In a world of Foldables where competition is yet to challenge Samsung’s dominance, it launched the 2023 foldable phones – Galaxy Z Fold5 and Galaxy Z Flip5. With no serious competition in sight, how do you enhance what’s already leading the pack? Samsung’s approach seems to be about refining rather than revamping as evident with Galaxy Z Flip5 and Fold5.
This year the Flip confidently leads the way among foldable with small but meaningful upgrades. It starts with an important upgrade to the cover screen, making it more useful, though there are some things to be careful about. The hinge design is new too – a smooth flat fold that adds elegance. Underneath, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset makes things faster. Storage doubles, getting bigger based on what people want. The cameras and display are a bit better, but nothing too new.
With these changes, does the Galaxy Z Flip5 offers just the right amount of differences and improvements to make it a worthy successor? That’s what we’ll be trying to find out in this Galaxy Z Flip5 review.
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip5 Review Snapshot
Editor’s rating: 4.2/5
Design
Display
Software
Performance
Camera
Battery
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Pros
- Larger and improved Flex Screen
- Solid build quality with minimal hinge wobble
- Powered by Snapdragon 8 Gen 2
- Assured four-year software updates
- Enhanced camera capabilities compared to competitors
Cons
- No DEX support
- Average battery life and charging speeds
- Absence of dust protection feature
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip5 Price
- 8GB RAM+ 256GB storage- ₹99,999
- 8GB RAM + 512GB storage – ₹1,09,999
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip5 Review: Design and Build
The Galaxy Z Flip5 offers a range of colors to choose from, including Mint, Cream, Lavender, Gray, Blue, Green, and Yellow, allowing consumers to pick their favorite. The standout change in design is the larger cover display, almost reminiscent of the original iPhone’s screen size. The cutout with dual cameras brings to mind the Windows PC folder icon.
The game-changer is the ‘Flex’ hinge. Unlike previous Samsung folding phones with a gap near the hinge, the Z Flip5 boasts a gapless design, folding completely flat. This innovation prevents debris from getting trapped and also slims down the folded phone. While other brands’ hinges can wobble, the Z Flip5’s sturdiness stands out, maintaining steadiness even during vigorous use. Flex mode is cool too. It lets the top half of the screen stand at different angles. It’s handy for things like taking pictures with the back cameras or taking handsfree video calls. The bigger cover screen is great for lots of things.
Built with robust materials like Gorilla Glass Victus 2 and Armor Aluminum, the Z Flip5’s dimensions are sleek – thinner when folded (15.1mm) and unchanged when open. It’s compact and lightweight, measuring 165.1×71.9×6.9mm and weighing 187g. The flat sides offer a unique touch, and should be favored by some over curved designs. Although water-resistant (IPX8), dust can still pose issues – so, caution is advised. The fingerprint scanner embedded in the power button works seamlessly.
Overall, we’d say that Samsung’s design improvements shine through. Addressing past concerns like the hinge and slimness, the Z Flip5 retains its sleek and stylish essence, making it a generous leap forward.
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip5 Review: Displays
Let’s dive into the front display. The Galaxy Z Flip 5’s cover screen, also called the Flex Window, is a big leap from what we had on the Flip 4. It covers a large portion of the phone’s top half, measuring 3.4 inches diagonally. The resolution is 720x748px with 306 pixels packed into every inch. Running at 60Hz, it feels smooth and responsive. When outdoors, it reaches up to 1092 nits in brightness, which is great for sunny days.
Shifting to the Internal Display, it’s a 6.7-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X, incredibly clear at 2640×1080 pixels. it’s super sharp with a density of 425 pixels per inch and colours nicely pop in the vivid mode. This primary display is even brighter now, hitting 1101 nits on auto mode, almost 200 nits higher than on Flip 4. Maximum brightness is also way higher measuring 1750 nits!
You’ve got two refresh rate choices: Adaptive and Standard. Both adjust to your actions, with Adaptive going up to 120 times per second and Standard at 60 times. The screen can switch between 24Hz and 60Hz depending on what you’re doing.
For color accuracy, the Z Flip 5 offers two modes: Vivid and Natural. Vivid is lively and colorful but has a slightly cool white point by default (you can fix this using a slider). The Natural profile, on the other hand, sticks to sRGB colour profile. HDR works great, so videos on YouTube and Netflix look amazing. No Dolby Vision support, though.
Does the Galaxy Z Flip 5 have a crease? Yes, there’s a crease. Even with an improved hinge, you can still see a line where the screen folds. The crease is more noticeable compared to other foldable phones like OPPO, Vivo, or Motorola. But over time, you might not pay it much attention.
The Galaxy Z Flip5 features a dual-speaker system with one speaker at the bottom and another at the top, which also serves as an earpiece. It offers good sound quality with clean vocals, well-defined treble, and decent low-end response.
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 Review: Software
Samsung shines with its One UI, known for its versatile features that adapt to various screen forms. Out of the box, the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip5 boasts Android 13 paired with One UI 5.1.1., tailored for foldable devices. On the Cover Screen, you have a canvas for customization. Widgets like weather, calendars, and quick contacts decorate it. Swipe left to unlock, and swipe right for notifications.
