Samsung only just announced the Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Galaxy Z Flip 4 at its online event, but I had the opportunity last week to play with the two foldables as part of a hands-on Samsung will soon open to the public in New York City. Our full reviews for the two phones will be coming soon, but in the meantime, I have a short taste of what you can expect from the upcoming phones. Here's the gist: It might be more accurate to call these the Fold and Flip 3.5, as the pace of hardware change this year has begun to slow.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4

While maintaining its $1,800 price, incremental improvement is the name of the game here, since most of the changes made to the Fold 4 are small, though they add up.

The thing you’re least likely to notice at a glance, but will have the greatest impact on your experience, is a tweak to the phone's display aspect ratio when unfolded. The new version is just a little bit shorter and wider. Since I used my Z Fold 3 most often in its “portrait” orientation when unfolded, as it’s the most convenient way to flip it open, I think this was a smart move. Not only does it give you a little extra width on regular apps, which is more useful in general, but it makes it more likely to trigger tablet-optimized layouts in some apps, too. The Fold 3's aspect ratio didn’t always do that, forcing you to rotate the display to get apps to change modes.

The Fold's controversial in-display camera is still present, but Samsung has managed to increase the density of the screen above that area. Effectively, it blends in better, with sharper text or images shown over that area. It’s still not as sharp as the screen is on its own in other locations, but it’s an improvement, and I was actually able to lose track of it sometimes when viewing certain types of content. Off-angle viewing or a blank field made it easy to spot, though.

The Fold 4 (right) has a visibly higher pixel density over the camera than the Fold 3 (left)

The bezels everywhere are just a little slimmer, too. The internal display looks like it shaved off around half a millimeter on its bubbly plastic bumper all the way around, while the external “cover” display has also grown slightly and lost its metal accent on the left side. It’s still not very wide or easy to type on, and I wish Samsung would just switch to a landscape-first format that allows for a wider cover screen, but the company is making (frustratingly slow) steps in that direction. At this rate, the Z Fold 7 or 8 might have the ideal form factor that other companies are already leaning into.

The crease is still there, and still visible, but not really a big deal

The internal 7.6” display still has a noticeable crease, but compared to my well-loved Z Fold 3, it’s a little less noticeable — that could be partly due to use over time, but I think Samsung has made a tiny bit of improvement there. Compared to the Oppo Find N’s nearly flat display, I am a little salty that Samsung hasn’t done more to improve the situation in the face of increasing competition.

Samsung says this new version is slightly lighter, but since the phone is already in pretty heavy territory, I couldn’t feel a difference using it back-to-back with the older model. It’s still a thick and chunky device when folded, and sure to be an anchor in your pocket. But that comes with the territory; all of the hamburger-style foldables are beefy, and I don’t consider it a problem.

We’ll need a little more time to play with the software, but one of the changes Samsung highlighted is a new taskbar, seemingly inherited from Android 12L. It works with both button- and gesture-based navigation modes, giving you a shortcut to assigned and frequently used apps. A long-press can hide it (and bring it back) if you want a more full-screen experience. No word on when One UI 5 will ship for the Fold or Flip series; Android 13 is expected to bring some pretty major improvements to the overall foldable software experience.

The cameras here have been ostensibly upgraded, with a bigger primary sensor and a better "zoom" on the telephoto. Of course, I couldn't test that too extensively at the event, but we'll see how these camera upgrades bear out in our reviews.

The general design of the Z Fold 4 is about the same as last year’s model, but Samsung has swapped the matte-finished frame for a glossy one, and the colors have been tweaked a little, with a gold-tinted silver replacing the older silver and blue swapped for green. I think I like the new colors and finish more than the old ones, as they contrast with the matte rear glass a little more nicely. Unfortunately, the fun Bora purple colorway the smaller Z Flip 4 comes in isn’t available for the Z Fold 4 — expensive phones always get the more boring colors.

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Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4

The $1,000 Galaxy Z Flip 4 adopts a few of the same changes as its bigger foldable sibling. I wasn’t able to perform a direct comparison with the prior model, but the new version has a similar polished metal frame to replace last year’s glossy one, and the internal bezels might be just a tiny bit smaller, though I can’t be sure.

As before, the cover display isn’t the full experience that you get on the bigger Fold 4. While you can do things like read notifications, control music, or use it as a way to preview selfies from the rear camera, you’ll be opening the phone up for any more advanced or complicated software maneuvers. The primary camera hardware should be slightly improved this generation, but that wasn't really feasible to test in the limited time I had, so keep an eye out for our full review.

Whether you flip it open or leave it closed, you’ll be hard-pressed to tell the difference between this new model and Z Flip 3. The combination power button/fingerprint reader is in about the same place, and the accented glass cover for the cover display is about the same size, the same tint, and in the same spot. The hinge, volume rocker, and even antenna bands seem identical to my memory, save the new finish on the frame.

You don’t get the snazzy new taskbar that the bigger model has, but on the smaller 6.7" display, you wouldn’t really be able to use it for anything productive. My time with the phone didn’t demonstrate any really substantial changes over the older model when it comes to software features.

I didn’t get a lot of time to use the new phones during my limited hands-on, but even the short while I had was enough to notice a difference in thermal performance compared to last year’s models, with them running palpably cooler while I was playing with them back to back with older devices. The Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 runs noticeably cooler than the prior versions, and after using some of the best Android phones with the new chipset, I’m also anticipating better battery life, which may address one of the few pain points with prior models. A slightly larger 3,700mAh battery (over the 3,300mAh cell in last year's model) should help, too.

Buy the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4

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Samsung didn’t have as many Galaxy Z Flip 4 cases or Fold 4 cases available for us to play with this year, but what little I’ve seen so far indicates we might have some big upgrades. Last year Samsung introduced stylus S Pen support for the Z Fold 3, and the Z Fold 4’s stylus-equipped case looks like a much better design to me than the old spine-mounted floppy-faced one. I played with it for only a few minutes, but the stylus slots into the silo with a satisfying snap, and the bulge from the silo itself on the back actually makes a really nice place to grip the case while it’s unfolded — I think left-handed people are getting a big advantage here.

There’s also a leather case for the Z Flip 4 that I dig, with really ostentatious metal accents and a fashion-forward design. It’s over the top and sort of ridiculous in a rich-old-blueblood-fashionista way, and I really enjoy that it exists.

Samsung also let us check out the new Galaxy Watch 5 series, and you should read Stephen Schenck’s Galaxy Watch 5 hands-on for his initial impressions there.

It’s way too early for me to pass judgment, and a final review will take longer, but I’m already both hopeful for the upgraded internals on Samsung's new generation of folding phones and a little sad that we aren’t seeing bigger design changes to match the advancements other foldables have made in the last year.