The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 is the new member of Samsung’s foldable lineup, but is it better than last year’s Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4, and should you upgrade?
Your boring, old, rigid smartphone is no longer the future. The future is foldable, and while folding and flipping phones are still very much in their infancy as far as market share goes, they’re definitely a growing part of the smartphone sector. Samsung is now on its fifth generation of foldable phones, and if any company can be said to have cracked the code on folding, it’s Samsung. While the Z Fold series with its massive screen is cool, it’s hard to beat the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5‘s clamshell-style flip-fold for convenience. That, along with the lower price, means it’s likely to be the folding phone style for many.
At $1,000, the new Z Flip 5 brings upgraded hardware and a gorgeous new outer display that’s almost twice the size of the outer screen on the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4. It’s a clear upgrade over its predecessor, but is it worth spending your hard-earned cash on the new Z Flip 5 if you already own the Z Flip 4? We took a look at the two to find out.Galaxy Z Flip 5 vs. Galaxy Z Flip 4: SpecsGalaxy Z Flip 5 vs. Galaxy Z Flip 4: design and display
It’s fair to say these two smartphones have a lot in common. Samsung has preserved the same basic design, with a clamshell vertical fold, rather than the book-like horizontal fold on the Z Fold series. The weights are identical, and the dimensions are extremely similar. There’s the same internal 6.7-inch display with a dynamic 1-120Hz refresh rate, and both also have an IPX8 rating for water resistance. But there are some significant differences between the two, and that’s where the Z Flip 5 stands out.
The most obvious difference is seen above: the outer screen. The Z Flip 4’s outer 1.9-inch display lets you see notifications and access Samsung Wallet cards, settings, and some widgets. It also acts as a viewfinder for the main camera, so you can take selfies with the stronger camera suite. But it still pales in comparison to the Z Flip 5’s 3.4-inch display, which is, simply put, better.
The larger size means it’s a lot more useful, being only 0.1-inch smaller than the original iPhone’s display, and it supports more widgets and apps, and even has a full-size keyboard. While you can force apps and games to play on the Z Flip 4’s outer screen, it’s a workaround, and they’ll feel a lot less cramped on the Z Flip 5 when following a similar process. By comparison, the Z Flip 5 lets you run a handful of apps right out of the box — including WhatsApp, Google/Samsung Messages, Google Maps, YouTube, and Netflix. And you can run any app you want on the Z Flip 5 cover screen, though it requires some extra tinkering.
Less obviously, the improved hinge on the Z Flip 5 also folds down flatter than on the Z Flip 4, which had a slight triangular profile when folded flat. That difference is small but notable, and it makes the folding process feel just a bit more complete. The new hinge is also slightly smoother, though it remains to be seen how this feels over time.
Durability is largely the same, though. Both are premium flagship phones made from aluminum and glass. The IP rating is IPX8, which means neither rates at all well for resistance to dust, but can resist immersion of beyond 1 meter in water, which is impressive when you consider how many moving parts each phone has in its hinge.
