Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 by Samsung is an exciting new foldable model

A year after revamping its Z Fold phone with a slimmer design, Samsung has changed things up again, this time changing the design. The Z Fold 8 is larger than any of Samsung’s foldables, and shorter, with a size and shape somewhere between the Samsung Flip and Fold models.

In the pictures, I wasn’t impressed with the squat shape. In person, surprisingly, it sounds good, and at the same time it makes sense. If you want to feel it yourself, grab your passport – the Z Fold 8 is about the same height and less than half an inch.

This is not Samsung’s only new folder this year, and on the contrary, its list was very confusing. The Z Fold 8 could be the official follow-up to last year Z fold 7but in reality the Z Fold 8 Ultra is the straight forward option. The phone has the same internal display as the previous Z Fold phones and the same triple rear camera. The name seems like a trick to drive this year’s inevitable price hike: Samsung slapped “Ultra” on the box for its flagship model to help price the phone at $2,099.99, up $100 from the Z Fold 7.

Meanwhile, with its larger display and rear cameras, the Z Fold 8 feels like a sequel and a spinoff. And almost – approximately – looks like a bargain at $1,899.99, down $100 from its original price.

Samsung isn’t the first on the Z Fold 8’s form factor. Pura X Max for Huawei it was launched in April with similar features, although it is only available in China. Apple is expected to be next, using a the same passport format for its first foldable iPhone in September. Indeed, the elements of this design are larger: The Fold 8 is almost the same width Google’s first-generation Pixel Foldalthough it is very short, it is bringing curved phones around.

I’ve been skeptical about the return of the larger foldable, which in photos looks musical and uncomfortable, too wide to be used naturally when closed and too short to feel open. These companies tried this design once and moved on, so why – apart from Apple’s launch – should we start again?

Samsung’s answer is that its two Z Fold 8 models are designed for different users and for different uses. The Z Fold 8 Ultra, long and thin when closed and about the same size when open, is designed to be a multitasking beast, useful for running apps on split screens, giving you the same look as two regular 6.5-inch phones side by side. The larger Z Fold 8 is rather user-friendly: Its 4:3 aspect ratio is as natural for watching Netflix movies as it is for reading ebooks on screen, and at 201g, it’s light enough to hold comfortably in one hand.

Or, as Samsung’s marketing department puts it, the Fold 8 is about “joy-maxxing,” and the Ultra is about “power-maxxing.” I have these sermons so you don’t have to, brothers.

The 4:3 display isn’t that big, so you’ll still have letterboxing up and down when you’re watching a lot of videos, whether it’s on YouTube or a streaming service. But unlike Samsung’s previous Folds, which were no longer than just turning your phone on its side, opening the Z Fold 8 up will fit more video on your screen, and the display will be more natural for games. It feels more curved and tablet-like and is better.

I’m still not sure if I like the way the Z Fold 8 feels when closed – as I use the fold most of the time. The 10:16 cover size doesn’t look as good as I expected, and I got used to using the phone in this way quickly, but I’m worried that it might be uncomfortable when you put the phone in a case. The reduced height proves an unexpected blessing here, making it easier and more comfortable to stretch the screen with one hand than larger phones like Pictures of the S26Ult. Much depends on how apps adapt to the short screen, although Samsung has already announced that Instagram has optimization.

There are other considerations for the Fold 8 than its new look. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 The chipset, co-opted by Samsung, makes this as powerful as any other out there. The large 120Hz OLED display is similar in design to the Fold 8 Ultra’s, including an impressive brightness of 3,000 nits and a new waterproof coating to reduce glare. It supports the same new software as the Z Fold 8 Ultra, including the official launch of Gemini Intelligence task automation and a built-in AI feature called Now Nudge that comes with integrated suggestions to add an event to your calendar or send someone an email.

For the first time, Samsung caught up with its Chinese competition and adopted silicon-carbon batteries, a new type of lithium ion cell that includes a small amount of silicon in addition to graphite in the anode. Silicon-carbon batteries can squeeze high power into small spaces, but they come with a downside: High-performance silicon is unstable, and there are fears that silicon-carbon batteries can quickly lose power over time.

The Fold 8’s 4,800mAh battery isn’t a huge jump from the 4,400mAh in the Fold 7 and pales in comparison to the biggest foldable battery around, Honor’s 6,660mAh Magic V6. The clever silicon-carbon method is understandable from Samsung, which still bears the scars of danger. Galaxy Note 7 battery, which led to a complete recall of the phone in 2016 for safety reasons.

“Silicon-carbon cells must be carefully monitored,” said BD Yang, vice president of Samsung’s technology group. Seasideemphasizing Samsung’s work on managing silicon reactivity, swelling, and long-term cell stability, rather than prioritizing energy density alone. He called the Fold 8’s battery “the ultimate improvement” over previous generations, combining higher power with “reliable performance.”

Few incentives are cameras. Unlike previous models of the Samsung Fold, the Fold 8 has two rear cameras, not telephoto. Both the wide and ultrawide lenses use 50-megapixel sensors, which seems like an upgrade to the ultrawide, but it means the wide lens could be worse than the Z Fold 7’s 200-megapixel shooter – though we won’t know for sure until Samsung shares details like sensor size and aperture and tests the camera again for a better review. However, Samsung’s mobile cameras are already lagging behind its flagship phones, and the Fold 8 only seems to be getting worse.

It has also fallen behind the folding competition in several important ways. All three Samsung models still have IP48, which means they don’t have full protection against dust. Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold. And although Samsung says it has redesigned the hinge and introduced a new titanium-alloy film and titanium plate underneath, the changes aren’t enough to make the display look anywhere near as subtle as on. Oppo Find N6. Good is the new magnet, which makes it easy to open the phone with one hand, and allows it to close with a full click – even if Samsung stubbornly refuses to include the required internal magnet. full support for Qi2.

I won’t know if the Fold 8’s form factor is mine until I spend some time with the phone, but after an hour or so, I’m surprisingly sold. I’ve never thought of a way to replace my work laptop with a foldable phone, but I can easily see one replacing my tablet, which is often left on the desktop in my travel fun stuff. And with a bigger battery to boot, the Z Fold 8 might just last until I get there.

However: $1,900 is a lot of money for any phone, especially one that has suffered from a noticeable camera drop. It sounds like a lot considering that this is an untested form, a new form that could be the future of folding (especially if Apple has anything to say about it), but it can reach the stable solutions that greeted last year’s Galaxy S25 Edge. An hour isn’t enough to know either way, but after testing the Z Fold 8 in person, I’m already a fan.