The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 will get a serious display screen improve

The Motorola Razr Plus’ reign as the very best flip telephone may be short-lived.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 is formally right here, full with a 3.4-inch cowl display screen — nonetheless small by trendy smartphone requirements however a lot greater than the Z Flip 4’s 1.9-inch entrance show. There’s a brand new hinge design that closes completely flat, a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset tuned for Samsung, and 256GB of storage within the base mannequin. Even with these substantial upgrades, it’s nonetheless $999. That places it toe-to-toe with Motorola’s new Razr Plus — additionally $999 with 256GB of storage. However given Samsung’s expertise making folding telephones and a few of the {hardware} upgrades included on this yr’s Z Flip, the Razr Plus is in a troublesome spot.

The Z Flip 5’s internal display screen is unchanged — it’s a 6.7-inch 1080p OLED panel with a refresh charge as much as 120Hz. The outer display screen is a 720p OLED with an ordinary 60Hz refresh charge. Samsung is rebranding this display screen because the “Flex Show,” and it covers many of the telephone’s entrance panel, excluding the 2 giant digicam cutouts. That’s a special method than Motorola took with the Razr Plus — its entrance display screen flows across the cameras and thus measures barely greater at 3.6 inches.

The Z Flip 5 makes use of a brand new hinge to shut completely flat. Picture: Samsung

The brand new “teardrop”-style hinge on the Z Flip and Fold solves one of many collection’ persistent issues: relatively than leaving a spot close to the hinge when folded, the 2 sides of the telephone now shut flat. Samsung additionally says the brand new hinge is extra sturdy and that its double-rail design can higher deal with an affect from a drop.

The Flip 5 is rated IPX8, like its predecessor, and is protected towards full water immersion — as much as 1.5 meters for as much as half-hour. The Razr Plus claims some mud resistance with an IP52 ranking however is merely splash-resistant. Samsung doesn’t declare any official degree of mud resistance however does embody some measures designed to reduce the danger of mud intrusion. In both case, mud may be very dangerous information for a folding telephone, so it’s greatest to watch out with a folding telephone round sand or mud, IP ranking or not.

Just like the Razr Plus, the Z Flip 5 populates its cowl display screen with small-screen-friendly widgets but additionally enables you to run full apps if you need. Samsung helps operating full apps, too, however places this function in its Good Lock app so that you’ll should go searching for it if that’s one thing you need. However you don’t should be that adventurous to make the most of the brand new cowl display screen: it provides a full-size keyboard so you’ll be able to reply to texts, whereas you would solely ship a couple of prewritten responses on the Flip 4.

Behold: a full Qwerty keyboard. Picture: Samsung

Different specs stay unchanged: there’s a 3,700mAh battery, 25W wired and 15W wi-fi charging, and 8GB of RAM. There’s nonetheless a 12-megapixel f/1.8 important rear digicam with optical picture stabilization — with improved lens coatings this yr to scale back flare — plus a 12-megapixel ultrawide and a 10-megapixel selfie digicam on the internal show.

To not put too wonderful some extent on it, however the Z Flip 5 spells severe hassle for the Motorola Razr Plus. Along with the decrease water resistance ranking, the Razr Plus has a Snapdragon chipset that’s a era behind the 8 Gen 2 within the Z Flip 5. Motorola has lots of nostalgic attraction with its Razr branding, however Samsung has much more reps underneath its belt going into its fifth era of folding telephones. Motorola may simply must make a transfer on worth if it needs to entice potential flip telephone patrons.

No matter what Motorola does, the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 is coming in sizzling — preorders begin at this time, and it arrives on August eleventh in mint, graphite, cream, and lavender. If you happen to order from Samsung.com, you’ll have a couple of extra unique coloration choices to select from: blue, grey, inexperienced, and yellow.

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