Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 Is Thinner, Lighter and Gapless

Speaker 1: <silence> Speaker 2: This is the Samsung Galaxy. You hold five and I've been using it for about five days now and, and I realize it's easy to dismiss it as a minor upgrade. It's an incremental improvement, yes, but one of an already solid, well-established foldable, the Z fold four and the Z fold four when it came out last year. And well this year even proves how far ahead Samson is in terms [00:00:30] of making a phone that folds open into a tablet. Now that doesn't mean others haven't done better in part, I mean, Google's pixel fold has better cameras, but in terms of the complete package, the Z fold four had a, this is as good as it gets right now moment, and that's where the Galaxy Z fold five comes in. Now, it doesn't bring a sweeping giant design change or radical new cameras, but instead tries [00:01:00] to improve upon the Z fold four in three areas, the durability, the battery life, and the cameras. And the Z fold five gets two out of those three, right? Well, mostly, Speaker 2: So the basics of the Z fold five are well essentially the same as the Z fold four in in terms of the overall design screen sizes, buttons, U Ss, B, C, port Ss pin support. And well of course [00:01:30] that $1,800 price tag. The camera bump is a little less bulky, but the individual lenses stick out more. The main screen is brighter, which I found easier to see outdoors, which I think is a significant upgrade, even if it's a minor one in terms of a year over year update. But I found the Z fold five's, new hinge changes things as you might remember with uh, previous Z folds. The main screen experience is excellent. It's a wonderful mini tablet, but [00:02:00] when it's closed, the z fold is an awkward phone. It's bulky and uh, the previous hinge didn't allow it to close completely flat, leaving an actual wedge-shaped opening between the folded sides. But the Z fold five's, new hinge solves that and can close completely shut. Well, the review unit I've been testing there is the tiniest thinner than paper gap that you can see through when the phone is closed. In fact, looking back at how [00:02:30] Samson described the way the fold five closes at the launch event, it adds Speaker 3: Up and it reduces the folds gap to almost nothing. Speaker 2: And that's almost something in the time I've been using the Z fold five. It's much less awkward to hold and more enjoyable to use when it's in phone mode. It still has the same tall, thin, xperia phone aspect ratio that will still be hit or miss for some people. Samsung says the new hinge less mechanical parts [00:03:00] and is more durable than previous Z folds holding it. It's hard for me to tell. I mean it does feel more solid, but that might just be because it closes flat. Now an added benefit is that the Z fold five is 10 grams lighter, well, according to Samson specs, than the Z fold four and about 11 grams lighter according to my coffee scale. And that is definitely noticeable and welcome. And then there's also a new processor which addresses battery life. So we've seen the Snapdragon [00:03:30] eight Gen two and a lot of phones this year and it's excellent in terms of performance and efficiency. Speaker 2: The Z fold five and Z flip five have the Snapdragon H N two for Galaxy. Now this is a customized version of the chip that debuted in February with a Galaxy SS 23 series. It's C P U and G P U get slightly higher speeds than the regular chip, but it's the efficiency gains that are welcome here and well needed because the Z fold five has the same dual 4,400 [00:04:00] milliamp hour battery as the fold three and the fold four. So to get better battery life out of a phone with the same battery, especially the one that has a brighter main screen, we're gonna need an efficient processor. Now over my five days with the Z fold five, I found it last about an hour or two longer on a single charge than the Z fold four, which again is significant on probably the day I used it the most was during a photo and video shoot. Speaker 2: [00:04:30] And at 7:00 AM it had a full battery and by 9:00 PM it still had 14% left. And that was with the screen set to 120 hertz variable refresh rate and being at full brightness for most of the day. Now, over the weekend, it made it a day and a half on a single charge. Obviously, depending on how you use the Z fold five, especially the main screen, well, it's gonna change how long the battery lasts. For example, I had back-to-back Zoom calls over wifi with the Z fold five and the battery went [00:05:00] from a hundred percent to 76% over 75 minutes. This definitely won't best a regular slab phone in terms of battery life, but it's better than before, even just a little bit. Now I have more battery tests to run, so check out CNET for my full written review for all those results. And then there are the cameras, and this is the bit where I'm disappointed just a little bit. Speaker 2: You see the cameras on the Z fold five [00:05:30] are the same cameras, the same lenses, the same sensors as the ones on the previous Z fold model. But as we know with other phones, hardware is only half the equation when it comes to cameras. The Z fold five gets a new image sensor processor, I S P, and that allows to do all the computational photography that we've come to expect on any phone that gets released today. But let's take a look at some of my favorite photos and videos that it took with a Galaxy Z fold five Speaker 2: [00:06:00] In my time with the Z fold. Five photos and videos look nearly identical to those on the Z fold. Four I, I mean, it's really hard for me to spot any meaningful differences. I do think the Z fold fives photos look a SCO crisper, and that might be because of the new I S P allowing the fold five to have longer shutter speeds under mixed and medium light and shorter shutter speeds [00:06:30] under bright light compared to the Z fold four. So yeah, not a significant upgrade. And a couple weeks ago I did a camera comparison between the Z fold four and the Google pixel fold and found that the pixel cameras are better. And while they do plan to do another comparison with the pixel fold and Z fold five, I don't see anything here that tells me that the Z fold fives cameras have made up any ground on the pixel fold. Speaker 2: [00:07:00] Is the Z fold five worth upgrading from the Z fold? Four, no way. I mean, don't do it. Maybe the Z fold three, but if you're contemplating upgrading from the original fold or the Z fold two, this is a substantial upgrade. Now, if you're going to buy a Z fold for a week ago, you're basically getting a better version of the same phone at the same price. And like other expensive phones that offer a niche appeal, like the Stony Xperia [00:07:30] one, mark five, that's $1,400. There are people willing to pay a premium to have a phone that is unique and in this case turns into an amazing mini tablet. And even if it isn't for most people, that's where the Z fold five still leads the pack. Now I wanna hear from you, what do you think about the Z fold five? Are the upgrades significant or is this the case where the specs were right? All along? Let me know in the comments. And for more on the Z fold five, [00:08:00] check out my full written review it. It has more tests, it has more comparisons, and it's at cnet. And thank you for watching.