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Samsung’s latest family of foldables is its best yet, but also its most expensive. Their high price tags can make it hard to be an early adopter without emptying your bank account. But Black Friday sales have come in clutch for the Galaxy Z Flip 3 and the Galaxy Z Fold 3 — both are on sale for record-low prices at Amazon right now. The Z Flip 3 is $150 off and down to $850 while the Z Fold 3 is $300 off and down to $1,500. Both also come with a free pair of Galaxy Buds 2 if you apply the promotional offer on the product page before checking out. If you’d rather order directly from Samsung, you can get the same deal on the Z Fold 3 there, but the Z Flip 3 costs an extra $50.
Buy Z Flip 3 at Amazon – $850
Buy Z Flip 3 at Samsung – $900
Buy Z Fold 3 at Amazon – $1,500
Buy Z Fold 3 at Samsung – $1,500
Out of the two, the Z Flip 3 impressed us more, in part because Samsung fixed many of the problems found in its predecessor. While you’ll still notice a crease in its 6.7-inch AMOLED display, it’s not as noticeable as before, and the screen and the device overall seems more durable this time around. The handset doesn’t scratch as easily anymore and it’s IPX8 water resistant, too.
The main screen runs at 2,640 x 1,080 resolution and is lovely to use, and it supports up to 120Hz refresh rates. When folded, the 1.9-inch external screen displays short bits of information like the weather and calendar events, and it can be used to quickly access certain features like Samsung Pay. We also appreciate the new software features that Samsung built in that are foldable specific such as Flex Mode, which will show things like a a YouTube video on the top half of the display when the device is partially folded and the comments section on the bottom.
While the Z Flip 3 is both impressive and fairly practical, we found the Z Fold 3 to be remarkable but much less useful. It’s larger and heavier for one, and when closed, it’s narrower than most smartphones, which makes it a bit awkward. Its 7.6-inch AMOLED interior display provides an immersive experience and is more flexible than previous iterations, and we appreciate the S Pen support. But overall, it’s not the best smartphone nor the best small tablet. However, that might not matter to those who are super excited about owning a foldable — and these Black Friday sales make that reality a bit more accessible.
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All products recommended by Engadget are selected by our editorial team, independent of our parent company. Some of our stories include affiliate links. If you buy something through one of these links, we may earn an affiliate commission.
