Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 hands-on: $100 cheaper? In this economy?!
Mind the gap: The Z Fold 8 Ultra is superb, but the new, wider Fold 8 is the most interesting foldable phone in 2026
If you’re looking to pre-order right away, here are the links:
✅ Pros
💸 $1,899 for the Z Fold 8, $100 less than the Fold 7 cost last year
🛂 4:3 inner Fold 8 screen offers a passport-like shape that feels fresh
🪨 Display’s Titanium film offers protection while reducing the crease
🪶 Fold 8 is 201g, about 14g lighter than the Fold 7
☀️ Bright 3,000-nit screen with a new anti-reflective coating
🔋 Fold 8 Ultra jumps to 5,000mAh – the Fold’s first real battery bump in years
⚡️ 45W wired charging on both Folds, nearly double the Fold 7’s 25W
🍎 Quick Share now talks to Apple’s AirDrop. Yes, really!
📸 Ultra’s ultrawide jumps from 12MP to 50MP – my #1 Fold 7 camera gripe, fixed
⚙️ Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy across the lineup
🚪 The bevels got shaved so you can actually open the thing
❌ Cons
💰 Z Fold 8 Ultra is $2,099 – Samsung’s first foldable over two grand
🔭 No telephoto on the Z Fold 8. Optical zoom is Ultra price-gated
📷 The Ultra’s 200MP main uses last year’s sensor and optics
🧲 Qi2-ready again; magnets still live in the case and not the phone
💧 IP48 for a fourth straight year
🖋️ No S Pen will anger some of you still grasping at styluses
💰 Pre-order and pricing
Pre-orders open today at Samsung, with general availability on August 7.
🛍️ The deal worth knowing: Samsung will go up to $1,200 with an eligible trade-in, or up to $200 in Samsung credit without one, toward other eligible devices when you pre-order using the links below. You might even get a $30 credit to stack on top of at pre-order.
Affiliate disclaimer: No pressure from us either way. We make a little if you use our link for almost any tech purchase, so we don’t care what you buy in the end. We want it to be the right purchase.
🔥 The Shortcut hot take
I’m at Samsung Unpacked in London right now, so pardon my pun, but: mind the Galaxy gap.
There are two gaps that matter today. The first is the one Samsung wants you to see – there’s less of a visible crease down the middle of the inner screen thanks to a new titanium film in the display. The second gap, less talked about by Samsung, is the choice you have to make – it’s a $200-wide decision that sits between the Galaxy Z Fold 8 and the Z Fold 8 Ultra.
Here’s the part that’s going to confuse everyone, including people who bought a Fold 7 twelve months ago. The Galaxy Z Fold 8 is not the Fold 7’s successor. It’s a brand-new shape: shorter, wider, passport-like, with a 4:3 screen inside that opens into something that actually behaves like a small tablet. The phone that continues the Fold you know – tall, narrow, familiar – is now called the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra. Samsung took the sequel and moved it up a price tier.
The part I didn’t see coming is the Fold 8 starts at $1,899 – $100 less than the Fold 7. Every leak for six months screamed, “price hike, memory shortage, brace yourself!” And yes, the Ultra is $2,099, which makes it the first Samsung foldable to clear two grand. But that’s not the story. The Galaxy Z Fold 8 delivers the best of Samsung’s book-style foldables for less than last year’s Fold, in a year when nothing has gotten cheaper.
After two hands-on sessions, the phone I keep reaching for is the $1,899 Fold 8. It’s just 201g, Samsung’s lightest Z Fold yet. It’s the one with the new shape – short, wide, squared-off, and genuinely nice to hold. It’s the one that opens into landscape without the wrist flick I’ve been doing since 2019. The Galaxy Z Fold 8 is the best-looking foldable Samsung has ever made.
And it isn’t the junior model. It runs the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy, the same 45W charging, the same Flex Titanium display, the same anti-reflective coating and the same 3,000-nit brightness as the Ultra. Samsung didn’t build a flagship Ultra and then a cheaper version of it. It built the most powerful foldable it’s ever made, and then added an even more interesting alternative.
So what does your extra $200 actually buy on the Ultra? A telephoto lens, a 200MP main camera, bigger screens on both sides, and an additional 200mAh. That’s the gap. It’s narrower than the “Ultra” branding suggests, and for a lot of you who have held off on buying a foldable, the Fold 8 may just be enough.
