Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 Review: Folding Perceptions
Purchase price: $1161.74
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I’m not too sure what my fascination with the Samsung Galaxy Fold 5 was when I saw it unveiled at Unpacked. It’s nearly the same phone as its predecessor aside from some minor engineering tweaks to the hinge that makes the phone fold completely flat. Don’t get me wrong, that’s a huge deal, but it doesn’t really change the overall user experience from what has already been out for a while now. The Fold 5 is a clean looking piece of technology that even after five generations will make people curious over the form factor. So aside from the novelty, is it a good daily driver?
Look Mah, Two Displays
I’ve been wondering about that for a long time now. Since I got the phone prior to launch day, I’ve carried this as my daily driver. Sitting in my pocket for 12+ hours a day, it certainly makes its presence known as the Fold 5 is essentially two modern candy bar smartphones stacked on top of one another. The extra bulk took some time to get used to in my pants, but ironically, it wasn’t the end of the world for someone like me who is traditionally more of a small phone lover. The tall length of the Fold 5 makes it a relatively narrow phone that fits well into my hand. I can comfortably grip the closed device firmly in my grasp.
That cover display is 6.2 inches in size with a unique aspect ratio of 23.1:9. Although it isn’t the main attraction, it doesn’t sacrifice much thanks to a Dynamic AMOLED panel of 904 x 2316 p. While this cover screen isn’t the reason you’ll buy the Fold 5, it is likely the display you’ll be using a majority of the time. Even if you go into ownership thinking you’ll be using the phone opened up in the tablet mode a majority of the time, I do think a huge amount of owners will find out that no matter how much they’ve scripted that usage in their minds, actual usage in everyday scenarios will be significantly less. Over the course of the first few weeks, I tried to actively use the Fold 5 opened up as much as I could. However, after settling into my daily routine, I really only open the phone up about 2-4 times a day. These are usually normal smartphone tasks like checking the random email or notification that pops up throughout the day. Also, browsing Reddit to kill time is perfect on this narrow single display.
Where I usually first open the phone up during my day is when I log in to handle gaming chores in my gacha games. The Fold 5 opens up into a 7.6 inch AMOLED folding panel that shows at a 1812 x 2176 p resolution. This squarish layout is gorgeous to look at as a unit. It isn’t the sharpest to the eyes as you would expect at this size, hitting in at 373 ppi density, but I’ve found it to be enjoyable to look at nonetheless. If you find a mobile game that scales properly in this aspect ratio, it truly does enhance the gaming experience. That’s especially so for some of these big newer titles like Honkai Star Rail. Just watching the attack animations on this enlarged viewing capacity makes the game feel more immersive.
People often ask if the crease dividing the display bothers me with everyday use. I would say that I don’t notice it at all during the day whenever the display is lit. That’s even more so thanks to the beautiful wallpapers I use on the Fold 5. I love being able to use my Wallpaper Engine for Android wallpapers at their near full sized proportions. Normally, I would only be able to program a sliver of a 9:16 piece of art into a candy bar phone, but now that I have a phone that is essentially two of those pieced together, I finally have more of a desktop wallpaper scenario going here. It’s a dream come true.
What To Do With a Big Screen?
Little things like having a huge widescreen-type wallpaper are what really makes the Fold 5’s experience stand out from normal smartphones. Sure there are other aspects that a large display surface can be beneficial, but I legitimately have not come across any life changing use cases that I wouldn’t be able to survive without. For example, I did find it beneficial to have multiple apps open for certain tasks I’m doing in my day. If I’m on a call and trying to gather information from their website or need to input codes, having both apps fully open allows me to avoid switching back and forth between the apps. I’ve found this to be one of my main multitasking uses for the opened Fold 5. Folding and opening the phone is versatile to operate in any position thanks to the location of the power button that doubles up as a fingerprint scanner. This is one situation where the power button fingerprint scanner is perfectly located for operation for the user.
The other thing that seems like a natural use for an opened Fold is to write on it as if it were paper. That would require a purchase of an S-Pen which is not included with the initial purchase of the phone. I had an S-Pen case for a month with the Fold 5 and as a former Note user, I honestly couldn’t find myself utilizing the S-Pen as I once did in the past. The times I did physically write with the display open was when the phone was lying on a surface such as a table. When I would write while holding the phone in my hand, I found it unnatural to grip. Either I reach all the way around with my hand to hold the entirety of the phone from edge to edge, or I take a chance to use my fingers to somehow leverage the hinge as a resting spot for my grip. To further complicate things, I write right handed, thus forcing me to hold the phone with my non-dominant hand. That means my left hand comes across the smooth texture of the cover display instead of the texture of whatever case I have on that should provide extra grip. I just never felt comfortable writing here. What made the original Note series and now the S-Ultra’s great to write with an S-Pen is ironically the candy-bar form factor that fits effortlessly into either single hand. This makes it even more unfortunate that even after five generations of Fold development, that the S-Pen still doesn’t write on the cover display.
