It’s been a number of years now since Samsung debuted their flagship foldable smartphone with the Galaxy Z Fold, and while they’re often billed as among the best for those seeking a foldable, several Chinese companies are starting to come out with their own foldables that are close if not as good as the Galaxy Z Fold lineup. The likes of Oppo, Huawei, Xiaomi and Honor for example have all released their own foldable devices, with three of them also having released or planning to release them globally this year too.
Perhaps that’s why then that Samsung is looking to finally address one of the big problems with its flagship foldable smartphone: it’s display. Or rather more specifically, the big crease down the middle of the display. According to a report by Vietnamese site The Pixel, the display will be much smoother than any of Samsung’s previous foldable displays. One reason behind the sudden improvement could be that the Korean giant is apparently switching out their usual mechanical hinge system into one that uses the ‘droplet’ style hinge structure seen in other foldable smartphones such as the Oppo Find N2; Oppo’s foldables typically have the least crease among the foldables in the market.
Samsung Electronics plans to apply the “droplet” hinge structure to the Galaxy Z Fold 5. Samsung internally calls it a “dumbbell” hinge. Waterdrop hinge + waterproof is finally here.
— Ice universe (@UniverseIce) January 15, 2023
The crease always been a noticeable flaw with the Galaxy Z Fold and Flip series as when you unfold the device to use the main display, you’re also going to have to deal with a wrinkly crease, especially when you’re trying to use it for watching content and such. While the Galaxy Z Fold 4 is arguably the best at dealing with the crease since their first foldable, it’s still not as good as the Oppo Find N and Oppo Find N2. The same report meanwhile also hints at Samsung using a 108MP main camera on the Galaxy Z Fold 5, together with a 64MP 2x telephoto and a 12MP ultrawide camera, which on paper at least would be an upgrade over the 50MP, 12MP and 10MP shooters on the Galaxy Z Fold 4.
If you’re awaiting for Samsung to drop the Galaxy Z Fold 5 though, don’t hold your breath just yet as that’s only expected to debut in the second half of the year; for context, both the Galaxy Z Fold 4 and the Galaxy Z Fold 3 launched in August. If you do want to get a new smartphone from Samsung though—and don’t specifically want a foldable—Samsung is set to launch the new Galaxy S23 series in a few weeks time. The Galaxy Unpacked 2023 event will be happening on 2 February, 2AM local time, where they’re expected to reveal the Galaxy S23, Galaxy S23+ and the Galaxy S23 Ultra.
