Best foldable phone 2023

It’s a close call with the Oppo Find N2 Flip, but we think the best folding phone is the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4, by a whisker.

It wins out thanks to its great build quality, full waterproofing, and superior five years of software support. Samsung stores in the UK and US also offer more accessible repair services to customers compared to Oppo.

The inner display of the Z Flip 4 is the best we’ve seen, with a glass composite material that isn’t easily scratched or dented. It uses the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset for excellent performance, and 8GB RAM is enough to keep it ticking over nicely.

This is a lovely premium phone no matter which colour you buy. Battery life is also much improved over previous models, even if its 25W charging speed is slow. It’s also got wireless charging. Add to that its very capable cameras and clever outer display to view notifications, and it’s the pick of the foldable flock right now.

Samsung has the brand clout, but Oppo is right on its tail – the Find N2 Flip is massively impressive and has a better outer display than the Z Flip 4. It’s bigger, allowing you to reply to messages, take photos, and more.

The phone also closely completely flat, unlike the Z Flip 4. In either the matt black or gloss purple finish, the Find N2 Flip is a luxurious object.

It packs in dual cameras with a particularly excellent main sensor that anyone would be pleased with. Battery life is solid, and performance is excellent too with the MediaTek Dimensity 9000+ under the hood.

Drawbacks are the lack of waterproofing and wireless charging and also, in our testing slightly dodgy Bluetooth connectivity. But those aside, this is the best non-Samsung folding phone you can buy. With Oppo promising a Samsung-matching five years of software support, you can’t go wrong.

This is the best book-style folding phone thanks to its wide availability, sturdy build, stellar software features, and long software support.

Samsung’s One UI Android skin on the Fold comes into its own, offering S-Pen support (though the pen isn’t included), great multi-windowing, and a larger inner screen that you might find useful for productivity and work apps.

Both displays are very good quality with sharp resolution and 120Hz refresh rates, but be aware neither is a regular smartphone size, so typing can be a bit tricky. Otherwise this is a multimedia dream, and the best folding phone to pick if you don’t want a tablet but would like your phone to be a bit bigger when you fancy it.

It’s an expensive device, but it has wireless charging and is fully waterproof, and Samsung’s after sales care in most countries is excellent. It offers a free screen protector replacement for every customer should there be a manufacturing fault within warranty.

Building on the brand of the immensely popular Razr flip phones of years gone by, this 2022 foldable smartphone Razr ditches the big chin aesthetics of those phones but comes up as the best modern version yet.

The build quality is top notch but the ace up the Razr’s sleeve is its large cover display on which you can do almost anything the internal one can, including composing messages on a full keyboard – a unique feature for a flip style foldable in 2023.

It has the same Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 as the Galaxy Z Flip 4 so it runs very quickly, and the crease of the Razr is less noticeable compared to that Samsung phone.

The main camera here is also excellent, meaning the Razr is a great viable alternative to Samsung or Oppo if you want a flipping foldable. The biggest downside is Moto has only promised one certain year of software updates, whereas those other two brands offer five.

If you’d like a book style foldable but don’t like Samsung’s offering, then you should consider the Honor Magic Vs. Honor was once Huawei’s sub-brand but it’s now a company in its own right, making excellent smartphones with full access to Google apps and services.

The Magic Vs (that’s ‘vee ess’, not versus) is a well built phone that costs less than the Galaxy Z Fold 4 and folds completely flat, unlike that Samsung device.

It has a comfortable weight and dimensions, making the outer and inner displays feel good to use while a great main camera means you aren’t sacrificing image quality by opting for a foldable phone.

There’s no wireless charging or water resistance, but pleasingly Honor is promising three years of Android version updates and five years of security patches, meaning this hi-tech piece of tech will stay up to date until 2028.

If you like the idea of the Z Fold 4 but think it’s a little pricy, go for the Z Fold 3 if you can find it for cheaper. It’s still an amazingly capable foldable, and the one I’ve personally used the most and for the longest time.

