Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5 First Look and Unboxing – What does Samsung’s awesome foldable flagship have under the hood?

Released to great fanfare at their recently concluded Galaxy Unpacked 2023 event on their home turf in South Korea, the Galaxy Z Fold5. We managed to get our hands on a Galaxy Z Fold5 retail sample straight from their foundries and checked out what’s in the box while also giving it a quick whirl around the block. Here’s our Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5 first look and unboxing where we unbox their premier flagship foldable phone. You can also check out our indepth Galaxy Z Fold5 review here.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5 First Look and Unboxing – What’s in the Box 

The new Galaxy Z Fold5 is the titular successor to last year’s Galaxy Z Fold4 with a similar form factor though there’s more than meets the eye as it has significantly improved performance on account of the powerful Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy chipset running under the hood and enjoys modest enhancements to its dimensions and weight to make it more pocketable.

Out of the box, our Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5 first look sample comes wrapped in a protective sheet of plastic with the phone itself deployed flat in the packaging nestled in a cardboard tray. Interestingly enough, the box art features the exact colour of the phone that it contains which is an intuitive way for customers to ensure they’re getting the colour they want rather than having to read a tiny label on the side. 

Accompanying the phone is a USB-C to C cable, a SIM eject pin and the obligatory quick start guide and warranty paperwork.

Beyond these basic essentials, there’s nothing else bundled in the box, which is also incidentally 100% recyclable, though this is to be expected seeing their recent efforts in reducing e-waste as most people already have a charger lying about the house. On that note, the Galaxy Z Fold5 also incorporates more recycled materials in its components than its predecessor. 

@hitechcentury Fresh out of the box! Check out the unboxing experience of Samsung’s new Galaxy Z Fold5 in Icy Blue fresh from its global debut at Galaxy Unpacked 2023 in Seoul, South Korea! #tech #galaxyzfold5 #jointheflipside #samsung #hitechcentury #malaysia #longervids #kitacreators #withgalaxy #samsungunpacked #techtok #tiktokcreators #sembanggadget #fyp @Hitech Century @Hitech Century @Hitech Century ♬ Sunrise – Official Sound Studio

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5 First Look and Unboxing – What’s Changed from the Galaxy Z Fold4

Our Galaxy Z Fold5 first look sample comes in a shade of Icy Blue though it can also be acquired in the usual timeless shade of Phantom Black as well as an off-white shade of Cream. If you order from the Samsung Online store, you can also acquire it in a deeper shade of what they refer to as Blue as well as Gray that’s a wee shade darker than Cream.

The Icy Blue colourway for our Galaxy Z Fold5 first look sample has a satin finish which resists fingerprints wonderfully while offering a classy semi-gloss look that’s atypical of the overly shiny, mirrored finish typically seen on lower end smartphones. It looks posh without being overly gaudy. 

While it should be taken on its own merits, our Galaxy Z Fold5 first look sample looks almost identical at first blush to the Galaxy Z Fold4 released last year though closer inspection reveals quite a few improvements.

Coming as a regular Galaxy Z Fold user since the Fold3, the Galaxy Z Fold5 feels lighter and has virtually no gap when folded down on account of a new dual rail Flex hinge. Samsung has also rearranged the interior layout of the hardware while keeping almost everything where it is supposed to be to carve out a slightly thinner and narrower design. 

Unfortunately, for all the optimisation, there’s still no place for an internal stylus well for an S Pen. Samsung does provide an alternative though with a Slim S Pen Case that snaps on to the front and rear and which offers an integrated S Pen stylus that is 40% slimmer than its chunkier predecessor. 

Compared to the Galaxy Z Fold4, Galaxy Z Fold5 is 0.2mm shorter, thinner and narrower while also being 10g lighter at 253g. When fully folded down, the phone is just 13.4mm thick. While it doesn’t sound like much, that 10g makes a difference if you have to tote it around all day. 

