Samsung has made a name for itself in the foldable space for the past few years with its book-style Galaxy Z Fold and its clamshell-style Galaxy Z Flip. While the Galaxy Z Flip 4 is in the realm of average consumers at £999/$999, it’s now nearly a year old and is beginning to show its age. So, what’s next for Samsung’s affordable foldable?
It’s a tough time for Samsung as other manufacturers are getting into foldables with alternatives like the Razr 40 Ultra and Oppo Find N2 Flip coming for Samsung’s crown, and crucially, both improve on what Samsung has offered with reduced creased, gapless folds and better battery life. It’s safe to say that the Z Flip 5 had better come with its A-game if Samsung wants to retain its foldable popularity for another year.
The good news is that rumours point towards a capable entry for 2023, set to appear alongside the Galaxy Z Fold 5 in July – a key fact recently confirmed by Samsung following the launch of Motorola’s top-end foldable. Whispers point towards upgrades including a much larger cover display, top-tier performance, improved cameras and possibly even IP58 dust and water resistance – a first for a foldable.
With that said, here’s everything there is to know so far about the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5, from release date and pricing speculation to the latest leaks and rumours.
When will the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 be released?
While Samsung has traditionally revealed its foldables in August – on the second Wednesday of August, more specifically – new rumours claim that we could be seeing it a little earlier amidst increased foldable competition from competitors.
The rumour came from SamMobile back in April, which claimed that Samsung was eyeing up a late July 2023 reveal for the Z Flip 5 and its bigger brother, the Z Fold 5.
That was confirmed by Samsung weeks later in early June 2023, just after Motorola announced its competing foldable, the Razr 40 Ultra. While not confirmed by name, the company teased that the late July event will be where the company “unveils its next-generation foldable devices”.
It’s also the first time that the event will take place in Samsung’s neck of the woods, kicking off in Seoul in South Korea.
Oddly, Samsung has yet to confirm an exact date for the announcement, but given SamMobile’s accuracy until this point, it’s likely that it’ll fall on or around 26 July 2023, though we’ll update this once Samsung officially reveals timings.
That said, even with a late July announcement, there’s usually a two-week gap between announcement and release, so expect the Z Flip 5 to start appearing in the wild by mid-August if all goes to plan.
How much will the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 cost?
Samsung has done pretty well with the pricing of its clamshell foldable over the past few years. While the original Galaxy Z Flip had a price tag of £1,399/$1,449, that has since come down to a more palatable £999/$999 with the Galaxy Z Flip 4. It’s not the cheapest of its kind though; the Oppo Find N2 Flip comes in at a tempting £849 and Motorola’s new Razr 40 comes in at just £799.
Could we see Samsung continue to reduce the price to stay competitive? While we’d like to say yes, there’s at least one rumour online claiming that the Z Flip 5 will cost the same $999 as its predecessor in the US, and we assume that’d equate to £999 in the UK.
Of course, that could change in the run-up to release as Samsung scopes out the foldable competition, so take it with a pinch of salt for now.
Latest Galaxy Z Flip 5 leaks and rumours
As we get closer to the summer months, more details about the next-gen Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 are beginning to appear online, from unofficial renders to complete spec dumps. But rather than scouring the web yourself, here’s a handy summary of the most credible rumours so far.
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Bigger cover display
The most immediately obvious upgrade between the Galaxy Z Flip 5 and its predecessor is said to be a large cover display, with tipsters like Ice Universe and Yogesh Brar claiming it’ll measure in at a pretty substantial 3.3 or 3.4 inches.
If true that represents a big jump forward from the 1.9-inch display of the current Z Flip 4, and a transition from Samsung’s ideology that the cover display should only be for reading notifications. With this, it seems to be following the large cover display design of other popular foldables like the Motorola 40 Ultra and Oppo Find N2 Flip.
