Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 vs Galaxy S25: Is it time to get a flip phone?

Foldable phones have been around for more than five years now, and the million-dollar question is still up in the air and more relevant than ever. Is it time to give these devices a chance? The timing is perfect, because we’ve just got the next big thing in flip phones, the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7.

Samsung’s next foldable flagship polishes and refines the flip idea further and is the best option if you want to dip your toes in this specific water, or should we say form factor.

On the other hand, we have rigid and conventional phones to choose from, and the Galaxy S25 is a perfect example, especially because it’s more or less the non-folding alternative of the Galaxy Z Flip 7.

So, let’s compare these two and see who wins the battle for the heart of the Samsung fan. A little disclaimer: the Galaxy Z Flip 7 is still inside our lab doing test rounds, so we will update the comparison with benchmarks and samples shortly.

Pre-order the Galaxy Z Flip 7 for up to $840 off

$379
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$1219
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$840 off (69%)

Pre-order the Galaxy Z Flip 7 at Samsung and save $120 as a free storage upgrade on the 512GB variant. On top of that, you’ll save up to $720 with eligible device trade-ins.

Pre-order at Samsung

Pre-order the Galaxy Z Flip 7 FE for up to $670 off

$289
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$959
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$670 off (70%)

For the first time, Samsung is expected to release a Galaxy Z Flip 7 FE alongside the flagship flip phone. Pre-order the budget flip phone at the Samsung Store and save up to $610 with eligible trade-ins. On top of that, the 256GB model is $60 off before trade-ins, helping you save up to $670.

Pre-order at Samsung

Galaxy Z Flip 7 vs Galaxy S25 differences:

Table of Contents:

This is the ultimate question when it comes to comparing a conventional, rigid phone with a flexible-screen foldable (or, in this case, flip) device. On the one hand, we have a tad more compact phone in the face of the Galaxy S25, but you can’t fold it in half and put it inside a tight pocket or a small purse.

On the other hand, the Galaxy Z Flip 7 becomes this tiny square when folded, but it’s a bit thicker, and you also have to unfold it every time you need to do something complicated—the cover screen can only do so much. 

In terms of materials, things are pretty similar—we have the same glass and metal sandwich design, but because the Galaxy Z Flip 7 has to bend in half (physics!), the display is just softer. There’s a coating to prevent scratches and scuffs, but it’s nothing like the Gorilla Glass on top of the Galaxy S25‘s screen. So, this has to be taken into consideration.The colors situation is in favor of the Galaxy S25, as there are more hues available, but the Galaxy Z Flip 7 comes in fresh colors as well. Here’s a quick comparison table.

In terms of brightness, the Galaxy Z Flip mimics the peak brightness of the Galaxy S25 coming in at 2600 nits but we have to test these claims in the lab. Speaking of which, the Galaxy S25 managed to output almost 2400 nits at 20% APL (and around 1300 nits at 100% APL). Pretty impressive!

Both screens on the Galaxy Z Flip 7 have the 120 Hz refresh rate treatment, but the main one is an LTPO covering 1-120 Hz, while the cover has a fixed 60/120 Hz refresh rate. The Galaxy S25, of course, uses the same LTPO tech and is able to go between 1 and 120Hz with everything in between.

The Galaxy Z Flip 7 is the first phone to feature Samsung’s new 3nm Exynos 2500 chipset. We expected the Snapdragon 8 Elite, but actually got the Exynos. It will be extremely interesting to see how this Samsung in-house silicon performs against the industry benchmark at the moment, so stay tuned for benchmarks.The Galaxy S25 is part of the latest flagship family and thus comes with the aforementioned industry standard – the Snapdragon 8 Elite processor, which has been specially tuned “for Galaxy.” This means a slight overclock of the performance cores.

The Galaxy S25 managed around 3000 and 9000 points in the Geekbench single- and multi-core tests, which is a normal result for a Snapdragon 8 Elite phone. 

The hardware situation is actually identical, because the RAM on board is 12GB on both phones, and the storage options are also the similar—the S25 starts at 128GB and goes up to 512GB, while the Galaxy Z Flip 7 skips the 128GB variant. 

The Galaxy Z Flip 7 launches with OneUI 8 out of the box over Android 16. Both the Galaxy Z Flip 7 and the Galaxy S25 will be supported for seven long years and will receive all the AI goodness that’s inevitably “to come” in the future. So, it’s more or less a tie in this section.

The Galaxy Z Flip 7 brings a slightly larger battery compared to its predecessor, with a capacity of 4,300mAh. In contrast, the Galaxy S25 comes equipped with a 4,000 mAh cell, which is a bit on the lower side nowadays.

We have to bear in mind the fact that the Galaxy Z Flip 7 has two displays, so it potentially needs more power, but we need to run our battery tests to evaluate how much more exactly (if any). The Galaxy S25 scored 7h 6m overall in our battery test, which ranks it #60 among all phones tested in the past 2 years. Not great, not terrible—just a good average score.

And here we are! These two are very similar in so many areas that the question unsurprisingly boils down to the same “do you need a foldable device” mantra. There are some differences to help you make up your mind, though.

The Galaxy S25 is cheaper, it has one additional telephoto camera, and it’s more compact than the unfolded Z Flip 7. But on the other hand, you can’t reproduce the experience of having a flip phone that folds in half, and those minor advantages we mention might be irrelevant if you’ve decided to go for it.

The Exynos 2500 inside the Galaxy Z Flip 7 remains a mystery (tests are running as we type this), but we doubt it will best the Snapdragon 8 Elite inside the S25.

We will update this comparison with all the benchmarks once we finish testing the Galaxy Z Flip 7, so stay tuned.