It's that time of year when we get a look at the latest generation of Samsung's Galaxy Fold series. The brand, now in its fifth generation, continues to offer an improved experience and design. Today, Samsung South Africa announced the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Galaxy Z Flip 5 smartphones. The new range of foldable smartphones was launched alongside a series of other products in Samsung's hometown of Seoul , in South Korea.
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The new Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5
Samsung has packed the latest Galaxy Z Fold 5 with some of the freshest hardware specs for a flagship smartphone. The brand has increased the size of the screen when open, which now reaches 7.6″. It also has a 2176×1812 px resolution screen with a 120Hz refresh rate.
In addition, the exterior screen increases to 6.2″ OLED, with a resolution of 2,316×904px. It also supports a 120Hz refresh rate. The displays feature Gorilla Glass Victus protection and an IPX8 water resistance rating.
With each new release, Samsung has improved the hinge design. The Galaxy Z Fold 5 is no exception to the rule. Its new “zero gap” design allows the screen to close without any space between the two sides. This hinge has a new teardrop shape, which also helps reduce the visibility of the crease in the middle.
Coming to the internals, the device shows improved hardware performance thanks to the latest specifications. The device is equipped with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC with an octa-core processor.
It is accompanied by an Adreno 740 GPU. The advantage of the latter is that it now integrates ray-tracing technology, which allows much more advanced mobile games. The storage and RAM options come in several versions: 256 GB + 12 GB RAM, 512 GB + 12 GB RAM or 1 TB + 12 GB RAM.
Other hardware upgrades include a triple-lens camera and a 4,400 mAh battery. The camera has a 50MP primary lens, a 12MP ultra-wide lens, and a 10MP telephoto lens. Apart from the improved battery capacity, the device also supports 25W fast charging, 15W wireless charging, and up to 4.5W reverse wireless charging.
With all these hardware changes, Samsung has provided true multitasking software for power users. This includes a two-touch drag and drop function. It allows users to move files between various applications and storage directories by easily selecting and dragging them.
To add to the functionality and multitasking support, the Galaxy S Pen has also been improved for the Galaxy Z Fold 5. With a more compact design, it can also be attached to the device much more easily with the upgraded official cases.
Finally, Samsung released the Galaxy Z Fold 5 in three colors. These are beige, black and light blue.
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The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 bends over backwards
As has been the case for the past three years, Samsung also launched the Galaxy Z Flip 5 alongside the high-end Fold 5. The flip smartphone is now more compact than ever and offers a host of new features, the most notable being its larger exterior screen.
With a 3.4″ screen, it’s almost twice as large as the 1.9″ screen on last year’s Galaxy Z Flip 4. The screen resolution is also much larger (720x748px). The larger screen now allows for up to 30 additional gadgets, making it much more useful year over year. These new gadgets allow for quick shortcuts and easier use, such as sending messages and video calls, browsing music, and checking and responding to notifications.
Like the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5, it features an improved hinge, allowing it to have a gap-free design when closed. The Z Flip 5 comes in four new colors: mint, graphite, cream and lavender.
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Price and availability in South Africa
Pre-orders for the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Z Flip 5 will begin tomorrow, July 27, 2023. Orders will be fulfilled starting August 11, 2023, based on availability, and in-store purchases will officially begin on August 18, 2023.
The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 retails for R45,999 and the Z Flip 5 retails for R29,999. The brand continues its trade-in offers in the local market, with a value of R10 000 for an old flagship device, including Samsung, Apple and Huawei smartphones.