Flippable folding phones of today may be a nostalgia play for some of us - remember how satisfying it was to snap flip phones shut to end the call? Yet, they serve a bigger purpose, to show us that foldables don’t have to be big and bulky or prohibitively expensive, and the latest flippables actually get quick tasks done on the larger cover displays without letting us get sucked into endless doom scrolling on the expansive inner displays. We’ve seen the Oppo Find N2 Flip and the Motorola razr 40 Ultra, but I believe it’s the new Samsung Galaxy Z Flip5 that’s truly going to move the needle for this form factor this year.
In the hand, the Flip5 feels like a finely crafted piece of premium tech, much like the Z Flip4, but it’s significantly more refined and compact (15.1 mm). That’s courtesy the new hinge which allows the two halves to close flush rather than leave a gap at one end, keeping pocket dust and debris out. Just as well, since dust and dirt and the Flip don’t go together – the phone only has IPX8 water resistance, so it’s best used with caution at the beach. That said, there’s an Armor Aluminum frame, Gorilla Glass Victus 2 glass protection and the new dual rail hinge, all of which help the Flip5 better handle external impact.
Of course, the standout feature is the 3.4-inch AMOLED ‘Flex Window’ cover display on the rear panel which, for the first time, makes it realistically possible to get things done. Aside from widget-style panels for calendar, weather and the like, you can check your notifications and change quick settings and run a small collection of apps directly on the outer display (like Messages, Netflix, Maps and YouTube) if you enable the experimental “Labs” feature. If you want to do more but are willing to live with a potentially buggy experience with unoptimised apps, you can instal Samsung’s own Good Lock app and launch any app you want on the Flex Window, without once opening the inner display. It’s a big upgrade for dozens of everyday tasks which need quick responses or a quick glance at best.
Unfold the inner, 6.7-inch Full-HD+ resolution display, and you get a regular, albeit tall, 120 Hz screen for all your apps, with the added ‘flex mode’ optimisations to run many apps with the phone kept half open, laptop style. Samsung isn’t new to this form factor, and it shows in the maturity of the software. Performance is expectedly top notch with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 ‘For Galaxy’ chipset and 8 GB / 256 GB of memory/storage, but this is not a device for extended gaming. Battery capacity is unchanged, but the power efficiencies of the chip and software optimizations allow it to last a day, even with the bigger outer display. The only letdown is the lack of significant upgrades to the cameras, with Samsung retaining the 12MP primary and ultrawide from last year, with marginal improvements.
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All said, we’re still at the stage where folding tech continues to command a premium, so it’s no surprise the Z Flip5 is priced similar to high-end Androids and iPhones. For the same price, you can get a flagship phone with faster charging, better battery life and performance and better cameras, but can it fold into a more pocketable size? This year’s meaningful changes alleviate a fair bit of the remaining compromises of the still-developing form factor, letting it feel like a more mature product.
Rating: 8/10
Price: INR 99,999 onwards