The Galaxy Z Fold5 is still just as durable as the prior model and its chassis made of the same Armor Aluminium that first saw service in the Galaxy Z Fold3 as well as the Fold4 and which is rated to offer 10% more toughness than a standard aluminium chassis.

The phone also enjoys the latest Gorilla Glass Victus 2 which is markedly more resistant to nicks and scratches than its predecessors on its backplate and front cover display. As icing on the cake, Samsung’s latest flagship foldable also keeps a robust IPX8 water resistance rating though there’s no dust resistance yet for now.

On top of size and weight improvements, the biggest update for the Galaxy Z Fold5 is the hardware under the hood as the phone gets the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy which is an overclocked chipset that runs faster at 3.36GHz than a stock Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 CPU that runs at 3.2GHz.

First deployed on the Galaxy S23 series earlier this year, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy is currently the most powerful Snapdragon processor in 2023. 

This is paired with fast 12GB LPDDR5X RAM and 256GB, 512GB as well as 1TB of non-expandable storage. Accompanying the beefy CPU is a 38% larger vapour chamber to vent heat away during heavy sustained operations such as gaming and hefty video rendering work.

Combined, the new chipset and vapour chamber are not only able to offer improved performance, it’s also rated for enhanced power efficiency which in turn potentially offers longer battery life off the built-in 4,400mAh battery which is the same size as its predecessor. Oddly enough, the Galaxy Z Fold5 plays it safe and retains the same 25W wired charging as its predecessor along with 15W Qi wireless charging and reverse wireless charging.

The displays retain the same size and dimensions as the prior Fold4 by shaving down the bezels even more though Samsung has improved both the outer and inner folding in a tangible fashion by making them markedly brighter especially for outdoors use with up to 1,750 nits peak brightness.

The front hosts a tall and narrow 6.2-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X 120Hz display with a 23.1:9 aspect ratio flanked by stereo speakers tuned by Dolby Atmos while the main display itself unfurls into a 7.6-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X 120Hz display that has a rectangular 5:6 aspect ratio.. 

On the imaging front, our Galaxy Z Fold5 first look sample has the same layout and cameras as the Fold4. On the front cover display, you get a 12MP F.2.2 selfie camera as well as a 4MP F/1.8 under display camera inset into the main folding display.

Heavy duty work is undertaken by the rear triple camera array which consists of a 50MP F/1.8 primary camera with OIS, a 12MP F/2.2 ultrawide angle camera and a single 10MP F/2.3 telephoto camera with OIS and 3X optical zoom that can offer all the way up to 30x hybrid zoom.

In terms of capabilities, the rear triple camera is the best performer with up to 8K@30fps video capture with the front camera offering up a respectable 4K@60fps and the inner under display camera offering up to 1080p@60fps video.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5 First Look – How does it handle at first blush?

It’s a bit too early to tell but Galaxy Z Fold5’s similar layout to its predecessor makes switching over a cinch as I already have had the muscle memory of its button placement. Getting it swapped over took an hour or so via Samsung Smart Switch but everything migrated over in a smooth fashion.

As expected, the phone has a modest array of updates especially in regards to productivity and multitasking with the new One UI 5.1.1 offering an enhanced taskbar that allows for up to four recent apps to appear rather than simply two in prior versions.

There is also a new gesture where you can tap and hold down a snippet of text or an image with one finger and then use another finger to open up a new hand to drag and drop it into a new app. It takes some practice but it’s immensely useful.

While the price tag does look daunting, what you’re getting is a proven design that combines a phone and a tablet into an effective form factor that has proven itself and been refined across five iterations. 

At present, the Galaxy Z Fold5 is still available for preorder in Malaysia priced at RM6,799 for the 256GB version, RM7,299 for the 512GB version and RM8,299 for the 1TB version though you get a free storage upgrade to the next higher tier for free that’s worth up to RM500.

To preorder, check out Samsung’s official page at https://www.samsung.com/my/smartphones/galaxy-z-fold5/buy/  Stay tuned for our full Galaxy Z Fold5 review where we share if it’s worth what you pay for!