A new standard for foldables

Design and screens

• Shorter, squatter passport-style design
• Lightweight and easy to use one-handed
• Very light at 201g

Despite the familiar naming convention, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 doesn’t look or feel like any other foldable we’ve seen so far. And that’s kind of the point.

The Z Fold 8 is the first to sport an entirely new book-style form factor that foregoes the long, tall cover screen and boxy inner foldable panel that has become the norm over the past few years. Instead, it’s pitched as a much more content–friendly foldable, with a much smaller, squatter 5.5-inch 16:10 screen on the outside and a more traditional 7.8-inch panel on the inside with a more tablet-esque 3:4 aspect ratio. 

Even though I only got to use the Fold 8 for a couple of hours at the hands-on event, I can already tell that this thing is going to sell like hot cakes. Even as someone who has used book-style foldables like the Z Fold 7 and Oppo Find N6 long-term, after holding the Fold 8, the (rebranded) Fold 8 Ultra just felt a little bit awkward to hold and use. 

The squatter dimensions of the cover screen make it a much easier phone to use one-handed, while still offering a no-compromise smartphone experience. All your apps, from the likes of TikTok and YouTube to games, run perfectly well on that cover screen, with more horizontal space for apps to use. 

It just doesn’t feel cramped or awkward to use, and there aren’t many foldable cover screens you can really say that about – especially from Samsung’s collection. 

Of course, it’s all about that inner panel – and what a screen it is. The 7.8-inch foldable panel is bright, vivid and detailed, sporting a Dynamic AMOLED 2X screen with an LTPO-enabled 120Hz refresh rate and a peak brightness of 3000nits, but it’s all about two things; the aspect ratio and (lack of) crease. 

It’s hard to convey just how much an improvement the 3:4 aspect ratio is to the foldable phone experience, even after just a couple of hours of use. Practically every app installed on the foldable ran without complaint on the inner screen, from Chrome to YouTube and Instagram, with no boxy layouts or, more importantly, issues displaying video – something that a lot of boxy foldable screens struggle with, especially with portrait-style video. 

Now the flip side is that it’s not as well suited to split-screen app use, with the Z Fold 8 Ultra’s boxier aspect ratio allowing it to display two 6.5-inch app screens side by side, but I’d argue that’s more niche than someone wanting to use the big screen to watch videos or play games anyway. 

The other massive leap forward comes with Samsung’s new Flex Titanium tech. It’s essentially two layers embedded in the inner folding panel, aimed not just at reducing the crease but also at making the panel feel more solid to the touch – another long-term complaint about foldables and their plastic screens. It’s still a reflective panel, but one that feels noticeably sturdier under the finger.

And the crease, or should I say, lack thereof. Putting the phone down flat, you can’t really see any dip in the middle of the phone – head on, anyway. It’s still there if looked at off-angle, but I doubt that’ll be a complaint for many. It’s a big step forward, regardless. 

It also just feels really nice in the hand. In its folded form, it fits nicely in my palm, and I can reach every part of the screen one-handed without awkwardly stretching my thumb to access elements like the quick controls. And it’s light too; at 201g, it’s the lightest book-style foldable by quite a gap, and also much lighter than Samsung’s bar-style Galaxy S26 Ultra too. 

The hinge isn’t as strong as the Fold 8 Ultra, meaning it won’t really sit open mid-way for a laptop-style look, but the flip side is that it’s way easier to open the foldable screen with one hand. And with the 3:4 aspect ratio, I can’t see many people using it in laptop mode; that’s one of the few things the boxier Z Fold 8 Ultra still does better. 

It also comes in some lovely colour options, including Graphite, Cream, Lavender and Pistachio, though the latter is a Samsung Store exclusive. It’s a shame too – it’s definitely my favourite of the bunch.  

Performance

• Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy power
• Only a dual 50MP camera setup
• 4800mAh battery and 45W charging

Despite trailing behind the all-singing, all-dancing Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, both book-style foldables come with the top-end Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy also found in the Galaxy S26 Ultra, paired with 12GB of RAM and either 256GB, 512GB or 1TB of storage. 

As we’ve already seen from the S26 Ultra and a host of other 8 Elite Gen 5 phones, it’s a capable chipset that can handle most things you throw at it, from demanding gaming to editing 4K video on the go. 

Now I can’t say that I had much of a chance to really put the phone’s performance to the test – there weren’t any benchmark apps installed, and I wasn’t allowed to download any games myself to try out – but it felt as snappy and responsive as you’d expect swiping around the OS, opening apps, taking snaps on the camera and the like.

I’ll be very interested to see how it benchmarks once I get my hands on a long-term sample for testing, especially in the sustained performance section. With a relatively slim, svelte body, it could get warm enough to throttle – but we’ll have to wait and see for now. 

If there’s any area where the Z Fold 8 doesn’t quite measure up to its more expensive sibling, it’d be in the camera department. Despite its £1,699 price tag, the phone comes with a dual-camera setup comprised of 50MP main and ultrawide lenses. 

There’s no 200MP main camera here, nor is there a dedicated telephoto lens, and it’s arguably the latter that’ll be noticeable in use. The 50MP main took some pretty decent test snaps, but it doesn’t have the same zoom omph as the Ultra. 

Samsung could’ve gone halfway here by including a 200MP main that could double as a zoom with its extra pixels, but chose not to. If you want the best foldable camera experience Samsung has to offer, you have to pony up for the Ultra. It’s not the best solution – there are plenty of people, me included, who prefer a content-focused foldable but still like taking great photos. I suppose we’ll have to wait for next year’s Z Fold 9 for that…

It also falls slightly short in the battery department at 4800mAh in place of the Ultra’s 5000mAh battery, but really, there isn’t much in it – and with the Z Fold 8’s slightly smaller screens, it could well balance out in the end anyway. I’ll definitely be testing to confirm that either way.  

Software

• One UI 9 based on Android 17
• A handful of new AI features
• Seven years of OS upgrades

The Galaxy Z Fold 8, along with the other Samsung-branded foldables announced this week, ships with One UI 9 based on Android 17 – among the first phones in the world to run the latest Android OS. 

And while the general One UI experience feels familiar, complete with the full Galaxy AI featureset, there are a few notable additions to the software experience. 

The biggest is arguably support for Gemini’s advanced automation tech, which essentially lets it perform tasks in apps on your behalf. Though I couldn’t seem to get this working during my hands-on time, a Samsung rep claimed that it’ll be able to, say, look at an event flyer on your screen and book a nearby hotel on that specific night on Expedia – you need only confirm the final action.

It has been available on Pixel phones in the US for a month or two, but Samsung confirmed it’ll roll out to UK users at the foldable’s launch. 

There’s also a new MyFanCam shooting mode that lets you crop in and track a specific subject in a video you’ve already shot, changing elements like the aspect ratio in the process, along with improvements to the Now Bar and Now Brief, and native support for the rebranded Google Notebook.

And, like the other flagship Samsung foldables, the Fold 8 comes with a full seven years of OS upgrades and security patches to keep it running at its best.

Early thoughts

I might not have spent much time with the Galaxy Z Fold 8 so far, but I’ve got a feeling this is something special. Book-style foldables have arguably struggled to find a mainstream audience with their boxy inner foldable panels and awkward cover screens, but the Fold 8 manages to fix this in one fell swoop. 

Combined with great screen tech, a powerful processor and a decently sized battery, this could be the new foldable standard – but I’ll wait until I’ve really put the phone to the test before I deliver my final verdict.

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