Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 Review: The Verdict
The Galaxy Z Flip 5 is a phone that asks you to ignore your head and follow your heart. You can buy a technically better phone for the money, but it won't be anywhere near as fun or charming as the Z Flip 5.
What we love
- Cover Display is genuinely useful
- Zero-gap hinge
- Great industrial design
What could be improved
- Subpar camera configuration
- Battery life on the shorter side
- Still has a pretty significant display crease
The essentials
- Performance: Among the best on Android phone.
- Battery: Better than previous years but on the shorter side. Expect up to four hours of screen time, which should be enough for a full day but with no buffer.
- Screen: A lovely display with a more prominent crease than competitors.
- Camera: Can take nice photos in good lighting, but struggles with low-light and capturing motion.
80/100
As you'd hope, the Galaxy Z Flip 5 is Samsung's most polished foldable to date. The compromises it makes are smaller than ever, but it's clear you're still making trade-offs when compared to similarly priced devices that don't happen to bend in half.
There's nothing pragmatic about the Galaxy Z Flip 5. For the money, you can easily buy a better phone. But that phone is probably going to be boring. The Z Flip 5 is fun and fresh. The foldable form factor makes it feel like an upgrade in a way more conventional spec bumps don't.
The Galaxy Z Flip 5 is the ultimate question of head or heart.
Follow your heart
When it comes to matters of the heart, the Z Flip 5 has the nicest design of any foldable phone to date. Every element feels very intentional: from the subtle curves on the aluminium frame, to how the new supersized Cover Display blends into the front of the phone. It's the kind of phone you don't want to put a case on - even if you know you should. Thankfully the green finish my review came in is surprisingly fingerprint resistant.
Importantly, the act of folding and unfolding the Z Flip 5 feels better than ever. It's seamless in a way that flip phones of the early 2000s used to be. The phone is built to flip, and that's what it does. Folding displays are no longer a delicate magic trick; the friction from early models where it felt like a phone shouldn't do this is gone.
That's not to say the magic, is gone, however. After five years of foldables, the Z Flip 5 is still undeniably fun. I still catch myself fidgeting with the phone, aimlessly opening and closing it as I wrangle my next train of thought into words.
The Z Flip 5 is Samsung's first flip phone to feature a zero-gap hinge. Previous Z Flip models have had a visible gap between halves when folded shut. There's an element of catch-up here, as competing foldables from manufacturers like OPPO have had a zero-gap hinge as early as 2021.
Samsung's also reduced the amount of crease in the middle of the main display, but it's still more noticeable than the competition. Motorola's $999 Razr 40 has all but eliminated the crease, so there are questions as to why Samsung hasn't kept pace - especially in a category it's pioneered. While the crease isn't a deal breaker, given the choice, I'd prefer as little crease in my display as possible.
The key new feature on the Z Flip 5 is a much larger external display. Following the trend set by OPPO and Motorola, Samsung has upped the Cover Display from 1.9-inch to 3.4-inch. This in turn unlocks a lot of potential of what you can actually do with it - the Cover Display isn't just for dismissing notifications anymore.
Samsung's approach to the Cover Display is grounded in smartwatch logic. You'll still predominantly use the external screen for checking notifications and getting glanceable information from widgets, but the larger size makes all the difference. You can actually open up an email or reply to a text message without unfolding the Z Flip 5.
Samsung has implemented this in a rather elegant way, and despite being a smaller external display than what you'll find on Motorola Razr 40 Ultra, you can still see the message you're replying to rather than the screen becoming all keyboard.
Out of the box, the Z Flip 5's Cover Display is more limited, however. The Razr 40 Ultra treats its external display as a smaller version of its primary display; you can use the same apps whether the phone is open or shut, regardless of whether it's a good idea.
Most apps aren't optimised for such tiny screens, but some are handy in a pinch. You can enable certain apps to run on the Z Flip 5's Cover Display through experimental "Lab" features, but the out-of-the-box options are pretty limited. Google Maps, Messages, and YouTube were the only ones available to me.
