Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 vs Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6: What’s the difference?

Samsung has revealed its next-gen foldable collection, the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Galaxy Z Flip 6 – but what’s the difference between the two?

While some differences are pretty obvious to see, like the difference in the core design, other key differences – and similarities – are harder to spot. That’s where we at Trusted Reviews come in; we’ve gone hands-on with both the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Galaxy Z Flip 6, and here’s how the two compare. 

Clamshell vs book-style foldable design

The biggest difference between the Z Fold 6 and the Z Flip 6, as ever, is the core design. While the Z Fold 6 sports a book-style design that unfolds vertically, the Z Flip 6 sports a clamshell-style design like flip phones of yesteryear, complete with a horizontal fold. 

Of course, there’s more to it than that; the Galaxy Z Flip 6 sports the same 3.4-inch cover display as the Z Flip 5, complete with a 6.7-inch internal foldable screen. It also boasts a range of fun colour options including blue, yellow, mint and silver shadows, and sports a vapour chamber that’s 150% larger than that of the 2023 flagship Galaxy S23 Ultra to keep things cool under pressure. 

The Z Fold 6 has seen more significant changes this year, with a lighter, thinner design, and a tweaked aspect ratio that makes the traditionally tall-and-thin 6.3-inch cover screen a little shorter and wider, though the internal foldable screen remains a 7.6-inch panel. 

The colour options aren’t quite as varied as the Z Flip 6, however, with silver, pink and navy finishes available at launch. 

Both sport the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy

Unlike the flagship Galaxy S24 range that offers either the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy or Samsung’s own Exynos 2400 chipset depending on where you are in the world, things are much simpler when it comes to the foldable range.

That’s because both the Z Flip 6 and Z Fold 6 sport the same custom Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy chipset, which Samsung claims can provide an additional boost of power compared to the already-powerful standard Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 found in much of the 2024 flagship competition, alongside 12GB of RAM. 

There is a difference in storage options, with the Z Fold 6’s 256GB, 512GB or 1TB of storage besting the 256- and 512GB of the Z Flip 6, though the 1TB option comes at quite the premium. 

Both foldables will also offer Galaxy AI smarts, including all the same features from the Galaxy S24 range – including live call translation, meeting note transcriptions, the ability to rewrite text messages and even remove people from photos – and both also support the handy Google Circle to Search functionality too. 

Both offer an improved rear camera setup

Both the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Z Flip 6 boast an upgraded rear camera setup, bringing the foldables more in line with the flagship S24 series.

That starts with an upgraded 50MP main camera with impressive specs including an f/1.8 aperture, OIS and Dual Pixel AF, available on both the Fold and Flip. If that sounds familiar, it should; it’s the same 50MP main camera that you’ll find on the Samsung Galaxy S24 Plus. Samsung claims that the new sensor delivers better low light shots and an improvement to the AI-powered portrait photography too.

That continues with a new 12MP ultrawide sensor. While it might sound identical to that of the Z Fold 5 and Z Flip 5, Samsung claims that this is an entirely new sensor that brings big improvements to low light and HDR performance. 

The only difference between the two foldables is that the Z Fold 6 continues to offer a 10MP 2x telephoto lens to get closer to the action, though this remains identical to that of the Z Fold 5. 

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6 has unique cover screen widgets

With the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 sporting a pretty regular 6.3-inch cover screen, you can access all your apps, games and data without having to unfold the device – but the same can’t quite be said for the Z Flip 6’s 3.4-inch cover screen.

Samsung does allow some apps to run on the cover screen, but it’s not the same as having access to your home screen and all apps. Instead, Samsung has designed a range of widgets that display handy info on the cover screen, available with a swipe to the left or right of the display. 

These include returning staples like camera preview, calendar, weather and Spotify widgets, along with new functionality that brings regular Android home screen widgets to the cover screen, negating the need for third-party devs to add widget support for Samsung’s foldable.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 is more expensive

As with previous entries in the series, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 is the more premium of the two foldables – and by quite a bit, too.

While the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6 starts at the same £1049/$999 as its predecessor, this year’s Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 starts at an increased £1799/$1899, £50/$100 more than last year’s book-style foldable.