Samsung's 2023 Foldable Phones Make First Geekbench Appearance
While Samsung isn't expected to launch its next generation of foldable phones until August 2023 — still a good five months away — chances are high that the company is already testing early prototypes of these devices. It is not unusual for references to these prototypes to appear on benchmarking platforms like Geekbench and AnTuTu several months before their official launch. Something similar has happened with Samsung's next-gen Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Galaxy Z Flip 5 devices, with both the foldables making their maiden appearance on Geekbench. The report comes from the usually trustworthy Dutch publication Galaxyclub.nl, the first to spot the new Geekbench listings.
For those unaware, Geekbench listings like these typically do not reveal detailed hardware and software aspects of the devices. For the same reason, the only meaningful information we could gather from the listings is the likelihood of both the phones featuring Qualcomm's flagship SoC — the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. This is the same chipset that powers Samsung's existing lineup of Galaxy S23 flagships. Given that we still do not know if Samsung intends to launch Exynos variants of these devices, it is safe to assume that the leaked prototypes are American variants of the Galaxy Z Fold/Flip 5 series.
The Geekbench listing also specifies the model numbers of both devices. Galaxy Club postulates that the code SM-F946U refers to the Galaxy Z Fold 5, while the SM-F731U is the internal codename for the US-bound version of the Galaxy Z Flip 5.
Better performers than the Galaxy S23 series?
While it is too early to discuss the performance numbers for Samsung's fifth-gen foldables, initial indications look promising. Take the case of the Galaxy Z Fold 5 (SM-F946U), which managed to score an impressive 2014 points in the single-core test and 5022 points in the multi-core tests. The smaller flip phone — the Galaxy Z Flip 5 — (SM-F731U) is no slouch either and managed to beat its larger sibling by scoring 2030 single-core points and 5213 multi-core points.
These scores put the foldables slightly ahead of Samsung's existing Galaxy S23 devices which typically score 1500 single-core points and 4900 multi-core points. Given that these scores were achieved on an early, non-public version of Android, these scores may or may not be directly comparable to the performance achieved by the existing Galaxy S23 lineup. Also evident from the Geekbench listing is that the Galaxy Z Fold device that was benchmarked featured 12GB of RAM and ran Android 13. However, the Galaxy Z Flip 5 tested only features 8GB of RAM.
It is also unclear if Samsung intends to make some design changes to the foldable lineup in 2023. However, given that Samsung has been using the same design language for nearly five years, there is a possibility of that happening this time. Interestingly, the leak doesn't confirm the rumored third foldable Samsung handset being considered for launch.