The potential for growth in the Galaxy Z Flip 5’s expansive cover screen remains untapped

Samsung recently unveiled its new Galaxy Z Flip 5 with a prominent external display on the cover panel. The phone follows the trends set by other clamshell foldables this year, giving users more screen real estate to play with while the phone remains closed. However, while this gives users plenty of space to interact with the phone without opening it, Samsung’s approach to the cover screen still leaves a lot to be desired.

I’ve been using the Galaxy Z Flip 5 for several days now, and I couldn’t wait to set up and play with the 3.4-inch Flex Windows (Samsung’s name for the cover screen). But the more I do, the more I come to realize just how limiting the experience is, which is a bummer because there’s so much potential for a great out-of-the-box experience.

Where the Galaxy Z Flip 5 cover screen falls short

With such a prominent cover screen greeting users when the phone is closed, one would expect Samsung to really lean into this by letting users immediately access their apps from the outer display. This is something that Motorola does with the Razr Plus, which features a slightly larger 3.6-inch cover display. That phone really leans on the ability to use just about any app on the cover screen; I had hoped Samsung would do the same with the Flip 5. Unfortunately, that’s not really the case when you first turn the phone on.