Galaxy Z Flip 8 hands-on: $100 extra for a speed bump

The Flip 8 is nearly identical to the Flip 7 - y'know, besides the price

Jul 22, 2026

📱 Samsung has announced the Galaxy Z Flip 8
📐 It comes with a slightly tweaked design and better performance
⏮️ A lot of the phone is similar to the Flip 7, including the displays and battery
💰 Samsung is charging $100 more for the Flip 8 this year
💸 It’s now priced at $1,199
📆 It goes on sale August 7

If you’re having déjà vu staring at these beautiful pictures of the new Galaxy Z Flip 8, you’re not alone.

I got to check out the phone ahead of Galaxy Unpacked, and from the moment I picked it up, I thought I was holding the Flip 7. Samsung made some radical changes to its Galaxy Z Fold 8 series this year, introducing an entirely new model with a wider design while also keeping its taller design around with the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra. But for the Flip 8, the company went much more basic with the upgrades.

Beyond a few enhancements and the new colors, you’d never know this is a new Galaxy Z Flip. Yet in the same breath, that doesn’t entirely matter given the Flip 7 was already a great phone, and any improvements Samsung can make will elevate the Flip experience even further. It’d be nice if the price didn’t go up by $100, but that’s just the nature of the industry.

Here’s a breakdown of what’s new and what’s the same in the Galaxy Z Flip 8, which will undoubtedly become one of the best flip phones you can buy when it launches on August 7.

🛍️ Samsung Galaxy Z8 preorder deals

⬇️ More Galaxy Z8 Unpacked coverage

Galaxy Z Flip 8: what’s new, and what’s the same?

📐 NEW: It’s a bit thinner and lighter. The biggest design changes on the Galaxy Z Flip 8 are the dimensions. Samsung managed to make it 13.1% thinner and 3.9% lighter than the Flip 7, resulting in a slightly more manageable phone. At 6.1mm thick and 180 grams, the phone does feel a tad nicer to hold, though you have to hold both phones side by side to tell the difference.

🚀 NEW: Much faster performance. Samsung ditched the Exynos 2500 chipset inside the Galaxy Z Flip 7 and made a big leap for the Flip 8. Inside its latest clamshell foldable is the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy, the same chip found in phones like the Z Fold 8 Ultra and S26 Ultra. This should give the phone much better performance for multitasking, gaming, AI processing, and more. It’s paired with 12GB of RAM and either 256 or 512GB of storage.

📸 NEW: Identical cameras that Samsung claims are better. On paper, the Galaxy Z Flip 8 has the same camera setup as the Flip 7. There’s the main 50MP camera with optical image stabilization, a 12MP ultra-wide camera, and a 10MP selfie shooter. The company says that while the hardware hasn’t changed, its ProVisual post-processing algorithm has improved, which should lead to better photos after you hit the shutter button. The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5’s image processing parts could also help improve photo quality, but we’ll need to test this theory out in the real world to know for sure. Stay tuned.

🎨 NEW: Four different colors. There are four different colors you can choose from when picking up a Galaxy Z Flip 8. Graphite and Cream are the most familiar since we’ve seen plenty of Samsung phones ship in them before, but the two flashier finishes help the device stand out. There’s Pink, which looks like an extra-saturated pastel pink that pops in person. There’s also Mint, a Samsung.com exclusive that looks fresh and clean.

💰 NEW: A higher price tag. Like many new smartphones hitting the market, Samsung has raised the price of the Galaxy Z Flip series. The Flip 8 now starts at $1,199.99, $100 more than the Flip 7 did last year. Given how minimal the upgrades are this year, it remains to be seen if that price increase is justified, or feels more like an inconvenience than anything. Once we get a chance to review the device, we’ll know for sure.

📱 SAME: Familiar displays and durability. The displays on the Flip 8 are exactly the same as the ones on the Flip 7. You get an edge-to-edge 4.1-inch Super AMOLED display on the front with a 120Hz refresh rate, as well as a big 6.9-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X foldable display with 120Hz. Both looked stunning in our hands-on time, in case you were curious. Also, durability remains unchanged, with an IP48 rating for light dust and water resistance.

🔋 SAME: Battery life and charging speeds. While the Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Fold 8 Ultra both come with bigger batteries than what was in the Fold 7, Samsung decided to keep things the same on the Flip series. The battery inside the Galaxy Z Flip 8 is the same 4,300mAh cell as the Flip 7, as is the phone’s 25W charging and 15W wireless charging speeds. The Flip 7 could last a full day on a charge, and we expect the same from the Flip 8 as a result, but it would’ve been nice to see some gains in this area.

🤖 SAME: Software tricks and AI. One UI 9 (which is based on Android 17) remains as optimized as ever for the flippable nature of the Galaxy Z Flip 8. You can prop your phone up and use it as a tripod for hands-free pictures; the cover screen is full of widgets and easy access to information you need at a glance; Galaxy AI and Gemini come pre-loaded; and you get seven years of software upgrades.

Galaxy Z Flip 8 release date

Samsung will release the Galaxy Z Flip 8 on August 7 alongside the Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Fold 8 Ultra. If you order through Samsung.com, you can take advantage of a lot of preorder deals, including savings of up to $1,230 depending on the phone you pick and what you trade in. We’ll be working to get our hands on a shiny new Flip 8 in the near future, so stay tuned for our full review.

🛍️ Samsung Galaxy Z8 preorder deals

Max Buondonno is an editor at The Shortcut and co-host of The Shortcut Live. He’s been reporting on the latest consumer technology since 2015, with his work featured on CNN Underscored, ZDNET, How-To Geek, XDA, TheStreet, and more. Follow him on X @LegendaryScoop and Instagram @LegendaryScoop.

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