The Galaxy Fold5 and Flip5 will have an almost invisible fold: this is how Samsung’s foldables change

The upcoming Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5 could feature a much less visible crease, thanks to a possible major design change. This was revealed by a report published by the Korean site Naver: Samsung could adopt a “drop”-shaped hinge.

The advantage of this architecture (already introduced on the phones of some competitors) is that in this way the closing of the phone creates a much more delicate curve, with a less marked crease. The fold of the screen of the latest Samsung smartphones is certainly less marked than what we had seen on the very first models launched four years ago, but it is still present and quite visible.

Both the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Galaxy Z Flip 4 still use a design with a “U”-shaped hinge that places the display at a sharper angle when closed. This creates a more noticeable crease and also creates more stress on the display.

Other foldable smartphones have already made the switch to a teardrop-shaped hinge to avoid these problems: both the Oppo Find N2 and the Motorola Razr both use the new solution, resulting in both having a less pronounced crease than either. Galaxy Z

Samsung’s first patent for a drop hinge dates back to 2016 and we don’t know why the company waited so long to introduce this architecture on series models. According to SamMobile, it is likely that the company preferred to wait to be able to obtain IPX8 water resistance certification even on screens that use a teardrop hinge.

Both the OPPO Find N2 and the Motorola Razr do not have an IPX8 certification, if Samsung were able to obtain it even on a smartphone with a teardrop hinge it would certainly be able to obtain an important advantage over its competitors. To find out, we will have to wait several more months: the launch of the Galaxy Z Fold5 and Flip5 is expected for August 2023.