Fans of premium folding smartphones can rejoice, the Galaxy Z Fold 5 is coming! While other manufacturers are entering this segment, Samsung remains a safe bet for consumers looking for a device with a controlled design.
Undisputed leader and pioneer in the foldable screen smartphone market, Samsung is launching a new generation of its flagship range with the Galaxy Z Fold 5. Backed by its expertise and user feedback on previous models, the southern manufacturer Korean is still improving its formula with this product which is becoming more and more mature, reliable and efficient over the years. As competition intensifies, between the release of Oppo’s Find N2 and Xiaomi Mix Fold 2 in some countries, the announcement of Google’s Pixel Fold, and the upcoming launch of a OnePlus Fold, folding it from Samsung still maintains a good lead over its rivals. Release date, price, new design, technical specifications, software, here is everything you need to know about the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5.
When is the Galaxy Z Fold 5 coming out?
Samsung has not yet officially confirmed any date, but the trend would be for a presentation of the Galaxy Z Fold 5 on July 26, 2023, during a Galaxy Unpacked conference held in South Korea. Generally, Samsung opens pre-orders in stride for a period of about two weeks, then the smartphone is finally marketed and available from merchants. We will then be around August 11, 2023.
If the Galaxy Z Fold 5 will be the star of the summer at Samsung, the manufacturer will also take the opportunity to launch its Galaxy Z Flip 5. We can additionally expect to see tablets from the Galaxy Tab S9 series, as well as watches connected Galaxy Watch 6.
How much does the Galaxy Z Fold 5 cost?
Samsung will reveal the price of its Galaxy Z Fold 5 during the Unpacked event scheduled for the end of July. According to information from leaker Revegnus, we can expect a “slight reduction” the price of the smartphone compared to its predecessor, the Galaxy Z Fold 4, which was sold for 1,799 euros in the 256 GB version and 1,919 euros in the 512 GB version in France. Be careful however, it is not because Samsung decides to lower its prices in South Korea or the United States that it will apply the same policy in Europe. We can also think that the Galaxy Z Fold 5 will become more affordable across the Atlantic in order to display an entry price lower than that of the Pixel Fold, but the latter is not available in France.
What’s new in the design of the Galaxy Z Fold 5?
If the design becomes a less and less important argument on traditional smartphones as they all tend to look alike, it is still essential for folding smartphones, which have not yet won the confidence of the general public. With this generation, Samsung will further improve the design of its smartphone, thinner and lighter.
The first big improvement is to the hinge. This would be much better integrated into the body of the device, making the fold in the middle of the unfolded main screen much more discreet. To do this, Samsung would have opted for a new type of hinge, called dumb bell internally, which has already proven itself at Oppo, Xiaomi, and more recently Google. This is the most important evolution of the hinge since the Galaxy Z Fold 2. The new version also has the advantage of bringing the two parts of the screen closer together when the mobile is closed, thus reducing the space which separates them. Therefore, the smartphone becomes much less thick when folded.
The old hinge was preferred because it made it easier to ensure the resistance of the terminal, as well as its protection against water. Samsung engineers would have managed to keep these characteristics with the new hinge, which however would not allow the smartphone to be certified dustproof. We should therefore keep the IPX8 protection index already present on the previous generation.
Samsung also wanted to extend the durability of the hinge, capable of withstanding around 300,000 opening and closing operations instead of 200,000, before threatening to deteriorate. Finally, let’s add that, if the hinge of the Galaxy Z Fold 5 improves the experience once the smartphone is fully folded or unfolded, the Flex hands-free mode could suffer and become more complicated to set up. This is very practical for watching videos comfortably or for using your mobile as a laptop.
At the last CES, Samsung Display demonstrated an almost 360° foldable screen to a select few. Such a screen would make it possible to do without an external display, since it would be possible to fold it outwards to find a classic smartphone format. The second half of the screen on the back could have a use, for taking photos for example. This is only a prototype for now. This design could be offered in the future, but it is not for now and the Galaxy Z Fold 5 will not benefit from it.
Three colors are known for the device: Icy Blue, Cream and Phantom Black. The fingerprint reader should not move and continue to be integrated into a button on the edge of the device. The speakers get an upgrade to produce better quality sound.
Brighter screens?