The cameras aren’t as good as the Z Fold 4 but other than that the Fold 3 is practically the same device. The software has got much better over time thanks to Samsung’s useful additions such as a taskbar, and the thing has software support until 2026.

It’s also compatible with Samsung’s S-Pen stylus, has fast performance thanks to the still-good Snapdragon 888 chipset, and is built very well. The worst thing about it is the bad under-display camera on the inner display that Samsung didn’t learn its lesson with and stuck with for the Z Fold 4.

This is the phone on the list that folds but doesn’t have a folding screen. Instead, the Microsoft Surface Duo 2 has two separate inner displays that are connected down the middle with a hinge. There’s no outer display, meaning this is the most book-like device you can buy.

Like every other folding phone on this list the Duo runs Android, and is designed so you can run two separate apps side by side. The usefulness of this isn’t immediately apparent perhaps, but having two apps open such as a notes and calendar can help you quickly cross reference things.

With an internal camera you can also take video calls on one screen while taking notes on the other – both displays are compatible with versions of the (not included) Surface Pen.

That camera and the rear facing triple cameras aren’t great, and the squat size of the displays isn’t the best for typing. But if you like the idea of a modern digital pocket notebook you will be in tech heaven – plus a few apps have been tweaked specifically for Duo, such as the Kindle app that displays two pages full screen to resemble an actual book.

The Galaxy Z Flip 3 is very similar to the Z Flip 4 but it came out one year earlier in 2021, so if you can find it on sale then it’s still a great option.

The main downside is its not-quite-day battery life, particularly if you’re a heavy user (the Z Flip 4 fixed that). Otherwise, the design is the same and just as well made, the cameras are solid, and the software is the same, with support from Samsung until 2026.

It’s fully waterproof and the design is still an absolute marvel, plus it comes in a 80s chic cream colour that looks awesome.

Just make sure you’re getting a good price on it, otherwise you may as well get the newer Z Flip 4.

The P50 Pocket is a truly stunning piece of hardware with better build quality than Samsung’s Z Flips. This is thanks to an intricate mechanical hinge that when closed folds the screen into a water drop shape to decrease the pressure on the crease point – then when unfolded is much less apparent on the flat display.

The very premium gold version we reviewed has a textured ripple pattern on the outside that makes it look like gold leaf. It’s an acquired taste for sure, but with the circular screen and camera modules on the outside with it, it’s a bold design that is quite unique. There are plainer colours available, though.

When unfolded the phone has a whopping 6.9in OLED display with a fast 120Hz refresh rate. It runs on the Snapdragon 888 chipset, the same as the Z Fold 3 and Z Flip 3, but as this is Huawei there is no 5G support. It’s the absence of this and the Google Play Store that hamper this phone – with no official access to Google apps or services (or popular apps like WhatsApp and Instagram from an app store).

This means you’ll have to sideload Android apps from unofficial sources, which is far from ideal. Huawei’s AppGallery is improving but if you use any Google services you will want to steer clear.

Ever since Huawei phones could no longer natively run the Google Play Store or support Google services, the company’s phones have been frustrating to most western buyers: beautiful, highly capable hardware but with software that annoys and disappoints.

It’s the same story with the Mate Xs 2, which has incredibly well-made hardware unlike any other foldable on this list – the display wraps around the entire outside of the device and opens to extend the screen into a larger area.

That leaves the plastic on the outside of the screen susceptible to scratches if you’re not careful, but it feels very futuristic. Its 120Hz refresh rate looks very premium and the quality of the panel is outstanding.

The phone has amazing cameras and lovely screens but only apps from Huawei’s AppGallery app store – which does not have a lot of popular western apps. But you can download any Android app by sideloading them, a legal and safe thing to do, it’s just a bit of a faff.

There’s also no 5G support or wireless charging, which makes the price a little hard to stomach.