iPhone Fold-what? Samsung gets a 7-week head start with Galaxy Z Fold 8
I’m in London for Galaxy Unpacked, and everything Samsung is rumored to be showing off is really a message aimed at Cupertino – and at you, before you see Apple's version
Our Galaxy Unpacked preview is below – and so is Samsung’s pre-order teaser page
📱 Samsung’s rumored lineup + pre-order pages
Based on leaks, these will be Samsung’s big reveals on Wednesday – and The Shortcut will spotlight the best pre-order deals and trade-in values then.
Take a look now so you know exactly where to go (if the leaks hold true):
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I finally made it to London for Samsung’s Galaxy Unpacked, and I’ll spare you the travel saga – because the way more interesting countdown isn’t the one that got me here. It’s the seven weeks Samsung has left before Apple shows up.
🧠 Here’s what’s at stake: Samsung’s seven-year head start on building the world’s best foldables runs out in about seven weeks, when Apple’s rumored iPhone Fold is expected to arrive this fall. For nearly that entire run, Samsung’s book-style foldables, including the Z Fold 7 we reviewed last year, have been nearly unrivaled. That’s about to change.
Luckily for Samsung, it’s not walking into its big event empty-handed. The Galaxy Z Fold 8 series is rumored to bring a genuinely new shape to the fight – seven weeks before Apple’s fabled iPhone Fold gets to make its case.
On paper, Wednesday’s Samsung event just ushers in another round of foldable phones. But there’s a bigger story, and it has almost nothing to do with the phones themselves. It has to do with the calendar – and I’m here in London to watch it all unfold.
→ Rumored Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8
→ Rumored Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra
→ Rumored Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8
→ Rumored Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra 2
→ Rumored Samsung Galaxy Watch 9
⏳ The clock Samsung is racing
That seven-week figure isn’t loose math – here’s how the summer/fall timeline shakes out:
Wed, July 22: Samsung reveals its new foldables in London. The starting gun.
~Second week of September: Apple’s fall event, going by its usual timing – roughly 7 weeks later – where the iPhone Fold is expected to debut alongside the iPhone 18 Pro.
Late September – or later: when you could actually buy Apple’s foldable. Some supply-chain watchers think the iPhone Fold date slips past the rest of the iPhone 18 Pro line – possibly into October – on limited early production.
Where to get updates: We’ve been tracking that timeline here
Either way, we’re talking weeks, not seasons. And it’s worth remembering how Samsung earned this head start: it made the first book-style foldable back in 2019, then spent seven years refining the hinge, the crease, and the software in public, one generation at a time. Apple gets to skip that entire education. But it also arrives seven weeks late to its own party.
Wednesday is Samsung’s last solo moment before that happens. After September, every foldable conversation includes Apple. This is the last one that’s only about Samsung.
→ Rumored Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8
→ Rumored Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra
→ Rumored Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8
→ Rumored Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra 2
→ Rumored Samsung Galaxy Watch 9
🍎 Why Apple is the unspoken story here
Here’s the part that makes this genuinely interesting rather than just a sports rivalry.
The Apple foldable everyone’s expecting – based on a mountain of leaks, not anything Apple has confirmed – looks a lot like what Samsung is reportedly launching Wednesday. Consider what the rumor mill has settled on for Apple’s version:
A book-style design – the phone-to-tablet shape, not a flip
A roughly 7.8-inch inner screen with a squarer, tablet-like aspect ratio
A price starting of $2,000+, possibly climbing toward $2,400
No telephoto camera, reportedly for space reasons
A crease-free display as the marquee talking point
Now hold that next to what’s been leaked and widely reported about Samsung’s new foldables for months: a squarer-ish inner screen, a new wider “passport” shape, a price near two grand for the top model, and a fresh push on the crease. These leaks are being reported on by every outlet, not just The Shortcut – we’ll know the official story on Wednesday.
Samsung and Apple are chasing the same idea. Which means something surprising:
When you look at Samsung’s new foldable this week, you’re getting a very early preview of the kind of phone Apple is going to sell you in the fall – except you can actually hold Samsung’s, and it’ll likely cost less.
That’s not a knock on Apple. It’s just the reality of being first versus being eighth.
→ Rumored Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8
→ Rumored Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra
→ Rumored Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8
→ Rumored Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra 2
→ Rumored Samsung Galaxy Watch 9
🥊 Samsung’s real advantages (and they’re bigger than you’d think)
It’s easy to assume Apple wins by default the moment it enters a category. Sometimes it does. But Samsung is walking into this fight with some genuinely strong cards, and I don’t think most people have thought about them:
1. Seven years of scar tissue. Every problem Apple is about to discover for the first time – hinge durability, screen protector adhesion, dust ingress, software that actually uses the big screen – Samsung already discovered, painfully, in front of everyone. Being the pioneer was expensive. Samsung paid that bill years ago.