🧩 First, let’s explain the Z Fold 8 names
Read this twice, because Samsung’s own store pages are going to make you do it anyway.
📱 Galaxy Z Fold 8 – $1,899
What it is: Brand new. Short, wide, passport-shaped.
Samsung’s pitch: Immersion and discovery
Buy it if: You never bought a foldable or want to try out the new 4:3 shape
📱 Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra – $2,099
What it is: The Fold 7’s actual successor. Tall, narrow, powerful.
Samsung’s pitch: Ultra productivity and creation
Buy it if: You loved your Fold 7 and want a better sequel
If you loved your Fold 7, you want the Ultra. If the folded shape is what always stopped you, you want the Fold 8. That’s the whole decision, and it costs $200 either way.
👇 Everything you need to know
📱 Galaxy Z Fold 8: the new shape
🛂 Passport phone. Unfolded, it’s wider than it is tall. Folded, it’s about 9mm wider than the Ultra and a lot shorter. It is a genuinely different object in the hand, and the folded Cover Screen feels even more useable.
🪶 201 grams. Samsung’s lightest Z Fold yet. It’s 14g lighter than the Ultra while being a tad thicker – 4.5mm unfolded versus the Ultra’s 4.1mm. That’s the trade: Samsung spent the millimeter and bought lightness with it. Fine by me. We won the thinness war last year.
✨ It feels like the eighth one. Picking it up, nothing about it reads as experimental – the new hinge, the balance in the hand, the way the two halves meet. The Galaxy Z Fold 8 is the most refined foldable Samsung has ever built – you can feel seven generations of work in it. That’s not a small thing when the whole category still asks you to pay a premium for a first draft.
📖 4:3 changes the ritual. Here’s the underrated bit. The Fold 7’s inner screen is nearly square, which means every time you unfold it to watch something you also rotate it. The Fold 8’s 7.6-inch panel is 4:3 and it opens into landscape. Fewer black bars on 16:9 and 21:9 video than the Fold 7, not more. Turn it portrait, and you get 3:4, which Samsung pitches for reading e-books and long articles. It’s a better shape for a webpage than any Fold before it.
🤳 Cover screen finally has normal proportions. The 5.5-inch FHD+ screen with a 10:16 ratio is smaller than the Ultra’s 6.5-inch display, sure, but the real-world measurement that matters to me is the width of the keyboard. It’s more comfortable. It sits on an 81.9mm-wide body – wider than most flagship phones – and it’s closer to the right shape for TikTok and Reels without bars.
🔭 Two cameras, no telephoto. Dual 50MP – a 50MP wide with AF and OIS, and a 50MP ultrawide with autofocus. Both do 2x optical-quality zoom by cropping the sensor, then it’s digital out to 10x. There’s no dedicated telephoto lens. This is the single biggest thing you give up for the $200, and if you shoot at 3x or beyond regularly, it’s the one that should send you to the Ultra.
🔋 4,800mAh + 45W. Bigger cell than the Fold 7 in a smaller, lighter body – that’s the silicon paying off (more on that below). Samsung’s number: 63% in about 30 minutes with the 45W adapter, which is sold separately. Wireless is 20W.
🎬 My FanCam. The demo that actually landed for me. Shoot a video horizontally, then afterward pick a subject and an aspect ratio – 9:16, whatever – and it reframes the whole clip, tracking that person through the shot instead of locking to a static crop. We’re one step closer to open gate on a mobile device, something I asked Tim Cook for last fall.
📹 Dual Recording. Shoot with the rear and front cameras at once while previewing yourself on the cover screen. Genuinely useful if you make anything for a camera.
📱 Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra: the one with everything
🔋 The battery fix we’ve been asking for. Our Fold 7 review was blunt: battery life was the weakest thing about the $2,000 phone, and 25W charging in 2025 didn’t help. Both are fixed. The Ultra moves to a 5,000mAh cell – the same size Samsung puts in the S26 Ultra – with a new dual-path charging architecture and 45W wired, good for about 67% in 30 minutes. Wireless is 20W, just like the Fold 8.
