Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 review: Fun and fashionable but should you buy one?

Just like a sunroof in a SUV or the joy of a convertible sports car, the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 is cool, fashionable, and surprisingly useful without even opening it. But should you buy one?

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 is not a phone you need to buy.

But just like a sunroof in a SUV or the joy of a convertible sports car, the Flip 5 is cool, fashionable, and surprisingly useful without even opening it.

With a much bigger 3.4 inch Flex Window at the front, there’s a lot more you can realistically do with you phone closed - from checking your messages, notifications, weather, share prices, appointments or even taking very cool portrait selfies.

Some people are even trying apps like YouTube and Netflix on the small screen. Why? Because you can, I suppose.

As someone who loves phone photography, one of the first things I wanted to do is have a play with the flip in terms of getting different angles.

Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip 5 is water resistant but not recommended for beach use or in the pool.

Walking along the beach with the phone folded at an angle you can see better what you are shooting without crouching down. It’s particularly useful for capturing your pooch or young children at play.

But we should be clear. The Flip 5 is not designed for dunking, doesn’t like dust and is not recommended for the beach or in the pool.

This is a flip phone that oozes style.

But if you keep it out of the sand and water it should be fine on the stroll.

One of the benefits of its much improved hinge is you can fold it to the angle you want, set it up on a table, or even a flat rock and get sharper images or video of yourself and friends walking and talking in front of the camera without someone having to hold it.

You can set up some beautiful pooch portraits with the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5.

While I’m not a huge gamer these days, it was interesting that one of the first things I did after charging up the Flip 5 was to download one of my favourite arcade racing games and put it through its paces.

You can capture some pretty cool shots walking along the beach with the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5. Photo: Mark Furler

Opened up, there’s plenty of phone real estate on the 6.7 inch screen to play games while being able to slightly bend your phone helped with my gameplay experience. But you should be aware that the battery is not as big as in other phones so it does drain quicker.

A folding phone allows you to capture some good angles while on the move. Photo: Mark Furler

FOLD V FLIP: WHICH SHOULD YOU BUY?

Foldables have come a long way since I first checked out the first generation of the bigger Galaxy Fold.

The bigger Samsung Galaxy Fold is great for gaming, movies and multi-tasking.

While the Z Flip 5 is much more compact in your pocket, the real beauty of the Fold Z 5 is the huge screen which is more like a tablet when you open it up. It allows for multi-tasking with quick access to your favourite apps. But it comes with a much bigger price tag.

One of the big improvements, apart from the screen size, is the dual rail structure hinge, which feels more solid and allows the phone to pretty much fully close.

You can get pretty creative by playing with the hinge angles on the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5.

Samsung says the main screen is equipped with a shock dispersion layer and a redesigned back for a more solid display. Armor Aluminum frames and Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2 have been applied to both the Flex Window and back cover to provide extra protection.

The Flip 5 has a nice wide angle lens and handles variations in light well. Photo: Mark Furler

Talking to a retail staffer who had dropped his new Fold several times, he was surprised there had been no damage done.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 makes good use of the night light.

He had upgraded from the Samsung S22 Ultra and was loving the Fold, especially the ability to copy and paste from one application to another.

With Widgets, users can check the weather, control music playback and listen to their favourite music with Media Controller, or catch up on the latest global stock market updates with the Google Finance widget.

The Flip 5 does a night job shooting at night and in lower light settings. Photo: Mark Furler

You can reply to messages with a full Qwerty keyboard on the front screen but with my big fingers I found it near impossible.

With a quick swipe up on the screen, you can also access Samsung Wallet to pay on-the-go, access QR codes, membership cards, and digital keys.

The bigger Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 range.

As well as being able to take high quality selfies with the rear camera using creative angles with the FlexCam, you can view and edit shots on the front screen.

You can edit photos using the front Flex Window and it’s also good for nicely framing you shot. Photo: Mark Furler

You can adjust the colour tone or delete images. When taking photos of a friend, they can see themselves in the Flex Window to adjust for a better shot.

There’s also good camera stabilisation and auto framing to ensure people are not left out of the shot.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 retails from $1649 and comes in four different colours including mint, graphite, cream and lavender.

The Z Flip 5 also offers improved night photography with good AI to correct visual noise in shots.

While the Flip 5 offers 10 times digital zoom, it’s definitely not as good as the sort of shots you can get with the incredible 10 times optical zoom on the S23 Ultra.

But if you are looking to switch to a foldable, by all accounts, the Galaxy Z Flip 5 is the best of its type, while the Fold is the best choice for those wanting a bigger screen option.

How useful would you find a flip phone?

Whether you should buy one really depends on how much you like the idea of a phone that folds. Is it something you would find useful? Would the front screen option make life easier? And how much are you prepared to pay for it?

The Galaxy Z Flip 5 comes in two storage variants, 256GB and 512GB, starting from $1,649, with four colours available including mint, graphite, cream and lavender.

But have a look around. The telcos and retailers, along with Samsung are offering some pretty good deals with decent trade-ins and bonus offers.

The Galaxy Z Fold 5 begins at $2,599 with 256GB, 512GB and 1TB storage variants and is available in phantom black, cream and new icy blue.