Samsung might be better known for their flagship S series smartphones, but the company had also seen an increased popularity within it’s foldable line as marked by a significant uptick in sales within the foldable market, where the South Korean smartphone giant accounted for around 80% of the total sales last year according to Counterpoint Research.
To retain it’s market dominance, Samsung recently announced the next-generation’s Galaxy Z Fold 5 which packs some meaningful updates over last year’s model ranging from a more lightweight design to a new chipset and camera system that make an already great device even better.
Although it’s S$2,398 starting price might be a bummer for some, but trust me, this is a phone that’s worth every penny you fork out. So for those who’re in the market for a new smartphone, here are five reasons why you should consider getting the new Galaxy Z Fold 5 over any other mainstream models.
A New Way To Work & Play
Foldable smartphones exist for one reason – to allow users to enjoy a larger screen estate while maintaining the portability of a traditional smartphone. When folded. the Galaxy Z Fold 5 behaves exactly like any mainstream devices, allowing you to scroll through social media apps or reply text messages using the 6.2” outer display.
On the other hand, unfurling the phone will instantly transforms the device into a productivity powerhouse thanks to it’s spacious 7.6” inner display which offers user an uncompromised, tablet-like experience. To take better advantage of the large display, Samsung has furnished the underlying One UI interface with exclusive features aimed to enhance multi-tasking experience on the device.
For instance, the Multi-Active Window feature allows user to keep up to three Windows opened simultaneously on the same screen, making it possible to reply messages while streaming video and doing online shopping at the same time. Quick switching across different apps is also made possible with the addition of a new horizontal task bar along the bottom of the screen.
This time round, the Galaxy Z Fold 5 also supports a redesigned S-Pen which Samsung calls “the most portable S Pen for Fold yet”. While we do agree S-Pen isn’t exactly a necessity for the device (since you have to purchase it separately), but it does makes your life easier by allowing you to write and scribble with unmatchable precision as compared to our fingers.
In case you’re worried whether continuous folding and unfolding would damage the inner display, reassured that the entire mechanism is built to last for a reasonable amount of time. In fact, Samsung claimed that the Galaxy Z Fold 5 is able to survive at least 200,000 folds. This equates to five years of use assuming that you fold the device 110 times per day.
Get Innovative with Samsung Flex Mode
Besides turning the phone into tablet within split seconds, the folding mechanism of the Galaxy Z Fold 5 does have another magic under it’s sleeve. Introducing the Samsung Flex Mode, an innovative feature which allows apps to reposition to fit the top and bottom of the screen, while the phone is tilted at an angle between 75° and 115°.
This opens you to a brand new mobile experience where you actually interacts with your smartphone hands-free. For instance, you’ll be able to take hands-free selfies by simply propping the phone at your desired angle and have it placed at a distance when taking group selfies since the hinge system itself acts as a tripod to stabilize the camera. This eliminates the intrusive ”selfie arm” which often spoils a good-looking photo.
Other than that, Flex Mode also makes it easier to do video call as you can simply rest the phone on the table, leaving your hands free for note-taking or a sip of coffee. Same goes for video streaming – you no longer need to hold the phone on hand when watching your favorite movie or drama in a cozy café.
Lag-free Mobile Experience with Snapdragon 8 Gen 2
Under the hood, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 is powered by the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset that was used in the Galaxy S23 Ultra. In day-to-day usage, the Galaxy Z Fold 5 never fail to impress with a blazing fast performance which not only makes multi-tasking felt like a breeze on the device, but also offers a lag-free gaming experience even on graphics-intensive game titles like PUBG Mobile or Mortal Kombat.
To take things even further, the phone is also backed by a next-generation’s vapour chamber-based cooling system that dissipates heat more intelligently to ensure less lag or even no drop in performance, especially during long-hour gaming sessions.
On the memory side of things, the Galaxy Z Fold 5 is available in three different storage options such as 256GB, 512GB or 1TB. All of which are paired with 12GB worth of blazing-fast LPDDR5X RAM which makes multi-tasking felt like a breeze on the device.
Best-in-Class Camera System for all your Photography Needs
Let’s move on to another exciting aspect of the Galaxy Z Fold 5 – it’s highly versatile triple-lens camera system comprising of a 50 megapixels (f/1.8 aperture) main camera, 12 megapixels ultra-wide camera (f/2.2 aperture) as well as a 10 megapixels (f/2.4 aperture) telephoto camera.
Despite sharing different camera hardware, you might be surprised that the Galaxy Z Fold 5 is able to capture equally impressive photos as the Galaxy S23 Ultra in most instances. Whether you’re snapping photos under bright daylight or challenging low-light scenes, the main camera doesn’t fails to deliver sharp-looking photos with excellent exposure and dynamic range which allow photos to look natural and yet flattering.
As with any other Samsung Galaxy smartphones, the Galaxy Z Fold 5 also has remarkable night mode feature that kicks in automatically whenever the camera detects a low-light scene. This feature makes use of advanced AI computational photography and algorithm to further enhance shadow details and improve color reproduction in areas with poor lighting.
Needless to say, the main camera isn’t the only competent camera onboard. The 12MP ultra-wide unit is another useful camera which you can relied on for landscape photography. Although the ultra-wide camera might be a small step down from the 50MP main camera, but it’s still able to capture good-looking photos with sharp details and vibrant colors regardless of lighting condition. More importantly, it also handles edge distortion amicably well, resulting in photos that look much more natural.
@playfuldroid Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 Zoom Test ? #GalaxyZFold5 #GalaxyZFold #Samsung #Smartphone ? Your Body – Valentino Khan & Nitti Gritti
As for zooming, some might be disappointed to hear that the Z Fold 5 lacks the 100x Space Zoom feature which was available on the S23 Ultra. While that was a nice and cool feature to have onboard, we have to admit there’s little use cases to it. As such, the 30x zoom limit on the Galaxy Z Fold 5 is certainly more than sufficient for most users including myself.
In terms of photo quality, the adoption of a 10MP telephoto camera allows the phone to capture crisp and natural-looking photos at 3x optical zoom. Beyond the 3x mark, the camera uses digital zooming to capture faraway subjects at up to 30x zoom factor. Although there’ll be an inevitable drop in photos quality as you edge towards the maximum zoom level, but they’re still better looking than majority of those taken by other flagship phones at equivalent zoom factors.
All-Day Battery Life from a Single Charge
Besides a capable chipset, Samsung also equipped the Galaxy Z Fold 5 with a massive 4,400mAh dual battery system which consistently provides me with at least a day’s worth of battery life under moderate usage. That’s pretty impressive considering that the phone was used unfolded more than half the time.
In the event that the battery runs out, it can be recharged rather quickly as the phone supports 25W fast wired charging that’s able to recharge a completely flat battery from 0 to 50% in just around 30 minutes. Other than that, it also supports 15W wireless charging as well as 4.5W reverse charging which allows you to use the phone’s battery to recharge your wireless headset or smartwatch.
Pricing & Availability
In Singapore, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 is offered in three different configurations – 256GB, 512GB and 1TB – which are priced at $2,398. $2,578 and $2,938, respectively. The device will be available for purchase through local telecommunication operators (M1, Singtel and StarHub), Samsung Online Store, Samsung Experience Stores, Samsung Official Store on Lazada, Shopee, KrisShop, iShopChangi and major consumer electronics & IT stores.
