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

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

The Galaxy Z Flip 5’s greatest improve is its new cowl show, which I discovered compelling throughout my transient time utilizing the system. With this improve, the exterior show really feels useful and helpful slightly than simply beauty, serving to Samsung’s flip cellphone catch as much as these made by Motorola and Chinese language tech large 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 sequence 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 screen on the Motorola Razr Plus.

Most individuals will nonetheless use the Z Flip 5’s 6.7-inch inside display screen for duties like studying the information, enjoying video games and searching social media. However the larger cowl show might 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 screen. I liked propping it open like a tent whereas enjoying music, and even typing to rapidly reply to a textual content message.

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

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Samsung is making an attempt to supply an identical expertise with the Z Flip 5. Throughout my transient time with it, I scrolled via 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 screen. Though you may 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 screen apps to ones it believes have a great motive to be there, like Google Maps, YouTube and WhatsApp. Samsung desires to give attention to use circumstances that make sense for the quilt display screen, like rapidly 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 might run nearly any app (together with TikTok) on the entrance display screen.

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

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

The duvet display screen 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 screen, and so they present a bigger view of the climate, your calendar, alarms, linked system controls and different tidbits of data in comparison with the Z Flip 4’s minuscule display screen. You possibly can take away or reorder these widgets, both on the quilt display screen or within the cellphone’s settings menu.

The Z Flip 5 additionally has a brand new hinge, which Samsung calls the Flex Hinge. This permits the system to fold utterly 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, but it surely ought to enhance sturdiness, in line with Samsung. The brand new hinge has fewer shifting components 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 ranking, which ought to enable them to face up to submersion in 1.5 meters (roughly 5 toes) of water for as much as half-hour. That is the identical sturdiness ranking as final 12 months’s gadgets.

The duvet display screen and hinge are the Galaxy Z Flip 5’s greatest 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 be growing 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 12 months. 

Cameras have all the time been an essential a part of the Galaxy Z Flip sequence, however the Z Flip 5 has comparable digicam {hardware} in comparison with final 12 months’s mannequin. That features a 12-megapixel most important digicam, a 12-megapixel ultrawide digicam and a 10-megapixel selfie digicam. The distinction this 12 months is that the cameras have a brand new lens coating that ought to cut 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 12 months. And naturally, the Z Flip 5’s enlarged cowl display screen additionally means you may have a roomier viewfinder for taking selfies when the cellphone is closed.

The Galaxy Z Flip 5’s software program expertise is basically the identical as that of the Z Flip 4, however Samsung added extra integrations with its new Galaxy Watch 6. For instance, when the digicam 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 digicam 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 skill to floor it when it detects that you take a photograph in Flex Mode is.

The Galaxy Z Flip 5 seems like Samsung’s try to handle the earlier era’s greatest compromises: A canopy display screen that felt too tiny to be helpful, a comparatively quick battery life and a hinge that did not fold as flat as some opponents. Whether or not I am going to advocate this cellphone depends upon how effectively Samsung executes on that objective.

However most significantly, I hope the quilt display screen offers the Z Flip 5 a clearer goal. Having a cellphone with a built-in tripod that may slot in your pocket extra simply is useful, but it surely’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 will be about extra than simply portability. With the Z Flip 5, I will be anticipating Samsung to push that concept additional.