The Galaxy Z Flip 7 FE: a good deal or a total waste of time?

Samsung is a pioneer when it comes to foldables, and one of its latest products — the Galaxy Z Flip 7 FE — might just be its most controversial. The consensus of the internet at large is that it's overpriced and will underperform.

That may be the case; we won't know until people have had it in their hands for a few months. We can take a look at what's being offered and at what price to help decide if it's even worth looking twice.

A lot of people are saying it's a Flip 6 with a new stock number and price tag, but it's really not. If you already have a Galaxy Z Flip 6, there's no way you should consider buying a Flip 7 FE, but they aren't the same phone.

The pros

The Flip 7 FE has some good things going for it. It's running the latest Samsung software platform, has a revamped front display, and will see most of the features the full-priced Flip 7 will. Including many of the AI features if that's your jam.

It also has a Samsung logo on it. That may mean nothing to you, but it does matter. Samsung is known to make quality products and is one of Google's closest partners. People may buy one just to show off the Samsung name, but more realistically, the fact that it comes from Samsung means you can trust that it will last at least as long as it should. Quality can be worth paying for.

The cons

Now we need to talk about the drawbacks of the Flip 7 FE, and there are two big ones: the processor and the price tag.

The processor issue in a nutshell — the Flip 7 FE will come with the Samsung Exynos 2400 processor. That's the same processor that was used in many of the Galaxy S24 phones, and it's not nearly as bad as people make it out to be. If you're the kind of person who ranks CPUs based on benchmark scores, it's the 15th best processor of all time, besting chips like the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2.

If you don't care about benchmark numbers, there are still minor concerns with the modem and the battery drain. It does not have as strong a modem as anything from Qualcomm, at least in North America. That means you might not have the best signal for the fastest speeds or clearest calls.

It's also a bit more power hungry than the competition, and the 4,000mAh battery may not last you the entire day. No amount of software engineering can "fix" this, though they could make it less of a problem. Don't count on it, though.

Now for the real elephant in the room — the price. A Galaxy Z Flip 7 FE with 128GB of storage and 8GB of memory starts at $899.99. You can upgrade to 256GB of storage for $959.99.

The Galaxy Z Flip 6 launched at $1,099.99, but it came with a Qualcomm Snapdragon chip and more system memory. You can buy one brand new at Amazon with 256GB of storage for $899.99 or a factory refurbished model for $595.

You could also buy a very similar phone, the Motorola Razr 2025, with 256GB of storage for $699.99 at Amazon right now.

The Galaxy Z Flip 7 FE is not a bargain.

My verdict

This isn't any type of review or me talking about what I like best. This is purely a look at what's being offered and it's price.

If you're heavily vested in Samsung's ecosystem of software and devices, you're better off with the "regular" Flip 7 for $1,099.99 because it has everything the FE has to offer, double the storage, 12GB of system memory, and a slightly better chip for $200 more. I know $200 can be a lot of money, but the differences are worth the price bump.

If you aren't tied to a Samsung phone but want the Flip form-factor, the 2025 Motorola Razr is the better buy all around.