Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5: what we want to see
The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip line are the most popular collection of foldable phones on the planet, and with good reason – they pair a folding form factor with decent specs and a relatively affordable price.
Hopefully, the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 will continue that trend, and in this article we’ve created a wish list of what we want from it beyond that.
But that’s not all. We’re already starting to hear rumors about what the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 might offer, so you’ll find those below too; along with information on the possible release date and price. We’ll also update this article whenever we hear anything new about this phone, so check back soon.
Cut to the chase
- What is it? The next entry in Samsung’s foldable Z Flip line
- When is it out? Probably August 2023
- How much will it cost? Likely around $999.99 / £999 / AU$1,499
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 release date and price
While there’s no news yet on when the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 will be announced, we can take a good guess. We predict we’ll see it on August 9, 2023, because that’s the second Wednesday of next August, and Samsung launched the Galaxy Z Flip 4 and Galaxy Z Flip 3 on the second Wednesday in August of their respective release years.
Based on past form, there will probably then be a wait of around two weeks before it ships, so you should be able to have it in your hands in late August, if our predictions are right.
The price is harder to predict, but it’s likely to cost a similar amount to the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4, which starts at $999.99 / £999 / AU$1,499.
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 news and leaks
One early Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 leak is a claim that it will use a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset.
Given that the Galaxy Z Flip 4 uses the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1, this always looked likely – though if there’s another Plus version of the chipset next year, then the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 2 is also a possibility.
In any case, that’s likely to be one of the top Android chipsets of 2023, so it should provide plenty of power.
Since then, we’ve heard from another source that the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 might have a 3.3 or 3.4-inch cover screen. That’s up from just 1.9 inches on the Galaxy Z Flip 4, so would be substantially larger.
The same source claims that the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 will have a new hinge design that will reduce the visibility of the seam.
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5: what we want to see
The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 wasn’t much of an upgrade on the Galaxy Z Flip 3, so we want to see bigger improvements from the next model, including the following things.
1. A telephoto camera
A telephoto lens is a standard feature across almost all high-end phones, yet it’s a feature the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 lacks.
In fact, the Z Flip 4 only has a dual-lens camera, comprised of a 12MP primary and 12MP ultra-wide snapper, so it’s quite basic and lacking on the photography front. We want to see big upgrades here for the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5, with a telephoto lens added and ideally upgrades to the other cameras too.
2. Better battery life
Battery life is a problem for a lot of phones and even more so for foldables, as they tend to have smaller batteries than similarly-sized conventional handsets.
That’s presumably because the folding mechanism takes up space that could otherwise be used by a battery, but it’s a definite issue; often leading to sub-par longevity.
The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4, for example, only has a 3,700mAh battery, and in our review, we noted that its output was underwhelming, so we want to see a battery boost in the Galaxy Z Flip 5.
3. A lower price
The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 is actually one of the more affordable foldable phones, but for the specs you get – folding screen aside – it’s still fairly expensive, so we’d love to see Samsung push the price down a little further for the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5.
This probably won’t happen – especially if there are significant upgrades to the specs – but it would make the device all the more appealing.
4. A bigger cover screen
While the 6.7-inch foldable main screen on the Galaxy Z Flip 4 is a decent size, the 1.9-inch cover display – which is what you can see and interact with when the main screen is folded shut – is too small to do much with.
Sure, it can show notifications and the time, but it’s too tiny to properly interact with, meaning that for most smartphone functions you have to flip the phone open. We’d like to see a bigger secondary screen on the next model, allowing you to keep the phone folded shut more often.
5. More substantial upgrades
We’ve detailed some of the upgrades we want above, but just in general we want the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 to feel like a substantial improvement on the Galaxy Z Flip 4.
The last two models have been extremely similar to each other, so it’s past time we saw some major updates – and we’ll need to for this to have a good shot at ranking among the best foldable phones.