Samsung’s next folding models are gradually taking shape above the rumors. According to a serious leaker, the upcoming Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Flip 5 will be the first models to have a new teardrop hinge while being waterproof.
It is a drop in the sea of rumours, but it corroborates the previous ones. Friday, February 24, the leaker ice universe announced on his Twitter account that the new hinges of the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Galaxy Z Flip 5 folding smartphones will be confirmed.water dropimitating its competitors while solving its main defect: the loss of resistance to water.
Confirmation: Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5 and Flip5 will adopt waterdrop hinges and support IPX8 waterproof.
— Ice Universe (@UniverseIce) February 24, 2023
Less crease marks on the screen
This change would be important, since, since its first folding model in 2019, Samsung has used a denounced folding technology: closing the smartphone leaves a very visible and touch-sensitive mark on the screen. A few months later, however, the American brand Motorola announced its first foldable, the Razr 2019, with a hinge that marked the screen much less. It is this same design that Samsung could adopt today.
In practical terms, this hinge design allows the screen to bend like a teardrop, putting less pressure on the curve. This almost completely reduces the space between the two halves of the smartphone when folded, unlike the latest Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4, preventing too much dust from entering this space once in the pocket.
Catch up with competitors
Good news, because Samsung is the last manufacturer of folding smartphones that has not adopted this mechanism. If the South Korean manufacturer has long been one of the few to market folding smartphones in the world, the arrival of these new players has made it lose part of this market.
Recently, the Motorola Razr 2022 and the Oppo Find N2 Flip have chosen the teardrop hinge. A detail that weighed in the balance in our comparison between this Oppo smartphone and the latest Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4.
A project in the pipeline since 2016
However, Samsung has been considering adopting this design since 2016, according to a patent application filed that year. But according to the first rumors of a hinge change, already aired on Ice Universe in January 2023, Samsung was hoping to find a way to make this design waterproof (neither the Find N2 nor the 2022 Razr offer this security). That seems to be the case now, according to this new leak from Friday, February 24.
Samsung Electronics plans to apply the “drop” hinge structure to the Galaxy Z Fold 5. Samsung internally calls it a “dumbbell” hinge. The Waterproof Waterdrop + Hinge is finally here.
— Ice Universe (@UniverseIce) January 15, 2023
However, despite the proliferation of information that goes in this direction, this rumor is still a rumor and could be denied soon. The question about a stylus slot in the next Galaxy Z Fold 5 was also denied by ET News a few days earlier. One of the reasons given would be the lack of space caused by… a hinge change. We can’t have it all.
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