Samsung is gearing up for its highly anticipated Unpacked event in Korea, scheduled to take place in less than a month. During this event, the tech giant will unveil its latest flagship devices, including the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and the Galaxy Z Flip 5. Notably, the Galaxy Z Fold 5’s international variant has recently surfaced on the Geekbench website, indicating that Samsung has commenced thorough testing of the device.
The initial benchmark for the Galaxy Z Fold 5 was observed in March, exclusively for the USA variant. Remarkably, it has taken approximately three months for the global variant to emerge on the radar. While the global variant exhibits a slightly lower single-core performance score compared to its US counterpart, it is anticipated that all variants will offer comparable performance upon their retail release. Samsung’s foldable devices utilize the same chip across all markets.
Furthermore, the benchmark analysis reveals that the Galaxy Z Fold 5 will debut with Android 13 out of the box, instead of the anticipated Android 14. This aligns with Samsung’s decision to release it’s new foldable earlier than usual. However, users can anticipate an updated version of One UI, specifically version 5.1.1, on both the Z Fold 5 and Z Flip 5.
One UI 5.1.1 is primarily expected to introduce innovative features tailored for foldable devices. It is likely that this software update will be made available for older models of the Galaxy Z Fold and Z Flip as well. While some features may be extended to Samsung’s non-folding devices, historical trends suggest that they may not be particularly groundbreaking.
Regarding software support, the Galaxy Z Fold 5 will be eligible for up to four major Android OS upgrades and five years of security updates, in line with Samsung’s prevailing software policy. However, it remains a possibility that Samsung may exceed expectations by extending this policy to encompass five major Android OS updates for the Galaxy Z Fold 5 (and Z Flip 5). Nevertheless, it is prudent not to anticipate such an extension at this time.