Seeking Recommendations: Best Flip Phone to Buy?

As an owner of a z flip 3, just be aware of short battery life. If u travel a lot or don't expect to charge everyday (sometimes twice as a heavy user) it will annoy you fast.

Otherwise, samsung offers good value/durability. But if I had to choose right this moment I'd go motorla razr plus

My z flip 3 is a day one model, it lived up well, no screendamage, few screen protector replacements and it hasn't been babied. I drop.my phone atleast once a week as i'm an iT engineer and use the flashlight a lot.

I love the fact its small in my pocket, fold in half so I can watch videos without stand or on its side it stays put. And the selfie cam.tripod is neat, and the fact I can direct the flashlight to where I need it is also why I love it.

Battery should be better, coverscreen is moderatly usefull but wondering if it was bigger if i'd use it more.

Overal, great phone if u know what u get. Otherwise slab phones are better for most.

When I googled Nokia 2720 Flip, the results I got were not a smartphone. Am I missing something with that device?

The only two big names in this particular folding form factor right now are Motorola and Samsung. I don't think you could go wrong with either one of their most current models (Razr Ultra and Z Flip 5). I personally have the Flip 5 and prior to that owned the Flip 4.

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Some differences:

Samsung does fantastic yearly trade in deals if you happen to live in the US. I paid only $50 to upgrade my 4 to the 5. Motorola doesn't tend to have deals this crazy to my knowledge. And Samsung does not have deals like that outside of the US either.

The Razr is slightly larger than the Flip.

The Flip takes slightly better photos and videos than the Razr.

The Razr has a dust resistant rating (but is not rated for water submersion) whereas the Flip has a water submersion rating (but is not rated for dust)

The Razr comes in a bolder color than the Flip.

Both have a great cover screen. The Razr's screen is technically slightly larger than the Flip, but the useable screen real estate on both is actually very similar due to the camera cutouts.

Samsung has more bloatware on their phones. For whatever reason, they insist on making their own messaging app, gallery app, notes app, calendar app, etc. Meaning if you migrate over to them, you will often have two of many base apps. Luckily you can just hide the ones you don't use.

Both phones don't have fantastic battery life compared to other flagship phones, but I can usually easily last a day without needing to charge personally.

Both phones have a slightly different implementation of how the cover screen works, but I think they both work fine. The new, larger cover screens on both devices has been a game changer. If you get the Flip, be sure to install Good Lock (a free Samsung app) to unlock the full potential of the cover screen.

A YouTuber recently did a comparison of manually folding and unfolding each device head to head for many days until the hinge broke. The Razr lasted around 140k folds and the Flip lasted significantly longer at 400k folds. Keep in mind that this isn't a wide scale test. But reviewers have commented how the Razr's hinge makes a bit of a crunchy noise and the Flip's is essentially silent. 143k is still not terrible. If you fold your phone 100 times a day, that's still quite a bit of time with your phone before the hinge breaks. But it's worth considering.

There is another brand, Oppo, who makes a phone in this form factor. But the cover screen is small and I'm not sure if it's only available in China. Either way I'd steer clear.

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Something to note is that yearly maintenance with the phone will be changing the internal pre-applied screen protector, as it will eventually lift at the crease. It's really not a big deal imo.

Then there are the phones that unfold to become mini-ablets. With these, you have companies like Samsung and Google trying it out. I think maybe a few more companies, but I tend not to follow this scene. I don't really have a use for a chunky phone and mini-ablets, personally. They also are more expensive than things like the Razr or the Flip. But some people love the form factor.

Check this guy's YT channel, it is pretty much dedicated to flip phones/dumb phones.

He is also actually knowledgeable about Android stuff (ADB, sideloading, etc)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LougLgxuuY

I guess I get nostalgia, but "simplicity" makes no sense. They are objectively more complicated than a modern candybar style phone, while being less durable and harder to carry.

Folding Phones Vs. Flip Phones:

Folding screen phones like the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip, Motorola Razr, etc. are not "flip phones" in the traditional sense. They are smartphones with a folding screen. If you actually want "simplicity and nostalgia", then that is a traditional flip phone (which are not smartphones), which is a separate category of device from folding screen phones.

Folding screen phones take all the complexity of any smartphone and add the complexity and fragility of a folding screen mechanism. They are far more fragile than "regular" slab smartphones at this point in their development.

Flip Phones:

The Nokia 2760 is sorta one of these (still comes with a few things like Facebook/Whatsapp/Youtube installed). Samsung is not currently making one. There are a number of other super cheap flip phones running a stripped down version of Android. These are painful to use, as they don't default to T9 typing, and navigating Android with a keypad and no touchscreen is kinda torture. You can get some decent 3g flip phones still, but very few 4g/5g options exist, and 3g flip phones (or 4G phones that don't do VOLTE) are now useless on American carriers. The NUU 4L Flip Phone works on 4g and does VOLTE, but the crippled Android interface and default terrible auto capitalization typing mode make it somewhat painful to use.

Some actual still-working-on-VOLTE flip phones:

• Nuu 4L Flip
• Kyocera’s DuraXV Extreme
• Nokia 2760
• Cat S22 Flip (Likely only on T-Mobile. Some claim an APN change can make an unlocked one work on Verizon, but many others have failed to get anything other than text messages to work.)

I don't have any of them, but judging from specifics, funcionality, battery and software I would say Motorola razr is your best bet. Also, less useless bloat ware.

Edit: you mean the full touch foldable display, right?

I have the razr 40 ultra and I positively love it. It makes so good use of the cover display. You can use the cover display almost exactly as you would the bigger one. Sort of like a physical one handed mode. A lot of people say it's useless for the cover display to encircle the cameras, but I disagree. Most apps use a bottom navigation layout. Those UI elements can be hidden behind the cameras, making better use of the smaller cover display. There's a great shortcut to show the bottom part of the screen, when needed. And when you need the larger display, the transition between the cover and main display, and vice versa, is almost flawless.

I'm not really a power user, not any more, but battery is no issue for me. I generally have between 30-50% battery at the end of the day. I don't use any wireless charging during the day, as my work doesn't allow it.

I don't care about the cameras and don't really know it they're good or not. It can take pictures, which is everything I need it to do.

It is, by far, my favourite phone of all time.

You may want to take a look at this thread.

https://lemmy.world/post/2436246

Both the Razr and the Flip are fantastic devices. I ended up with the Flip 5 primarily because all the discounts and free watches that were thrown around meant I could get the Flip 5 effectively for hundreds of euros cheaper than the Razr. So check out your local pricing before making a decision.