Ever since the leaks that surfaced shortly before its official reveal, it looked like one of the major improvements of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5 over its predecessor model was its hinge. Promotional materials showed that it would be capable of folding completely flat. As someone who is mostly only excited about foldable phones that brought back the clamshell form factor of old, this was the only bit on the new, larger foldable that got me excited. Perhaps it’s a sentiment that I share with many others.
As you may have seen in reports elsewhere, that’s not quite the case. Although it’s nearly there, you’ll see that there’s still quite the gap between the two sides of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5 when folded up. Though that’s not exactly the downer here, as there are stands of sorts of the far side of the screen to prevent both sides from actually touching each other. But if you take a close enough look, you’ll see that the side with the hinge is marginally thicker than the opposite side. Granted, you’ll have to look really close to see it, but once you do, it’s difficult to unsee it.
Despite this unfortunate discovery, the fact that the folding hinge is so much improved means that it sits more comfortably in the left hand when using it while it is folded. This is something that users of the previous generation Samsung Galaxy Z Fold devices would appreciate more than someone that didn’t.
Beyond that, there’s actually not a lot to be said about the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5 that hasn’t been said before. For the most part, especially on the outside, it is mostly similar to the device of the previous generation, and from there, the user experience, is much the same at least from a first impression standpoint. The good qualities from before remain still, from the secondary screen that’s actually good enough for most use cases to the side-mounted power button / fingerprint sensor combo.
Less so, or maybe just a matter of getting used to, are when you use the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5 in its unfolded form. As minor as the folding crease is, it’s still something that you will notice, especially with the screen off, or when watching videos than lean on the darker side. It’s much the same as the under-display camera – while there’s nothing going on over it, it looks like just another front-facing camera. But when the screen on top of and around it is active, that pixelated patch can be quite distracting.
For sound, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5 provides a pretty good stereo experience. Both the top- and bottom-facing speakers are pointed equally to the side, so even if it’s not as good as having both pointed at you, you’re still getting a more balanced stereo experience. Bonus points (or indeed minus, depending on your perspective) when you hold it in landscape mode and have the sounds bounce off your palm towards you.
Beyond these, qualities that like camera performance and battery life, as well as what it’s like to live with the phone, would require further testing. Which will be part of the full review of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5 coming up in a couple of weeks.
