Category
🤖
TechTranscript
00:00Hey guys, I'm Tom from Tech Chap and I think I've changed my mind on this, the Galaxy Z Fold 5.
00:06This is actually a much bigger upgrade than I originally thought because to be honest with you,
00:10after my initial hands-on at Samsung's launch event, I came away a bit underwhelmed. All the
00:16fuss was around the flip and its fancy new cover screen. The fold just seemed a bit forgotten,
00:21boring, nothing had really changed. But now I've had this in my pocket for the last week or so,
00:26I've come away thinking that this is actually one of the most significant upgrades to the
00:29Fold that we've seen in years. The design, the camera, the battery, the screens, it's better in
00:34almost every way. Is it enough to convince me to part ways with the best part of two grand or
00:39to overlook the still painfully narrow cover screen and also not to be tempted away by the
00:44folding competition? Well, I'm not sure. We'll come back to that at the end. Let's start with
00:49what's new and why I do think this is a pretty big upgrade over the Fold 4. Number one, the hinge,
00:55which is probably the most obvious upgrade because the Fold 5 now folds completely flat
01:00thanks to this new zero-gap flex hinge. It looks a lot smarter, it means there's less room for dust
01:05and dirt to get in and scratch the screen, and it means they've been able to make this both thinner
01:09and lighter by 2.4 millimeters and 10 grams to be exact. It is noticeably less chunky and a very
01:16welcome upgrade. And actually, even just unfolding the Fold, opening it up, the 5 feels much more
01:22refined. The 4 is just a little bit clunky, it's got almost like a plastic-y pulling feel to it,
01:27and it just sort of clicks open at the end, whereas the 5 is much smoother. A little bit
01:32hard to demonstrate over a YouTube video, but the whole thing just feels better engineered.
01:37Then there's the brightness. Outdoors, I measured around 14 to 1500 nits on the Fold 4 versus just
01:43shy of 2000 nits on the Fold 5, which makes it a fair bit easier to use outdoors. And the higher
01:50brightness also carries over to the front cover screen as well. On the inside, we have the latest
01:55Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy, which is a slightly overclocked version of the chip. And if I show you
02:00these 3DMark Wildlife Extreme stress test results, the Fold 5 is 150% faster than the 3 and about
02:0740% faster than the 4 in terms of graphics performance. And even better, for this 20-minute
02:12stress test, the Fold 5 used 12% of its battery versus 16% on the 4 and 14% on the 3, so it's
02:19faster and more efficient. So as you would expect, this just breezes through everything you throw at
02:24it. Even Mac-style Genshin Impact gives us a solid 60, but I think what's surprising most about the
02:28Fold 5 is the battery in the camera. For example, after three hours of pretty general use, looking
02:34at some social media apps, shooting some video, playing a couple of games, the Fold 5 was down to
02:3982% of its battery, whereas the Fold 4 was down to 75%, so there's a six percentage point difference
02:45there, which equates to probably a good hour of use. And considering that they both have the same
02:504400 mAh battery, and this is more powerful, that's a pretty significant upgrade. They've also
02:56slightly boosted the wireless charging speed, although same 25W wired, and you can still
03:00power share to other devices. And then we have the camera, which again on paper doesn't really
03:05suggest much has changed. Same 5 camera setup with the same sensors, same resolution, but the new ISP
03:11in the 8th Gen 2 chip is clearly having an impact because I've noticed across all cameras
03:16improvements to detail, dynamic range, and more accurate colours. Even the two selfie cameras
03:21offer a marked upgrade. Okay, let's do a little test of the video recording. We've got the Fold 4
03:27on the left, Fold 5 on the right, using the main lens, shooting at 4K 60. Although the Fold 5 does
03:34actually now let you shoot at 8K 30, previously it topped out at 24. Lots of tech going on here,
03:39got the MacBook Pro, a few phones, the Pixel, tablet, and also my ROG Ally over there. Both seem
03:47to be doing a pretty good job, but let me know in the comments below which one you think is
03:52shooting better video, and if the 5 is really worth upgrading to. And then finally, a little
03:59side-by-side of the internal selfie camera. So this is the 4 megapixel underscreen camera, which
04:04on the Fold 4, just as I'm looking at the two side-by-side, I'm shooting this in sort of flex
04:08mode. The Fold 5 looks a lot better in terms of the detail, texture, how it handles the fairly
04:15bright light coming in on me. Now, when would you use this? Primarily I suspect for video calls,
04:19so actually this kind of video test is probably quite useful. Most of the time you're going to
04:23want to use the higher quality rear cameras, but if you are using the underscreen tablet camera,
04:28again, like we've seen on the back, this is a pretty big upgrade, which is pretty impressive
04:32given how the hardware hasn't really changed that significantly. Hmm. It is still a little
04:38bit disappointing that despite being Samsung's most expensive and most, well, fully featured
04:43phone, I guess you could say, the Fold 5 doesn't quite have the same camera setup as the S23 Ultra.
