- So this is the brand-new Z Fold 5 and the Z Flip 5. This is what it looks like when Samsung settles. I'll explain. (upbeat music) So welcome to your first look at Samsung's newest generation of foldables. They look very similar to last year. Matter of fact, you probably didn't even realize that this is last year's phone. So Samsung makes two foldable right now. There's the Z Flip 5 and the Z Fold 5. Same shape and dimensions as last year, same aspect ratios, same cameras, and same batteries. It would be faster for me to just tell you everything different, So that's exactly what I'm gonna do.
So I'll start with the Flip 5, the more interesting one. It gets an upgrade to the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip That's been both powerful and efficient in the S23 series, and it gets a new and improved hinge That's smaller in every dimension and has fewer moving parts. It's simpler, which should help with everyday durability, and it now allows the phone to fold completely flat. I don't see or feel any difference with the crease on the other side. It's, you know, still the same tech that we've been using on the screen for a few years now. It's just the fact that Samsung has gotten rid of the gaps, so it folds down a little bit smaller, a little thinner, and is less likely to catch any dust or debris on the inside because it's flat.
But the main upgrade is the larger outside screen. So this is something that's slowly, steadily been getting bigger and bigger with each generation. The Z Flip 4, you might remember, had the biggest yet. That was a 1. 9-inch cover display. This one is graduating up to a 3. 4-inch Flex window that goes almost from corner to corner 'cause, you know, you gotta name everything. It's very clearly not quite as bold as what Motorola did with the Razr Plus, which is this crazy, It's corner to corner basically, And there's, like, cutouts for the cameras,
which, it's pretty sick. It's very visually striking. But the idea is the same, which is that it's giving you more readable, glanceable information and making it more usable before you even open it. So as the size of the outside display has expanded, So has the size of the dozen-plus widgets that work on the outside screen, showing you everything from clocks and timers to notifications and messages. There's also a new pinch gesture to zoom out, and it'll show you All of the widget screens you have enabled, which is kind of smart. Kind of feels smart watch-ish.
But anyway, the new screen is also covered in Gorilla Glass Victus 2, as well as the back of the phone. And that's it. That's all that's new. New cover screen, new chip, new hinge. Everything else, Everything else from the cameras to the battery to the charging speed to the crease, the speakers, the inside screen is all the same as last year, except for the base storage because the $1,000 starting price Now, it will get you 256 gigs of storage instead of 128. That's good to see. So then the Z Fold 5, the big dog,
has even less new here. So it also gets the new chip, It's also got Gorilla Glass Victus 2, and it also has a new hinge. And I don't think that should be underrated. Like, that's one of the most important parts of a folding phone, So the fact that it now is slightly thinner and slightly more durable and folds completely flat, All of that is thanks to the hinge and that's all sweet. But then also, The inside display is now actually much brighter. It gets up to 1,750 nits, which is dramatically better than last year, which was 1,000 nits, so that's awesome. And then, yeah, that's it.
Like, the outside screen is the same tall 6. 2-inch cover display. The triple camera system on the back appears to be the same hardware. The under-display 4-megapixel selfie camera hidden in the big display is also the same. The battery size is the same, the charging speeds are the same, and it's IPX8 water-resistant again. There is a new S Pen. I'll say this. The S Pen for Fold is now 40% thinner than the last one. It still doesn't go inside the phone like a S23 Ultra or a Galaxy Note used to, But at least if you wanna carry it alongside the phone
In that little case, they made for it, It'll stick out way less because it's this flat shape. And there are some software improvements, like a few more optimized apps, you know, like Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, when the screen is open or halfway open. And the improved taskbar at the bottom can now show up to four of your most recent apps, which, I guess goes pretty hard for multitasking. But, you know, I believe these things can also make it to the last Fold. All that being said, That phone's also gonna start at the same price as last year, $1,799. I saw all this stuff, and Samsung told me about the phones,
and I was thinking about it for a little bit, and I guess I kind of came to the conclusion that this is just the Samsung way. It's not like they're getting lazy or something, like it's a small, minor update, And that's all Samsung ever does anymore. But it's more just, This is on this state of foldable in general and where Samsung sits in that space. So I made a video about a year ago on the state of foldable 'cause we had a bunch of them coming out, and I'll leave a link below if you wanna watch it, but the conclusion I came to There are three form factors that we've been settling on, which are the Flips, the Folds, and the others. And so my theory on the way Samsung operates in this space
Are they so settled into these two form factors and being safe with these and churning along with them that any drastic change, any major change that I would want would probably just be a new phone. Like, okay, think about this. In the past, we've typically seen Samsung just throw stuff at the wall just to see what sticks. They're not afraid to have 1,000 different phones in their lineup. They practically invented big phones. Do you remember the Samsung Galaxy Mega? This is gonna sound crazy, but one day, Samsung decided to just make a gigantic phone. Compared to what else was out, it looked like this next to normal phones at the time.
But sure enough, over the years, guess what? We kind of settled into that form factor, and that 6. 3-inch Galaxy Mega today would be a pretty normal-sized flagship phone. Do you remember the Galaxy Note Edge? Eight years ago, Samsung tried curving the display over the edge of the side of the phone when no one else had done that before, And now they've been settling into that sort of thing ever since. The same deal with the Note and styluses. So as I hold the new Z Fold 5, Yeah, it's super similar to last year's phone, which was a really good phone, but the thing is now that I've held some of these others,
like the OPPO and especially the Pixel Fold, I am struck by how tall and narrow Samsung's outside cover screen is. It doesn't feel nearly as natural as the Pixel Fold. And I don't enjoy typing on it or watching content on a display That's so tall and awkwardly shaped either. But for whatever reason, It feels like Samsung is so set on settling in and just iterating on these two form factors that they've already made. So if they were to decide, "Oh, yeah, we should make, like, a more passport-shaped foldable," I think they'd just make a whole nother phone. So there's a bunch of other smaller things I was hoping to see in this update,
like an improvement on the under-display selfie camera that I've been talking about on the inside screen. But this appears to be the same hardware, So you're still gonna have some heavy processing and some rough image quality there. It would've been nice to see the improved back cameras get closer to the flagship status of the S23 series, but they're also using the same sensors back there again as well, which was fine. A bigger capacity battery would've been cool to see to match the Pixel Fold or even a slot where the new super slim S Pen maybe could've been stored inside the phone. That would've been legitimately very impressive innovation. But still, even leaving so many of these things literally the same as last year,
collectively, it's still gonna be a pretty safe phone. As far as folding phones that you can buy right now, this one's still gonna be really good. There's also some other hardware, by the way, at this announcement. Samsung did this whole Unpacked event. There are some incremental improvements on the watches with bigger screens and thinner rotating bezels That is super sweet. And the new S9 series of tablets, they just got the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip as well. And I still just love the S9 Ultra so much. What a ridiculous, awesome, gigantic tablet with a 14-1/2-inch, 120-hertz display, just a razor-thin monster media device. I'm just glad this exists,
so just wanted to shout that out. But that's all we've got for now. I'm super curious to hear what you guys think of Samsung keeping especially the $1,800 folding phone price and not changing much, but let me know. Till the next one.