Samsung Galaxy Z Flip5 5G review – The foldable phone with a large cover display

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip5 5G is the successor to the Galaxy Z Flip4 and its biggest visual difference is its much bigger outer display. Furthermore, the small gap which used to be seen when the phone was folded shut has now been fixed. In this review, you can read about what else this foldable smartphone has to offer and whether it makes sense to upgrade from the Flip4.

The Galaxy Z Flip5 is nearly identical in size to its predecessor, except now it is up to two millimetres slimmer when folded shut (85. 1 x 71. 9 x 15.

1 mm). This is thanks to its new flex hinge which allows the phone’s corners to lie flat together when it is folded shut. As a result of the small plastic spacers, there still remains a tiny gap which can let dust particles in.

In our test, the Galaxy Z Flip5’s build impressed us. Its gap dimensions are even and its armored aluminum looks very high-quality and stable. The outside is protected by Corning Gorilla Glas Victus 2 and the foldable Samsung phone is waterproof (IPX8 certified).

You just have to be careful while trying to bend the phone when it is folded open, as it makes audible cracking noises and the hinge allows for quite a bit of movement. The flex hinge’s flexible opening angle is particularly great, which allows for the display to be held very stably in place between 44 and 180 degrees. The Flip5 is available in the colors Mint, Graphite, Lavender and Cream.

The Samsung store exclusives (gray, blue, green and yellow) all have a matte black aluminum frame. Different to its predecessor , this Samsung phone now has a minimum of 256 GB of internal storage, but it’s also about US$100 more. There is now also a variant which has 512 GB.

The phone doesn’t have a microSD card slot. The Galaxy Z Flip5 now features the faster USB 3. 2 (gen 1).

In our copying test, it achieved only average transfer rates (217 MB/s), although this is still a lot faster than USB 2. 0. The phone also includes NFC and Bluetooth 5.

3 – you’ll unfortunately still have to make do without UWB. The Galaxy Z Flip5 5G uses Android 13 with the Samsung user interface One UI 5. 1.

1 which, at the time of testing, had an up-to-date security patch installed from 1st August 2023. This will remain for quite some time, as the foldable phone is set to receive these monthly patches for four years – and after that, every quarter for a further year. Furthermore, the Flip5 is set to receive four major upgrades, meaning up to Android 17.

The outer display has been treated to the biggest software updates: It is now not only larger, but it also has a full capacitive touchscreen with new widgets. Unfortunately, we couldn’t run all apps natively on this display, but you can run apps such as Google Maps and WhatsApp. With the help of a small keyboard, you can actually reply to Messenger messages directly via the outer display.

You just have to activate this feature via Labs . The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip5 supports Wi-Fi 6E and, as a result, tri-band WLAN connectivity. Together with our reference router, the Asus ROG Rapture GT-AXE11000, the phone achieved high and stable transmission rates via 5.

0 and 6. 0 GHz. When using mobile data, the Samsung smartphone supports all the usual mobile network standards and can access a wide range of frequency bands.

During our test, the device proved to have no reception difficulties in bigger cities and we had nothing at all to complain about. The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip5 5G can access all the usual satellite networks in order to determine your location and it can even do so relatively quickly indoors. Outside, this happens almost instantaneously and with great accuracy.

On a small bike trip, we compared the Samsung phone with the Garmin Venu 2. Over the course of our almost 10-kilometre test route, both devices only had a 30-metre deviation from each other. The fitness smartwatch might have been a little more precise, but the Flip5 was definitely still able to record our route really well.

The voice quality of the Galaxy Z Flip5 sounded very natural in our test and background noise was reliably filtered out. Especially surrounded by many people, these were not audible for the caller. Samsung’s smartphone reverberates a tiny bit during hands-free calls, but this does not occur during video calls.

Features such as WLAN telephoning and VoLTE are supported. Phone calls can also be controlled via the external display to a limited extent: Your contact list can be accessed directly via a widget or you can use the keypad, and up to six favorites can be stored on another widget. The Galaxy Z Flip5’s traditional front-facing camera is situated on the inside, above the foldable display.

Photos taken using this lens are average, but it is good enough for video calls. You can achieve much better selfies if you use the phone’s main setup. The outer display can then be used as a viewfinder.

In everyday use, this works well and photos look much better. We don’t completely understand why videos are limited to 60 FPS and in Full HD in this situation, as the cameras supposedly all support Ultra HD at up to 60 FPS. The dual cameras are technically seen identical to the Galaxy Z Flip4 , but they are apparently able to deliver better photos thanks to its more powerful IPS.

In daylight, the Samsung phone takes great photos which depict colors vividly. Its ultra-wide angle lens is okay, but toward the edges, images have a tendency to become a little fuzzy and they show a few image errors. The phone’s zoom is fine up to 2x, anything beyond that is unusable.

You can achieve a maximum digital zoom of 10x. The Galaxy Z Flip5 5G only comes with a SIM tool and a USB-C cable. Wireless and wired power adapters as well as numerous protective cases can optionally be purchased from Samsung or third-party suppliers.

