With the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Z Flip 5, Samsung is looking to extend its lead in the foldable category. The Z Flip 5 features a larger cover screen that makes it that much more usable, and the Z Fold 5 offers subtle changes to the camera housing while seeing a modest 11g reduction in weight. Both foldables feature Samsung's new hinge mechanism that allows them to close fully flat, and that's not a small feat considering Samsung somehow managed to retain IPX8 water resistance — it is the only brand to offer ingress protection on foldables.
That said, the Galaxy Z Fold 5 is a particularly lukewarm upgrade even by Samsung standards. Sure, it has the usual hardware-related changes — it is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 — and both the inner and outer screens can hit 1,750 nits in daily use, but other than that, it's essentially the same phone as last year's Z Fold 4. You get the same cameras, the same battery and charging tech, the same screen sizes and refresh rates, and a similar design aesthetic. Even the plastic layer covering the screens hasn't changed, and that, more than anything else, indicates how little things have changed.
