Some exciting rumored Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 upgrades may in fact not be on their way to the new foldable, says respected leaker Ice Universe.
Firstly, the Galaxy Z Fold 5 won't be IP58 dust/water resistance rated according to IU's sources, going against previous rumors. Hopefully, this would still mean the new Z Fold would be IPX8 rated like the Galaxy Z Fold 4 and previous models, meaning it's as water resistant as other flagship smartphones. But having a guarantee of keeping dust away from the foldable's delicate mechanisms was something we were looking forward to as a big step in foldable phone durability.
IU's sources have also claimed the Galaxy Z Fold 5's display crease looks no different from the Z Fold 4. This seems odd since we've heard rumors about how Samsung's updating the hinge on the Z Fold 5 to improve it in several ways. One of these was Samsung adopting the same "waterdrop" hinge design that other recent foldable phones use, which should, in theory, reduce the crease.
So either all these rumors were incorrect about the changes to the hinge, or Samsung's done something with its own waterdrop mechanism that has left the crease just as prominent as before. That isn't such a big deal for its chances against the Google Pixel Fold, which itself has a big line down the middle of the inner display, but would leave the Z Fold 5 vulnerable against other competitors with less obvious creases in the future.
Even fewer upgrades than we already thought
Ice Universe has provided quite a few unwelcome pieces of Galaxy Z Fold 5 info recently, including the claim that there will be no camera upgrades from the Z Fold 4. Other sources tell us we'll at least get a new chipset in the Z Fold 5, plus its hinge will apparently be tested to withstand more folds than before. But it won't be until the Galaxy Z Fold 6 that we see a full redesign of Samsung's larger foldable. This all gets pithily summed up in the alleged Samsung employee comment that the upgrades barely qualify the new phone to be described as a Galaxy Z Fold 4S.
Meanwhile, the Galaxy Z Flip 5 is getting a much larger upgrade, including a bigger cover display. It's still a very different type of foldable, designed for compactness rather than expansiveness, But even still, the Z Flip 5 may be Samsung's better foldable this year.
It likely won't be long until we learn for certain what's true and what's not about the Galaxy Z Fold 5 rumors. Samsung's already told us we'll be seeing new foldables at a Galaxy Unpacked at the end of July in Seoul, Korea. Samsung's not confirmed the date yet, but we have to assume it'll only be a couple of weeks until the big day.
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