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

How does a non-foldable flagship phone stacks against its modern and hip flip counterpart? This is our Galaxy Z Flip 7 vs Galaxy S25 comparison!

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

Intro


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're gearing up to get the next big thing in flip phones, the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7.

Now, according to all the information, Samsung is tweaking the Z Flip series with minor upgrades this year (as has been the case for the past couple of generations), but these upgrades might finally sway people to reach out and grab a Galaxy Flip.

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: as usual, the Galaxy Z Flip 7 hasn't been officially announced, so the information is based on rumors at this point.

Galaxy Z Flip 7 vs Galaxy S25 differences:

*rumored

Table of Contents:

Also read:

Design and Size

To flip or not to flip?

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. So, at the end of the day, it's whether you're okay with folding and unfolding your phone tens of times a day or you prefer a "permanently unfolded" device, albeit a bit larger.

*rumored

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 color situation is still a mystery when it comes to the Galaxy Z Flip 7, but we do have some rumors about the potential hues of the Galaxy Z Flip 7. The Galaxy S25 colors have been around for some time now. You can see a quick comparison below.

*rumored

Display Differences

Two versus one

We're back at the folding debate. Actually, the Galaxy Z Flip 7 is expected to have a pretty big 6.85-inch main screen, which is an advantage over the 6.2-inch conventional screen of the Galaxy S25. There's, of course, a secondary cover screen, so you don't have to open the phone every time you need to do something quick. This time around it's a 4" AMOLED with 120Hz refresh rate, so Samsung has upped its game with the Galaxy Z Flip 7.

*rumored

In terms of brightness, the Galaxy Z Flip is expected to mimic 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!

We expect both screens on the Galaxy Z Flip 7 to get the 120 Hz refresh rate treatment, but the main one is believed to be an LTPO covering 1-120 Hz, while the cover will most likely have a fixed 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.

Performance and Software

Snapdragon Elite club

The Galaxy Z Flip 7 is rumored to have the newest Qualcomm chip, the Snapdragon 8 Elite. Due to the Samsung Z Flip series' release schedule, the models will miss out on the next flagship Qualcomm processor, the Snapdragon 8 Elite 2, but the original is pretty powerful nonetheless.

The Galaxy S25 is part of the latest flagship family and thus comes with the same Snapdragon 8 Elite processor, which has been specially tuned "for Galaxy." This means a slight overclock of the performance cores.

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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. We have to see how this silicon performs inside a flip phone, so stay tuned for real-life benchmarks soon.

*rumored

The hardware situation is actually identical, because the RAM on board is 12GB on both phones, and the storage options are also the same—starting at 128GB and going up to 512GB. 

The Galaxy Z Flip 7 is expected to launch with OneUI 8 out of the box over Android 15. 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.

Camera

How badly do you need that telephoto?

Another area where these two phones are very, very similar. They both have 50MP main cameras with similar aperture and sensor size. The ultrawide cameras on both are also almost identical, with just a tiny difference in the FOV (probably the positioning of the lenses). 

The biggest difference, of course, is the presence of a dedicated telephoto camera on the Galaxy S25. This will inevitably result in a higher camera score for the S25 when compared to the Galaxy Z Flip 7.

*rumored

Speaking of camera scores, the Galaxy S25 managed an overall score of 147 (out of 158), which is a pretty decent result! We don't expect the Galaxy Z Flip 7 to be able to match that, but, as always, we will snap some comparison samples and see what the real-life differences are.

Battery Life and Charging

A slight advantage for the flip?

The Galaxy Z Flip 7 is expected to sport a slightly larger battery compared to its predecessor, with a capacity of 4,174 mAh. 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.

*rumored

Charging speeds continue to be pretty slow on most Samsung devices, and the Galaxy S25 is no exception. 25W wired charging and 15W wireless are anything but fast, but it is what it is. Sadly, the Galaxy Z Flip 7 seems to adhere to these speeds and won't be setting charging records either. So, another tie here.

Specs Comparison


Here's a quick specs comparison between the Galaxy Z Flip 7 and the Galaxy Z Flip 5:

*rumored

Summary


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 made 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.

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

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