The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5 is the talk of the town among fans of foldable phones. Being the fifth iteration of Samsung’s long dominant Galaxy Z Fold series, the Z Fold5 is the company’s most polished foldable smartphone yet.
That being said, every smartphone has its pros and cons, and this is no exception. Here are five things we like about the Galaxy Z Fold5, and five things that we hope Samsung could have done better for their next foldable smartphone.
Table of Contents
What We Like About the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5
New Gapless Hinge Design
Finally, Samsung has gotten rid of the hinge gap with a new and improve hinge design. Not only it feels smoother to fold and unfold the device, now it practically folds flat. Gone are the days of coins and other knick knacks in your pocket getting lodged between the hinge gap, making it a much welcomed change.
The Lightest and Slimmest Z Fold to Date
Alongside the revised hinge design, Samsung managed to shave some width and weight off the Galaxy Z Fold5. Now it is only 13.4mm thin when folded, and weighs only 253g. By comparison, the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra weighs in at 234g.
This makes the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5 more pocketable than ever before, without forming a bulge inside your pocket.
The Most Powerful Snapdragon Chipset in the Market
With the launch of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5, all current generation Samsung flagship devices has finally transitioned to the latest and most powerful flagship chipset from Qualcomm. This isn’t your run of the mill Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 mobile platform. The Z Fold5 runs on a custom chip designed for Galaxy smartphones, making it capable of clocking higher and delivering more performance than other Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chips in the market.
Leading Foldable UI/UX Experience
Samsung still offers one of the best UI/UX experience for its foldable smartphones. While other smartphone makers tend to port over their tablet UI or stretch their smartphone UI, Samsung has made several software improvements to make the most out of the large display.
For instance, you can have three apps opens on multi-window. On top of that, you can have five apps open via floating windows, making it possible of running 8 apps simultaneously. As a matter of fact, Samsung is the only smartphone brand right now to work with brands such as ZUS Coffee and Maxis to develop apps optimised for their foldables.
While these seem insignificant on a macro level, its these small touches that make your foldable smartphone experience much more enjoyable.
S Pen Takes Stylus Experience to the Next Level
One of the key features of Samsung’s foldables is the nifty S Pen. The main display on offers a large canvas for an exceptional stylus experience.
You can annotate, draw, write and more with the S Pen. Aside from the basic features, you can also access a slew of functions using Air Command, a toolbar that lets you access a variety of shortcuts and actions, such as translating text and taking screenshots.
That’s not all, you can also use Air Actions to control the phone such as camera shutter, media playback and more. It’s like waving a magic wand to control your phone!
What We Hope To See in Future Samsung Foldables
Include the S Pen in the Phone
Okay, I know we’ve praised the S Pen and how well it works on the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5, but sadly the stylus does not come together with the phone. You will have to fork out extra in order to get what is arguably the best stylus experience in the market today.
Now, integrating a stylus into a foldable does take some engineering ingenuity, and so far no one has cracked the formula. Regardless we hope that Samsung could find a way to better integrate the S Pen into its foldables to make the most out of their capabilities.
Larger Battery Capacity
Yes, the Galaxy Z Fold5’s battery life has been improved thanks to a much more efficient Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy chipset. However, the battery capacity remains the same, while its competitors are catching up with larger capacities.
Just imagine how good the Z Fold5 can be with an improved battery capacity.
Faster Charging Speed
Not only is the battery capacity unchanged, the charging speed is still stuck at 25W. While it is still okay for a 4,400mAh battery pack, but if Samsung increases the battery size in the future, 25W is not going to cut it. A significant bump to let’s say, 45W charging found on the S23 Ultra would make the next foldable a much more compelling option.
A More Conventional Cover Screen Aspect Ratio
While the Galaxy Z Fold5’s main display is the standout feature, the same cannot be said about the cover screen. Yes, it is sufficient for day to day tasks like reading emails and replying messages, but we wish that the cover screen could be wider to have a more conventional aspect ratio for future devices.
Slimmer Profile
Now that Samsung managed to fix the hinge gap, the next leap in foldable design we hope Samsung can tackle is to improve the width of the device. While this may seem like a long shot, we hope to see a profile that is similar to an ordinary smartphone.
Closing Thoughts
And that wraps up the five things we love of the new Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5, and five improvements we hope to see in the company’s future foldables. Do check out our in-depth review of the Galaxy Z Fold5 if you haven’t.