If you want to run anything else, you need to download an app called Good Lock, add the MultiStar module, enable the widget, and then select the apps you want to run on the Cover Display. It's enough friction that it's pretty clear Samsung doesn't really want you doing so - even when running apps like Spotify make a lot of sense and work perfectly well on the smaller screen.
I get why Samsung has opted for a simplified approach to the Cover Display. For most, it will be the best option, and it works quite well. I just wish it was easier to go beyond that.
Listen to your head
Despite Samsung's achievements in industrial design, the Z Flip 5 falls short of comparably priced phones in terms of pure tech specs. How much this matters will come down to what you want out of the Z Flip 5, but it's worth keeping in mind.
At a minimum, there's no need to be concerned about performance. The Z Flip 5 is powered by the same Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor you'll find in the Galaxy S23 Ultra. It's the fastest processor in an Android phone, so there's more than enough grunt for whatever it is you want to do.
Samsung also leads the way when it comes to water resistance in foldables. The Z Flip 5 is rated IPX8, compared to the IP52 on the Razr 40 Ultra.
Expect up to four hours of screen time per charge, which translates roughly to a full day of moderate usage with almost no buffer. It's a marked improvement over earlier Z Flip models that struggled to get even three hours of screen time, but falls short of the 4.5 hours of screen time the Motorola Razr 40 Ultra and OPPO Find N2 Flip offer. The Z Flip 5 is likely to be the kind of phone you'll need to top up during the day if you're expecting to be away from a charger for most of the night.
Comparatively short battery life is an issue with the flip-style foldable form factor in general, and while there have been clear improvements, you'll get a longer-lasting charge from any of Samsung's Galaxy S23 phones.
In the same vein, the Galaxy S23 family also offer a step up in camera quality. The Z Flip 5 camera is fine, but not exciting. It can take decent photos with enough light, but nighttime photos are very inconsistent. These take longer than you'd expect to capture, making them very prone to motion blur - something the Z Flip 5 is guilty of even in more favourable situations.
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 camera samples
Check out these camera samples taken on the Z Flip 5. Click or tap on any photo to see a larger version.
Low-light images also tend to be grainy and lack detail, which isn't what you want from a phone in this price bracket. I've gotten better results from the Pixel 7a, which costs less than half of what the Z Flip 5 does.
That being said, being able to use the phone as its own tripod and the main camera as a selfie camera. Neither feature truly makes up for the subpar camera setup, but they do improve the experience.
For me, the Z Flip 5 camera experience is its biggest shortcoming. While you can still get nice shots with a bit of effort, a $1,649 phone should take better photos more consistently. Here's hoping Samsung makes this a priority with the Z Flip 6.
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 - Final Thoughts
$1,649 can buy you a better phone than the Z Flip 5. The more affordable Galaxy S23 is objectively a better phone on the standard criteria we use to evaluate devices, but it's also boring. Most phones are these days.
While the Z Flip 5 won't take as nice photos or last as long per charge, it's exciting! If you're coming from a conventional smartphone, it will feel genuinely new. I've tried every foldable phone to launch in Australia, and the novelty still hasn't worn off.
It's hard to quantify the Z Flip 5's value. How do you compare more abstract ideas like "fun" and "charm" against camera and battery life. If you simply want a phone with the best hardware money can buy, the Z Flip 5 isn't for you. But if more conventional phones have left you feeling underwhelmed, it’s worth taking a chance and following your heart on the Z Flip 5.
When reviewing phones, we consider a number of key factors. Primary concerns include:
- Camera: Does a phone take good photos? How does it perform in low light? Can it handle moving subjects?
- Battery: Will it last a full day? How many hours of screen time can you get per charge?
- Screen Quality: Is it nice? Is it bright enough for a sunny day? Do colours distort off axis?
- Performance: Is the phone fast enough for day-to-day tasks? How does it handle more demanding activities like gaming?
We also take any unique features or inclusions into account.
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