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It’s August, which means one thing (now). And that is, it’s time to review Samsung’s latest foldables. Today, we’re looking at the Galaxy Z Fold 5, which almost seemed like an after-thought for Samsung during Unpacked in late-July. Samsung spent a lot more time on the Galaxy Z Flip 5 instead. But the Fold 5 is still a very important phone for Samsung, despite it still having an MSRP of $1,799. It won’t be the best-seller for 2023, but it’s most devout fans will be buying it, making it pretty important for the company.
The Galaxy Z Fold 5 is a popular one, because it is a phone that unfolds into a small tablet. Allowing users to have both sizes in their pocket. Which is really neat, and not so unique these days. It’s now 2023, four years since the original Galaxy Fold debuted, and Samsung now has a lot of competition in the foldable space – even in the US, with the Google Pixel Fold and soon OnePlus’ own foldable. So has Samsung made any significant changes to keep up with the competition? Well, not really. But is that enough to keep Samsung at the top of the foldable food chain? Probably. Let’s dig into the full review.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 Review: Hardware
The hardware on the Galaxy Z Fold 5 this year, hasn’t really changed a whole lot. It’s still a premium looking and feeling foldable from Samsung. With [Armor] Aluminum and glass for the outside of the phone. Which does make it look and feel like a much more premium foldable compared to some other options on the market. Though that also adds weight to the phone. And it does make it pretty durable. After all, the Galaxy Z Fold 5 is the most durable foldable on the market today. And one of the only ones with an IP rating.
The biggest change that Samsung made to the hardware this year is the hinge. Samsung redesigned the hinge, so that it is now using fewer moving parts (which means, fewer points of failure). But most importantly for users, this new hinge means that it is now thinner, and thus the gap is now gone.
Having a thinner hinge might not sound like a big deal, but this does allow for the Galaxy Z Fold 5 to be thinner and lighter. Making it more versatile, especially if you’re someone that carries two phones like myself. It’s about 4% lighter than the Galaxy Z Fold 4, and about 11% lighter than Google’s Pixel Fold. Which is the phone I was carrying around before the Galaxy Z Fold 5. There is still a tiny gap when the phone is closed, so you can see some light in there, but it’s barely noticeable.
Otherwise, the hardware is identical to the Galaxy Z Fold 4. That includes having the power and volume buttons on the left side of the phone, towards the top. The power button is still the fingerprint sensor, and is recessed, unlike the Pixel Fold. It works pretty well, and still blows my mind that only foldables and a few others are using this type of fingerprint sensor. Instead of opting for an under-display sensor that is usually slower and sometimes less reliable.
On a side note, the Icy Blue color that Samsung gave us for review, is pretty nice. It’s a pretty light blue, and in some pictures, it can look like a very light beige color. Definitely different from the usual black and white colors that the “pro” phones normally get.
There’s also top and bottom firing speakers that sound amazing on this device, and that is of course due to having Dolby Atmos included here. So watching YouTube, Peacock, Netflix, or really anything, sounds great on this phone. There is still a fairly sizable camera bump on the back of the phone. Just to give you a bit of context while writing this review, I just put my Galaxy Z Fold 5 down on my desk next to me, and it wobbled for a good minute or so. So I would highly suggest getting a case for it. I’ve used it most of the time with the Slim S Pen Case on, which is a really great case, and makes the S Pen and camera bump flush on the back. It’s $100, but if you use the S Pen, it’s well worth it.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 Review: Display
As always, the displays on the Galaxy Z Fold 5 are some of the best on the market right now. And that’s because the majority of OLED displays on phones these days are made by Samsung. Of course, Samsung keeps the very best for their own phones – just as Sony keeps the very best camera sensors for their phones, instead of giving them out to competitors right away. So if you’re worried about either display, don’t. Both are stunning, and also incredibly bright.
Even the folding display is incredibly bright, with the same peak brightness as the Galaxy S23 Ultra from earlier this year, which is 1,750 nits. Many of us have complained about the Google Pixel Fold and how tough it is to use outdoors in direct sunlight, due to the plastic display and it not being as bright. Well, that’s not the case with the Galaxy Z Fold 5. I used it in sunny San Diego for a week during this review, and never had an issue with seeing the display.
The under display camera or UDC is also a bit more camouflaged this year. In fact, I totally forgot it was under the display for a few days. You really only notice it with a white background, or when you’re actively looking for it. If I just open the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and start using it, I don’t see it. However, if I am looking for it, I see it right away.
