Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 Review: My New Favorite Foldable”.
Foreign 5 marks the biggest change to Samsung’s flip phone in years, and it’s all because of that new cover screen. The z-flip 5, which starts at one thousand dollars and Launches on August 11th, gets a bigger external display, the same chip as the Galaxy s23 series and a new hinge that enables it to fold flat. Completely when closed, I had the chance to test out the z-flip 5 in Seoul South Korea, where I spent some time vacationing after covering Samsung’s unpacked event, as it turns out, traveling is the best time to review a new phone. I had to rely on the z-flip, for everything from taking photos to getting directions and being out all day also gave me a good sense of what the battery life is like during my time with the z-flip 5. So far, the new cover screen has made the biggest impression on me.
There’S just so much more. You can do with the z-flip without having to open it, but Samsung wasn’t the first to put a large cover screen on a flip phone. The Motorola Razer plus, has an even larger display on the front of its device, and the Razer screen can run more apps by default, but compared to the Razer, the z-flip 5’s design feels more sturdy. The software is also more polished and you get an extra generation of Android updates. That doesn’t mean the z-flip 5 gets everything right. I do think Motorola does a better job of transitioning apps between both screens and at one thousand dollars.
The z-flip 5’s price could put it out of range for a lot of people, but overall the new cover screen, combined with other upgrades, like its new processor, makes Samsung’s flip phone a more tempting Choice than ever before. The Galaxy Z flip 5’s cover screen is hard to miss at 3.4 inches it’s much larger than the 1.9 inch cover display on the z-flip 4, but slightly smaller than the razer’s 3.6 inch front screen. The interface is similar to the Razer Plus’s cover screen, but with some important differences for one, you can’t access every app on the cover screen by default. The way you can with the Razer Plus app continuity also doesn’t work both ways on the z-flip 5.. The way it does with the Razer plus apps only pick up where they left off when you move from the tiny screen to the main screen, not the other way around.
That aside, I do like Samsung’s version of the cover screen, which it’s now calling the flex window. I think notifications look neater and more streamlined on the z-flip 5 compared to the Razer, and I also appreciate that you can see the field you’re typing in as you’re using the Z, flip 5’s keyboard. There’S also a clever pinching gesture for showing thumbnails of all your widgets on the screen at once, which can be helpful for quickly jumping to a specific screen without swiping multiple times.
It feels very apple-like and it’s a good example of how Samsung is thinking about navigation and user interface designed differently on a display, this small. During my travels in Seoul. I mostly use this cover screen to send WhatsApp messages, check directions and swipe through notifications, while riding the Metro. The cover screen may be the biggest physical difference between the Z, flip, 4 and 5, but it’s not the only one, there’s also a new hinge, which Samsung is also calling you guessed it the flex hinge.
This hinge enables the phone to fold completely flat when shut. Finally, getting rid of the wedge-shaped gap on Samsung’s previous foldables Samsung also claims. The new hinge should make the phone more durable since there are fewer moving Parts. It’S nice to see Samsung improving the z-flip’s design, especially since Motorola and Google, have both released foldables that can fold flat with no gaps. But unfortunately, this new hinge doesn’t do much to improve the crease.
The z-flip 5 is thicker than Motorola’s Razer, plus, which I initially saw as a downside, but after spending more time with both phones, I’ve realized the Z. Flip 5 feels more durable. The Razer plus feels more fragile and I’ve noticed that it doesn’t always open completely straight.
Like the z-flip 5 does the Galaxy Z. Flip 5 has a slightly better camera than the z-flip 4. Mostly thanks to the new chip inside the phone, it runs on the same Qualcomm Snapdragon, 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy chip. That’S found inside the Galaxy s23 series, but it also has a 12 megapixel Main and Ultra wide camera, just like the flip 4.. It’S somewhat disappointing to see the same camera Hardware again this year, but I have noticed some improvements from the new chip overall colors looked Bolder and details looked sharper on the z-flip 5’s camera compared to photos taken on the Razer and z-flip 4.. But image quality can be subjective and results can always vary depending on the lighting and other factors.
While I generally thought the z-flip 5 succeeded over the Razer, there were some outliers like this image of a Korean rice, cake dish that I took while in Seoul. Don’T expect to get the same top-notch camera quality you’d find on a phone like the Galaxy s23 Ultra or Google pixel 7 Pro, but the z-flip 5’s cameras are capable enough for documenting food and travel for Instagram and that’s exactly what I did while testing the z-flip 5 in Seoul check out some of my favorite photos from the trip. Thank you.
When you open up the z-flip 5 to use its 6.7 inch screen, you can largely expect the same software experience as the z-flip, 4 and Samsung provides four generations of Android software updates. While Motorola only provides three, that means you’ll get an extra year of Android upgrades with the z-flip compared to the Razer, and that’s a big deal. If you plan on keeping your new phone for a while, especially for phones in this price range performance, is also exactly what you’d expect from a phone at this price apps launch quickly, you can multitask without any issues, and the internal screen has a 120 hertz variable Refresh rate for smoother scrolling Samsung also increased the amount of storage you get in the base model of the z-flip 5 compared to the z-flip 4, just like it did with the Galaxy s23 plus earlier this year. You now get 256 gigs instead of 128, which makes that one thousand dollar price a little more sensible battery life on the Z. Flip 5 is long enough to make it through a busy day of wandering around Seoul snapping photos, looking up directions and discovering nearby points of interest. I typically took my phone off its charger in the late morning between 9 30 and 10.
30 am and still had, 25 to 30 percent of my battery left between around midnight and 1 30 a.m. You can check out my written review for more details about the Z flip 5’s battery life. The Z flip 5 further proves that companies like Samsung are getting closer to answering the question of why foldable phones are useful in the first place, and that’s largely thanks to the new cover screen having a device.
That’S easy to use with one hand that can also unfold to a full-sized phone makes the Z flip 5 and other similar phones more versatile than the phones that most people are carrying today. The Z flip 5 is a big step in the right direction for Samsung’s. Pocket-Sized foldable phone, while it’s a tough call between the Razer plus and z-flip 5 Samsung’s sturdier design, more polished software and extra year of Android great updates, ultimately make it the better choice for those interested in flip phones, while the Z flip 5 isn’t perfect. The changes Samsung introduced on this year’s model make that one thousand dollar price easier to swallow.
So what do you think of the z-flip 5? Let me know in the comments and don’t forget to follow CNET for more Samsung coverage. Thanks for watching and I’ll see you next time, .