change of SoC could impact that a bit with Samsung’s new hardware, we really wouldn’t expect a sea change.

Charging support remains capped at 25W, which just feels a bit sluggish — especially when we’re dropping $900 on a phone. And of course, it’s bring your own charger.