Growing up in the 2000s, I saw the craze for tiny flip phones, something that was always there on my adulting bucket list. The idea of hanging up on people with the flip sound of the phone was cool, a trend of sorts. But I never got the chance to experience this by the time I grew old enough to own a cellphone. Now, I can, thanks to Samsung‘s latest Z Flip series. It not only lets you fold or flip your phone but also comes with a long list of unique features.
Samsung’s Galaxy Flip series not only managed to bring the flip phone trend back on the charts but also advanced them in the mechanism. When I was first asked to review this series, my mind (as an ardent K-drama fan) was transported to shows like Business Proposal, Itawon Class, and The Nine-Tailed, where the main characters are seen using the old versions of this tech series.
Apart from Flip 5, the newest folding phone tablet from Samsung raises the bar for most cutting-edge devices, but at a steep price. The Samsung Fold 5 is the most capable Android gadget you can buy because Samsung markets it as a full PC, tablet, and phone that folds up and fits in your pocket. As the tagline aptly says, #UnfoldTheWorld.
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Compared to its predecessor Z Flip 4, the design has been improved, doing away with the wedge shape when folded flat, thanks to the same innovative hinge as the Z Flip 5. The tablet is 10g lighter and 10g slimmer, and the screen fold crease is less obvious but still has a very slight fold dent. Although it is still bigger than a typical phone, it feels much lighter in the pocket and is far thinner than its main competitors in the market, a plus point for sure.
The external 6.2-inch display is a little bit small, which makes the keyboard a little bit narrow, but it looks nice and functions well enough for phone-related tasks like messaging and listening to music, among others. The 7.6-inch internal display, when unfolded, is the jack in the box, which is amazing to see despite everything else.
For its fifth generation, Samsung’s well-known folding-screen flip phone not only gets a larger but more practical screen on the outside while maintaining its fashionable appearance with a sleeker gapless design when closed. The Flip 5 feels more advanced than the earlier version and is much lighter than it looks.
So, before you decide to #JoinTheFlipside, here are some hits and misses of the phone:
A Smaller Screen Gets A Bigger Upgrade
It’s difficult to miss the bigger Flex Window front screen on the Galaxy Z Flip 5. The 3.4-inch size makes it larger than the Galaxy Z Flip 4’s tiny 1.9-inch front screen, but smaller than the Motorola Razr Plus. 3.6-inch cover screen. I was able to do a lot more with the Z Flip 5 when closed because of its larger front screen, which helped me decrease my screen time usage. You can set your widgets as well as your daily apps like Gmail, Instagram, etc.
New Hinge
The hinge gap in the earlier version was one of the biggest ick factors for the users. The new hinge is quite improved, enabling the phone to shut entirely without a visible gap. With fewer moving parts and a revised hinge, Samsung claims the Z Flip 5 to be durable with better shock absorption. The phone’s 6.7-inch main display still has a noticeable crease across it, but at this point, it’s an unerased part of the flip or fold versions.
Slight Camera Upgrade
The Galaxy Z Flip 5’s camera is largely the same as last year’s model, except it has a new coating that helps in reducing the lens flare. That means the Z Flip 5 has 12-megapixel wide and ultrawide cameras and a 10-megapixel selfie camera. Instead of upgrading the camera sensor, Samsung is relying on the device’s new Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy chip to do the heavy lifting when it comes to improving image quality. I took my flip to multiple weekend outings to create my weekly Instagram photo dump.
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Specifications And Software
The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 uses a methodology very similar to that of the company’s earlier-released Galaxy S23 and Galaxy S23+ devices. This implies that the new processor, which is anticipated to increase performance, battery life, and imaging, is the only major update to the device’s basic hardware.
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The top-of-the-line Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Mobile Platform for Galaxy (a modified version of the regular CPU) would be that processor this year. Fortunately for Samsung, none of the foldable smartphones released in India this year had this chipset. The Galaxy Z Flip 5 performs as one would expect from a phone given its price point. Apps load swiftly, there is no lag or stuttering, and supported apps move from the cover screen to the main display without any noticeable hiccups.
Software Policy
The Z Flip 5 continues to come with a strong software support policy: four years of OS upgrades and five years of security patches. This is more significant than the Z Flip 5’s modest software adjustments. On the other hand, Motorola, which doesn’t exactly have a fantastic track record for timely upgrades, is offering three years of OS updates and four years of security fixes. That’s a solid argument among many for choosing the Flip 5 over the Razr Plus.
