Top 5 Business 5G Flagship Android Phones in the United States, 2026

If that US price sounds familiar to US readers, it's because it's the same as last year, and that's good news. This is not the exact same phone; it's flatter and faster, so it's essentially a free upgrade.

A better mobile chipset means even snappier performance

A device that folds perfectly flat when closed, and which is noticeably thinner and lighter than the Galaxy Z Fold 4, is the kind of progress in foldable development that we want to see.

We wanted faster and we got it, courtesy of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Mobile Platform for Samsung, the premium chip that Samsung is using across all of its new top-tier phones.

Standout upgrades include a streamlined design that banishes the gap for good, a custom-tuned CPU that majors in multitasking, and big brightness boost for the inner display. Add in the latest version of Samsung’s OneUI software and it promises to be a portable powerhouse.

Check out the top or bottom, though, and it’s immediately obvious the Z Fold 5 is a generational upgrade. The gap is gone, courtesy of a waterdrop-style hinge that’s as still as sturdy and willing to hold steady at wide angles as the last-gen phone.

It has shed 10g compared to the old phone, and is 2.4mm thinner when folded now. That made a minor difference in my pocket, but a bigger one in my hand; at 253g it’s only a little heftier than an iPhone 14 Pro Max, and feels closer to a traditional phone when folded shut.

Samsung has switched to Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2 for the outer display, so it should be more damage-resistant than that outgoing model.

The panel is still top-tier, with a sharp 2316×904 resolution, 120Hz refresh rate and wonderfully vibrant AMOLED colours. It copes brilliantly outdoors in direct sunlight, boosting north of 1100 nits with High Brightness Mode (HBM) enabled.

The built-in speakers supply equally engaging audio, getting impressively loud and keeping a great frequency balance even when pushed to maximum levels.

That’s still some capable hardware, though. The 50MP main snapper has a wide f/1.8 aperture dual pixel autofocus and optical image stabilisation, which means it’s fast-firing and quick to lock on to subjects, even in low light.

Fun, social media-friendly camera

Thinner and lighter than ever

New Flex hinge closes flat

Thinner and lighter design

I have good news to report about the Z Fold 5's design. It feels lighter carrying it around in my front pocket. This thing is less of a brick, so much so that it's close in weight to the iPhone 14 Pro Max.

The Galaxy Z Fold 5 is definitely sleeker than the Z Fold 4, and that’s thanks to a new Flex hinge that has a streamlined construction with fewer moving parts. The result is a design that folds all the way flat with no gap between the two halves.

Another plus is that the Z Fold 5 is thinner and lighter than the Z Fold 4, weighing 8.9 ounces vs 9.2 ounces. When folded, the Z Fold 5 measures 0.53 inches thick and 0.24 inches when unfolded, compared to 0.62 and 0.25 inches for the previous model.