The Best Foldable Smartphones: Which 2023 Foldable Comes up Top?

A.I. Black GuyJuly 23, 2023

0 0 9 minutes read

The Best Foldable Smartphones: Which 2023 Foldable Comes up Top?

The best Foldables in 2023 compared

As you can see, our foldables list is clearly dominated by Samsung smartphones. Of course, this is also due to the fact that the new Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Galaxy Z Flip 4 models are even better than their predecessors.

Note: Models like the Xiaomi Mi Mix Fold and the Huawei Mate X are not listed for obvious reasons: Availability Stateside.

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Here’s what to look out for when buying a foldable

Different types exist:

Basically, we can distinguish two types when it comes to foldable devices:

Clamshell models like the Z Flip 4, which offer a normal smartphone-sized display when fully opened
Foldables in a book or booklet form factor, where the usual smartphone screen’s surface area is almost enlarged to a tablet form factor

Clamshell devices are much more compact in size, folding horizontally like how the first foldable phones once did. Meanwhile, they also come with small external displays like the Galaxy Z Flip 4, on which you can control music or read notifications. Foldables like the Galaxy Z Fold 3, on the other hand, are folded vertically and offer significantly more multitasking possibilities due to the larger display area. Moreover, they are fully usable even when folded due to a generous outer display.

Who are foldables suitable for?

Foldable smartphones are unfortunately very expensive for most of the available models and offer manufacturers a lot of room for experimentation. Thus, the target group must also be equally well off and would not think twice about dropping four figures at a moment’s notice. In addition, they will also have to be patient and live with the fact that the new features and hardware components are sometimes not yet completely mature.

The large booklet format is a good choice for users who also need to be productive on the go. You benefit from the large display which allows you to use office applications in a more productive manner with the option of stylus support for selected models. A practical feature of the clamshell models is how you can place it half open and thus, for instance, making it useful for content creators to record a video hands-free in front of the smartphone camera.

So foldables are perfect for early adopters who like to be the first to check out “state-of-the-art” technologies and have deep pockets.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4: The Foldable King of 2023

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 von Vorne — The Galaxy Z Fold 4 is Samsung’s latest high-end foldable. / © nextpit

The Galaxy Z Fold 4 looks almost exactly like its predecessor but it has shrunk a bit. You still view content on an inner AMOLED display that measures a proud 7.6-inches when fully opened. The outer display is a bit smaller at 6.2-inches, but it provides access to all the smartphone’s functions.

As you can read in our comparison between the Galaxy Z Fold 4 and the Galaxy Z Fold 3, Samsung has also improved the performance of the foldable. A Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 SoC is now at work inside, but RAM and internal storage have remained the same. Besides the specs mentioned, Samsung has improved the quality of the under-display camera. You can find out how good the smartphone feels and what it is capable of in the Z Fold 4 review.

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Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4: Best compact model

We are now able to hold it in our hands: The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4! In our hands-on, the smartphone proved to be a bit more robust and of higher quality than its predecessor. Samsung has also improved its performance with the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 SoC. Apart from that, you can look forward to the faster Quick Charging, which is again not super fast, as is typical for Samsung.

You can now charge the Z Flip 4 at 25 watts. Apart from that, there are only a few innovations in the latest iteration of the Flip smartphone. What has changed in detail can be read in our comparison between the Galaxy Z Flip 4 and the Galaxy Z Flip 3.

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Clamshell alternative: Motorola Razr+ (2023)

The large cover display of the Motorola Razr Plus 2023 currently beats every other cover screen in the clamshell foldable class. / © nextpit

After a couple of missteps in the foldable category—like leaning too heavily on nostalgia instead of technical pizzaz—Motorola started 2023 on fire with two foldables launched not much after a strong showing with the Razr (2022) we reviewed in Nov/2022. And the Razr+ (aka Razr 40 Ultra) came ready to dethrone the competition with the biggest external display ever used on a flip phone: A crisp 3.6” OLED.

