What you need to know
- A new report notes that one Galaxy Z Fold 5 prototype is 13g lighter than the Galaxy Z Fold 4.
- The new hinge design is lighter and thinner, allowing the phone to fold flat and come in at 1mm thinner.
- Samsung’s new hinge will curve the glass in a waterdrop shape, helping to eliminate the display crease.
Samsung is said to be putting the Galaxy Z Fold series “on a diet” for the next iteration, scheduled to launch later this year. As you might imagine from the term, this means that Samsung top brass have decided its engineers must produce a new model that’s both thinner and lighter than the Galaxy Z Fold 4 which weighs 263g.
According to the report from ETNews (opens in new tab), the Galaxy Z Fold 5 (opens in new tab) will weigh around 250g, corroborating an earlier report we saw last month (opens in new tab) that said the Fold 5 will be about 10g lighter than the Fold 4. This puts it in at exactly 13g lighter, which is a noticeable drop in weight. It’s also said to be a full millimeter thinner which is likely owed to the new hinge design, as well.
Further adding to previous rumors is the information citing a redesign of the hinge that causes the infamous display crease in Samsung’s best foldable phones (opens in new tab). According to the report, this new hinge will be smaller and lighter than last year’s already-reduced hinge size which makes up the bulk of the weight reduction.
That new hinge design follows in the footsteps of phones like the OPPO Find N2 (opens in new tab), which bends the ultra-thin glass into a waterdrop shape when the phone is folded closed. That allows for the phone to both fold flat — current Samsung foldables have a small gap at the hinge when closed, giving them a trapezoidal shape — and the display crease to be nearly completely eliminated.
This report doesn’t say that the phone will be dust-resistant, but previous reports noted that this would be the first foldable that’s both water and dust resistant, a huge win for Samsung if it proves to be true. This report does, however, say that the Fold 5 will not include an S Pen silo since the focus for this model was on size and weight reduction.
