Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 Hands-on Review | Tom's Guide

  • last year
The Galaxy Z Fold 5 is lighter and thinner than the Z Fold 4 and features a sleeker Flex hinge with less moving parts. But the other upgrades aren’t that impressive and Samsung takes very few risks with its flagship $1,799 foldable phone.

Here’s the pros and cons of the Z Fold 5 based on our hands-on impressions, including the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip, slightly better cameras and improved multitasking.
Transcript
00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 On paper, the Galaxy Z Fold 5 seems like
00:04 one of the most incremental upgrades in years.
00:06 But now that I have it in my hand,
00:08 I can say that it definitely feels different
00:10 than the Galaxy Z Fold 4.
00:11 And that's because of a new flex hinge
00:13 that results in a more thin and light design,
00:17 and you can definitely feel it in your hand.
00:18 It's also a design that folds completely flat,
00:21 which is really nice.
00:22 Now the specs are pretty much the same as before.
00:25 So let's take a walk through what's new
00:26 and what's not with the Galaxy Z Fold 5.
00:29 (upbeat music)
00:32 The Galaxy Z Fold 5 has a new flex hinge,
00:38 and the idea is that the durability
00:39 is about the same as before,
00:41 but you are getting a design that closes fully flat,
00:44 and it's also thinner and lighter.
00:46 So the fact that they were able to deliver that
00:48 without sacrificing durability
00:51 is definitely a point in Samsung's favor.
00:53 And you can see that it closes and it opens fairly fluidly,
00:58 and it seems like it's better protected than before.
01:00 And because you don't have this opening
01:03 like you did on the previous fold,
01:04 there's less of a chance for debris getting in there.
01:08 When folded, the Z Fold 5 measures 0.5 inches thick
01:11 and 0.24 inches when unfolded,
01:14 compared to 0.62 and 0.25 inches for the previous model.
01:18 By comparison, the Pixel Fold is even thinner,
01:21 but it weighs a heftier 10 ounces.
01:23 The Z Fold 5 is IPX8 water resistant,
01:26 which means it can survive 1.5 meters of fresh water
01:29 for up to 30 minutes, but it's not dust resistant.
01:32 I do like how the Z Fold 5's camera bump
01:34 is a bit less prominent,
01:35 as the flash is now positioned
01:37 to the right of the three lenses.
01:38 But it's still big enough
01:39 to make the phone wobble on a table.
01:41 The Z Fold 5 comes in three colors.
01:43 My favorite is ice blue,
01:44 and there's also phantom black and cream.
01:47 Just like the Z Fold 4,
01:51 the Galaxy Z Fold 5 packs the same size displays
01:53 with a 6.2 inch OLED panel on the front
01:55 and a 7.6 inch screen on the inside.
01:57 But the inside panel now has a ray of brightness
02:00 of 1,750 nits, up from 1,000 nits on the previous model.
02:04 Yes, the crease is still very much present,
02:06 but it's not much of an eyesore.
02:08 The front display is crisp
02:09 and supports the same smooth 120 hertz refresh rate
02:12 as the inner screen, but it's fairly narrow
02:15 compared to the Pixel Fold's wider cover display.
02:18 So both of them have a cover glass
02:21 that's protecting the underneath display.
02:24 But if you look at it up close,
02:25 it looks like the protective layer
02:28 is going all the way to the edge.
02:30 So if you compare that to something like the Pixel Fold,
02:32 you could see that the protective layer
02:34 does not go all the way to the edge.
02:36 Though over time, it is something that could peel off,
02:39 and some users are already complaining
02:41 that it is only a month or so after sale.
02:43 The Galaxy Z Fold 5 has the same camera specs
02:49 that the Z Fold 4.
02:51 In early side-by-side testing with the Z Fold 4,
02:53 I found the 3x zoom on the new Fold
02:55 to deliver sharper details on a backpack
02:57 and more natural-looking colors.
02:59 I also like that you can use these three cameras
03:01 for taking selfies via the rear camera selfie mode,
03:04 which is now easier to engage with the display open.
03:08 Just press an on-screen button
03:09 and flip the Z Fold 5 around.
03:11 The cover display still houses a 10 megapixel selfie camera
03:15 for when you'd rather not perform those gymnastics.
03:17 Unfortunately, the inside of the Z Fold 5
03:20 still has a low-res 4 megapixel under-display camera.
03:23 But once again, in my side-by-side tests,
03:25 the image quality looks improved
03:27 with better detail and contrast.
03:29 Part of this is likely due to the image processing power
03:32 of the new Snapdragon 8Gen2 chip.
03:35 If you like to multitask,
03:37 the Galaxy Z Fold 5 has some notable upgrades.
03:39 Just like before, you can run up to three apps at once,
03:42 but you can now quickly add a second app
03:44 by simply swiping in from the bottom of the display
03:46 or from the left.
03:47 It gets better.
03:48 The taskbar at the bottom of the screen
03:49 displays not only your favorite apps,
03:51 but also your four most recently used apps,
03:54 up from two before.
03:55 And you can turn any app into a floating window
03:57 by simply dragging down
03:58 from the top right of the display diagonally.
04:01 You can even perform two-handed drag and drops.
04:03 So, for example, you can select an object in a photo
04:06 and press and hold with one hand,
04:07 then open the messaging app with the other hand
04:09 and just attach the image.
04:11 Speaking of apps,
04:12 Samsung says that Instagram and YouTube
04:14 have all been better optimized for the Fold's larger display.
04:18 So that's just our first look at the Galaxy Z Fold 5,
04:20 which doesn't really seem that different
04:22 than its predecessor,
04:23 but a lot of it is gonna come down to our testing.
04:25 How much faster is it with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor?
04:28 How much more battery life do you get because of that chip?
04:30 And how much better is the camera system
04:32 even though the specs are basically the same as before?
04:35 Stay tuned for a full review of the Galaxy Z Fold 5
04:38 and be sure to follow us on TikTok, Instagram,
04:40 YouTube, and more.
04:42 For Tom's Guide, this is Mark Spoonhour.
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