Samsung is betting on screen diagonals similar to what we already know for its Galaxy Z Fold 5, namely a size of 6.2 inches for the external display and 7.6 inches for internal poster. After having already made a significant modification to the hinge, Samsung therefore remains wise on the screens, while we could hope to gain a little surface on the external screen. We will have to wait for the Galaxy Z Fold 6 to see a major change on this point. Several sources report that the secondary screen of the folding smartphone should adopt a ratio closer to that of the Pixel Fold, which relies on width more than on length.
Otherwise, both screens are of course based on AMOLED technology and have a refresh rate of 120Hz, variable from 1 Hz for the main display and 48 Hz for the secondary display. They would be brighter than those of the Galaxy Z Fold 4, and the external screen would have a Gorilla Glass Victus 2 coating to protect against shocks, drops and scratches.
An increasingly powerful smartphone
The Galaxy Z Fold 5 will be powered by a personalized Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip, engraved in 4nm, as for the Galaxy S23. This year, Samsung would not consider providing the Plus version of Qualcomm’s best SoC for its folding phone, believing that the upgraded Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 specially for Galaxy smartphones already gives an advantage over the competition equipped with the standard Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 delivered to other manufacturers. The SoC is equipped with a modem ensuring connectivity on 5G mobile networks.
On the memory side, no change, we keep the 12 GB RAM which are more than enough for all uses, including multitasking. The storage space depends on the configuration chosen: 256 or 512 GB, via UFS 4.0 technology. A version with 1 TB of internal memory was available on certain markets, we will see if France is entitled to it this time.
Autonomy still a little low?
One of the criticisms that could be made of the Galaxy Z Fold 4 was its limited autonomy, its successor should not be able to do much better in this aspect. According to certification documents, the smartphone should once again be powered by a battery with a capacity of 4400mAh. We can hope that the optimizations of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip manage to make the device more energy efficient, but we should not expect a particularly significant difference.
The refill does not move either: up to 25W wired, which remains limited for a premium smartphone compared to the performance delivered by Chinese brands in parallel, and the charger is not included in the box. We also expect wireless charging of up to 11 W with the right station and a reverse wireless charging function to restore juice to wireless headphones or other compatible accessories.
Is the Galaxy Z Fold 5 good in photos?
The capabilities of the Galaxy Z Fold 4 in the photo were quite convincing and the optics of the Galaxy Z Fold 5 should not change much. THE 50 MP main sensor (Samsung ISOCELL GN3) is paired with a 12 MP ultra wide-angle and a 10 MP telephoto lens capable of up to 3x optical zooms. Some reports state that Samsung would have liked to improve the photo sensors on this new generation, but that a design constraint would have prevented them from doing so. In particular, it would have been impossible to include larger and heavier sensors without having to revise the entire design and balance of the device.
The smartphone offers two front cameras for selfies: one 12 MP with the external screen, when the mobile is folded, and another 4 MP hidden under the internal screen for unfolded use. Photo processing could be improved thanks to the new chip, but we should not expect a spectacular leap in photo quality compared to the Galaxy Z Fold 4, which was, we remember all the same, a good photophone.
As for video, the Galaxy Z Fold 5 can shoot 8K at 30fps and 4K at 60fps.
Does the Galaxy Z Fold 5 come with an S Pen stylus?
The Galaxy Z Fold 5 is compatible with the use of Samsung’s in-house stylus, the S Pen. The accessory is not however not included with the smartphone and must be purchased separately. If it is not delivered with the device, it is certain that the Galaxy Z Fold 5 does not have a specific location to store and recharge its S Pen. The absence of such a port also makes it possible to keep the terminal thinner.
The S Pen allows you to manually write, draw or annotate documents on the screen, but also to control the smartphone remotely to engage the camera, skip a slide during a presentation, or switch to the next song in a playlist.
Which version of Android for the Galaxy Z Fold 5?
The Galaxy Z Fold 5 comes in One UI 5.1.1, Samsung’s software overlay, based on Android 13. This version offers a fluid, intuitive and customizable interface. Many features make it particularly suitable for exploiting the device’s foldable screen, particularly with regard to multitasking and the automatic adaptation of the screens to the mode used: open, closed or flex.
The manufacturer is becoming more and more reactive with regard to the software monitoring of its high-end smartphones. It promises 4 years of major Android updates and five years of security patches.
