While the first Flip was a capable phone with niche appeal, the updated Flip 3 is something else entirely: a genuinely mainstream foldable phone that can stand toe to toe with other flagships at its price.
That price is key. Now with a starting price below £1,000/$1,000, the Flip 3 is still expensive but it’s no longer a daft luxury purchase. Yes, other phones at this price are likely to have better cameras (and will certainly offer longer battery life) but none of them fold in half, and none of them look half as good as this phone.
That revamped design is really key to the Flip 3’s appeal. There’s the expansive range of colours, only recently enhanced by the option to make your own custom model in Samsung’s Bespoke Studio. There’s the two-tone design that cleverly masks the expanded cover display. There’s the fact that it’s now more durable than ever, and waterproofed to boot.
Despite the price, flagship phones aren’t always exciting, and sometimes it feels like that ‘slab’ phone format has gotten about as good as it ever will. The Z Flip 3 feels different. It feels exciting. It feels new.
No, it’s not perfect, and yes, next year’s Flip 4 will no doubt step up again and fix some of those flaws. But that doesn’t mean you should wait – the Flip 3 is ready for the mass market, and it’s the best proof yet that foldables are here to stay.
If we’ve won you over, you can buy a Z Flip 3 right here:
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It would be remiss of us not to mention the iPhone 13 Pro. Sure, this year’s iPhones haven’t come on leaps and bounds from last year’s 12 series, but the Pro in particular has. The 12 Pro was the dud of the 2020 lineup, but a year on and its successor is the best iPhone you can buy.
Requisite spec bumps like a chip upgrade help, but the big changes this year are a 120Hz ProMotion display, rebuilt camera module – which is no longer handicapped relative to the Pro Max, and best of all a battery that genuinely lasts for days. Even Tech Advisor’s most ardent anti-Apple crowd have been won over.
The regular Pixel 6 was a runner-up for our mid-range award, and Google just missed out here as well with the Pixel 6 Pro. The design may be divisive, but it’s hard to argue with the results – strong performance, brilliant software, and perhaps the best camera setup in any Android phone right now.
Check out the rest of the Tech Advisor Awards for 2021.
