Samsung Galaxy Fold5 review: Buy it if you can afford it

Samsung launched the Fold5 in July, which is already available on store shelves and multiple e-commerce platforms in Kenya. It is Samsung’s most expensive phone, starting at around KES 325,000 initially, although the price has decreased ever since. It also succeeds the Fold4, which we loved, but what changes does it bring to the table? Well, its design is now gapless, meaning when closed, there isn’t any space between along the hinge. This makes it look cleaner and matches what other foldables have been doing – namely, the likes of the Huawei Mate X3, and several folding/flipping devices from OPPO.

The hinge is also more robust and can stay stable in multiple angles – something I liked a lot. However, it can be a little rigid when opening it, but maybe that’s how it should be, although some people might like it slightly easy.

The Fold5, as usual, packs ingress protection at IPX8, which is very difficult to do for a foldable. This means it can survive a dunk in water, but dust protection has yet to arrive. Gorilla Glass Victus protect the display, and the package is powered by the mighty Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy (this one has higher clock speeds than ordinary Gen 2 chips). Those who love faster storage should also be glad to see UFS 4.0 in tow too.

Besides these changes, the Fold5 replicates the Fold4 from 2022. The inner and larger display is the same at 7.6” and refreshes at a speedy 120 Hz. It has all the tech for a modern Galaxy device, including HDR10+. The screen also hides a 4 MP selfie snapper, with S-Pen support (it is a thin device once opened, so there is no silo for the pen – but some cases have been made to accommodate it).

The outer and smaller display measures 6.2” at 120 Hz, but with no S-Pen support. A better selfie camera is also included here.

The Fold5 has also copied the Fold4’s camera set-up with a 50 MP main snapper with OIS, 12 MP for ultrawide shots, and a 10 MP telephoto at 3x and with OIS too. Battery size is also the same at 4400mAh, but owing to the chip’s efficiency, performance was above average.

Here are the Galaxy Fold5’s full specs:

There are a few things I want to talk about.

One UI on foldables is unmatched

First is the software situation, which is Android 13 on top of One UI 5.1.1 in the Fold5 (the device has since received One UI 6.0 based on Android 14, but you are better off if you wait for the stable rollout, which should be soon).

One UI in the Fold5 is functional and has many features that take advantage of the phone’s large display. Due to Samsung’s experience in the foldables space, it has actually managed to make the entire experience useful. Multitasking is better, camera controls are great, and there is DeX mode too, which works wirelessly on supported displays. The device can also be unlocked with the Face Unlock feature, but the side-mounted fingerprint reader is faster, in my opinion.

Always On Display (AOD) works fine for both the cover screen and the inner display, and it applies most of the tweaks to AOD.

However, home screen and app drawer settings can be customized differently/independently, which means that users can add different apps or shortcuts on the two displays. However, you can also choose to sync home screen settings for the two screens if you enable screen mirroring.

Samsung introduced the Taskbar with Android 12L for its foldables, and it shines here with minimized dock apps. You can even choose to have the dock show recently used apps, which can be dragged and dropped to the display to launch multi-windows. I tested this and could run up to four apps on the same screen, and the phone run them perfectly without any performance hitch.

The software can also adapt to flex mode, which allows you to run the device like a mini laptop. A bunch of apps such as YouTube work perfectly in this mode, but I preferred using the camera app for the same.

There are so many things to do with One UI, and chances are that you may never exhaust the options and features packed in the software, and I believe One UI 6 will even include more once it rolls out.

Performance is beastly

The other thing I want to talk about is performance. Ever since Samsung standardized the use of Qualcomm chips for its high-end phones, I started liking its phones some more because let’s face it, Snapdragon chips perform better, with better optimization that can be seen in metrics such as battery performance. This is the same case with Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, which performs like a champ in the Fold5. This is a speedy phone, and flies even with the most demanding tasks. I never saw it slow down, and I know this will remain so for the next couple of years, as the Fold3 with Snapdragon 888 is already a great performer in 2023.

The camera

Daylight photo quality from the Z Fold5’s main camera impresses as expected. The default 12MP photos look excellent, with ample detail, refined processing, and minimal noise. I especially love the authentic appearance the absence of excessive sharpening. Colours are vibrant and slightly saturated, though not to the extent that it becomes a drawback. The photos show a reasonably broad dynamic range, contributing to their distinct contrast.

The Galaxy Z Fold5 features Auto Night Shot, often activated via an icon in the viewfinder, which can be toggled on or off for individual scenes. There’s a dedicated Night Mode. Night Shot took about a second or two to complete processing. The images are impressive with fine detail, effective noise reduction, vibrant colours, and great dynamic range, albeit slightly brighter than in real-world conditions, a common trait in night mode snaps.

Here are some sample images:

Conclusion

I have seen a lot of Fold5 devices around because they are expensive, and some people tend to pick the priciest smartphone they can get. Do these people take advantage of such devices? Probably not. Then, there is another category of people that can actively use the Fold5’s potential, but they cannot get the device because it is too expensive. My point is that if you have the money and can actually take advantage of the Fold5’s feature set, go ahead and buy it. However, if you are not so much into foldables, or want the durability of ordinary phones but still want to enjoy great cameras and Samsung software, you are better off with the S23 Ultra, which is also cheaper, but offers most of the Fold5’s features (it even has a slot for the S-Pen) – save for the folding part.