Now let’s talk about that crease. With the new hinge, the crease is not as deep, but it is still just as noticeable. This does depend on what’s being shown on the display, as well as the lighting. But most of the time, I did not see it, I felt it more often than saw it. However, if you hold it in portrait mode, you don’t really touch the crease all that much. Especially if you’re using two apps side-by-side.
Aside from the crease, the other big issues with foldable displays still persists. And that’s the aspect ratio. So the front display is super tall, it’s a 23.1:9 aspect ratio, which makes it even taller than the Galaxy Z Flip 5. Meanwhile the internal display is a 21.6:18 aspect ratio, which is very close to being a square. Which means no matter which way you hold the opened Galaxy Z Flip 5, you’re going to have black bars for videos, or stretched out apps. And if you do multi-window with apps, they are still going to be pretty skinny, about as skinny as the outer display. This is something that Google did much better with the Pixel Fold, since it has that larger outer display that has a 17.4:9 aspect ratio. This has barely changed since the original Galaxy Fold, and I really hope it does change with the Galaxy Z Fold 6 next year, but I’m not holding my breathe.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 Review: Performance
Powering the Galaxy Z Fold 5 this year is the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy, as well as 12GB of RAM. Basically the same specs as the Galaxy S23 Ultra that launched earlier this year. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy is basically an overclocked Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, and it’s a slightly newer model than what is in the Galaxy S23 Ultra, though you won’t notice a huge difference here.
In day-to-day usage, the Galaxy Z Fold 5 performed exceptionally well. I also used it to play a few games like Genshin Impact, Asphalt 9 and Candy Crush (the latter two I played on the long flight back from Korea), and they all played very well on this phone, even with that large display.
I really only noticed the Galaxy Z Fold 5 get hot when I used the camera for a long period of time, or played any game for a long period of time. So basically, what you’d expect from a new mobile processor in 2023. The phone did a good job of keeping apps in memory too, which is something that Samsung phones have typically struggled with, as they tend to like to close apps often to conserve battery. Though that’s not really needed here on the Galaxy Z Fold 5.
Basically, expect great performance here, without any stutters. Which is really what you should expect from a phone that costs as much as this one. The last thing you want on a phone that costs $1,799, is for it to lag.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 Review: Battery Life & Charging
Battery life on the Galaxy Z Fold 5 was pretty good. I usually got between 6.5 and 7.5 hours of screen on time, over about 24 hours (some days a bit more than that). It’s not quite on par with the Galaxy S23 Ultra, which can still get about 9-10 hour of screen on time. But for a foldable with two fairly large displays, and a smaller battery than the Galaxy S23 Ultra, that’s not bad at all.
Most days, I was hitting over 7 hours of screen on time, which is the best I’ve seen in a foldable actually. The Pixel Fold could hit 7 hours, but not as consistently as the Galaxy Z Fold 5. And the Galaxy Z Fold 4 usually would hit 6 hours, but never really 7 hours. So good on Samsung and Qualcomm for making this phone even more efficient.
Now the flip side of that is the charging, which is abysmal. It’s 2023, and Samsung is charging $1,799 for a phone that can max out at 25W charging. Or 15W wireless charging. Samsung should be ashamed of themselves for that. When phones that cost a fraction of that – like the OnePlus 11, is doing 80W and the 80W charger is included in the box.
Needless to say, it typically takes about two hours to fully charge this phone. That’s just too long in 2023. Thankfully, it does last all day, so you can charge it at night, when charging times really don’t matter.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 Review: Software
As a disclaimer here in the software section, we’re reviewing the Galaxy Z Fold 5 running on Android 13, One UI 5.1.1 and the July 2023 security patch. Things will likely change in the future, making this part of the review incorrect, so just keep that in mind while reading this portion.
Software on the Galaxy Z Fold 5 still remains the best on a foldable. Samsung has been working on optimizing its foldable and One UI for many years now, and it really shows. Things like the pop-up view, giving you a window for each app, which you can easily jump back into, as it pops into a button on the side of your home screen. All of those are things that the Pixel Fold does not do. As much as many of us praise the Pixel Fold, there’s plenty that it doesn’t do, and the Galaxy Z Fold 5 does do.
Samsung also forces apps to fill the screen, unlike the Pixel Fold. So you don’t get black bars on either side of apps like Instagram, Twitter and Reddit – which all do on the Pixel Fold.
