This story is part of our Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2023 coverage Samsung’s midyear Unpacked event has just concluded, and it featured the usual slate of big foldable and wearable announcements. As expected, we saw Samsung unveil the Galaxy Z Flip 5 and Galaxy Z Fold 5, a new Galaxy Tab S9 lineup, and a pair of Galaxy Watch 6 models representing a comeback for the much-loved Galaxy Watch Classic style.
The Flip’s Bespoke Edition is no more The Galaxy Z Flip is ostensibly Samsung’s “fun” foldable, and nowhere was this more apparent than in the plethora of colors and customizations available for the Galaxy Z Flip 4. Off the shelf, the Flip 4 came in fun colors like Bora Purple, Pink Gold, and even an eye-catching blue that was nicely saturated and vibrant without being overdone. Of course, there was also still Graphite for those who preferred a more unadorned look.
This year that all changes with a 3.4-inch 60Hz AMOLED panel on the outside that fills about as much of the cover as it can while still leaving room for the two cameras. Samsung may have solved this one just in time, too, as it seems Google beat it at this game with the hinge on the Google Pixel Fold. That may have had its flaws, but it made the gap on the Fold 4 stand out even more by comparison. It’s a small thing, but for anybody who has used a previous Fold, this alone could make an upgrade to the Fold 5 compelling. It also puts the Flip 5 in line with the Motorola Razr Plus, which also folds completely shut.
The Galaxy Z Fold 5 finally gets much brighter This year, Samsung has pushed the screen on the Galaxy Z Fold 5 to a peak brightness of 1,750 nits. That’s nearly a 50% improvement over the Fold 4, which offered a more typical 1,200 nits of peak brightness. To get the bad news out of the way first, you’ll still have to buy it separately, and there’s still no slot on the Fold 5 to store it. However, the good news is that Samsung has a solution with its new Slim S-pen Case, which gives you somewhere to stash the S Pen when you’re not using it, and since it’s slimmer, it won’t add nearly as much bulk as previous solutions did.
There was a bit of uncertainty about whether the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra would be a one-off, particularly since Samsung chose to release it in only a single Graphite finish. However, this year it’s welcomed into the family with the same color finishes found on the Galaxy Tab S9 and Tab S9 Plus: graphite and beige.