Samsung’s next clamshell foldable will likely improve one of the biggest flaws of the Galaxy Z Flip line. According to display supply chain analyst Ross Young, the upcoming Galaxy Z Flip 5 will likely feature a cover display larger than 3 inches in size.
The Galaxy Z Flip 4 comes armed with a small 1.9-inch display, which vastly hampers its potential. Right now, you can only do basic tasks on it, like checking the time and date, swiping past notification banners, seeing calendar entries or reminders, and using it as a camera viewfinder.
It’s an intentional choice made by Samsung and makes sense to a certain extent. After all, you wouldn’t want to watch Instagram reels on the tiny landscape screen. But that doesn’t mean the secondary screen isn’t capable of doing more. In fact, with a third-party hack, you can unlock its true potential.
I extensively experimented with it, doing everything from watching YouTube videos to playing Call of Duty: Mobile on that tiny screen. It’s simply amazing to see that a screen so small can handle demanding apps like Diablo: Immortal without stuttering or blacking out.
From an interactivity viewpoint, it’s not really a very comfortable experience with all those cramped UI elements, but there’s definitely some joy in seeing your entire app library appear on the cover screen. I can only imagine how much better things will look with proper display scaling if Samsung rethinks the whole cover screen system next year.
With a cover display bigger than 3 inches, Samsung can really supercharge the secondary screen experiences on the Galaxy Z Flip 5. Plus, with more functionalities arriving on the cover screen, you won’t be forced to open the phone every single time.
DigitalTrends’ Tushar Mehta actually toned down his phone addiction by limiting his interactions to the cover display, and only opening the phone when absolutely necessary.
The crease will be less of an eyesore
But that’s not the only upgrade coming to the Galaxy Z Flip 5, it seems. Young predicts that Samsung will also rework the hinge design. While that sounds interesting in itself from an innovation perspective, the main outcome is that the crease alongside the middle is less visible.
Now, Samsung has refined the foldable screen formula over four generations with the use of its Ultrathin Glass (UTG) tech, but it has only enhanced the durability factor. The crease is still very much there, and easily visible against dark backdrops.
It’s another thing that you eventually get used to and stop noticing after a few days. Overall, it looks like the Galaxy Z Flip 5 will fix the two biggest annoyances plaguing Samsung’s clamshell foldables.
The usual generation-over-generation upgrades — like a faster chip and better cameras — are also expected. Let’s just hope that Samsung also improves things on the battery side, too, because in my experience, the Galaxy Z Flip 4 can barely make it past a full day of usage.
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