Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5 hands-on: essentially the same displays and some nice upgrades, but Samsung seems to be wasting its advantage and $1,800 is ludicrous
Even with a new hinge, a brighter display and improved multitasking, the Z Fold's rivals are catching up.
Context & Ripple Effects
Samsung’s foldable line had already moved from the Fold2’s still-developing tablet interface to the Fold4’s better durability, one-handed usability, and cameras, while retaining familiar trade-offs around weight, charging, and app support. The Fold5 continues that path with a new hinge and incremental usability improvements rather than a broad redesign.
The launch specification itself kept the same display sizes and $1,800 starting price, making the hands-on’s concern less about whether Samsung improved the device than whether those improvements remain sufficient as the category becomes more contested.
First-order effects
- Samsung gains a flatter-folding hinge, brighter screen, and multitasking refinements for the Fold5, while prospective buyers face the same ultra-premium entry price.
- The product’s differentiation is immediately narrower: the reported upgrades improve the existing foldable experience but do not materially change the core display format or price proposition described at launch.
Second-order effects
- As rivals close the perceived gap, Samsung faces more pressure to justify its premium through software, durability, and everyday usability rather than hinge refinement alone.
- The unchanged price makes buyer comparisons more sensitive to practical compromises—bulk, app support, and durability—that subsequent Fold5 review coverage continued to identify alongside its multitasking strengths.
Third-order effects
- If foldable hardware advances become incremental across vendors, category leadership is likely to depend increasingly on sustained software support, optimized large-screen apps, and durability confidence rather than being first to market.
- The Fold line’s trajectory suggests that premium foldables may need clearer everyday advantages before their pricing can move beyond an enthusiast audience; the available coverage does not establish whether Samsung can achieve that shift.
The trend: Foldables are moving from a hardware novelty race toward a contest over usable software, durability, and a defensible premium-value proposition.