Review of the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip5.

Our Verdict

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip5 is the best flip phone you can buy right now. But it’s only a tiny improvement on its predecessor, and the improvements it does bring might not be all that useful to you. The best news is the battery life bump, though that’s still a minimal change.

Reasons to buy

• Great performance
• Pretty design
• Better battery life

Reasons to avoid

• Average cameras
• Visible hinge

There is just one flip phone: the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip5. If you are familiar with this market in any way, you will have a thought in the back of your mind whether you look at a Motorola Razr or an Oppo Find N2 Flip. That is, the best flip phone is produced by Samsung. And this new phone is unlikely to alter that.

Despite this, the bigger cover screen on the new Flip appears to make it virtually less logical than the original Flip; maybe this is simply a design flaw that this model of Flip brings to light. Perhaps in the future, with the rumoured Xiaomi Mix Flip, things will change. or maybe something else entirely, but who knows? In any case, despite its small confusion, the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip5 is a fantastic device.

Here are our main parts for the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip5 review before we start dissecting all the nonsense:

Cost and accessibility

Numerous worldwide shops and network providers offer the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip5. It's available from all of the top UK phone operators and is one of the best AT&T phones available in the US. In addition to the regular Mint, Graphite, Lavender, and Cream colours, there are four unique colours available if you purchase it straight from the Samsung website: Grey, Blue, Green, and Yellow. Every variant has 8GB of RAM.

• 256GB – $999.99 (£1,049)
• 512GB – $1,119.99 (£1,149)

Inner display	6.7-inch 120Hz AMOLED (1080 x 2640)
Cover display	3.4-inch 60Hz AMOLED (720 x 748)
Cameras	Wide: 12 MP Ultrawide: 12 MP Selfie: 10MP
Dimensions	Folded: 85.1 x 71.9 x 15.1 mm Unfolded: 165.1 x 71.9 x 6.9 mm
Chipset	Snapdragon 8 Gen 2
RAM	8GB
Storage	256-512GB

Design

The cover display of the Galaxy Z Flip5 is the big news. The majority of the phone's exterior is now covered by the cover display, as opposed to a tiny, narrow screen used just for alerts. It doesn't wrap over the cameras, so it's not at Motorola Razr levels, but it's close.

Other than that, however, the phone and the Z Flip4 are quite similar. It's still a tidy small box with good polished rails and a plain colour on the screenless side of the outside. The hinge, however, is still something that stands out more when compared to foldable tablets.

After using it for a long, this kind of stuff becomes insignificant, but it seems a bit too mechanical at first. You can see the mechanism, which is something I really don't want from a premium phone. I'm not a fan of it, but it's also a stupid pet peeve considering that there aren't many options currently.

Overall however, I still think that the Z Flip5's design is the best of all the flippers. It has chic colours, glossy rails, and a tidy, clean appearance. This kind of phone meets the bill well and makes a little more of a fashion statement than a typical cell.

Displays

When the gadget is opened, it's a perfectly proportioned, 120Hz edge-to-edge beauty with only two flaws: a functional hole punch camera at the top and the inevitable wrinkle in the centre of the screen. The latter is a little different from the former, which vanishes quickly.

That's basically a design flaw with these kinds of folding phones, since the problem is present in all of them. As your eyes adjust, this middle crease becomes invisible quite fast, but since you constantly move your finger over it, you are physically aware of it at all times.

Whether or whether this is a problem really depends on the individual. For example, I know many people who are just drawn to flip phones due to their stylish, retro appearance. However, it's more of a problem if you're like me and want the finest display available. Though it's not difficult to get beyond, it should be noted.

If we disregard all of that, however, the size and form are perfect, the colours are amazingly sharp, and the refresh rate keeps everything operating smoothly. I think this is the greatest flip foldable's internal display out there.

But the external display makes a bit less sense. As we'll see below, it adds a few new functions, but not quite enough to improve upon the Z Flip4's somewhat smaller outside display from the previous year. Practically speaking, it's still simply a notification centre, therefore the greater size seems a bit unnecessary.

Attributes

The Flex Window, often known as the cover display, is the Z Flip5's most notable new feature. Now that it's bigger, it has additional capabilities. Widgets for the weather, alarm, phone, stopwatch, timer, voice memo, smarthome, and stocks are included right out of the box. Seems like a lot, does it not?

Well, except from the weather widget, I didn't really utilise any of them in my daily life. Although my personal usage is obviously unique to me, I believe the ordinary user won't get much more from the Flex Window.

