Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 Review: It’s All About the Cover Screen

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5

A month ago, I was convinced that Motorola’s Razr Plus was the best flip phone money could buy. But after two weeks using the new Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip 5, which also starts at $1,000 (£1,049, AU$1,649), I changed my mind. 

Samsung’s new flip phone, which goes on sale Friday, now has a bigger cover screen that nearly occupies the entire front of the device when closed. That might not sound like a big deal, but it goes a long way in making the Z Flip more useful without having to open it. 

Foldable phones have previously felt like an answer to a nonexistent problem. That still may be true, but having the option to send messages, snap photos and respond to notifications on a device that fits in the palm of my hand adds a degree of convenience that’s hard to understand unless you’ve tried it.

That doesn’t mean Samsung gets everything right. At $1,000, the Z Flip 5 still demands a high price for a phone that doesn’t have a telephoto camera. Like previous Z Flips, you’re paying for the convenience of having a device that can fit in your pocket more easily. While portability is still the driving factor behind the Z Flip’s appeal, the Flip 5 represents Samsung’s attempt at giving users another reason to consider giving foldables a chance. And it’s off to a great start. 

Galaxy Z Flip 5’s smaller screen gets a big upgrade

The Z Flip 5 also has a clever pinching gesture for showing thumbnails of all my widgets on screen at once, which can be helpful for quickly jumping to a specific screen without swiping multiple times. It feels very Apple-like, and it’s a good example of how Samsung is thinking about navigation and user interface design differently on a display this small.

But Samsung only allows certain apps on the cover screen natively, whereas almost every app I’ve used on the Razr Plus was supported on its outer display without much extra fuss. On the Z Flip 5, I had to install the Good Lock app from the Galaxy Store to gain access to a broader selection of apps on the cover screen. 

Still, the Z Flip 5 natively supports many of the apps that make sense for the cover screen, such as Google Maps, the camera app, and messaging apps like WhatsApp. Even though Spotify doesn’t show up as a compatible app, I was able to access album art and playback controls from the Z Flip 5’s front screen when I played music with the phone open. 

The Galaxy Z Flip 5 Looks Chic With Its New Cover Display

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I spent most of my time using the Galaxy Z Flip 5 while vacationing in South Korea, and there were a few apps that would have been very useful on the front display while traveling around Seoul. Google Translate is a big one that comes to mind. Being able to quickly pull up the app from the cover screen could have made some of my interactions go a bit smoother. Quickly browsing through news headlines or social media feeds with the device closed while riding the Seoul Metro also would have been nice considering I was usually using one hand to grip the subway handles. 

It wasn’t until I returned from my trip that I used the Good Lock app to bring apps like Google, Google Translate and Slack to the cover screen. Even though these apps technically aren’t optimized for the cover screen, they ran surprisingly well. My only gripe is that they appear on a separate widget, meaning I have to swipe between two separate widgets on the cover screen to access my apps.  

It’s also worth mentioning that apps on the Z Flip 5’s main screen also don’t seamlessly transition to the cover screen when closing the phone as they do on the Razr Plus. Instead, it only works the other way around, with apps moving from the cover screen to the main screen after opening the device.

Regardless, Samsung’s execution of the Flex Window is a promising start. It’s clean and intuitive, and there’s a lot of potential for Samsung to expand its capabilities. 

Galaxy Z Flip 5 gets a new hinge

It’s clear that Samsung focused most of its resources on the Z Flip 5’s cover screen and hinge. The Galaxy Z Flip 5’s camera is largely the same as last year’s model, except it has a new coating that should reduce lens flare. That means the Z Flip 5 has 12-megapixel wide and ultrawide cameras, and a 10-megapixel selfie camera.

Instead of upgrading the camera sensor, Samsung is relying on the device’s new Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy chip to do the heavy lifting when it comes to improving image quality. It’s somewhat disappointing not to see an upgrade in camera hardware considering Samsung has been positioning the Z Flip as being ideal for snapping photos thanks to its flexibility. But photos taken on the Z Flip 5 are sharp and colorful enough to satisfy most people.  