2. It makes the screens. This is the one people forget. Samsung Display is one of the only companies on earth that can build these panels at scale – and it’s widely reported to be supplying the foldable screen for Apple’s phone. Samsung’s display division has always been its quiet superpower, and in foldables it’s not just an advantage, it’s the whole game.
3. It shows up first. Being seven weeks early isn’t nothing. Samsung gets to set the terms of the 2026 foldable conversation, plant its flag, and get phones into hands before Apple’s marketing machine even turns on. First impressions in a category are hard to dislodge.
4. It’ll almost certainly cost less. Apple’s foldable is rumored to start around $2,000 and go up from there. If Samsung’s pricing lands where the leaks suggest, it’ll undercut Apple’s first foldable – while offering a more mature product. “Cheaper and more refined” is not the position anyone expected Samsung to be in against Apple.
→ Rumored Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8
→ Rumored Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra
→ Rumored Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8
→ Rumored Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra 2
→ Rumored Samsung Galaxy Watch 9
🤔 What Samsung still has to prove
I’m not writing Samsung a blank check here. Being early and experienced doesn’t automatically win. A few things it genuinely has to nail this week:
The “why should I care” factor. Refinement is great, but it’s quiet. Samsung needs a moment that makes people who’ve ignored foldables for seven years suddenly pay attention. A new shape might be exactly that – or it might be a footnote. We’ll see Wednesday.
The crease. If Apple’s whole pitch is “no crease” and Samsung still has a visible one, that’s the single comparison every reviewer will make in the fall. Samsung knows it.
Software that earns the screen. The hardware’s been good for a while. The multitasking and large-screen software has always lagged the ambition. This is where Apple, with its app ecosystem (and iMessage), could actually leapfrog on day one.
That’s the real drama Wednesday. Not “what are the specs” – we mostly know the specs from leaks. It’s “does Samsung make a case compelling enough to matter before Apple shows up?”
📅 So what should you actually do?
If you’ve been foldable-curious, this is a genuinely interesting seven-week window, and there are really only three moves:
Buy Samsung now. You get a mature, refined foldable you can hold this week, almost certainly for less than Apple’s, without waiting until fall (or later, if Apple’s supply is as tight as some expect).
Wait for Apple. If you’re deep in the Apple ecosystem, waiting makes sense – but know that you’re buying a first-generation product, at a higher price, possibly in short supply, against a rival that’s on its eighth iteration.
Wait and watch. Let both land, read the real reviews (ours included), and decide in the fall with everything on the table.
There’s no wrong answer. But there’s a real case – a better one than usual – for not waiting this time.
→ Rumored Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8
→ Rumored Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra
→ Rumored Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8
→ Rumored Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra 2
→ Rumored Samsung Galaxy Watch 9
👀 What’s next from The Shortcut
I didn’t fly all the way to London to stop at a speculation article. I’ll be at Galaxy Unpacked to get hands-on time with the all-but-confirmed foldable phones the way I do at every Samsung event – first impressions, the shape, the cameras, and honest thoughts on whether it holds up against what Apple’s about to do. From there, The Shortcut team will be putting the phones through their paces for weeks, including a head-to-head with everything we know about the iPhone Fold.
And if you’re leaning toward buying, there’s a right way and a wrong way to do it on launch day – how to get the genuinely best deal, which bundles are actually worth it, and how to dodge Samsung’s launch-day website meltdown.
→ Rumored Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8
→ Rumored Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra
→ Rumored Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8
→ Rumored Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra 2
→ Rumored Samsung Galaxy Watch 9
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I have been an apple user since the iPhone 4s. Last October I switched to the Samsung Fold 7 and haven't looked back. I was so deep in Apple's ecosystem I didn't know how it would go switching. I'm on quite a few reddit threads discussing foldables, Samsung and apple.. Hardly do I ever see people who own foldables actually care about the crease. I think it's a big favor for people making the switch especially with a $2k pricetag BUT once you get one and use it daily, the crease is the least of my worries. Don't get me wrong I can't wait to see a creaseless foldable, in my eyes Samsung should've focused more on the battery in the fold. I personally think 4400 mAh in 2026 is unacceptable. I kept seeing people say it's great even for "power users", either their definition or my definition is different on "power users" because I blow through battery like nobodies business. I probably charge 2-3 times a day and although it charges fast, it still sucks having to carry a portable charger, or sit by an outlet while your phone overheats. I can't wait to see what the fold8 brings but I don't know if Apple's fold is enough to make me switch back.