The Flip5 has a one-year warranty in the United States, which can be extended via Samsung’s Care+ insurance package for between US$129 and US$329. Both of the Galaxy Z Flip5’s touchscreens behaved very reliably and without any issues during our test. As the outer display only has a refresh rate of 60 Hz, animations don’t look quite as silky smooth as on the phone’s inner display.

The adapted keyboard which can be used on the small screen actually works quite well. It’s just a shame that the display doesn’t adapt to the device’s positioning. A fingerprint sensor housed within the power button takes care of biometric security.

It works quite quickly and reliably, although it is advisable to touch your finger to the scanner a further time while the sensor is rotated, as it sometimes doesn’t work as accurately when the phone is folded shut. You can also make use of facial recognition and, in contrast to the Pixel Fold , you can use it when the phone is folded shut or open. On the other hand, it is a little less secure.

The Galaxy Z Flip5’s foldable display is the same size as the Flip4 and is only minimally brighter when it depicts pure white and is controlled by the ambient light sensor. In this case, it reaches an average of 848 cd/m² with a peak of 1,666 cd/m² (APL18). If you control the brightness manually, then the phone can reach up to 415 cd/m² – when using the setting additional brightness , you can get brightness levels up to 705 cd/m².

The smaller cover display can get a bit brighter (pure white depiction, active ambient light sensor) – up to 947 cd/m² in the centre of the picture. During the APL18 measurement, it held back a little and achieved only 1,296 cd/m² – below the 1,600 nits which Samsung claims the display can reach. Without the sensor, you can expect brightness levels up to 409 cd/m².

The Galaxy Z Flip5’s display also shows signs of OLED flickering which is typical for this screen type. The foldable panel showed a very consistent frequency of 120 Hz in our test, which isn’t necessarily high, but it has a low modulation degree and an even amplitude course, which is why only a very small number of people may have issues with the screen. This will likely only be a problem for extremely sensitive people.

The cover display is a bit different: Here, the frequency is higher, but the amplitude curve is very unsteady and the modulation level is even higher, which can become straining for the eyes. We analyzed how accurately the Galaxy Z Flip5 displays colors on the foldable screen using Calman. The best results are achieved using the natural screen mode, which uses the sRGB color space and only deviates visibly from the target in colors when it comes to larger blue portions.

As a result, the display is still very well calibrated, but a bit less accurate than in the Flip4 . The Galaxy Z Flip5 makes a good impression outdoors and remains easy to read even on bright days. We like the foldable display’s viewing-angle stability, but a delicate green haze is already visible at slight angles.

However, this should not be annoying in everyday use. The Adreno 740 which is installed in the Galaxy Z Flip5 is the fastest graphics unit for Android smartphones. While the new SoC may deliver better performance than its predecessor , it left more to be desired during most of the tests.

Here, its weak cooling seems to be the limiting factor, too. Under load, the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip5 can get very hot. This can especially become a problem on warm days.

You can’t compare the values with those of its predecessor, as we now use the demanding Burnout benchmark instead of the stability test. Samsung has only partly managed to cool the SoC – under continuous load, we noted performance drops of over 60 per cent, meaning the Flip5 is then barely any faster than the Razr+ , which relies on the older Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 . The two speakers on the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip5 deliver a decent soundscape, but the high tones struggle a bit at high volumes and have a tendency to sound quite shrill.

Wired speakers and headphones can be connected via the USB port. Bluetooth is available for wireless transmission, but it only supports the most common audio codecs (SBC, AAC, aptX, LDAC and SSC). The power consumption of the Galaxy Z Flip5 is pleasantly low and does not give us any reason for criticism.

The smartphone supports fast charging at up to 25 watts as well as wireless charging (Qi). When browsing the web with adjusted display brightness (150 cd/m²), the Galaxy Z Flip5 lasts well over ten hours and, as a result, is on a similar level as the Flip4 or Razr+ . Samsung has improved a lot on the Galaxy Z Flip5 which was still heavily criticised on the Flip4: Now, it features a fast USB 3.

2 connection, supports 6 GHz WLAN, shuts flush when you fold it together, and supports dual-band GNSS. In addition to this, the phone has a new and much bigger display on the outside, which really adds a lot of value to the device. The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip5 5G has improved in many ways and as a result, proves to be a really great foldable smartphone.

On the flip side, Samsung hasn’t managed to rid the phone’s case of excess heat and its Bluetooth audio codecs also haven’t been improved. You will also have to make do without UWB. It is a shame that Samsung hasn’t been able to improve on the device’s weight.

If you are flirting with the idea of getting a Galaxy Z Flip5, then you can look forward to getting a great foldable smartphone – but, all this has its price: Its release price is about on the same level as the Razr+ . Its predecessor is a lot cheaper, but it also comes with a much smaller cover display. The Oppo Find N2 Flip could also be an interesting alternative, but isn’t available to buy in every country.

The Galaxy Z Flip5 can be bought directly from Samsung from US$999. 99. It can also be found on Amazon for the same price.

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