Introduction

The biggest innovation in the smartphone industry is the arrival of foldable smartphones and only a few brands in the market are able to fold the display of their smartphones and one of them is Samsung. Samsung Z Fold 1 was the first foldable display smartphone that was launched in 2019. This year Samsung has launched its fifth installment by the name of Samsung Z Fold5. When you directly compare the Zfold 4 with the Zfold 5, there are only a few upgrades but those upgrades can be classified as major ones. Let’s deep dive into what’s new with the Samsung Z Fold 5 over its predecessor Z Fold4.

Design Improvement in Samsung Z Fold5 over Z Fold4

The design and build quality of a smartphone is like its pillar and it’s the first thing that needs to be improved in a new model. Sadly the design and look of the Z Fold 5 is quite similar to the Z Fold 4, there are only some minor changes like the placement of the flashlight shifted to a new place. From Inside there is one major change, Samsung has made a new hinge mechanism with less movable parts that fold the smartphone without leaving any gaps in between which were present with Z Fold4. Due to no gap, the Z Fold 5 got thinner as it is now only 13.4mm thick compared to 14.2mm of Z fold4. The Z Fold 5 dimensions are as follows Unfolded: 154.9 x 129.9 x 6.1 mm,Folded: 154.9 x 67.1 x 13.4 mm which is thinner and lighter than the Z Fold 4 by 10 grams which is a big number in smartphone weight standard.

Z Fold5 vs Z Fold 4 Display - Everything lies in the display

Now comes the fun part foldable smartphone display, the inner and outer display size is similar in both models. Samsung Z Fold5 comes with the same cover display of 6.2 inches Dynamic AMOLED 2X display with 120HZ of refresh rate with HDR 10 Plus support and 7.6 inches inches(Inner display) that is also a dynamic 2X Display with 120Hz of refresh rate with HDR 10 Plus support. The only difference between the Zfold5 and Z fold4 display is that the new model comes with Gorilla glass victus 2 whereas Z fold 4 has victus Plus protection and the inner display is brighter as it offers 1750 nits of peak brightness which was only 1000 nits in the Z Fold4. Samsung Z fold4 display is still one of the premium displays for 2023 which is why the brand used the same one for the Z fold 5, in our review the only difference we noticed was the inner display of the Z fold 5 is brighter than the inner display of Z fold 4.

8 Gen 1 vs 8 Gen 2 -Z Fold5 with a performance bump

Samsung Z fold 4 was bundled with Snapdragon 8 gen 1 which we all know is the most controversial chipset as it was known for its throttling issues and for that reason Snapdragon has to launch Snapdragon 8 plus gen 1. But still, Samsung Z fold 4 performance is equivalent to any other flagship even today. With Samsung, Z fold 5, the brand has packed the all-new most powerful chipset for Android smartphones - snapdragon 8 Plus gen 2 which added an 18% increase in CPU performance, 32% rise in GPU performance and 25 % increase in NPU performance. But when we tried gaming on both smartphones there were hardly any differences we noticed but for sure Z Fold 5 performs better and will be more future-proof.

Samsung Z Fold5 Camera vs Samsung Z Fold 4 Camera

The camera hardware on both the smartphones is same i.e. 50 MP main sensor, 10 MP telephoto lens, and 12MP ultra-wide sensor. The picture output of the new-gen and last-gen fold is very similar but sometimes the camera of Z Fold 5 performs better than the camera of Z Fold4. Z fold 5 camera clicks pictures with sharper contrast and provides more detail in low light conditions, The difference is minor but still, there is an improvement in the camera. With the arrival of a new chipset i.e. snapdragon 8 Gen 2, the shutter speed of Z fold 5 has been increased due to which the output is more shake free. The overall camera performance of Z fold5 is slightly better than Z fold4 but we need to keep in mind that there are improvements but not the major ones.

Z fold5 vs ZFold 4 - Which Fold lasts longer?

The same battery from last year is here to rescue the Z fold5 which is of 4400 mAh capacity. The first reason for not increasing the battery size could be the approach of making Z fold 5 thinner. Furthermore, Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is quite efficient and free from heating issues which gradually increases the battery life of the new Z fold5. The charging speed standards have been the same as last year 25W of wired fast charging, 15W of wireless charging and 4.5W of wireless reverse charging.

Conclusion

There are many improvements in the new Gen Z fold 5 like a better hinge mechanism, enhanced camera output, and a new generation chipset but still, these improvements are not that attractive for existing Z fold4 users. If you are using Z fold 3 in 2023 then Samsung Galaxy Z fold 5 is the right choice to upgrade but if you are already using Z fold4 then you can skip this upgrade and wait for next year for the Z fold6.