In the space of a day or two the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 has gone from sounding underwhelming to quite exciting, as hot on the heels of a leak suggesting a serious power upgrade, it now looks like the battery could be better than expected.
MyFixGuide has spotted a listing from China’s 3C certification agency, which suggests that the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 will have two batteries with a combined capacity of 3,595mAh.
Now, that’s already more than the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 – which has a 3,300mAh battery – and than a previous leak suggested, as that pointed to a 3,400mAh battery.
But the battery capacity we’re seeing on this listing is almost certainly the 'rated capacity', which is essentially the minimum capacity you’ll get from the battery. Samsung (and most device makers) actually advertise the 'typical capacity' though, which is the estimated average value for the battery - so a little higher than the rated capacity.
It’s the typical value that we mentioned for the Z Flip 3 and for the previous leak, and with a rated capacity of 3,595mAh, the typical capacity here is likely to be even higher at around 3,700mAh – a figure which leaker @UniverseIce suggests.
So that’s around 400mAh more than the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3, which is a not-insignificant amount, especially given that the screens sound like they might be similar, and the chipset is likely to be more efficient. So if anything the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 might be less battery hungry than its predecessor.
We would of course take this claim with a pinch of salt, especially since it conflicts with an earlier rumor. But certification agencies like this one are usually working off official information, so there’s a very high chance that this is accurate.
Analysis: A big boost but we still want more
Battery life has long been a problem with smartphones, and it’s even more of an issue with foldable phones, as despite often having bigger screens than conventional phones, they also often have smaller batteries.
The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 will probably actually be in line with a large conventional phone, as leaks point to a 6.7-inch foldable display, but even a 3,700mAh battery would be much smaller than the juice packs in most phones of that size.
It’s rare to find a large phone with less than a 4,500mAh battery, and many are at 5,000mAh or higher.
But with the hinge, the secondary display, and the multiple sections needed in a foldable phone, there’s a lot more to them than normal smartphones, meaning battery space is more limited – unless you want something really chunky. So this isn’t an easy problem to solve.
Hopefully the rumored upgrade here will be enough, but either way it’s much needed, as our Galaxy Z Flip 3 review described its battery as the “biggest drawback.”
- We're also expecting the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4