With a release so soon after the Razr (2022), the new model kept the same capable and efficient Snapdraogn 8+ Gen 1 processor, but resorted to an unfortunate downgrade in the main camera, with a smaller sensor than its predecessor (1/2.55” vs 1/1.55”), that particularly hurt its light capturing performance at night.

The new Razr+ (2023) is the first flip phone that can claim its external display is actually useful, and Motorola even managed to start offering a decent update policy of three Android versions and four years of security updates. And despite not quite taking down the Galaxy Z Flip 4 from this list, it shows that Motorola is definitely back to the fight.

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“Value” alternative: Motorola Razr (2023)

Motorola Razr 40 — The Razr (2023) external display got a size reduction in line with a considerable price cut. / © nextpit

And Motorola is back again on this list, who would imagine? Launched alongside the Razr+, the standard Razr (2023)—globally sold as the Razr 40—refines the formula used on the 2019 and 2020 Razrs: A competent mid-range processor with capable cameras, while fixing the main flaws on the original Droid Razrs with a functional form factor and, most importantly, a competitive price that undercuts the competition.

The “cheap” Razr impressed my colleague Matt so much in his review that he gave it a score better than the Razr+. The Razr (2023) goes back to a mid-range SoC but keeps a big 6.9” OLED internal display, offers good memory options, and, surprisingly, a bigger resolution main camera and bigger battery without sacrificing wireless charging.

With an attractive bang-for-the-buck proposition, the Razr (2023) launched at an MSRP lower than its rivals in Europe but has yet to be officially announced in the US.

Other foldables worth mentioning

The market for foldable smartphones has grown by a few devices this year, so we also want to discuss foldables that were recently introduced but have neither reached the shelves nor been tested extensively by the nextpit editorial team. Smartphones like the Google Pixel Fold or the Huawei Mate X3, which we would like to at least briefly mention here.

Google Pixel Fold

The Google Pixel Fold was officially presented at Google I/O 2023 and is the first foldable smartphone from Mountain View. The price of 1,899 dollars is similarly hefty as that of its foldable competitors. In practice, however, the Pixel Fold showed a few “first-generation” issues, with an ecosystem that is still not adapted to its almost square form factor, and early reports of damages on the internal 7.6” OLED screen.

On the outside, there is another screen with a diagonal of 5.8 inches. The foldable Android smartphone is powered by a Google Tensor G2, together with 12 GB of RAM and 256 or 512 GB of internal program storage. Typical for Google, not expandable via microSD card. The battery has a capacity of 4,821 mAh and can be charged with 30 W. Finally, the camera setup should be mentioned, which consists of two front cameras (8 and 9.5 MP) and a triple main camera.

The latter unit consists of a 48 MP Quad PD main camera with optical image stabilization (OIS), a 10.8 MP ultra-wide-angle, and another 10.8 MP telephoto camera with a 5x lossless and 20x “Super Res” zoom. In addition, there is an LDAF, as well as a flicker sensor.

Huawei Mate X3

The Huawei Mate X3, in its turn, is one of many foldable smartphones from the Chinese manufacturer. In fact, Huawei is one of the manufacturers that were the first to launch a foldable on the market, together with Samsung. However, the manufacturer has been subject to the US embargo since 2019, which makes the smartphone unattractive even in Europe due to the lack of Google Mobile Services and 5G support.

In the end, even the otherwise superior technology of a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, an inwardly folded 7.85-inch AMOLED main display (2,496 x 2,224 px), and a 6.4-inch outer panel does not help over that. Even with the price of 2,199 Euros, Huawei does not seem to show any understanding that, without access to the Google Play Store, it will be difficult to compete in the tough foldable market outside the Chinese Walls.

Short take

These are the models that we could agree on with the nextpit editorial team from a subjective point of view. Compared to the other devices, the Microsoft representative has fallen out of favor in our assessment. Nevertheless, we wanted to mention the Surface Duo 2 because it is the only foldable that relies on a solution with two independent displays.

Let us know in the comments which model is your foldable favorite and if you agree with our picks.