Earlier this week, real-life photos of the Galaxy Z Fold 5 were published by a leaker, and then quickly taken down at Samsung’s request. But now another test unit has popped up on Reddit, showing the smartphone in full once again.
The Redditor who posted the phone claims that they were approached with the handset for sale, which — if true — already breaks two of the four rules printed on a sticker of the rear of the device: “No photo [sic.] allowed” and “Not For Sale.”
So what can we learn from the images? Well, firstly it appears that the gapless folding mechanism, made possible by the new waterdrop hinge, is very much present and accounted for.
An image of the handset unfolded was added to the selection later, but the quality is a little too low to see how prominent the crease is. The rumor is that the newly designed hinge made the dip in the screen considerably less noticeable in use.
But in terms of broad design, the phone looks like it’s avoiding the big design changes tipped for next year’s model. Notably, the triple camera array layout remains unchanged, though it's possible the specs will be boosted.
Galaxy Z Fold 5: Evolution, not revolution
This probably won’t come as much of a surprise to those who’ve followed Samsung’s flagship foldable from when the first version arrived in 2019.
Each new release has made small, but welcome design changes to gradually improve upon a formula which worked pretty well from day one (okay, day two.)
And it’s important to remember it’s what’s on the inside that counts, where Samsung is expected to include the faster Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy and a new camera sensor alongside the reimagined hinge.
These are all unproven rumors for now, but we don’t have long to wait before they’re proved or disproved. Samsung has announced that its next Samsung Galaxy Unpacked event will take place on July 26, when the company is also expected to unveil the Galaxy Z Flip 5, the Galaxy Watch 6 and Galaxy Tab S9.