Remember, This is a Premium Phone
While the Fold 5 is known for being a foldable and rightfully so, it’s actually a relatively well-rounded smartphone all together. I mean, it probably should be as it is being sold at the premium price tag of up to $2,000. It flows nicely thanks to the top-end Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor. It has 12 GB ram standard and our model has 512 GB of storage. And it lasts surprisingly well into the night thanks to a 4,400 mAh battery. The Fold 5 is as snappy as I expect a flagship phone to be, even with the OneUI software navigating instant swapping of information between the cover and main display. This is one aspect that the experience factor of five generations has given Samsung an edge over. I have yet to encounter any bugs or even slowdowns when switching mid-action between the cover and main display. Even while playing an intense game, the app enlarges almost instantly without locking up and just keeps going. I’m quite impressed with how effortlessly it transitions.
Some apps don’t resize nicely on the big screen, but that’s more of an app development issue than a hardware problem. Instagram is a prime example of a poorly developed application on the big screen. Sometimes it doesn’t open up to occupy the full display, and the interface is inconsistent to where it wants to show its layout between accounts. Some games may have menus overlapping, thus covering vital information. Scaling and aspect ratio becomes tricky for app developers as more and more of these non-conventional smartphone aspect ratios become popular. Long gone are the standard 9:16 or 9:21 standards that they can float on by with their apps. I hope developers invest more integration time with these formats going forward.
Product Specs +
- SD 8 Gen 2 CPU
- 12 GB Ram
- 512 GB Storage
- 6.2 Inch AMOLED Cover Display
- 904 x 2316 p
- 7.6 Inch AMOLED Main Display
- 1812 x 2176 p (373 ppi)
- 4,400 mAh Battery
- Android 13, One UI 5.1.1
Camera Specs +
Rear Cameras
- 50 MP, f/1.8 Wide
- 12 MP, f/2.2 Ultrawide
- 10 MP, f/2.4 Telephoto
Selfie Cameras
- 10 MP, f/2.2 Wide Cover Camera
- 4 MP, f/1.8 Wide
I am quite surprised at the longevity of the battery life on the Fold 5. In more than two months with this phone as a daily driver, I haven’t reached critically low on my battery percentage a single time. For a phone that needs to illuminate multiple screens, I’m impressed at the efficiency in which it handles tasks. Most days I end the night with around 40-50% of battery life. That includes my daily farming sessions in my gacha games. Qi charging and 25W wired charging adds additional bells and whistles to get the battery life back up.
Lots of Cameras, But..
Now the camera setup on the Fold 5 is probably where the premium aspect of the smartphone kind of becomes a deterrent. We have three rear sensors that consist of a 50 MP, f/1.8 wide, a 10 MP, f/2.4 telephoto, and a 12 MP, f/2.2 ultrawide.
The unique aspect about the camera system is that there technically are two sets of selfie cameras. When the phone is closed, the cover screen has a 10 MP, f/2.2 wide sensor. When you open the Fold 5 up, there’s a 4 MP, f/1.8 wide camera on the right hand side display. There are practical uses of these cameras that require their availability such as face recognition and for video chatting.
There’s no way around this, but while the Fold 5 is without a doubt one of if not the most premium smartphones you can purchase right now, the photo quality isn’t in that category of the highest quality out there. It’s a good camera for a flagship phone, but I don’t see it elevating above other competitors in the space. In fact, although the Fold 5 can be the most expensive Samsung phone in their lineup, I don’t even think it’s the best camera on a phone they’ve made this year.
The results in optimal lighting are plenty solid to look at. There’s enough detail and sharpness to shoot some nice pictures for your social media. I find lowlight pictures to be a bit grainier than I would like to see from this price point. The Fold 5 handles exposure in auto-mode quite well. It rarely if ever blows out an image. Some of that is thanks to the processing the camera does which is rather intelligent. For the most part, it recognizes faces and body shapes effectively to add bokeh behind the subjects. I found that the phone doesn’t overdo it with the blur like on some other phones. It’s subtle enough that it doesn’t distort the image artificially. While I’m satisfied with the camera setup on here overall, I still couldn’t help but crave a bit more advancement for a phone with this gigantic price tag. If you’re looking for the best Samsung camera, know that even though this is the most expensive Samsung in 2023, it isn’t designed to be the best camera phone from the Korean brand.
Does Everyone Want A Fold?
There always is an imaginary perception that rarely lives up to reality.
At the end of the day, the Fold 5 is a unique smartphone that might just be the best foldable available for purchase today. However, for a device that costs this enormous amount of money, it is a fair debate to have whether that money is better spent on a phone that can push the highest specs available on the market rather than being just an efficient multi-tasking device with a big view. Clearly the Fold 5 and foldables in this form factor have an ideological vision of what people want and will be using smartphones for in the future. After owning one and purchasing it with my own funds, I can honestly say that even as a technology enthusiast who constantly wants and needs to use the coolest and newest technology, I’m a bit underwhelmed. Obviously some of this is due to the MSRP of the phone. There always is an imaginary perception that rarely lives up to reality. The Z Fold 5 is a terrific smartphone overall, but at least currently, I don’t find this form factor to be a must have for utility.
Alex
Caught in between the conundrum of his fascination with retro and the future, Alex has a very unique taste in technology. Never one to follow trends like his millennial peers yet constantly desiring to get ahead of the curve, he sees technology like he does his other love: comic books. Always looking for the best value or a hidden gem, his collector mindset reflects on some of his favorite gadgets: the Moto X (2015), HTC U11 and the Google Pixelbook. If there’s a good tech deal out there, Alex is on the hunt!