Samsung has long dominated the foldable smartphone segment with the Galaxy Z Fold and Z Flip series. Since then foldables have become increasingly common, with many manufacturers releasing their own designs to fight for the foldable crown with varying degrees of success.
With that said, Samsung has recently released the 5th iteration of the Galaxy Z Fold series, aptly named the Galaxy Z Fold5. The retail price remains the same as before, with a starting price of RM6,799 for the base model.
Table of Contents
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5 – Specifications
| Model | Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5 |
| Dimensions | Unfolded – 154.9mm x 129.9mm x 6.1 mm Folded – 154.9mm x 67.1mm x 13.4 mm |
| Weight | 253g |
| Processor | CPU – Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy GPU – Adreno 740 |
| RAM | 12GB |
| Storage | 256GB / 512GB / 1TB |
| Display | Main Display – 7.6″ Foldable Dynamic AMOLED 2X 1812 x 2176 pixels 120Hz Cover Display – 6.2″ Dynamic AMOLED 2X 904 x 2316 pixels 120Hz |
| Camera (Front) | Cover Camera– 10 MP, f/2.2 Under Main Display – 4 MP, f/1.8 |
| Camera (Rear) | Main Camera – 50 MP, f/1.8, Dual Pixel PDAF, OIS Telephoto Camera – 10 MP, f/2.4, PDAF, OIS, 3X optical zoom Ultrawide Camera – 12 MP, f/2.2 |
| Operating System | One UI 5.1.1, Android 13 |
| Battery and Charging | 4,400 mAh 25W wired charging 15W wireless charging |
| Connectivity | Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/6e Bluetooth 5.3 NFC GPS |
| Biometrics | Side mounted fingerprint reader, face unlock |
What’s in the Box?
- Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5
- USB Type-C charging cable
- SIM tray remover
- Documentation
Design
The main difference between the Galaxy Z Fold5 and its predecessor is the hinge gap, or lack thereof. The hinge is now practically gapless as it uses a new hinge construction. Another point of comparison is that unfolding the phone now takes slightly less effort, but not to the point of being able to flick it open.
It is also slightly thinner at 13.4mm when folded, and with that it shaved about 10g to a more manageable 253g. It is still quite a chonky device, but in terms of weight it is only slightly heavier than the Galaxy S23 Ultra.
Other than that, the outward appearances are almost identical to the Z Fold4. At the back, you get the same triple camera setup arranged vertically. The colour options for the back differ slightly, now available in Icy Blue, Phantom Black, and Cream, the latter of which is what we are reviewing. You can also get them in online exclusive colours via the official online store.
Both the cover screen and main display remains the same as before. You get a 6.2-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X for the cover screen, while the main screen boasts a 7.6-inch Foldable Dynamic AMOLED 2X panel.
When folded, the power button, volume rockers, and the SIM tray are conveniently located at the right side of the phone.
Display
The cover screen has the same 904 x 2316 pixels resolution. While it is sharp enough for the size, it’s aspect ratio isn’t the best for general video viewing. In portrait mode, videos are squished to only 1/3 of the screen space, while you get lots of unused space when viewing in landscape mode. That being said, the cover screen’s purpose is meant for day to day use without having to open the main display, such as replying messages, and it gets the job done amicably.
The main display, while carried over from the Z Fold4, has a significantly less obvious crease at the middle. While looking at it head on, the crease is barely noticeable. When I am watching YouTube in full screen, it tends to attempt to fill the entire screen space, but you can always get it to display its native aspect ratio by pinching inwards.
Audio
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5 comes with side firing stereo speakers, and it sounds decent with a pronounced midrange. The bass extension is alright, with a sufficient midbass thump. Treble is well controlled, though it has a more laidback presence.
However due to the placement, I find my palms covering the speaker ports while gaming in landscape, but after adjusting how I hold the device, the issue disappeared.
Performance
Benchmarks
| Geekbench 6 | CPU Single Core – 2,026 CPU Multi-Core – 5,353 GPU – 9,478 |
| 3DMark Wild Life | Maxed out! |
| PCMark Work 3.0 | 15,701 |
Under the hood, the Galaxy Z Fold5 is powered by the custom Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy chipset, which is clocked slightly higher than the stock chip. As expected, the benchmark numbers are impressive to say the least. In terms of real world day to day use, I can run multiple apps at once without a hint of lag or stuttering.
Gaming
The Galaxy Z Fold5 is a bit of a mixed bag when it comes to gaming. While the main display delivers an excellent visual experience, not all games seem to support it. Genshin Impact runs with no issues as it adapts to the screen’s aspect ratio, but some titles may have stretched visuals, or compensate by filling to fit the screen.
Visual issues aside, the performance is excellent, easily maxing out the framerates for games like MLBB, PUBG Mobile and Punishing Gray Raven.
UI/UX
The UI on the Galaxy Z Fold5 is arguably the most polished for foldables. It runs on One UI 5.1.1, and Samsung has done a remarkable job at optimising the foldable experience.
For efficient multitasking, One UI lets you run 3 apps on split screen, and up to 5 floating windows, though I find having more than 4 concurrent apps running simultaneously looks cluttered.
Samsung’s Flex Mode is a joy to use, as I could just shove apps to the top panel when partially folded. In video apps, the playback controls appear at the bottom half; while in other apps the bottom half could act like a trackpad.
Like other Samsung flagships, the Galaxy Z Fold5 will receive five years of software updates, including 4 major Android upgrades.
Camera
The camera package remains the same as before, with a 50 megapixel main shooter, 10 megapixel telephoto, and a 12 megapixel ultrawide. It does however, yield some minor improvements over the predecessor when it comes to exposure, colour science and night mode.
Under good light, all three cameras can produce good looking results, though in some fringe cases it may look oversaturated for some.
On the selfie front, you get two cameras – a 10 megapixel cover screen camera, and a 4 megapixel under-display unit. The former is a decent selfie shooter under good lighting. However I find the one under the main display is only good for face unlock as it produces a lot of noise.
That aside, you can actually take selfies using the main camera by opening the camera app on the cover screen, and select the selfie option. You can then unfold the device to take selfies with the cover screen as the display.
Battery Life
Despite packing the same battery as its predecessor, the Galaxy Z Fold5 exhibits improved battery life thanks to a more efficient chipset. On PCMark Work 3.0 Battery Life test, it managed to last 12 hours and 25 minutes.
That being said, other brands are able to incorporate larger battery packs and faster charging for their foldables, and I was a tad disappointed that Samsung did not make much improvements in this regard.
Final Verdict
4 / 5Despite only incremental improvements over its predecessor, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5 still offers the most polished foldable experience in the market.
While it may seem Samsung is resting on its laurels with only incremental upgrades while other brands introduced better hardware (on paper at least), I still think the Galaxy Z Fold5 is the best foldable in the market right now mainly because of its polished UI/UX experience.
To learn more about the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5, please visit the official product page here.
