Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 5G Smartphone – Unboxing and Review
With key competition from Google’s Pixel Fold, Samsung has made a few important changes to its flagship book-style folding smartphone, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5. Standout upgrades on this smartphone include a streamlined design that banishes the gap, a powerful CPU that majors in multitasking, and an impressively bright inner display.
On Android 13 with Samsung’s One UI, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 Smartphone can run three apps at once in its inner display, plus a fourth in a floating window. It also has a new taskbar that shows four recently used apps alongside your favorites.
Sleek Design
The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 5G smartphone is a premium foldable phone that demonstrates the possibilities of the form. It offers a large screen for phone calls and reading, but also doubles as a tablet when unfolded. The foldable design is a good fit for busy professionals who use their phones to check email, read documents, and take notes. It is also a great option for commuters who want to watch video or read a book on their long bus/train rides.
The Galaxy Z Fold has a sturdy build and a sleek, minimalist style that looks like it’s from the future. Its 4.8-inch inner display is bright and crisp, and it offers a wide range of viewing angles. The cover is made from a soft material that holds up well against fingerprint smudges and stains. The hinge mechanism is strong and durable, and it feels solid when closing the phone.
Samsung has nailed multitasking on this device, and its latest update to Android 13 brings even more features that make the most of the folding screen. The Galaxy Z Fold can now run three apps in a split-screen window on its inner display, and it can add a fourth app in a hidden pop-up window that shows on the outer edge of the screen. It can also drag and drop apps between the two screens, and it can split the task bar between four or five apps.
Compared to the previous model, the new Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 has a few minor improvements. For one, the hinge now opens and closes parallel, which makes the phone more compact when closed. It also has a slightly improved camera that captures more detail in photos and videos. It still has a 50-MP main camera, a 12-MP ultra-wide camera, and a 10-MP telephoto camera that can zoom up to 3x.
The new phone is also faster than the Galaxy Z Fold 4. It’s powered by a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Mobile Platform for Galaxy with 12GB of RAM, and its storage options range from 256GB to 1TB. Its battery is rated at 4,400 mAh, and it largely relies on power efficiency gains to improve its runtimes.
It’s a Great Multi-tasking SmartPhone
Samsung’s latest foldable phone is a little bit like its predecessor, but a better hinge and a bigger battery make it more of a complete package. It’s also lighter and thinner than last year’s model, and the crease along the screen fold is much less noticeable. The folding display is bright enough to read, watch videos, or play games without any strain on the eyes. The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 is a great choice for people who want to multitask on the go.
Samsung has also invested a lot of effort into improving software features designed for its large foldable displays. These include more intuitive multi-window options, including sliding in from the corners and dragging apps to the taskbar. The Fold 5 has a 4,400-mAh battery that can deliver more than a day of runtime with moderate to heavy use. It also comes with water-resistance rated for IPX8 (it can be submerged in up to 1.5 meters of freshwater for 30 minutes).
One of the biggest challenges for foldable phones is making it easy to multitask. Samsung’s One UI software running on Android 13 makes it possible to run three apps in split-screen mode on the inner display and up to four in floating windows on top. This is a major advantage over competitors, particularly Google’s Pixel Fold.
It also offers some other useful productivity features, such as a small trackpad that can be activated by drawing a circle with two fingers on the bottom of the screen. The trackpad can be used to drag and drop between open apps, and it can also function as a split keyboard. Samsung has also included a new Quick Launch widget that gives users shortcuts to their most frequently used apps.
Samsung’s commitment to sustainability is reflected in the Fold 5, which is made from recycled aluminium, glass, and plastic. The company offers a trade-in scheme for old devices and publishes annual sustainability reports. Its folding phone is not yet as green as the Surface Pro 6 or Google’s Pixel Duo XL, but it is still ahead of most other competitors.
Great Value for Money
Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 5 is a solid folding phone with an excellent display. Its price tag is high, but it offers a lot of value for its size and features. The device is available from a number of retailers, including Best Buy and Amazon. It is also available with a variety of service plans. These plans are flexible and offer a range of benefits, including free accessories and discounted rates on the phone.
The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 is a nice upgrade over last year’s model, but it still leaves plenty of unanswered questions. The 2023 version of the clamshell smartphone has an improved hinge that lets its flaps close parallel for the first time, a new Snapdragon chip tuned specifically for Samsung phones and more software improvements that trickled down from last year’s Z Folds.
Its cameras aren’t quite the standouts they were in 2020, but they’re still very good. The telephoto performance in particular is strong. Images have nice clarity and color, and HDR is handled well. However, details start to deteriorate at zoom levels beyond 20X. The outer camera does a fine job of shooting selfies, and it has a 4MP under-display inner camera for video calls.
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 “for Galaxy” processor is clocked slightly higher than the previous model and has 12GB of RAM. That means the Z Fold 5 is fast enough for day-to-day use and even more intensive tasks like gaming and photo and video editing. However, it still feels a little warm after long periods of use.
Samsung hasn’t made any major changes to its battery or charging, either. Its 4,400 mAh power pack is the same as last year’s, and it can charge at 25W speeds over a wired connection. Samsung doesn’t include a fast charger with the Z Fold 5, but you can get one for about $30 from a third-party.
The Fold 5 is the best phone in its class, even though Google just launched its Pixel Fold, which is slimmer than Samsung’s foldable smartphone while still offering a premium design.
An Amazing Battery Life
The Galaxy Z Fold 5’s battery life is great, even when running demanding apps or watching video. The Fold 5 also has plenty of storage and RAM to keep things moving smoothly. You won’t have to worry about the battery dying in the middle of a task, and you can always use the USB-C port to charge it quickly.
Samsung also spent a lot of time improving the camera on this device. There’s a 10MP selfie camera on the front and a 4MP inner-display cam that’s not as good for taking pictures, but it’s still much better than what most other foldable phones have to offer. The cameras take clear, detailed photos with accurate skin tones. The cameras also produce excellent video quality and are capable of recording 4K resolution.
The Fold 5 also comes with a new app called “Flex View,” which lets you run multiple apps at once on the inside and outside screens. It’s a useful tool for people who like to multitask, and it makes the device more versatile than ever.
Samsung has also made improvements to the hinge and screen, and it’s making it easier to repair the phone. It also promises five years of security updates, which is more than Google does for its Pixel smartphones.
In our looped video test, the Z Fold 5 lasted 23hrs 49mins with the internal screen set to 170cd/m2. This is much longer than last year’s model and about ten hours more than some of its rivals.
Although the Z Fold 5 is a major improvement over its predecessor, it’s not quite ready to become the foldable smartphone that will finally take off. It’s still a little heavy, has no dust resistance, and costs a fortune. There are also better options from other manufacturers that offer better battery life, are lighter, and cost less.
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip on this phone is the best Samsung has available, but it’s only half a generation ahead of what you’ll find on other recent flagship phones. Still, it’s an impressive processor that won’t slow down the device, even when you’re doing demanding tasks or playing games.
