Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 Review: This Flip smartphone brings some major improvements with an attractive outer display!!

This foldable now provides newer functionalities with the outer display!!

The Galaxy Z Flip series from Samsung demonstrates how innovation and technology have transformed how people use their smartphones. Like the Galaxy Z Fold series, the Galaxy Z Flip series is also a folding device, but it incorporates a flip mechanism in a small form factor. Samsung has nailed the design of the Galaxy Z Flip 5, which is a perfect foldable device now available on the market.

A solid product from Samsung, the Galaxy Z Flip 4 (Review) was one of the best all-rounders with its powerful Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset, 120Hz Dynamic 2X AMOLED display, and a 3700mAh battery. As a result of its success in the market, Samsung has now introduced the iteration of the already successful Galaxy Z Flip 4 in the form of the Galaxy Z Flip 5.

The Galaxy Z Flip 5 appears to be an improvement over its predecessor, as the outer display has been increased in size, improved brightness of the inner display, the flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset is present, the inner camera now has a slightly wider aperture, and the base storage has been increased to 256GB instead of 128GB on its predecessor. 

Does the Galaxy Z Flip 5 represent a significant improvement over its predecessor and will it be able to contribute to Samsung's sales growth in the future?

Let's find out in the full review.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 Design:

The Galaxy Z Flip 5 brings a similar form factor as its predecessor i.e. the Galaxy Z Flip 4 where you get a similar folding hinge. The back has a frosted finish which catches very less fingerprints and smudges. Compared to the Galaxy Z Flip 4 which had a 1.9-inches outer display, the Galaxy Z Flip 5 has a slightly larger 3.4-inches outer display.

The outer display is fully 3.4 inches diagonally but some part of it is cut as the dual cameras with an LED flashlight are placed. The slightly larger display provides better functionalities like you can clearly see all the contents, the camera works as a viewfinder, etc. Another new feature present is the new Flex Hinge where now with the newer Galaxy Z Flip 5, you can fold two halves flat without any gap present.

This improvement in design is very good as folding the two halves flat does not allow any kind of dust to settle as it used to be with the previous generation of Z Flip smartphones. The Galaxy Z Flip 5 weighs around 187 grams, similar to the Galaxy Z Flip 4 but in terms of thickness, the Galaxy Z Flip 5 is thicker around 15.1mm which is now 2mm less thick compared to the Galaxy Z Flip 4.

The Galaxy Z Flip 5 has an aluminium frame which is made of Armour Aluminum like its predecessor. Around the left side houses the SIM card slot which accepts one primary SIM card whereas the other is an eSIM card. The right side houses the volume buttons and a power button that doubles up as a fingerprint scanner. At the bottom, there is a loudspeaker grille, a primary microphone, and a USB Type-C port. 

On the top, there is a secondary noise-cancelling microphone only. The back of the Galaxy Z Flip 5 just like the front display has Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2 for protection. The Galaxy Z Flip 5 is available in four different colours - Lavender, Cream, Mint and Graphite. Just like its predecessor, this one also has an IPX8 rating which can withstand water for up to 1.5 meters for about 30 minutes which is great.

Overall, the presence of the larger outer display and the newer Flex Hinge provide it a good build and design over its predecessor. 

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 Display:

The Galaxy Z Flip 5 has a similar sized display as its predecessor i.e. 6.7-inches Full HD+(1080x2640 pixels) 2X Dynamic AMOLED display which houses the 120Hz refresh rate and since it is an LTPO display,  this display can go as low as 1Hz depending on the content in the display and also provides good battery life. The outer display has only support for a 60Hz refresh rate.

There are two different settings for refresh rate - Adaptive and Standard where the refresh rate varies from 1Hz to 120Hz when set to Adaptive whereas switching to the Standard mode provides only 60Hz refresh rate. Combined with the 120Hz refresh rate, you get a 240Hz touch sampling rate that provides faster touch responses.

The outer display has a resolution of 720 x748 pixels which can go as high as 1092nits of peak brightness. The inner display has now an improved peak brightness of 1750 nits which is a big improvement over the 1200 nits of peak brightness present on the Galaxy Z Flip 4 and this higher brightness is achieved while watching any content in HDR. 

Under direct sunlight, the inner display provides good visibility and goes around 1000-1100nits of brightness which is a good improvement over the Galaxy Z Flip 4. Just like the Galaxy Z Flip 4, the inner display gets two colour modes to choose from - Vivid and Natural. Switching to Vivid mode provides punchier colours and wider colour gamut thus covering the DCI-P3 colour gamut.