Another thing the Samsung has going for it, is pushing the navigation bar to the left side, instead of the bottom of the app. This, I believe, is a Samsung feature, as I have not seen it on the Pixel Fold or other foldables. And it’s happening in Good Notes, Google One, Google TV, Instagram, Facebook, and a few others. I wouldn’t say that this makes the app “foldable-optimized” but it does make it a bit easier to use on this larger display. Though it does take some time to get used to it, as muscle-memory tells you that all those buttons are at the bottom, and not along the left side of the screen.
These are just a few features that Samsung has added that makes the Galaxy Z Fold 5 a lot more pleasant to use, despite the awkward screen aspect ratios here. There’s also Good Lock which adds a lot more customization to the Galaxy Z Fold 5 (and the Flip 5).
Let’s talk a bit about updates. Samsung is guaranteeing four OS updates and five years of security updates. That means that with the Galaxy Z Fold 5 launching with Android 13, it will get updated to Android 14, 15, 16 and 17. That’s more than the competition (except Apple), even moreso than Google’s own Pixel phones which are only guaranteed three OS updates. Samsung has also been pretty quick with pushing out updates in recent years. In fact, the Android 14 beta is set to launch for the Galaxy S23 line in just a couple of weeks.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 Review: Camera
The cameras have also not changed a whole lot on the Galaxy Z Fold 5 this year. It still uses a 50-megapixel main sensor, with a 10-megapixel telephoto and a 12-megapixel ultrawide. There’s also a 10-megapixel front-facing sensor on the cover display and a 4-megapixel camera under the main display.
While I was in Korea, as well as San Diego, I took a ton of photos with the Galaxy Z Fold 5, and the main takeaway here was, they are over-saturated. Which, is something I say quite a bit about Samsung phones. It’s really noticeable when you take a photo with some grass in the photo. It’s a whole lot greener than it is in real life. Now some will like that look, others want it to be true to life. I’m part of the latter.
Having said that, the Galaxy Z Fold 5 is really good with color reproduction. While in Korea, we saw the Padlock trail, which had just about every color you could imagine, and the Galaxy Z Fold 5 did a really good job reproducing those colors. It also did not look like it was super saturated like some other photos. So good job Samsung there.
With the Galaxy Z Fold 5, it can do up to 3x optical zoom, or about 30x digital zoom, which is not great to be honest. I wouldn’t go further than 10x. But the 3x optical zoom is something you’d likely use the most as it looks the best. Of course, it all works best with good lighting. Macro is also being done, still, with the telephoto lens on the Galaxy Z Fold 5, which I think is brilliant. Though, it’s technically a lower resolution, what this does is, it allows you to be further away for a macro shot, allowing in more light. So even though the macro shot is only going to be a 10-megapixel image, it looks much better because more light is able to get in for the shot.
Is this camera setup the best on a smartphone in 2023? No. Of course not. Foldables don’t have the space for the best cameras that you’d find in the Galaxy S23 Ultra or Pixel 7 Pro (soon, Pixel 8 Pro). But these cameras are good, and will get the job done without any real issues.
Here are more camera samples taken with the Galaxy Z Fold 5 over the past couple of weeks:
Should you buy the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5?
Now for the final verdict on the Galaxy Z Fold 5. Should you buy this phone? It’s a good phone, though it’s price is pretty high, and it’s not a huge upgrade over the Galaxy Z Fold 4. So if you are looking to upgrade from the Fold 4, I’d say hold on for another year. Unless that gap from the older hinge really bothers you. If so, then you want to upgrade before August 11, before these incredible deals go away.
There’s a lot to like here, but still some things to dislike, unfortunately. Samsung has kind of gone the Apple way of innovating and changing things. Not changing things to much, and not trying to get you to upgrade every year. But to make sure they have a great phone available, when it’s time to upgrade. As most won’t upgrade every year or even every other year. And this is a good idea for Samsung as well as Apple. That’s how the two have stayed on top of the smartphone market for so long.
The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 is a great phone, but it’s still hard to justify recommending a phone that costs $1,799.
You should buy the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 if:
– You want a foldable phone with foldable-optimized software.
– You don’t have the Galaxy Z Fold 3 or 4.
– You can get a good deal from Samsung or your carrier.
You should not buy the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 if:
– You have a Galaxy Z Fold 3 or Galaxy Z Fold 4.
– You don’t like the square-ish inner display, or the skinny cover display.
– You like having a lightweight or small phone.