In less than two months, Samsung will unveil new foldable devices at its Unpacked event in Seoul, Korea. The Galaxy Z Fold 5 and the Galaxy Z Flip 5 will be the fifth and fourth devices in their lineups respectively (remember, there was no Galaxy Z Flip 2), and both will unsurprisingly come with some new features and upgrades to the existing hardware.
The Galaxy Z Flip 5, like previous Galaxy Z Flips, will see a lot more traction thanks to a price tag that's much easier to stomach and, well, because the flip phone form factor is a lot cooler than the Galaxy Z Fold form factor.
And with Samsung having officially revealed that the Z Flip 5 will be announced next month, it's a good time to talk about the most exciting features and upgrades we can look forward to.
Larger cover display
The Galaxy Z Flip 5 will bring a massive bump in the size of the cover display. The Galaxy Z Flip 4 and Z Flip 3 have a 1.9-inch cover display that isn't very useful, but that will change with the Z Flip 5 thanks to a 3.4-inch folder-shaped display (some say it will measure 3.8 inches, but that's not realistic unless the Z Flip 5 is a lot wider than the Z Flip 3 and 4).
It remains to be seen what kind of functionality the bigger outer screen will enable, but we're hoping Samsung will allow us to run full-fledged apps right on the cover screen and include tricks like cool new animations to make the cover screen stand out. Being able to do more on the cover screen will mean you won't need to unfold the phone too often, and that would result in longer durability for the plastic foldable display.
Zero gap design
Samsung's foldable phones feature a complex and impressive hinge design that makes the folding process possible, but one complaint we've had is that both the Fold and the Flip leave a sizable gap when they are folded shut, which increases the risk of damage to the foldable display even when the device is sitting in your pocket.
Well, Samsung is finally expected to get rid of that gap thanks to a new waterdrop-style hinge. It should eliminate the gap completely and, as a result, make the device thinner and sleeker than its predecessors.
Dust resistance
If one rumor is to be believed, that zero gap design could be partly responsible for Samsung being able to make the Galaxy Z Flip 5 dust resistant. The Z Flip 3 and Z Flip 4 have IPX8 certification, so they have the same level of water resistance as Samsung's candybar flagships but don't have any official protection against dust.
But the Z Flip 5 (along with the Z Fold 5) could come with IP58 certification, which would make it both dust and water resistant. For a foldable device, that will be a very welcome upgrade, so we have our fingers crossed that the rumor about the Z Flip 5 being dust resistant will turn out to be true.
Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset
The Galaxy Z Flip 4 is no slog, thanks to the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset that powers it. But the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 that debuted on the Galaxy S23 series is considerably better. The Z Flip 5 will have a Samsung-exclusive Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 For Galaxy chip that has higher clock speeds than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 used by other manufacturers.
And that new Snapdragon chip should allow the Z Flip 5 to last longer on a single charge, even though the phone is not expected to get a battery capacity upgrade. The chip will also enhance the phone's performance, though the leap over the Z Flip 4's performance is likely to be smaller than the leap in efficiency.
Samsung DeX support
The Galaxy Z Flip 5 will be the first phone in the series to support Samsung DeX, as we exclusively confirmed earlier this year. Samsung DeX allows you to use your phone in a desktop environment on a big screen like a TV or monitor wirelessly or by using a USB-C HDMI adaptor. Samsung also provides a DeX app for Windows and Mac that lets you use the phone's desktop interface on any Windows or Mac PC.
Unfortunately, we don't know if Samsung will bring DeX support to existing models once the Z Flip 5 goes on sale. All of the previous Galaxy Z Flip smartphones are fully capable of running DeX as the Z Flip line has always used the same processor as the Galaxy Z Fold lineup, but they all lack the feature for reasons known only to Samsung. Here's hoping that won't stay the case for long.