On the other hand, switching the display to Natural mode provides slightly less saturated and more of a natural tone which covers the sRGB colour space. The inner display has support for HDR on YouTube and Widevine L1 is present so you can stream HDR content on OTT platforms which is good. Even Netflix also has support for HDR content. 

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 Performance:

The Galaxy Z Flip 5 is powered by the latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset and just like the Galaxy S23 series, this one also is overclocked slightly where the prime core which is Cortex X3 core is clocked at 3.36GHz instead of the 3.19GHz on the prime Cortex-X3 core of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 present on other smartphones. This chipset also provides great efficiency as it is built on a 4nm process. 

Combined with this chipset, there is the powerful Adreno 740 GPU doing the duty which is also clocked higher at 719MHz which is up from 680MHz on other Snapdragon 8 Gen 2-powered devices. In terms of daily tasks, the Galaxy Z Flip 5 handles all the heavy and lighter tasks with ease without breaking a sweat. In terms of gaming, the Galaxy Z Flip 5 can handle all the heavy games with ease.

Certain games like Apex Legends, BGMI, Call Of Duty Mobile, etc. can easily run at the highest graphics without any stutters or frame drops present. After longer hours of gaming like 3-4 hours continuously, the back of the Galaxy Z Flip 5 does not feel warmer though it does not have any vapour or liquid cooling system present. 

In the CPU throttling test, the Galaxy Z Flip 5 could achieve a sustained performance of around 70-80 per cent which is good but still, there is some throttling present. The benchmark scores came out really good. In terms of network connectivity, there is support for good carrier aggregation and 12 bands of 5G. The haptic feedback is also very good.

Another big improvement compared to its predecessor is that the Galaxy Z Flip 5 now has base storage of 256GB instead of 128GB on the Galaxy Z Flip 4. So the Galaxy Z Flip 5 is available in two storage variants - 8GB LPDDR5X RAM with 128/256GB storage having UFS 3.1 storage speeds. 

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 Software:

The Galaxy Z Flip 5 runs on the latest OneUI 5.1.1 based on Android 13 out of the box which includes some of the new features. The outer display lock screen has different sets of customized stacks of lock screen cards that include just a clock, weather widgets, and notifications summary and when you long press on the home screen, you can easily switch between those cards.

You can also set the lock screen to unlock patterns for the outer display and pulling from the top to bottom provides quick toggles. Other features include a newer set of widgets that can be easily accessed on the home screen. There are Galaxy Labs present, under which you can set the outer display to run all the applications fully. There are the newer AOD styles present both for the inner and the outer display. 

Some of the Galaxy-specific features are present like Modes and Routines where based on each mode, it executes some actions like changing sound, display, notification settings, etc. Samsung DeX is not present but you get the Windows To Link feature which provides an interface between your smartphone and computer where you can exchange files or manage notifications between both of them.

The Flip's Flex Mode is present where it remains partially folded at an angle between 75 and 115 degrees where the top part provides the actual content for consumption and the lower half becomes the interaction/controls which work for most applications like Google Duo, YouTube, etc. whereas we can force for some applications. 

If you use the Samsung Good Lock module, almost most of the applications can be used in the outer display whereas it does not work for some of the applications. However, though it is feature-rich, there is an amount of bloatware present which can be uninstalled easily but considering this a premium flagship, Samsung could have removed the bloatware. 

In terms of software updates, the Galaxy Z Flip 5 will get another four years of AndroidOS updates and five years of security patches which is the best in the smartphone industry.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 Cameras:

With a dual-camera system, the Galaxy Z Flip 5 shares a similar setup with its predecessor, namely the Galaxy Z Flip 4. The Galaxy Z Flip 4 features a 12MP main camera with f/1.8 aperture, a 12MP ultrawide camera with f/2.2 aperture, and a 10MP camera with f/2.2 aperture on the inner display that provides a wider aperture than the Galaxy Z Flip 4. 

The images taken during daylight have good details and a wide dynamic range. As a result, you get a proper white balance, which improves the vibrancy of colours and reduces the amount of background noise. In 2x zoomed images, the details are sharper, there is an excellent dynamic range, and the colours are more vibrant, but there is a slight amount of noise present if you zoom beyond 2x.