And you can certainly tell the difference when comparing photos alongside those taken on the Z Flip 4. I observed that colors look bolder and details are crisper in photos taken with the Z Flip 5 versus the Z Flip 4.

When it comes to the Razr Plus and Galaxy Z Flip 5, results differ depending on the situation. There were times when the Razr’s photos felt drab and lacking in color compared to the Z Flip 5’s.

Take a look at the photos below to see how the Z Flip 5’s camera compares to the Razr’s and Z Flip 4’s below. The differences may be hard to spot, but they’re more prominent when viewing these photos at their full size on a laptop-sized screen. 

Galaxy Z Flip 5

Motorola Razr Plus

Galaxy Z Flip 4

Galaxy Z Flip 5

Motorola Razr Plus

Motorola Razr Plus

As was the case with previous generations of the Z Flip, you shouldn’t expect to get the same top-notch camera quality you’d find on a phone like the Galaxy S23 Ultra or Google Pixel 7 Pro. But I’m impressed with the improvements I’ve seen so far. While the Z Flip 5 doesn’t support the same zoom range or the offer option to capture super high-resolution photos like S23 Ultra, its cameras are plenty capable of documenting food and travel for Instagram. And that’s exactly what I did while testing it in Seoul.

Check out the gallery below to see the photos I took all over the city, from cultural landmarks like Gyeongbokgung Palace, incredible views from the base of Namsan Seoul Tower and nightlife hotspots like Hongdae. And of course, I’ve included photos of the delicious food I ate while in Seoul, too.

See the Galaxy Z Flip 5’s Camera in Action All Over Seoul

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On a phone like the Z Flip 5, it’s not just about image quality. The device’s foldable design also lets you capture photos in different ways. I can, for example, open the phone halfway and rest it on a surface to capture a photo hands-free.

The cover screen also allows you to capture selfies with the main rear cameras rather than the lower resolution internal selfie camera. The front screen can show previews of photos being captured with the main cameras before hitting the shutter button, allowing the subject to see a live preview. However, this requires pressing a specific button within Samsung’s camera app while shooting, whereas Motorola’s phone does this automatically. And I liked having a much larger viewfinder for capturing selfies on the Z Flip 5 compared to the Z Flip 4.

Galaxy Z Flip 5: Main 12MP camera

Galaxy Z Flip 5: Inner 10MP camera

A foldable design doesn’t mean much without useful software features. Samsung’s answer to this is Flex Mode, which shifts apps to the top portion of the display when the device is positioned half open like a laptop.  

There isn’t much new with Flex Mode this year, but it’s still more functional than Motorola’s equivalent feature for the Razr Plus, which only worked in the camera app for me. 

Performance on the Galaxy Z Flip 5 is what’s expected from a phone at this price. Apps launch quickly, I didn’t notice any lag or stuttering, and supported apps seamlessly switch from the cover screen to the main display.

I also ran benchmark tests meant to evaluate general computing performance and graphics power. Geekbench 6, the general computing test, assesses how the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip inside the Z Flip 5 performs at both the single-core and multicore level. 3DMark Wild Life Extreme tests graphics by simulating gaming environments. 

Take a look at the chart below to see how the Galaxy Z Flip 5 compares against last year’s Z Flip 4 and the Motorola Razr Plus in these tests.

The Galaxy Z Flip 5 further proves that phone-makers are getting closer to answering the question of why foldable phones are useful in the first place. The new cover screen goes a long way in reaching that goal.

As I wrote when reviewing the Motorola Razr Plus, the bigger external display shows that flip phones are about more than just portability. Having a device that’s easy to navigate with one hand and can also unfold to a full-sized phone makes the Z Flip 5 and other similar phones more versatile than the phones most people carry today. Companies like Samsung and Motorola are starting to realize that the so-called “killer app” for foldables may come down to the benefits of having two screens that work together, rather than focusing primarily on how the main screen behaves when folded and unfolded.