As Samsung’s next foldable phone edges closer to release we’re starting to get an ever-clearer picture of it thanks to leaks, and the latest suggests it might look much the same as the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4.
The most recent evidence for this is leaked images of a case that's supposedly for the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5, shared by @UniverseIce, who has a pretty solid track record.
It’s a simple, transparent case, and in a follow-up tweet they show an equivalent case for the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 for comparison, with the only obvious difference being that the Z Fold 5’s case has a separate cut-out for the flash to the side of the camera block; the Z Fold 4’s case doesn’t need this, as that phone’s flash sits within the camera block.
Here's the Galaxy Z Fold4 case pic.twitter.com/S6dfq0lnoCMay 11, 2023
Of course, we’d take this with a pinch of salt, and a case image won’t show us all the details of the phone it’s for. But this is very much in line with some recent unofficial renders, which also showed the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 as looking nearly identical to the Z Fold 4, just with the flash in a new position.
Those renders came with dimensions, suggesting that the Galaxy Z Fold 5 would be a few millimeters smaller than the Z Fold 4, so their sizes could be almost identical too. The only significant design change we might see, going by leaks, is a new waterdrop hinge, which would allow the two halves of the phone to sit flatter against each other when folded shut.
The Pixel problem
So if leaks are right, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 doesn’t sound like the most inspiring of upgrades visually – and if there was any year when it needed to be, it’s this year, as the Google Pixel Fold has just launched.
That’s the slimmest foldable phone on the market, coming in at just 5.8mm thick when unfolded. That also makes it slimmer than the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 if the leaked dimensions are accurate, as that’s apparently 6.3mm thick.
It also has a wider cover screen than we’re expecting on the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5, which, as we found in our hands-on Google Pixel Fold review, made it more usable than the cover screen on the Z Fold 4. In fact, our US Editor-in-Chief Lance Ulanoff declared it “the first foldable that could masquerade as a normal smartphone.”
So it’s got a design that’s sure to catch eyes – despite some disappointingly large bezels around the foldable display. The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 on the other hand? It sounds like that phone could be more of the same, and if so it might need some big changes on the inside to take the title of our best foldable phone.
