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May 30, 2024

Check out the official renders of Samsung’s next foldables

Ron Amadeo - Jul 5, 2023 10:20 pm UTC The foldables market is really heating up in 2023, especially in the US, with Google and OnePlus joining the fray. Now Samsung is facing worldwide big-screen

Ron Amadeo - Jul 5, 2023 10:20 pm UTC

The foldables market is really heating up in 2023, especially in the US, with Google and OnePlus joining the fray. Now Samsung is facing worldwide big-screen foldable competition for the first time (though all these use Samsung displays, so Samsung wins regardless), and its competitors this year will be the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Galaxy Z Flip 5. If you've been wondering what these will look like, wonder no longer because WinFuture's Roland Quandt has official images of these devices from nearly every angle, and there are even pictures of the Galaxy Tab S9 tablet.

The big device, the Galaxy Z Fold 5, looks nigh-indistinguishable from the Fold 4. The LED flash has moved from the bottom of the camera array to the side. That's about it. That's just on the outside, though. On the inside, there is supposedly a whole new hinge system with Samsung's rumored "teardrop" hinge design, which is similar to what most other foldable manufacturers have done. A teardrop hinge usually has movable support plates to the left and right of the hinge that can swing out of the way when closing. This allows the flexible display to rest in a teardrop shape instead of being crushed into a hard crease. It also allows the device to fold flat instead of leaving a wedge-shaped gap that Samsung phones have previously used. An earlier SmartPrix report had the Fold 5 dimensions at 13.4 mm when folded, with the Fold 4 ranging from 14.2 mm to 15.8 mm due to the wedge-shaped folding design.

For the smaller flip-phone foldable, the Galaxy Z Flip 5, Samsung beats Motorola's new Razr with a bigger front screen. Samsung's official black wallpaper on a black bezel doesn't illuminate this well, but an early render from OnLeaks better communicates what's happening with the display. It apparently doesn't encroach on the two camera lenses, like the Razr, but instead keeps a good distance away from them. It's still not a rectangle, though, thanks to the display dipping down a bit in the area next to the camera lenses. Presumably, you could show some kind of status bar display down there or maybe some buttons. The OnLeaks report had the outer display at 3.4 inches, a big upgrade from the 1.9-inch display on the Flip 4.

The Tab S9 tablet looks identical to the last version, complete with the Apple-style notch design. Everything is probably getting a spec bump, presumably sporting some variant of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. Samsung's launch event is scheduled for around the end of July.

Listing image by Media Peanut