At night, the main camera captures images that exhibit an excellent level of detail and a good dynamic range. Despite low-light conditions, the colours look brighter and the exposure is well controlled. There is no oversharpening in the background. However, all of these images were taken using the Auto Night mode, which was triggered automatically. 

Except for some noise in the background, there are not many differences when this mode is turned off. Images taken at 2x zoom show good details and dynamic range with less noise in the background, but exposure could have been handled more effectively. The absence of a dedicated macro camera means that macro shots are not possible. 

The 12MP ultrawide camera does a good job in terms of details that look sharper and have good dynamic range. Around the edges, there is some amount of distortion but it is very less and so is the noise in the background. The colours look natural without any oversharpening which is good. The images taken from the ultrawide camera during the night come out with good details and dynamic range. 

However, there is some amount of noise present in the images and details in shadows are crushed. The portrait images come out with good details that look sharper and have a good dynamic range with less noise in the background. There is the proper amount of background blur as the highlights do not get blown out and edge detection is perfect. 

The human skin tone colour looks accurate. In terms of selfies from the 10MP camera, the selfies have great dynamic range and sharper details with almost no noise present in the background. The inner camera takes some decent selfies with good details and excellent dynamic range since it gets a wider aperture now. The noise is slightly present in the images but it is negligible but the skin tones look softer. 

It is better suited for video calls and acts as a secondary camera only. The ultrawide selfies also come out with an excellent level of detail and good dynamic range with less noise in the background. The colours look natural without any oversharpening but there is some distortion around the corners present.

 In terms of videos, the primary 12MP camera can record 4K videos at 60fps even with the internal selfie camera whereas the ultrawide camera can only record 4K videos at 30fps. Since the OIS is present on the primary camera, it works only for videos taken at 4K at 30fps. The videos from the main camera come out with an excellent level of detail and good dynamic range with less noise present in the background as OIS is present. 

The videos from the ultrawide camera come out with good details with some amount of noise in the background. The videos from the inner selfie camera come out with a decent level of detail and could have been better. Overall, the camera performance remains unchanged from the Galaxy Z Flip 4 which is really good.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 Battery Life:

Like its predecessor, the Galaxy Z Flip 5 sports a similar-sized 3700mAh battery so with normal usage which includes streaming social media, web browsing, etc. the smartphone easily lasts for one and a half days which is really good but with heavy usage which includes rendering benchmarks, taking videos and photos, playing games like COD Mobile, BGMI, etc., the smartphone easily lasted for one single day.

The standard screen-on time is slightly better than the one on the Galaxy Z Flip 4 with 5-5.5 hours when used heavily whereas with normal usage, the standard screen-on time came around 3-4 hours which is good. However, since it is a Samsung flagship, there is no charger bundled inside the box you have to rely on third-party fast chargers or Samsung-specific 25W fast chargers that you can buy separately.

The Galaxy Z Flip 5 supports 25W fast charging and with a dedicated 25W fast charger, it takes around 1 hour 30 minutes for a full charge from 0 to 100 per cent which is slightly time-consuming and other than that, there is support for 15W wireless charging and 7.5W reverse wireless charging which is very good. Overall, the battery life is much improved but the charging speeds need improvement.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 Audio Quality:

The Galaxy Z Flip 5 sports a dual stereo speaker setup that sounds adequately loud and clear with no distortion and sound does not feel muffled even at the highest volume settings. There is no 3.5mm headphone jack present. There is Dolby Atmos support for enhanced sound output.

Verdict:

The Galaxy Z Flip 5 is an overall solid product from Samsung as it brings noticeable improvements over its predecessor in terms of the outer display which is larger and provides almost all the functionalities of the inner display, the battery life has been improved, the newer chipset provides excellent gaming and daily performance and the inner camera gets a wider aperture.

Other than that, you get a premium build and design and now the two halves fold perfectly without leaving a gap between them, then there is the 120Hz AMOLED display with stereo speakers, excellent battery life, a good set of cameras, and a great software experience with long term software updates. However, there are some areas where scope for improvement is needed.

The charging speeds remain unchanged from all the previous iterations of the Galaxy Z Flip series where Samsung could have provided fast charging, the though you get a feature-rich software experience, there is some amount of bloatware present which can be uninstalled. Definitely, the Galaxy Z Flip 5 is a big step over the Galaxy Z Flip 4 and will definitely boost the sales of Samsung in the future.

On an overall basis, the Galaxy Z Flip 5 is a great all-rounder except that you need to sacrifice faster charging speeds and battery life like other flagships.