Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 Review: First Impressions

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Early thoughts on Samsung's latest top-end book-style foldable

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 can best be described as an iterative upgrade. Sure, it fixes long-time issues with the Fold series by getting rid of the gap and reducing the weight, but it’s near-identical in most other areas, making the £100 price hike a particularly hard pill to swallow.

Pre-order the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 is available to pre-order at Samsung.

Samsung has just revealed the next-gen Galaxy Z Fold 5 alongside the clamshell-style Z Flip 5, and Samsung has opted for an iterative upgrade yet again, following the trend of the Z Fold 4 and even the Z Fold 3.

The catch is that the Z Fold 5 costs £100/$150 more than its predecessor at £1749/$1799, despite the minimal changes on offer.

Sure, the improvements like better performance and a gapless fold are welcome with open arms, but in a year where we’ve seen significant improvements to foldable tech from the likes of Google, Honor, Huawei, Oppo and Motorola, has Samsung done enough to keep its foldable crown? I’m not so sure.

I got to spend about an hour with the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 ahead of launch, and here are my early thoughts on Samsung’s latest top-end foldable. Be sure to keep an eye out for my full review, complete with benchmark tests and camera samples, in the coming days.

It’s a big year not for the Samsung foldables in general but for the hinge mechanism within. Since the launch of the first Galaxy Fold in 2019, there has been one consistent issue with Samsung’s foldables – the gap.

Due to the design of the teardrop hinge mechanism used by Samsung foldables, the phones were physically unable to close completely, leaving an odd triangular-shaped gap when folded. It wasn’t ideal for foldables with intricate systems that could be destroyed by dust and debris.

Thankfully, Samsung has finally solved the issue, with the Z Fold 5 and the clamshell-style Z Flip 5 closing without any hint of a gap. It’s just a little surprising that it took so long, especially considering Samsung was one of the first manufacturers to experiment with foldable tech.

Regardless of how long it took to materialise, the new hinge system shifts the foldable’s look from ‘cool future tech with issues’ to ‘premium foldable flagship’, especially when combined with impressively slim bezels of the inner foldable display and premium materials used in the build, including Gorilla Glass Victus 2 protection for the outer glass panels.

Removing that awkward gap also allows for a slightly smaller overall footprint, with the Z Fold 5 measuring in at 13.4mm when folded, down 2.4mm compared to the 15.8 mm-thick Z Fold 4.

That’s still thicker than Candybar flagship territory and is a way off both the Pixel Fold and Honor’s impossibly thin 9.9mm-thick Magic V2, but it does make the phone feel a little less chunky in the hand and pocket.

It’s also 10g lighter at 253g, though again, this is still weightier than most Candybar phones, and it was noticeable during my hands-on time with the phone ahead of launch. Granted, the majority of foldables are chunky, but the 231g Honor Magic V2 shows that the tides are changing, and Samsung is at risk of being swept up in the deluge.

Aside from that, it’s business as usual for the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5. It sports the same general look as its predecessor, complete with Samsung’s signature tall-and-narrow 6.1-inch 120Hz AMOLED external display and the larger 7.6-inch 120Hz AMOLED foldable display found within.

The inner display has seen a boost to overall brightness with 1750nits peak brightness matching that of the top-end Galaxy S23 Ultra, which should be a real boon for outdoor viewing – though being at a dark closed-door event, that’s not something I could easily test at the time.

More annoyingly, despite the improved hinge mechanism, the central crease is still very much present and accounted for, and it doesn’t look any different to the Z Fold 4. While we’ll never eliminate the crease entirely – thanks, physics – manufacturers like Huawei and Motorola have made strides in making the crease as shallow as possible, making Samsung’s foldable look a bit dated by comparison.

Still, the detailed 2K display, slim bezels and surprisingly reassuring plastic display make for a great viewing experience. Its portrait-style design makes it ideal for split-screen multitasking too.

It seems Samsung is confident of the Z Fold 4’s camera setup as, literally, nothing has changed when it comes to the Z Fold 5. The Samsung Z Fold 5 sports the same combination of a primary 50MP snapper with Dual Pixel AF and OIS, a 12MP ultrawide and a 10MP 3x telephoto lens with OIS.

