Samsung has offered some decent refinements to its new foldable phones with the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Galaxy Z Flip 5, but one thing that’s still absent is any kind of dust proofing.
The new phones both sport an IPX8 rating. This means they can sit in fresh water of up to 1.5 metres for up to 30 minutes with no ill effects.
But while this is pretty comprehensive protection against water, Samsung offers no such guarantees against small solid particles getting inside, and that could cause problems for dusty homes.
Samsung is looking into this, however. Head of mobile TM Roh told the Korean site BizWatch that fans will need to “wait a little longer”.
“We are well aware of consumer demand for dust proofing, and we are making various efforts to achieve this, but due to the nature of foldables, there are many moving parts, so dust proofing is difficult,” he said.
It should be noted that this isn’t an insurmountable problem, as proven by one of Samsung’s rivals. Both the Motorola Razr and Razr+ provide a degree of dust protection with an IP52 rating — although with only a score of 2 for water protection, it’s clearly a trade-off.
Dust protection for Galaxy Z Fold 6?
The “little longer” comment suggests that Samsung isn’t too far away from cracking this particular nut. You get the impression the company wouldn’t even talk about it if it weren’t very close to coming up with a solution. Hopefully that means the 2024 foldables will be protected against both water and dust.
Back in April, the leaker Revegnus claimed that the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 will feature a “major form factor change” which could help the transition, depending on how “major” it really is. Though since then the same leaker has suggested that this could just be a change in aspect ratio for the external display, so perhaps not.
In any case, you shouldn’t let what might be around the corner prevent you from enjoying Samsung’s current batch of foldables, which look set to be excellent refinements on a solid formula. The improved teardrop hinge makes them both thinner than ever, and the larger cover screen on the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 makes the device far more usable when closed.
