Displays are always a big highlight of Samsung phones since the company's display arm is the leader in the OLED space. And while the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Flip 5 are iterative upgrades over their predecessors, their screens are among the best in foldable phones. The way display tech has improved over the last few years, you might not notice the Fold 5 and Flip 5's superior screens. This is why Samsung Display has published an infographic focusing on the new and improved displays of its latest foldable phones.
While the size of Galaxy Z Fold 5's inner folding screen remains unchanged from the Fold 4, it packs two key upgrades. Firstly, it has a higher peak maximum brightness of 1,750nits, an increase of 30%. Secondly, and more importantly, Samsung claims the Fold 5's folding display has the world's smallest curvature of 1.6R in a phone with a waterdrop hinge. The new Flex Hinge helps reduce the folding stress on the panel, which should help make the crease less visible and improve durability.
Samsung highlights the "extreme durability" of the Fold 5's display in extreme conditions and how it can survive up to 200,000 folds in regular use. But this is not an upgrade over the Fold 4, whose panel was also certified by Bureau Veritas for its reliability. Similarly, the UPC Plus technology for the under-panel camera remains unchanged, though you may see some improvements due to the faster and more powerful ISP of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2.
As for the Galaxy Z Flip 5, while it uses the same Flex Hinge as the Fold 5, its inner screen has a curvature of 1.9R when folded. Samsung seems to have reserved the display upgrades on the Flip 5 to the cover screen. Besides being bigger at 3.4-inches, the Flex Window can reach a peak brightness of 1600nits. This is by far the highest in any flip-style folding phone, including the Oppo N2 Flip, which peaks at 800nits.
Admittedly, these display upgrades are not massive in any way. But it is still good to see that Samsung continues making minor refinements to the display tech on its foldables, as these iterative improvements add up over time.