🔬 There’s silicon in the battery now. This is the detail I didn’t expect and the one I’d underline. Samsung told us it’s incorporating silicon into these batteries for the first time – but deliberately a small amount, not the aggressive silicon-carbon chemistry Chinese brands have been shipping for two generations. Samsung’s reasoning, more or less directly: it’s watched rivals push silicon content high and run into swelling and battery longevity problems, so it’s easing in. The payoff is a physically smaller cell for the same capacity, which is how you get 5,000mAh into a 4.1mm phone. Our Fold 7 review specifically dinged Samsung for not doing this while OnePlus did. Consider it a starting point.
📸 Ultrawide finally grew up. The Fold 7’s 12MP ultrawide was our biggest camera complaint – it fell apart at night, and we said so. The Ultra now runs a 50MP ultrawide with autofocus, which also unlocks better macro. Improved Nightography across the board, and 8K video through a new APV codec with Cine LUT for color grading on-device.
📷 But the 200MP is mostly untouched. I asked about this, and Samsung confirmed it in a Q&A: the 200MP main uses the same sensor and the same optics as last year. What’s new is processing – HDR now works in full 200MP mode. The 10MP 3x telephoto carries over, along with 30x Space Zoom. So the real camera news here is the ultrawide and the video tools, not the headline megapixel number.
🪨 Flex Titanium. Samsung swapped the polymer film inside the display for a new titanium alloy film – thinner and tougher – on top of the titanium plate that was already under there. Samsung’s own framing on the crease, when pushed: there’s definitely an improvement year over year, but they wouldn’t say there’s no crease. That’s a refreshingly honest answer and it matches what I saw.
🚪 It opens now. The Fold 7 was so thin it was genuinely annoying to pry open sometimes – we said so, and apparently we weren’t alone. Flex Titanium let Samsung rebalance the hinge mechanics, display tension and magnetic force so it opens more naturally.
🌡️ An actual answer on heat. The Fold 7 ran a bit warm at times, so the Ultra 8 gets an expanded graphite cooling structure for better thermal conductivity. Whether that holds up under a real workload is exactly what we’re testing in our full review.
☀️ Brightest screen Samsung’s made. 3,000 nits peak, up from the Fold 7’s 2,600, plus the low-reflection finish and Vision Booster. Samsung was so bullish on this improvement that it had side-by-side demos showing the anti-reflection chops.
📏 Slimmest Fold ever, barely. 4.1mm unfolded, down from 4.2mm. Folded, it’s 8.9mm and 215g, both the same as the Fold 7. Samsung was upfront that this is a refinement year on the form factor – last year was the leap.
🖋️ And the S Pen? Still gone. Not on the Ultra, not on the Fold 8, not anywhere. I know that stings, and I’ve wanted it back too. But here’s the trade nobody’s polling for: getting the stylus back means putting the digitizer layer back into the display, and that’s the layer Samsung pulled to get the Fold down to 4.1mm. If you need the stylus, the Galaxy S26 Ultra is still your phone – until digitizers get thin enough.
🤖 The AI stuff worth caring about
👀 Gemini in a window. Gemini’s app automation now works across 40+ apps and services, and on the big screen it runs in a pop-up you can minimize instead of eating the whole display. It reads what’s already on screen, so you can point it at a poster with event details and tell it to find tickets.
📓 Gemini Notebook pulls notes, recordings, images and files into one workspace and turns them into audio overviews, reports, or meeting recaps – with drag-and-drop into Split view, which is the part that actually justifies a folding screen.
📰 Now Brief & Now Nudge. Now Brief gets customizable cards and now surfaces security and privacy insights. Now Nudge spots plans forming in a conversation and offers the next step – checking a schedule, finding a place – and on a foldable you can keep the conversation open side by side.
📱 Galaxy Z Flip 8
Samsung’s slimmest and lightest Flip – 6.1mm unfolded, 180g. Same Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 as its bigger siblings. 4,300mAh, 25W wired, 15W wireless. 50MP main with ProVisual Engine, 12MP ultrawide. The FlexWindow got rebuilt as an AI-native cover screen with Now Brief on the home view and Gemini automation from the side key. New tricks: Super Steady with Horizontal Lock, a Camcorder Grip with zoom rocker, and FlipShot for mirror selfies. $1,199.99, up $100.
