Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5: what we know so far

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5 will be unveiled in Seoul on July 26. As usual, the company is keeping things close to the vest, but a series of leaks have given us a good idea of what to expect. Here is what we know as of July 24, just a few days before the big Galaxy Unpacked event.

Do note that these details are based on leaks, so they may not be 100% accurate. In fact, some details were seemingly confirmed, only to be debunked by other sources later on.

New hinge

Let's start off with the design. The biggest complaint when it comes to the Galaxy Z Fold is the gap that's left when you close the phone. Reports claim that Samsung is finally ready to fix this with a new hinge design that will close down flat.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5

The new gapless design is more or less confirmed at this point. Samsung even officially confirmed the gapless design for the Z Flip5 and while it didn't explicitly say that the same is true for the Z Fold5 as well, there's little chance that the company's premiere smartphone will be left with an outdated design when its more affordable sibling moves forward.

The new hinge addresses the other complaint with the Galaxy Z Fold series (and most of its competitors) - the crease in the middle of the display. The new hinge mechanism will see the folding display form a droplet shape inside the hinge when folded, eliminating the need for a crease. We’ve already seen similar approaches with the Moto Razr and Oppo Find N series.

Photographs of Galaxy Z Fold5 dummies confirmed the design that we had seen in 3D renders. Note that these aren't real devices, so they don't have real displays and the crease you see in the images below may not be representative.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5 dummies

Body and displays

Those that are hoping for a more compact Galaxy Z Fold5 compared to the Z Fold4 are seemingly out of luck. Reports suggest that the new foldable will have very similar dimensions to the ongoing one.

Z Fold5 will measure 154.9 x 129.9 x 6.1mm in its unfolded state and 154.9 x 67.1 x 13.4 mm when folded. The upcoming device is said to weigh 254 grams which is 9 grams less than the Z Fold4.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5

Multiple reports peg the external display to retain the 6.2-inch diagonal as that of the Galaxy Z Fold4. Whether it will have the same tall and narrow aspect ratio remains to be seen.

There's still no word on the specs of the inner display but there's good reason to believe it will be a 7.6-inch panel as the current one.

The same cover screen

Some reports claimed that the phone will gain an IP5X rating, i.e. it will be "dust protected". This is in addition to being rated IPX8, which guarantees protection up to 1mof water for 30 minutes. However, Ice Unirse said that these reports are false and the Z Fold5 will stick with just the IPX8 rating.

No S Pen slot

It's very much certain that the Galaxy Z Fold5's internal screen will support S Pen input, but the phone won't have a built-in slot for the stylus. Fitting one would require a drastic redesign and the Fold5 is clearly shaping to be more of an evolutionary step.

Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5 will use the same Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy as the Galaxy S23 Ultra. Last year, the S22 Ultra had an Exynos 2200 or a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, while the Galaxy Z Fold4 used the more efficient Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, it seems this year there won't be a discrepancy in chipsets.

We've seen Geekbench results, which confirm the 3.36GHz prime core frequency. The tested unit had 12GB of RAM, which will likely remain the base capacity.

Cameras

Samsung will most likely stick with the 50MP ISOCELL GN3 sensor from the Galaxy Z Fold4 as the main unit for the Galaxy Z Fold5.

We haven't heard of any relevant upgrades to the 12MP ultra wide and 10MP tele lens from the Z Fold4, nothing on the selfie cameras either. This late in the game we are inclined to believe that Samsung will skip the camera upgrades this generation. Of course, the new chipset's more powerful ISP and fine-tuned software could have a notable impact on image quality, but that is a question that will have to wait for the review.

Release and price

Samsung US is expected to schedule a separate Unpacked event for the new Galaxy devices for the North American markets. This event will allegedly take place on August 11. This points to one of two things: 1) the global launch of the Z-series will be delayed (unlikely) or 2) the second event is timed to coincide with the start of open sales (more likely).

Samsung typically starts pre-orders on the day of announcement and then open sales on the first Friday to come two weeks after the announcement, which is exactly August 11.

By the way, Samsung US is already accepting pre-registrations, which don't require any commitment beyond signing up with your email and you will get $50 credit for your troubles.

And you might want that discount since leaks are pointing to a price hike - €100 for the 12/256GB Galaxy Z Fold5 and €120 for the 512GB and 1TB variants. This is for Europe, of course, but even North America may not be spared (even though the US and Canada doged the S23 series price hike). A second source confirmed the €100 increase for the base Z Fold5 a day after the initial report.