Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 Hands-On: Bigger Display, More Personal Customizations

Samsung’s new Galaxy Z Flip 5 positive aspects a considerably bigger cowl display, an upgraded hinge and a brand new processor that ought to enhance efficiency and pictures, addressing among the Galaxy Z Flip 4’s largest shortcomings. It launches on Aug. 11 beginning at $1,000 (£1,049, AU$1,649), exhibiting that customers nonetheless need to pay a excessive worth to get their palms on telephones that fold in half.

The Galaxy Z Flip 5’s largest improve is its new cowl show, which I discovered compelling throughout my transient time utilizing the gadget. With this improve, the exterior show truly feels practical and helpful moderately than simply beauty, serving to Samsung’s flip cellphone catch as much as these made by Motorola and Chinese language tech big Oppo.

Samsung launched the brand new flip cellphone at its Galaxy Unpacked occasion in Seoul on Wednesday, alongside a bevy of different merchandise such because the Galaxy Z Fold 5, Galaxy Watch 6 collection and Galaxy Tab S9 household. The launch underscores Samsung’s guess that foldable designs are the way forward for high-end smartphones, particularly as a differentiator to Apple simply forward of iPhone launch season. 

The Galaxy Z Flip 5’s cowl show, which Samsung now calls the Flex Window, measures 3.4 inches in comparison with the Z Flip 4’s 1.9-inch exterior show. That makes it simply barely smaller than the three.6-inch entrance display on the Motorola Razr Plus.

Most individuals will nonetheless use the Z Flip 5’s 6.7-inch inner display for duties like studying the information, taking part in video games and looking social media. However the larger cowl show may make the Z Flip extra helpful in different methods. Once I reviewed the Razr Plus, for instance, I used to be enamored with the cellphone’s spacious cowl display. I liked propping it open like a tent whereas taking part in music, and even typing to shortly reply to a textual content message.

Watch this: Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 Arms-On: A Greater Display screen Goes a Lengthy Method

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Samsung is making an attempt to offer an analogous expertise with the Z Flip 5. Throughout my transient time with it, I scrolled by means of Google Maps, typed within the messages app and even watched the Barbie film trailer on YouTube with out opening the cellphone. You possibly can’t do any of that on the Z Flip 4’s cowl display. Though you’ll be able to on the Razr Plus. 

However you will not have the ability to use each app on the entrance show. For probably the most half, Samsung limits cowl display apps to ones it believes have an excellent cause to be there, like Google Maps, YouTube and WhatsApp. Samsung needs to concentrate on use circumstances that make sense for the quilt display, like shortly checking instructions or replying to a textual content, which is why solely about 10 apps might be obtainable on the Flex Window at launch. That differs from the Razr Plus, which may run nearly any app (together with TikTok) on the entrance display.

If you wish to strive different apps on the quilt display you’ll be able to set up Good Lock, an app for Samsung gadgets that lets folks customise their telephones’ interface. 

Cowl display apps seamlessly transition to the 6.7-inch inner show if you open the cellphone. However this does not work the opposite manner round, because it does on the Motorola Razr.

The quilt display feels prefer it was primarily designed to run widgets greater than full apps. These widgets are the very first thing you see when turning on the quilt display, they usually present a bigger view of the climate, your calendar, alarms, related gadget controls and different tidbits of data in comparison with the Z Flip 4’s minuscule display. You possibly can take away or reorder these widgets, both on the quilt display or within the cellphone’s settings menu.

The Z Flip 5 additionally has a brand new hinge, which Samsung calls the Flex Hinge. This allows the gadget to fold fully closed, just like the Razr Plus, with out the wedge-shaped hole discovered on earlier Galaxy Z Flip and Fold gadgets. 

This not solely makes the cellphone really feel extra compact, nevertheless it ought to enhance sturdiness, in keeping with Samsung. The brand new hinge has fewer transferring elements in comparison with the earlier model, which ought to make it much less vulnerable to wreck. Each of Samsung’s new foldables have an IPX8 water resistance score, which ought to permit them to resist submersion in 1.5 meters (roughly 5 ft) of water for as much as half-hour. That is the identical sturdiness score as final yr’s gadgets.

The quilt display and hinge are the Galaxy Z Flip 5’s largest upgrades. In any other case, the cellphone will get a routine processor improve to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy. It is the identical chip that powers the Galaxy S23 lineup, which helped enhance the battery life and picture processing. I am wanting ahead to seeing whether or not that holds true for the Galaxy Z Flip 5. Samsung is leaning on this chip to shoulder the burden of extending the Z Flip 5’s battery life because it has the identical 3,700-mAh battery capability because the Z Flip 4. The bottom storage can also be rising from 128GB to 256GB on the Z Flip 5 in comparison with the Z Flip 4, a change that Samsung additionally made to the Galaxy S23 Plus earlier this yr. 

Cameras have all the time been an vital a part of the Galaxy Z Flip collection, however the Z Flip 5 has related digital camera {hardware} in comparison with final yr’s mannequin. That features a 12-megapixel most important digital camera, a 12-megapixel ultrawide digital camera and a 10-megapixel selfie digital camera. The distinction this yr is that the cameras have a brand new lens coating that ought to scale back lens flare. Hopefully this, mixed with the brand new processor, will enhance the Galaxy Z Flip’s cameras from what my colleague Patrick Holland referred to as “B-grade cameras” in his overview final yr. And naturally, the Z Flip 5’s enlarged cowl display additionally means you will have a roomier viewfinder for taking selfies when the cellphone is closed.

The Galaxy Z Flip 5’s software program expertise is essentially the identical as that of the Z Flip 4, however Samsung added extra integrations with its new Galaxy Watch 6. For instance, when the digital camera app is open and also you fold the Flip 5 midway to place it in Flex Mode and you will see the icon for the digital camera controller app pop up in your Galaxy Watch 6’s watch face. This allows you to see a preview of what you are capturing and alter angles out of your wrist. The app itself is not new, however the watch’s capability to floor it when it detects that you are taking a photograph in Flex Mode is.

The Galaxy Z Flip 5 seems like Samsung’s try to deal with the earlier era’s largest compromises: A canopy display that felt too tiny to be helpful, a comparatively brief battery life and a hinge that did not fold as flat as some rivals. Whether or not I will advocate this cellphone is dependent upon how nicely Samsung executes on that objective.

However most significantly, I hope the quilt display offers the Z Flip 5 a clearer function. Having a cellphone with a built-in tripod that may slot in your pocket extra simply is useful, nevertheless it’s not sufficient to persuade most individuals to modify to a $1,000 flip cellphone for. The Razr Plus’ bigger exterior show proved that flip telephones might be about extra than simply portability. With the Z Flip 5, I will be anticipating Samsung to push that concept additional.