Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5 review

Two excellent screens, identical to the Fold4's

On paper the Galaxy Z Fold5 has the same cover and foldable displays as the ones on the Fold4. The inner display uses a foldable 7.6-inch foldable Dynamic AMOLED 2X panel with 1,812 x 2,176 pixel resolution for 373ppi density and 5:6 aspect ratio. It supports adaptive 120Hz refresh rate and HDR10+ streaming. The protection is a plastic film om top of the panel.

The cover screen uses a 6.2-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X panel of 904 x 2316 pixels or 401ppi and 23.1:9 aspect ratio. This panel also supports dynamic 120Hz refresh rate and HDR10+ streaming. A sheet of Gorilla Glass Victus 2 keeps it safe.

We measured 481 nits of brightness in manual mode without the Extra Brightness Boost and 789 nits with said Boost enabled.

In automatic mode brightness reaches 1101 nits. The minimum brightness at point white was just 1 nit, so no worries about bliding yourself when using the Fold5 in a dark room.

The cover screen is incredibly consistent with the inner one and we want to applaud Samsung for keeping identical brightness (and color accuracy) on both when using the manual control.

So, the cover screen offers a maximum of 450nits brightness without the boost and 735nits with Boost. The maximum automatic brightness was 1143nits, while the minimum brightness at point white was 0.9nit.

Color accuracy

The Galaxy Z Fold5 offers two color modes - Vivid (wide color, DCI-P3) and Natural (standard color, sRGB). The accuracy of both is consistently great across both displays - both modes are accurate towards DCI-P3 (average deltaE of 3.8) and sRGB targets (average deltaE of 2.3).

The Vivid mode has a slightly cooler color temperature compared to the Natural one, but you can tune the temperature via a dedicated slider and get similar results.

You can also tune RGB saturation to your liking if that's your thing.

Refresh rate

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5 has two Motion Smoothness modes - Adaptive and Standard. According to the description, the Adaptive one switches automatically between different modes and can do up to 120Hz, while the Standard one does the same, but only goes up to 60Hz for longer battery life.

According to the device hardware scanning apps, the screen supports these fixed steps - 10Hz, 24Hz, 30Hz, 48Hz, 60Hz, 96Hz and 120Hz - that's consistent with previous high-end Galaxy phones.

When using the Adaptive mode, we saw the screen use 120Hz across the interface and all compatible apps and many games (excluding those limited to 60fps of 90fps). When the picture is static, then the software usually dials down to 24Hz.

Video streaming and playback are done in an adaptive fashion, too, depending on the actual video. For example, 24fps videos are shown at 24Hz refresh, 30fps use 30Hz, 48fps - 48Hz (the Cover screen used 60Hz here), and 60Hz for 60fps videos. And throwing a 120fps video will result in the expected refresh 120Hz.

The Always-on display works at 24Hz refresh rate and that's the lowest we saw with the Fold5.

When using the Standard mode, the refresh rate behaves as in Adaptive - using 24Hz, 30Hz, and 60Hz where applicable. Games and videos playback will not use 120Hz modes if Standard is selected.

Display options

Streaming and HDR

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5 displays support HDR10+, which is recognized by all popular streaming apps. And thanks to the Widevine L1 support, they all stream high resolution HDR10 content hassle-free.

Battery life

The Galaxy Z Fold5 is powered by a 4,400mAh battery, the same as the one inside the Z Fold4, and less than most of the other large-size foldables. The OnePlus Open, for example, stands at 4805mAh, essentially the same as the Pixel Fold (4821mAh) and the Huawei Mate X3, while others like the Honor Magic V2 are at the 5,000mAh mark.

The Z Fold5 earned essentially the same Active Use Score as that OnePlus Open, but the two phones arrived there in two different ways. The Open lasted longer in our web browsing test - quite significantly so, while the Galaxy did better in gaming and voice calls.

Charging speed

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5 supports up to 25W wired charging. 15W wireless charging is available, too, as well as up to 4.5W reversed wireless charging.

The Z Fold5 ships without a charger, as usual. You can use any PD/PPS, of course and odds are those will support the admitedly limited top speed of the latest Samsung foldable.

We did our charging test with the original 25W Samsung PD/PPS charger.

It recharged 30% of the Galaxy Z Fold5 battery in 15 minutes, while another 15 minutes will get you to 50%. A full charge requires 84 minutes. Those numbers are in line with the Galaxy Z Fold4, but far behind any other foldable out there except for the Google Pixel Fold.

The battery options include features like Power Saving mode, Adaptive Battery (puts some apps to sleep automatically), enable/disable fast wired and wireless charging. There is also the Protect Battery option, which limits the maximum charge of the battery to 85% for prolonged maximum lifespan.

Battery options

Speakers

The Galaxy Z Fold5 has two symmetrically placed stereo speakers. Their grilles are at the top and bottom of the left side of the foldable screen. There is also a thin outlet above the cover selfie camera so it can serve as an earpiece when the Fold5 is closed.

The Z Fold5 scored a Very Good loudness mark in both open and closed state and its audio quality is very good, too, with some bass, good vocals, and well-presented high frequencies.

Use the Playback controls to listen to the phone sample recordings (best use headphones). We measure the average loudness of the speakers in LUFS. A lower absolute value means a louder sound. A look at the frequency response chart will tell you how far off the ideal "0db" flat line is the reproduction of the bass, treble, and mid frequencies. You can add more phones to compare how they differ. The scores and ratings are not comparable with our older loudspeaker test. Learn more about how we test here.