The Z Flip 4 is a great compact phone you can’t fully use with one hand

The Galaxy Z Flip sequence has been round for just a few years, reviving the clamshell smartphone type issue popularized by the likes of Motorola, Nokia, and others within the late Nineties and early 2000s.

The Galaxy Z Flip 4 continues in just about the identical vein because the earlier Z Flip telephones, providing a pocket-friendly type issue when folded and a smartphone-sized inner display screen when folded out. As a lot as I appreciated this design, nevertheless, there’s a small hurdle in the way in which of it reaching its true potential as a compact cellphone.

Positive, the Galaxy Z Flip sequence simply matches in a pocket and just about disappears. However retrieve it out of your pocket and the primary downside turns into obvious. You may’t simply open it with one hand. As an alternative, you’ll want to make use of each arms to open it. That is presumably on account of the truth that the Flip sequence has a variety of magnets aboard to maintain the gadget firmly closed.

Nonetheless, I’ve discovered this to be fairly annoying in just a few situations. That is notably irksome after I’m on the grocery retailer with a basket and wish to verify my buying record. It’s additionally an inconvenience after I’m carrying one thing else in a single hand (akin to a service bag, meals, water bottle, and so on).

We’ve got seen some folks showcase their very own methodology of opening the Flip telephones with one hand. However most of those strategies contain inserting a finger into the hole and/or making a wrist-flicking movement such as you’re a knife-wielding hoodlum in an ’80s film.

That flicking gesture particularly looks like a recipe for catastrophe and we wouldn’t be stunned if telephones have gone flying out of individuals’s arms because of this. Nonetheless, inserting your finger into the show hole additionally means urgent your fingernail towards the folding display screen. That’s a giant no-no as Samsung‘s setup display screen notes, on account of your nail having the ability to injury the foldable show. Take a look at the transient clip under to see this gesture in motion.

One other touted method to open your cellphone with one hand is to partially open it after which press it into your stomach, utilizing your abdomen or chest to completely unfurl the display screen. This isn’t as reckless because the above methodology nevertheless it’s nonetheless extra awkward than it must be. Test it out under.

In fact, the Galaxy Z Fold sequence can be tough to open within the first place. Nonetheless, the Fold line is inherently giant and ungainly to start with, so we get why accessing the tablet-sized show requires two arms.

The Z Flip sequence, nevertheless, is constructed across the thought of compactness. We hoped Samsung would have addressed the single-hand opening concern with the Z Flip 4, nevertheless it appears to be like like we would have to attend till subsequent yr to see whether or not the corporate provides an answer.

Maybe the best method to clear up the single-hand use concern can be to cut back the variety of magnets which are used to maintain the gadget closed. A Galaxy Z Flip 3 teardown reveals that six magnets are utilized in complete, so we might see two eliminated or some shriveled to make the gadget simpler to open. Nonetheless, this might have the potential side-effect of the cellphone not staying firmly shut and even by accident opening at instances.

One other potential answer can be to supply a cutout or indent on the underside half of the cellphone. We already see an analogous answer on some laptops, with an indent on the underside half of the PC giving customers a neater method to open the lid. The potential draw back right here is that this might make for an aesthetically disagreeable design selection. We’d additionally want thicker bezels so your fingernail has a devoted space for opening the highest half with out damaging the display screen — one other visually unappealing selection.

Lastly, Samsung might sort out this concern by implementing a spring-loaded hinge. This could can help you simply open the foldable manually or with the press of a button like clamshell characteristic telephones of yore. Nonetheless, this answer additionally has loads of issues.

A spring-loaded mechanism would make the hinge design extra sophisticated, probably resulting in sturdiness points or affecting the IP ranking. It might additionally imply a no-free-stop design — the gadget is both totally open or totally closed and also you lose the superior Flex Mode. And certain sufficient, the Motorola Razr 5G provides a spring-loaded hinge however no free-stop design and solely a water-repellent coating as a substitute of the Flip 4’s IPX8 ranking.

In saying so, the truth that you want two arms to simply open the Galaxy Z Flip 4 isn’t a deal-breaker. It’s fairly annoying that you’ll want to resort to some awkward and/or reckless gestures to open this compact gadget with one hand. However opening the gadget is only a small a part of the general expertise.

The truth that I can simply slip a cellphone with a 6.7-inch display screen into my pockets continues to be fairly cool in spite of everything this time, and I’ve typically discovered myself grabbing this gadget when heading out as a substitute of the bulkier Z Fold 4. Toss within the combo of Flex Mode and Single Take performance and I’d say it’s definitely worth the inconvenience of utilizing two arms to open the gadget.