04:48This is better in terms of camera quality, and of course we have this fourth lens with the 10x
04:53telephoto. But I reckon I would trade a little bit of that quality for the flexibility that you get
04:58with a Fold. You can use the actual selfie cameras on the cover and tablet screens if you want, but
05:03most of the time with this you'll be turning it around and using the three main rear cameras
05:08for all your shots, with that cover screen preview so you can see what you look like,
05:11or even with a swipe it becomes the full camera UI, which can be a little bit fiddly because
05:16everything's a bit cramped, but still, the cover screen, the flex mode, and also how, you know,
05:20like the Flip, it is its own stand, means you can have a lot of fun with the Fold's camera,
05:24and I find myself actually using it more, taking more photos than I would with a regular phone.
05:29And if you do pick up the optional S Pen Fold Edition, which is a little bit chunkier than this
05:33for the Fold 5, which I don't have with me at the moment, so it's thinner, it's lighter,
05:37the screens are brighter, it folds completely flat, it's faster with the new chip, the cameras
05:42are much improved, the battery lasts longer, even if it doesn't look that much different,
05:46I think it's hard to argue that the Fold 5 isn't a pretty big upgrade all around.
05:50But on the other hand, there's nothing fundamentally different here. If you weren't
05:53already convinced by a Fold 2 or Fold 3 or Fold 4, then you probably won't be by this either.
05:58I mean, part of me absolutely loves this. It's such a cool, futuristic-y gadget thing that I've
06:04always wanted. And it has everything. A big 7.6-inch tablet screen, we have up to four-app
06:09multitasking, S Pen support, five cameras, we have Samsung's DeX if you want to use it more like a
06:14proper desktop PC, we have the nifty underscreen camera, which thankfully is much better than last
06:19year, it can come with up to a terabyte of storage, although you do only get 256 on the base model,
06:24and of course the flexibility of Flex Mode. It is a very nice, very capable phone-tablet thing.
06:31But I still find myself struggling to really take advantage of this. I feel like if I haven't got
06:36three apps side-by-side at the same time in Flex Mode and I'm using the cover screen preview,
06:40checking my email while following Google Maps or watching a video while sending a message,
06:43or even all at the same time, I feel like I'm not getting my money's worth and actually I
06:47might be more comfortable just with a regular, boring old Slate phone, as I believe they're
06:52called now. I would say 90% of the time, I'm just using a single app and I'm using it the
06:56same way I would with any other phone. And I guess the big problem for me is I just don't
07:01like this cover screen. Don't get me wrong, the Pixel Fold has its fair share of problems and I
07:06am working on a long-term review of this as well, but I much prefer the size and aspect ratio of
07:11this over this. Or even better, take the Honor Magic V2, which sadly right now is only launching
07:17in China, but everything about this design and form factor is better. It's thinner, it's lighter,
07:23it packs in a much bigger battery, and this cover screen is 20 by 9, which is the same aspect ratio
07:28as a regular phone. So using the front cover screen doesn't feel like a compromise and typing
07:33isn't a chore. I guess what I want are the cameras, the software, and I suppose the support as well
07:39from the Fold 5, but in this form factor, this design on the Magic V2. Is that too much to ask?
07:45I forget who it was, but there was one contributor on the Verge cast, the Verge's podcast, which I
07:51actually enjoy very much and I do listen to, but she said she really loved the Fold because where
07:54normally she might have to put her phone down and reach for her laptop because she's doing something
07:58a bit more demanding perhaps, with this she would just open it up and she could carry on
08:02on the tablet screen, which is great if that works for you, but I can't imagine this relatively small
08:09Android tablet replacing my laptop. I still feel like with all the multitasking and bells and
08:14whistles in the world, this is still a phone and I'm still going to feel compromised and restricted
08:20as opposed to just reaching for any laptop. I can also never figure out how I want to watch
08:24a movie on this. Do I use the tablet screen and accept those big black bars or do I use the smaller
08:30but better suited aspect ratio of the cover screen? What do you think? How would you watch movies?
08:35Tablet screen or cover screen? Okay, I'm definitely starting to waffle now, so let me wrap up and I
08:40think the point is this is undeniably the best Galaxy Fold they've ever made and it is actually
08:45a surprisingly big upgrade in my opinion over the Fold 4 and I think as a package and that you can
08:50actually buy, I would go as far as to say the Fold 5 is the best foldable you can buy right now,
08:55but it's very expensive, it's not for everyone, I think the competition, while still they have their
09:00own flaws, have definitely caught up and in some cases like form factor gone past Samsung and I
09:05guess my final thought is that while I do very much like this and I will continue to have this
09:10in my pocket and carrying it around with me for the foreseeable future, every time I go back to a
09:14regular phone, whether it's my S20 Ultra or my iPhone 14 Pro Max, they just feel more comfortable,
09:20there's no compromise here and also in pretty much every case, they're a lot cheaper. I think with
09:25this current form factor with this cover screen, I'm still not totally convinced by the Fold 5.
09:31But what do you think? Have one? Want one? Let me know what you make of the Fold 5 in the comments
09:35below and I'll leave a link below for Samsung's website where they have some pretty good deals
09:38and trading offers and also if you did enjoy this video, which hopefully you did because you watched
09:42it to the end, a like and subscribe would be amazing. Thank you so much for watching guys
09:46and I'll see you next time right here on The Tech Chap.