Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 Long-Term Review: Worth Buying In 2025?

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 price in India is Rs.1,09,999. This is the price for the base variant with 12GB RAM and 256GB storage.

It is available in online and offline stores in Icy Blue, Phantom Black, Cream, Gray, and Blue.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 packs the following items inside the box:

• Phone
• Cable
• Manual
• SIM Ejector

Before we talk in detail about the device, let’s see what the on-paper specs look like:

• Display: 6.2-inch FHD+ display with 120Hz, 7.6-inch inner screen with 120Hz

• Chipset: Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy

• RAM & ROM: 256GB 12GB RAM, 512GB 12GB RAM, 1TB 12GB RAM

• Software: Android 14 based on OneUI 6.1.1

• Rear camera: 50MP+10MP+12MP

• Selfie camera: 10MP+4MP

• Battery: 4,400mAh

• Weight: 253 grams

• Dimensions: 154.9 x 67.1 x 13.4 mm

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 has a unique design. While the back panel resembles typical Samsung phones with a traffic light camera, the phone is narrower than most candy bar phones.

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You get a triple camera setup on the back accompanied by an LED flash and a hinge in the middle. Samsung claims the hinge is more durable this time and has zero gaps, unlike last year. I have the Ice Black variant of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 for long-term review.

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Furthermore, the phone is IPX8 rated, although there is no dust rating since Samsung hasn’t figured out how to make the hinge dustproof. The frame is made from Armor Aluminium, and you get a plastic screen protector on the inner screen.

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The back panel is protected by Corning Gorilla Victus 2, same as the cover display. The hinge also has the Samsung logo embossed on it.

You get the volume keys, SIM tray and power button on the right when coming to ports and placements.

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Similarly, the top has the secondary speaker grille and the microphones.

At the bottom, you will be greeted by the USB-C port, speaker grille and microphone. The Z Fold 5 also supports the S Pen on the inner screen. But there was a catch, as the S Pen that came with my Galaxy Tab S9 FE didn’t work.

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Samsung sells a special S Pen for Z Fold Edition that you need to buy and carry separately. Given the device’s thickness, Samsung could have easily added an S-Pen slot to it.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 boasts a triple camera setup. You get a 50-megapixel primary, a 10-megapixel telephoto lens with 3x zoom and a 12-megapixel ultrawide angle lens.

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On the front, there is a 10-megapixel selfie camera. You also get a 4-megapixel under-display selfie camera, although we will discuss it later.

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The 50-megapixel primary can take great shots with plenty of detail and saturation. I enjoyed using the primary camera during my Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 review. Furthermore, the 3x telephoto lens can take amazing shots with detail and accurate colours.

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However, the 12-megapixel ultrawide angle sensor is average at best, and the output could be better than the other two lenses. Low-light photos are decent, but they are nowhere near what you can expect from typical slab phones in this price range.

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The 10-megapixel selfie camera on the cover screen can capture detailed selfies with accurate colours. Sadly, the same cannot be said for the 4-megapixel under-display selfie camera, which is best suited for occasional video calls. Most of the images taken from the inner selfie camera have a hazy look to it.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 packs a 4,400mAh battery. The phone can easily last a day despite the smaller battery thanks to the good optimization on One UI. I could get around 5-6 hours of screen time during my Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 long-term review.

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You get 25W wired and 15W wireless charging support, although no charger is included in the box. The charging time is awfully slow, taking around 1 hour and 30 minutes. It has the same charging speed and battery capacity as the newer Z Fold 6.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 sports a 6.2-inch outer screen with a 120Hz refresh rate and a Full-HD+ resolution. It is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2 and a 23:1:9 aspect ratio.

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Once you unfold the phone, you get a 7.6-inch inner display with a 120Hz refresh rate. This screen is comparable to an iPad Mini and is perfect for consuming content.

I enjoyed watching Black Doves on Netflix; the larger canvas offered an immersive experience. You get HDR 10+, although Dolby Vision is missing as usual on Samsung devices.

In fact, during my Samsung Z Fold 5 long-term review, I mostly used the inner screen instead of the cover screen. This was mostly due to the larger screen size and multitasking features.

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While the outer screen is usable, the narrow aspect ratio makes it difficult to type and consume content. You can open two windows side by side or even four. There are also floating windows available to take multi-tasking to the next level.

Coming to sunlight legibility, the phone has a peak brightness of 1200 nits in auto mode on the inner screen and 735 nits on the outer screen. While not the brightest screen by any measure, it is usable, although the brightness could have been much better.

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The 120Hz refresh rate makes scrolling through the user interface smooth. You also get LTPO support to adjust the refresh rate from 1Hz to 120Hz dynamically. In the Settings, you can choose between Standard (60Hz) and Adaptive (LTPO).

For security, you get a side-mounted fingerprint sensor, and it is fast and accurate. Similarly, there is a stereo speaker setup for audio that is loud enough to fill an entire room.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 is powered by the once flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy processor paired with 12GB of RAM. I have the 256GB variant of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 for a long-term review, and you get UFS 4.0 for all variants.

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Thanks to the 12GB of RAM, most apps remain open in memory, and I did not face any issues.

There is also RAM Plus, so you can expand the RAM with virtual memory to add another 8GB.

Regarding intensive tasks like gaming, you can play BGMI at 120 FPS (Smooth and Extreme+) and CODM at Smooth and Ultra (120 FPS). Despite being a 2-year-old chip, it is surprising that you can play games at the highest possible settings and frame rates.

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There are no heating issues, and the Z Fold 5 is a great gaming choice. Although the inner screen has a weird aspect ratio, the outer screen is just too narrow.

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In terms of benchmarks, the Z Fold 5 scores 2086 in single-core and 5433 in the multi-core in Geekbench 5 test. Furthermore, the phone has a score of 1499640 and a score of 14007 on the storage test.

Similarly, in the 3D Mark Wildlife Extreme Test, the phone scores a stability score of 57.9 per cent and throttles to 73 per cent in the CPU.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 runs on the One UI 6.1.1 based on the Android 14 update. The phone initially arrived with Android 13 and will receive another three years of OS updates.

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The One UI experience is pretty good, as you get a clean software experience without any bloatware. You get the same Galaxy AI features as the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6.

I enjoyed the software experience during my Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 long-term review.

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You get a taskbar at the bottom for multitasking features. There is an app that lets you open four apps side by side apart from multiple apps in a floating window. The inner screen is optimized for multi-tasking capabilities.

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You can also open the phone in flex mode to type in documents or scroll through web pages. This offers a PC-like experience as you can type on the virtual keyboard at the bottom of the screen while seeing the text at the upper half.

It has also received Circle To Search and other Galaxy AI capabilities, including Live Translation, AI Summarizer, Note Assist, Generative Edit and more.