Like most people, I suppose, I have very few occasions when I want to set a timer and don't use a voice assistant, even fewer where I want to make a phone call while folding my phone, and extremely few instances where I want to check stock prices. I never utilised the Flex Window for anything other than notifications or weather forecasts. Furthermore, I could do those two tasks on the Z Flip 4 or 3. Therefore, I'm not really using the bigger screen all that much.

if there are certain programmes you can launch on the Flex Window even if you're not supposed to, you can be more inventive. Adding GPS, messaging, Netflix, YouTube, and WhatsApp just requires flipping a configuration toggle. While it's entertaining to see Tenet in its entirety on the little cover screen, as intended by Chris Nolan, only two of them really make sense.

There was far more pleasure to be had after I forced myself to look beyond the exhilarating YouTube highlights of the most recent Formula One race, which were shown in the size of a postage stamp. You may get Good Lock by delving even farther into the modification options. It's amusing that this launcher allows you to put anything to the Flex Window.

It's kind of useless, whether you use Genshin Impact or scroll through small TikTok videos. It's also a lot of fun. Additionally, you may do it here if you do have a unique use-case where a certain app has to be accessible on the cover display. it is good.

1/7

Cameras

The main advantage of foldable phones is that they are often flagship-priced devices with a plethora of disadvantages. The camera arrangement of this compact form factor is one of its main shortcomings. Although the processing is more than capable of producing respectable photos, there is a notable loss of detail.

For someone like me who really doesn't mind all that much, it's not a big deal, but if you're a very serious snapper, spending $1000 on this can leave you a little let down. Though they're more than suitable for social media, those with greater aspirations may want to reconsider.

Despite the absence of specifics, Samsung's ingenious computational devices function well in a variety of scenarios. Quick focusing, a great night mode, and a generally well-balanced camera configuration are features. Oh, and the selfie camera is excellent as well.

Check out our instead.For further images, see the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5 review. It's worth noting that all of the Fold5's images were captured with the Flip5. Similarly, all of the Flip5 photos on this page were shot with the Fold5. We probably won't use this kind of gimmick again since it all seems so confused, but maybe someone will find it amusing.

Power Source

Although foldables come with a lot of disadvantages and premium costs, Samsung is making some improvements to the user experience. That the Z Flip5's battery life is now really rather respectable is among its better features. My testing shows that it gets almost an hour and a half extra usage time even though it has the same size battery as its predecessor.

This implies that, depending on how much you use it, of course, the Z Flip5 may last until the end of the day without causing you too much stress. I only needed to charge the phone once a night in my experience, which included a lot of messaging, podcasts, and photo-taking along with a little amount of light gaming and other gubbins. This is the minimum in my opinion.

However, Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is more efficient than its predecessor, meaning higher performance and longer battery life, thus the Z Flip5 does not entirely owe its extended battery life to Samsung. It's the same old tale on the former.

Achievement

For practically everyone, the Z Flip5's performance is more than adequate. You're most likely not considering a foldable phone if you're a serious enthusiast of mobile games. If so, maybe you ought not to be (for guidance, see our best gaming phone guide). However, you're covered if all you need to do is poke about Genshin and smash some sugar in sugar smash.

Genshin Impact runs really well at 60 frames per second on medium to high settings. It's more than capable, but if you push it too high, the dips become quite apparent and the gadget becomes hot very quickly.

The narrative is much easier with casual games. Candy Crush has smooth movement and huge, vibrant colours without any graphics options to mess with. The plot of Clash Royale and almost every other lite game is the same.

On the softer, ultra-thin screen, shooters are a touch strange since your finger movements may become a little more forceful. If you don't mind 30 frames per second, PUBG still looks fantastic at all settings, while CoD: Mobile allows for up to 60.

When using the gadget, the same performance is translated into sleek animations. In terms of speed, it is similar to utilising an S23 Ultra. Not the processor or the programme, but the external hardware limits are the sole downsides.

Conclusion

In reality, the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip5 is perhaps the greatest clamshell foldable smartphone available at the moment. It is a fantastic flip phone. This is the phone to have if you have your heart set on this design.

However, there haven't been many advancements over the Flip4, and the new Flex Window seems somewhat more functional than earlier iterations. Notably disappointingly, all that more screen real estate doesn't really transfer into increased utility when you actually use the item.

Replacements

While the Motorola Razr lacks the Flip5's performance, it does boast a little longer battery life and a more attractive overall look. It's a solid substitute that's often available for less money, but we'd be cautious about how long it will last.

Although Oppo is now almost nonexistent in the European market, the Oppo Find N2 Flip is a fantastic substitute if you can locate one. Its slimmest feature is its crease, which is the best we've seen, but it also has a pretty nice design and competitive performance.

If you would like to see the whole spectrum of products from the Korean tech giant, then check out our reviews of the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip5 and the Samsung Galaxy S23, andhere.