Galaxy Z Flip 5 is official: Slow but steady evolution

Arguably, even though the Galaxy Z Fold 5 is larger and more advanced, 2023 seems to be the year of the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 as it’s arguably the more interesting phone, all things considered. Let’s delve in deeper and see what makes the new clamshell such an important piece of modern tech. 

The Galaxy Z Flip 5 keeps up the familiar looks, but scores some intriguing changes. Combining an Armor Aluminum frame and Gorilla Glass Victus 2, the Galaxy Z Flip 5 has mostly the same dimensions as the Galaxy Z Flip 4, but one thing that immediately strikes you is the much larger cover screen. 

Measuring 3.4 inches across, the folder-shaped external display (dubbed Flex Window) maximizes the used space at the front of the Galaxy Z Flip 5 and opens a whole new slew of extra functionality that the previous Galaxy Z Flip didn’t offer. It gently sweeps by the rear camera array, which is now positioned horizontally, and makes for a bold new look that sets the Galaxy Z Flip 5 apart. While the Cover Screen is merely a 60Hz one, it supports high-brightness mode, capable of hitting up to 1,600 nits in the right lighting conditions. 

In terms of colors, the Galaxy Z Flip 5 will be available in Mint, Graphite, Cream, and Lavender. As usual, some colors will be Samsung.com-exclusive: Gray, Blue, Green, and Yellow.

Opening the Galaxy Z Flip 5 reveals the 6.7-inch FHD+ Dynamic AMOLED 2X inner display. It has a variable refresh rate of 1 to 120Hz, which means that experiencing content should be extra smooth and rewarding depending on the on-screen content. 

Moving onto another important aspect of the new phone’s design is the improved hinge, which finally rectifies the gap between the phone’s panels in a folded state. No more gap! The Galaxy Z Flip 5’s bottom and top panels are now perfectly flush with one another when you flip the Z Flip closed. The so-called Flex Hinge now also features a durable dual-rail structure that reportedly does way better with impacts. 

Still, however, the display crease is very much still present on the Galaxy Z Flip 5. Surely, you will notice the crease once you handle the phone, but as with most foldables devices with a crease, you should get accustomed to it in no time. 

Just like its predecessors, the Galaxy Z Flip 5 is an IPX8-rated device. This means that you should have a peace of mind when it comes to dunking the phone up to 1.5 meters of freshwater for up to 30 minutes. Still, we’d recommend not doing that if possible.

The external Flex Window of the Galaxy Z Flip 5 will show you much larger widgets than the Galaxy Z Flip 4 was even capable of, allowing for a much deeper interaction with notifications and your personal content, checking the weather, music playback, and more. 

Initially, thirteen stock widgets will be available, while the list of third-party ones is still pretty slim. A cool way to see all of your widgets together is to pinch the external display and you will be presented with all your widgets. Cool!

Flex Mode is back. This one allows you to use both the top and bottom parts of the screen when you leave the hinge open mid-ways. For example, when watching videos, Flex Mode will push the media controls to the bottom screen, while the video will play at the top portion of the screen for an uninterrupted experience.  

You can also reply to messages thanks to a full QWERTY keyboard that will pop up on the external screen. You will be able to make purchases with Samsung Wallet and access your boarding passes, digital keys, membership cards, and other passes. 

The Galaxy Z Flip 5 comes with Android 13 and Samsung’s own One UI 5.1.1 running on top, with all the improvements over stock Android we’ve come to love and expect. The phone will receive four major versions of Android, alongside five years of security support. 

Powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy, the Galaxy Z Flip 5 has mostly the same hardware inside as the flagship Galaxy S23 series. Samsung has outfitted the device with 8GB of fast LPDDR5X RAM and will make it available with either 256GB or 512GB of UFS4.0 native storage. This is actually a 50% increase over last year’s Galaxy Z Flip 4, which started at 128GB of storage. 

Battery-wise, there’s a 3,700mAh battery inside the Galaxy Z Flip 5, which is the same amount of battery capacity as the Galaxy Z Flip 4. Charging hasn’t improved either, as the Galaxy Z Flip 5 supports up to 25W charging speeds and will get you 50% of juice in 30 minutes, 15W Fast Wireless Charging, and reverse wireless charging.

When it comes to the camera experience, little has changed in terms of hardware, but Samsung has thrown some software features on deck to keep things fresh. With up to 10X digital zoom, improved low-light capabilities, and FlexCam mode, the Galaxy Z Flip 5 doesn’t really put the focus on the camera. 

The Galaxy Z Flip 5 will start at $999.99 for the 256GB storage version, which is the same price that the Galaxy Z Flip 4 started at, but you get double the storage! Moreover, the 512GB version of the phone will start at $1119.99. The Galaxy Z Flip 5 will hit the market on August 11.