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The Galaxy Z Flip 5 may get a feature I’ve been waiting years for

Nadeem Sarwar
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Samsung has enjoyed free rein in the foldable smartphone segment for a few years now. But the competition is finally here, and some of them have already surpassed Samsung’s foldables in a handful of crucial areas. Now, it looks like Samsung is ready to take the next step, and the upcoming Galaxy Z Flip 5 might just be the device that definitively propels the company to the top once again.

According to leaker IceUniverse, the next clamshell foldable phone from Samsung will have a cover display bigger than the Oppo Find N2 Flip. Oppo’s latest offers a 3.26-inch external display when closed, and thanks to the larger screen real estate, it can handle a lot more tasks than the Galaxy Z Flip 4’s 1.9-inch secondary display can accomplish.

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Notifications on the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 and Oppo Find N2 Flip cover screens.
Find N2 Flip (left) and Galaxy Z Flip 4 Andy Boxall/Digital Trends

Right now, the Galaxy Z Flip 4’s screen is limited to basic tasks like checking notifications, controlling basic widgets and quick setting toggles, and paying with Samsung Pay. There is not much you can do in terms of customization, especially app-level functionalities.

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There are third-party workarounds like CoverScreen, which lets you run every single installed app in the tiny cover display. The experience is delightful thanks to the sheer existence of it, but it’s not perfect, and some of the truly convenient features are hidden behind a paywall.

Fixing the biggest flaw of an otherwise terrific foldable

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 with CoverScreen OS and app drawer
Can you just imagine an app drawer on the Galaxy Z Flip 5’s larger cover display? Nadeem Sarwar / DigitalTrends

With a larger screen at its disposal, Samsung can dramatically supercharge the Galaxy Z Flip 5’ screen, allowing it to do a lot more than just act as a bare-bones, at-a-glance secondary screen that’s only good enough for checking time and notifications.

Samsung likely won’t port the entire One UI 5.1 experience to the cover screen, but allowing users to at least create shortcuts for their favorite apps and accomplish tasks without flipping the phone open would be a huge convenience. In fact, it would be a better implementation of a “digital detox” secondary screen. Letting users perform app-specific quick tasks right from the cover display would keep them from opening the phone and getting distracted by other irrelevant content appearing on the larger, more immersive inner foldable screen.

With a larger screen at its disposal, Samsung can dramatically supercharge the Galaxy Z Flip 5’ screen.

We’ve lately been hearing rumors of a redesigned hinge for the Galaxy Z Fold 5 that will pave the way for a truly gapless design between the two halves of the phone. Given the shared history of engineering progress between the Galaxy Z Flip and Galaxy Z Fold line, it is plausible that Samsung will give the same treatment to its next clamshell foldable,as well.

It is safe to assume that Samsung will arm the Galaxy Z Flip 5 with one of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 series processors, and might officially break cover around August of this year. However, all that firepower will truly shine with a bigger cover display that can get some real work done, and I can’t wait to see that happen.

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