💰 What everything costs
Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra – $2,099 · Violet Shadow, Cream, Graphite, Green Shadow (Samsung.com exclusive) · 256GB / 512GB / 1TB
Galaxy Z Fold 8 – $1,899 · Lavender, Cream, Graphite, Pistachio (Samsung.com exclusive) · 256GB / 512GB / 1TB
Galaxy Z Flip 8 – $1,199 · Pink, Cream, Graphite, Mint (Samsung.com exclusive) · 256GB / 512GB
Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 – $699
Galaxy Watch 9 – $379 Bluetooth, $429 LTE
All three phones ship with a six-month Google AI Pro trial, including 5TB of storage
🧮 The math: the Fold 8 Ultra is up $100 from the Fold 7. The Flip 8 is up $100 from the Flip 7. The Fold 8 is down $100 from the Fold 7 – but it’s also a different phone with a smaller screen and one fewer camera, so it’s less a price cut than a new rung on the ladder.
💳 Samsung also launched a Samsung Galaxy Card with Barclays this week: no annual fee, 5% cash rewards on Samsung purchases, and $200 in bonus rewards after $2,000 spent in the first 90 days. Applications open to everyone today.
🍎 The story nobody’s going to lead with
Buried in the back half of the announcement: Quick Share now works with AirDrop. You can send from a Galaxy into an iPhone, and receive an AirDrop into Quick Share. That’s it. That’s the feature.
It’s part of a broader switching overhaul that also means iPhone-to-Galaxy transfers work by scanning a QR code – no installing Smart Switch on the iPhone first – and now carry passwords and passkeys, call history, accessibility settings, and eSIM data.
I’ve been doing this job long enough to tell you that a working AirDrop bridge matters to more people than any megapixel on this page. It’s also too big to bury in a hands-on, so we’ll be writing about it for our Substack subscribers this week.
Related: Our iPhone Fold rumors coverage
⌚️ Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 and Watch 9
⌚️ Watch Ultra 2 (47mm) – $699. The headline is the battery: 800mAh, a 35% jump over the last Ultra, rated up to 60 hours with the always-on display running. The 1.52-inch screen hits 5,000 nits, which Samsung says is a first for any smartwatch. It’s also 12% thinner than the previous generation despite the bigger cell. Titanium casing, 10ATM, IP69K, MIL-STD-810H and EN13319 dive certification, and a diving app built with Mares coming later this year. Titanium Silver or Titanium Gray.
⌚️ Watch 9 – $379 Bluetooth, $429 LTE. 40mm (390mAh) or 44mm (445mAh), up to 30 hours with AOD on, 3,000 nits, aluminum case. Graphite/Cream at 40mm, Graphite/Silver at 44mm.
Both run Wear OS 7 with One UI 9 Watch on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Wear Elite, and both carry the same BioActive sensor stack with Sleep Apnea detection, Vitals, Heart Health Score, Daily Cardio Load and Fitness Index. Pre-orders start today, general availability August 7.
Also see: Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Wear Elite is the biggest smartwatch chip upgrade in 3 years
👓 One more thing: Samsung confirmed the glasses
Tucked into the AI section of Samsung’s press release is a reference to pairing the new Galaxy Z series with “upcoming Intelligent Eyewear.” That’s the first time Samsung has put its smart glasses in an official launch document. No date, no name, no specs – but it’s no longer a rumor. I’ll have updates if I get to try them on at Unpacked.
🤔 So, which one?
Get the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra if…
✅ You’re coming from a Fold 5 or 6 – the battery and charging jump alone justifies it
✅ You actually use zoom (it’s the only one with a telephoto)
✅ You want the biggest screens on both sides
Get the Galaxy Z Fold 8 if…
✅ You held out for a wider, more pleasing foldable shape
✅ You mostly watch, read, and scroll on your phone
✅ You want the lightest one, and $200 back
Skip both if…
❌ You need an S Pen (the Galaxy S26 Ultra is still your only option)
❌ You’re on a Fold 7 and don’t care about the ultrawide upgrade
❌ You want to see Apple’s foldable first. Fair – and here’s why this week matters so much because of it
⬇️ More Galaxy Z8 Unpacked coverage
Galaxy Z Fold 8 colors: hands-on with all 4 snazzy new finishes
Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra colors: hands-on with all 4 premium finishes
Galaxy Z Flip 8 colors: hands-on with all 4 fun new finishes
Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra vs Z Fold 8: which foldable is the right fit for you?
Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra vs Z Fold 7: should you upgrade to the latest version?