The Galaxy Z Fold 5 had its first official appearance at Unpacked in Seoul today. It's the fifth model in the foldable phone series, and interestingly enough, it is the thinnest foldable Samsung's ever manufactured. Even compared to the Galaxy Z Flip lineup.
TM Roh revealed last week that Samsung has worked on slimming down the next-gen foldable phones in ways that don't diminish other features. The Galaxy Z Fold 5 retains IPX8 water-resistance rating, UDC (Under Display Camera), UTG (Ultra-Thin Glass), wireless charging, and Wireless PowerShare. Nevertheless, it manages to be the thinnest foldable phone in Samsung's portfolio.
For the most part, the Z Fold 5's thin profile resulted from a new hinge design that closes the gap between the phone's two folding halves. It's a gapless design, which greatly contributes to making the phone slicker.
The Galaxy Z Fold 5 is thinner even than the Z Flip
Samsung says the Galaxy Z Fold 5 has a 6.1mm profile when unfolded and a 13.4mm profile when folded and measured at its thinner point, sans the camera housing.
For comparison, the original Galaxy Fold measured 15.5mm. Then, the Galaxy Z Fold 2 came in at 13.8mm – again, at its slimmest point without accounting for the camera hump.
The Galaxy Z Fold 3, which Samsung released in 2021, measured 14.4mm when folded, and the Galaxy Z Fold 4 introduced last year had a 14.2mm profile.
For an even more unexpected contrast, the Galaxy Z Flip 4, which is otherwise smaller than the Fold series, is thicker than the Z Fold 5 at 15.9mm. Similarly, the new Galaxy Z Flip 5 measures 15.1mm.
The takeaway is that the Galaxy Z Fold 5 is the thinnest foldable phone to have come out of Samsung's factories yet. It's not the thinnest foldable phone in the world, as the company doesn't want to risk the integrity of other features only to win by this metric, but it is the thinnest in the world of Samsung.
And the cherry on top is that the Galaxy Z Fold 5 is also the lightest in its series. While the Galaxy Fold, Z Fold 2, Z Fold 3, and Z Fold 4 tipped the scales at 276g, 282g, 271g, and 263g, respectively, the new Galaxy Z Fold 5 weighs 253 grams.
The Galaxy Z Fold 5 is now available for pre-order in five color options, two of which are online-exclusive, and will start shipping out to customers from August 11.
