The Galaxy Z Fold 5 may get rid of the display crease by shedding a teardrop

We’re talking about the hinge, of course

The Galaxy Z Fold series is comprised of Samsung’s most complexly-designed smartphones which are among the best phones you can buy. Being foldable, a phone not only needs to pack a screen that can bend, but needs to make sure it can reliably fold and unfold without damaging itself. As such, the Fold has had to iterate through some cracked and creasy growing pains, but we may see some relief from these aches with the upcoming Galaxy Z Fold 5 if we’re to believe some new intelligence coming out of South Korea.

Naver is reporting from sources that Samsung’s next foldable phablet will include a new hinge. It’s a design Samsung patented in 2016 — our sister site Pocketnow covered it at the time — but didn’t actually use it until now, perhaps because something was not allowing for its correct implementation. SamMobile suggests that the company may have wanted to preserve IPX8 water resistance if it were to incorporate the new hinge.

The component’s design will allow the device to fold completely shut with no gap between the top and bottom halves of the display when it is closed — something all its predecessors haven’t exactly been able to do.

Schematics from the patent show the hinge itself will also allow the panel to rest with a waterdrop-shaped bend in its middle while in the closed position — similar to that found in the Moto Razr — potentially lessening the stress placed on that portion of the screen and reducing any opportunity for creasing.

We’ll have to wait out another several months before we can see how the Galaxy Z Fold 5 looks. We’re hoping it’ll give the Oppo Find N a run for its money. In the meantime, the Galaxy S23 series remains the center of our attention for now.