Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 Hands-On: Same Phone, Better Design
Foldable Phones
Speaker 1: <silence> Samsung just announced the Galaxy Z fold five. The newest version of its book shaped foldable phone. It starts at $1,800, the same price as last year's Z fold four and launches on August 11th. I had a few minutes to spend with the Z fold five, and based on the limited time I've had with it, it feels like a small but important evolution of the Z fold. It has a brand new hinge, which enables it to fold completely closed with no gap [00:00:30] for the first time, making this feel like a bigger design leap compared to the jump between the Z fold three and the Z fold four, but a lot of other changes feel minor. Before we dive into my thoughts, let's take a look at what's new. The redesigned hinge, which is present in both the Z fold five and the new Z flip five.
Speaker 1: Make it so that there's no gap when the phone is closed. This might not sound like a big deal, but it does make the phone feel more sleek and uniform. Other companies [00:01:00] like Google and Motorola have also made foldables with gapless hinges at this point, so Samsung is sort of catching up in this regard besides just making the phone look and feel nicer. The new hinge should also improve durability according to Samsung's claims. That's because there are fewer moving parts in the hinge. Both phones are also coated in Corning Gorilla Glass Victus two, which should hopefully make them more drop resistant. While the crease is still very visible on the Galaxy Z fold five, [00:01:30] it does feel a little flatter, which is also probably thanks to the new hinge. The other major change with the Z fold five is its new processor, the Qualcomm Snapdragon eight Gen two for Galaxy.
Speaker 1: It's the same chip that powers the Galaxy S 23 series, which is great because I notice some improvements to battery life and camera performance on those phones. Hopefully it'll be the same for the Galaxy Z fold five. Samsung also made the internal screen on the Z fold five brighter at 1,750 [00:02:00] knits. I already find the displays on Samsung's phones to be brighter than other Android phones, so I'm looking forward to seeing if this makes a difference. There's also a new Spen for the Galaxy Z fold five that's thinner than the previous one, although you'll still have to buy it separately. The camera setup is the same as the Z fold four, although I'm expecting to see some improvements thanks to the new chip. Overall, the Galaxy Z fold five feels like a refined version of what we saw last [00:02:30] year. The new hinge makes the phone look and feel a bit less cumbersome, and the new processor should bring some nice improvements to photography and battery life, possibly helping close the gap between the Z fold and Samsung's Galaxy S Series.
Speaker 1: But the biggest problem is that the Z fold five is still really expensive at $1,800. It's still hard to imagine exactly who this phone is for. Samsung is clearly leaning into productivity and entertainment, which makes sense given that the Z fold has a giant internal [00:03:00] screen, but I imagine that price still puts it out of reach for many people. We'll know more about the Z fold five once we've had more time with the device. So what do you think of Samsung's new foldable phone? Let me know in the comments and don't forget to follow CNET for more Samsung coverage. You can also find more details about the Galaxy Z fold five in my written story. Thanks for watching, and I'll see you next time.