Judging by renders provided by Ice Universe, it seems that Samsung will differentiate itself from the competition with a unique “folder” shaped cover display, with the company currently redesigning elements of OneUI to accommodate it.
The leaker then revealed more renders of the cover display in early June, comparing it to the existing Z Flip 4, along with a smattering of other specs including a 720 x 748 resolution and a 305ppi pixel density.
Of course, it’s not set in stone just yet, but it would be an instant upgrade for the Z Flip range that hasn’t really changed its design much in the past few years.
Improved build quality
The biggest improvement is said to be the hinge mechanism, with Samsung attempting its own take on the waterdrop hinge used by competing foldables like the Oppo Find N2 Flip and Motorola Razr (2022). It should provide a two-prong improvement to the foldable, not only reducing the visibility of the crease when unfolded but it should also allow the Z Flip 5 to close completely flat (or close to it, anyway).
It’s one of the biggest drawbacks of both the Z Flip 4 and Z Fold 4, so it’d be a huge step forward for Samsung if true.
Leaker @TheGalox_ has also shared a few other details about the expected design of the Z Flip 5, claiming that it’ll boast improved speakers, better haptics via a new vibration motor and a generally thinner and lighter design, likely down to that new hinge mechanism.
The leaker also points towards the use of Gorilla Glass Victus 2, presumably on the outer display, while the inner display is said to be “more durable”.
Better water resistance
An improved hinge design could also hint at improved durability, and rumours suggest could be likely. In fact, several online sources including the notorious IceUniverse have claimed that the Z Flip 5 will boast IPX8 water and dust resistance – a huge boon if true.
Ice Universe isn’t the only leaker pointing towards a huge boost to dust and water protection either, with leaker @chunvn8888 also claiming that both the Z Flip 5 and Z Fold 5 will boast IP58 water resistance, marking the first time a foldable has achieved a ‘5’ dust rating if true.
The current Z Flip 4, along with the Z Fold 4, are the only foldables on the market right now that offer IPX8 water resistance, helping protect them from water damage.
Taking this to the next level with official dust resistance will not only further widen the gap between Samsung and the foldable competition in 2023 but also help close one of the gaps between foldables and standard candybar flagships that all tend to offer IP68 protection.
However, it’s not a given just yet, with one source claiming that Samsung is only considering the improved IP68 dust and water resistance at this stage of development. It’s also worth noting that the most recent spec leak – which we’ll come to in a second – mentions IPX8 water resistance, not the full IP68 protection.
Other specs
The biggest spec leak drop comes from Twitter leaker TheGalox_, who dropped a bevvy of details on the upcoming foldable in April 2023.
As expected, headline specs include the exclusive Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy that made its debut on the Galaxy S23 series earlier this year, offering a slightly boosted CPU clock speed and improved GPU performance compared to Qualcomm’s standard Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset used in most other flagships.
That’s said to be coupled with 8GB of LPDDR5 RAM and in either 128GB, 256GB or 512GB storage options. There is said to be a slight difference in memory speed though, with the 128GB model using the slightly older UFS 3.1 while the 256GB and 512GB models use the newer UFS 4.0 storage.
The leaker also claims that the inner 6.7-inch foldable AMOLED display will be brighter than its predecessor, and that it’ll once again run at a super smooth 120Hz.
TheGalox_ isn’t the only leaker with the scoop on Z Flip 5 specs though.
Yogesh Brar, a leaker with a fairly solid track record, claims that the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 will ship with the same combination of 12MP main and 12MP ultrawide cameras as the Z Flip 4 – a move that some might consider surprising given the improved camera chops available from the likes of the Razr (2022) and Oppo Find N2 Flip.
However, the camera hardware isn’t identical to its predecessor. Instead, the new 2023 model will use upgraded image sensors, though the leaker didn’t specify which.
While it might not bump up the overall megapixel count, there’s more to a great camera than the number of pixels on offer – in fact, an improved sensor could bring more to the table than a few extra megapixels, even if it doesn’t look great on paper.