The Always-On Display (AOD) on the cover screen can be personalized with various clock styles and music info. Certain apps like Netflix, WhatsApp, and Google Maps are optimized for this screen. Galaxy Labs opens doors to experimenting, allowing full apps on the cover screen. You can enhance it further with Good Lock.
Unlocking is seamless with the fingerprint reader on the side, even when unfolding. Face unlock is present, but it’s not as secure as it uses the front camera. Modes and Routines tweak your phone’s behavior based on your activities. It’s like Focus feature on iOS. Pair the phone with a computer for calls and messages.
Quick tools and shortcuts slide in from the side with a swipe. Gaming gets a special mode for focused play. While DeX is missing, Link to Windows is present and it works seamlessly. Flex mode stands out, optimizing apps with screen division.
With the folding screen, multitasking is a breeze. The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip5’s software syncs beautifully with its folding concept. Unique features harness the folding screen’s potential in an engaging way.
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 Review: Performance
Under its stylish surface, the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip5 packs the robust Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy chipset, custom-crafted for 2023. This top-tier engine flaunts enhancements, with its prime CPU core sprinting at 3.36GHz and a GPU surging at 719MHz, eclipsing the standard Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. It teams up with 8GB of RAM and offers storage choices of 256GB or 512GB, creating a swift and efficient phone experience.
In benchmark trials, the Galaxy Z Flip5 flexes its muscle impressively. It outpaces previous foldable phones of its kind by a significant margin. Test scores mirror those of its sibling, the Galaxy S23, another phone in this category, and they’re almost identical.
Yet, remember that while the test scores soar, intensive and prolonged tasks might put the brakes on its speed. Engaging the main and graphics components heavily led to a slight dip in performance after a few minutes. It held steady at about half of its peak performance for lengthier sessions.
This isn’t unique to this phone – last year’s Galaxy Z Flip and the Motorola Razr 40 Ultra also experienced slight slowdowns during demanding tasks. In contrast, the Oppo Find N2 Flip maintains a more consistent pace, showing less performance drop over time.
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 Review: Cameras
When it comes to taking pictures, the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip5 carries a camera setup similar to its earlier model, the Flip4. Though the hardware remains the same, the Z Flip5 introduces improvements that enhance the user experience and bring out unique features. Samsung has cleverly used flex mode and the cover display to make it easier to frame and take good selfies. The camera’s controls and settings are easy to use. You can switch between the front and rear cameras by swiping up and down, and change modes by swiping left and right. There’s even a Pro mode for adjusting settings like brightness and focus.
The primary camera is a 12MP Samsung S5K2LD sensor paired with a 24mm f/1.8 lens for clear shots. In good lighting, photos look detailed and true to life. You can also zoom in twice without losing much quality, though some small details might not be perfect. The main camera performs well, but the Galaxy S23’s zoom camera is even better.
The wide-angle camera, which is like a supporting actor, uses a Sony IMX258 sensor. It takes consistent and colorful photos with good detail. It’s better than the Flip4’s wide-angle camera. In low light, the camera still shines. The Night mode takes great shots with good colors and maintains a balance between highlights and shadows.
When it’s time for portraits, the camera captures subjects nicely with accurate colors and skin tones. Selfies from the main camera look great, with lots of detail and color. The wide-angle camera works for selfies too, but it can’t focus as well.
For videos, the Z Flip5 records in high quality up to 4K60. The footage turned out smooth, even when we capture handheld while moving. The wide-angle camera is good for videos too, but not as sharp as the main camera. Selfie videos look good, and the cover display surely helps with framing.
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip5 Review: Battery Life and Charging
The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip5 strides forward with a robust 3,700mAh battery. This advancement heralds an improved battery life, a marked upgrade from its predecessor, the Z Flip4, thanks to a more efficient chip. I am getting about 4.5 hours of screen time with Alway-On Display (AOD) feature enabled which is decent for a phone considering the battery capacity. On a more typical office day, using the phone for about three hours which includes several calls and responding to chats and messages on Slack and Whatsapp, and a bit of content streaming while commuting, I managed to reach home with 28 percent battery left at night. The battery life should be enough for most people to get through the day. But if you use your phone a lot, you might need to charge it a bit during the day.
Charging the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip5 is possible through USB Power Delivery (PD) using a charger that has a rating of 25W or higher. The Z Flip5 can be charged at 25W, and it’s worth mentioning that with Samsung’s 25W charger, the phone can reach a 50% charge in around 30 minutes.
Review Verdict: Should you buy Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5?
The Galaxy Z Flip5 shines as a finely crafted phone with notable generational improvements. Its seamless folding design and larger cover screen boost convenience. With water resistance, an impressive foldable display, a powerful camera setup, and the latest Snapdragon chip, the Z Flip5 stands out as the best-flipping phone in the market. Better battery life is another plus. On the downside, the phone might slow down during heavy tasks. Even without a charger and DeX support, it’s a strong pick for top-tier folding experiences. To wrap up, the Z Flip5 offers a rich blend of style, ease of use, and features, making it a smart choice for a foldable clamshell phone.
Reasons to buy
- Larger and improved Flex Screen
- Solid build quality with minimal hinge wobble
- Powered by Snapdragon 8 Gen 2
- Assured four-year software updates
- Enhanced camera capabilities compared to competitors
Reasons to not buy
- No DEX support
- Average battery life and charging speeds
- Absence of dust protection feature