It’s a similar story with the selfie cameras; the 10MP sensor of the external 6.1-inch display remains unchanged, much like the (poor-performing) 4MP under-display camera within the larger 7.6-inch panel.

I still need to test the camera setup, but given that it’s identical to its predecessor, it’s safe to assume performance will also be comparable. The primary 50MP camera was capable in most scenarios, as noted in our Z Fold 4 review, but it’s certainly not one of the best camera phones available. In fact, we described the 3x zoom lens as ‘merely adequate’.

With the Google Pixel Fold on the scene in 2023, I doubt it’ll even earn the title of best foldable for cameras, but I’ll have to put that to the test once I get a sample for the full review.

At the heart of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5, you’ll find the same custom version of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 found in the Galaxy S23 series. Dubbed the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy, the chipset boasts a higher CPU clock and an additional GPU core compared to the regular 8 Gen 2 found in most other flagships, which should give the Z Fold 5 an edge over most of the competition – foldable or not.

That’s coupled with 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM and either 256GB, 512GB or 1TB of UFS 4.0 storage to play with – though it’s worth noting that the top-end 1TB model is exclusively available from Samsung directly.

Unsurprisingly, the Z Fold 5 felt rapid and responsive during my limited time with the device so far, instantly opening any app I tapped on, running two apps on-screen without issue and image capture was near-instantaneous too. It’s certainly not lacking in power, though I’ll run benchmarks to verify my claims once I get a sample back to the Trusted Reviews towers for testing.

When it comes to software, you should expect much of the same as the Galaxy Z Fold 4. Though the phone runs Android 13 with Samsung’s OneUI 5.1 applied, it’s not that different to its predecessor, with only minor improvements to the overall software experience. One of the significant features was the ability to use Bixby to reply to incoming calls via text, which should tell you all you need to know about how little has changed here.

That said, it still offers a relatively polished foldable experience with an iPad-esque toolbar on the inner display providing quick access to favourite and recently used apps, with drag-and-drop features making it refreshingly easy to run two apps side-by-side.

You can also force unsupported apps to run in fullscreen mode – a feature not available on the Pixel Fold – though, as always, not all apps will display correctly. That’s an issue with book-style foldables in general, with developers slow to add support for the boxy aspect ratio, so Samsung shouldn’t be penalised for it. However, it’s worth bearing in mind if you’re new to the world of book-style foldables.

The good news is that there is plenty of opportunity for Samsung to improve the software experience with a promised five years of security updates and multiple OS upgrades, though oddly enough, Samsung was coy about the exact number of OS upgrades at my briefing.

It’s challenging to get an idea of battery life when you’re only spending an hour with a smartphone, but I’m expecting a very similar performance to the Z Fold 4 because they sport the same 4,400mAh battery.

We found the Z Fold 4 could just about get through the day with around 5 hours of screen time, so improvements still need to be made. In theory, the Z Fold 5 could be marginally better with the improved power efficiency of the newer chipset, but I’d be surprised if there was a notable improvement in real-world use.

That would’ve been forgivable if Samsung had juiced up the charging speed of this year’s foldable, but that’s also not the case, sporting the same 25W charging as its predecessor. That’ll likely provide a full charge in around 90 minutes, as with its predecessor, which is fine but not exactly rapid compared to Candybar smartphone standards.

Pre-order the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 is available to pre-order at Samsung.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 is so similar to its predecessor that you’d struggle to tell the difference without the improved hinge removing the annoying gap.

And that’s because most specs, from the general design to the displays to cameras and even battery life, are the same as its predecessor, making the fact it costs £100/$150 more at £1749/$1799 a hard pill to swallow. Sure, a slightly lighter, slimmer design and Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 power are excellent, but I’m not sure it’s worth that much more.

It could be that I’ll change my mind after spending more time with the foldable, but my gut says – especially compared to the Pixel Fold and Honor Magic V2 – that Samsung has fumbled the foldable ball in 2023.

It’s available to pre-order now ahead of release on 11 August 2023.

Despite rumours to the contrary, the Z Fold 5 doesn’t offer any kind of dust resistance, though it’s protected against water with an IPX8 rating.

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We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.

Founded in 2003, Trusted Reviews exists to give our readers thorough, unbiased and independent advice on what to buy.

Today, we have millions of users a month from around the world, and assess more than 1,000 products a year.

Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.

We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.