hoangbre@gmail.com
We’ve waited several years for Samsung to join the party, but it’s finally here: Samsung has followed rivals like Oppo, OnePlus, and Honor in building a thinner, lighter, and sleeker Galaxy Z Fold 7. It’s an impressive feat of engineering and a major upgrade over previous years.
It’s easy to consider the Fold 7 nothing more than an update to the Galaxy Z Fold 6, but in many ways, it feels like a huge step forward, not just for Samsung but for all folding phones. I spent a few hours with the Galaxy Z Fold 7 in an exclusive preview, and here’s why I absolutely love what Samsung has done this year.
Thinner and lighter make for a stunning phone
Like the Oppo Find N5 and Honor Magic V5, the Z Fold 7 is impressively thin. It measures 4.2 mm when unfolded and 8.9 mm when folded. The latter makes it virtually the same thickness as the Galaxy S25 Ultra, which delivers on Samsung’s goal of offering a flagship Ultra bar phone that unfolds.
To achieve this goal, Samsung abandoned the tall and narrow Galaxy Z Fold design in favor of a wider front screen that resembles a regular phone. It’s now 5mm wider at 64.9mm, but still narrower than its chief rivals. That’s not the only change: the Fold 7 unfolds to an 8-inch main display that’s gorgeous and bright and one of the biggest among the best folding phones.
Samsung deserves particular credit for being able almost to remove the crease. It’s still visible — and I’m not sure if we’ll ever have a creaseless folding phone — but they’ve completely removed the divot that existed in previous generations. This means when you run your finger over the screen, it no longer feels like you’re traversing a ditch.
The Galaxy Z Fold 7 is 24 grams lighter than the Z Fold 6, and 26% thinner, bringing it in line with its chief rivals. It’s so light that it’s 3 grams lighter than the Galaxy S25 Ultra, and despite being 0.8mm thicker, it feels thinner as well. This is partially thanks to the Armor FlexHinge, featuring a water droplet design and multi-rail structure that has been re-engineered to disperse stress and protect display integrity. The only part that’s thicker? The ultra-thin glass layer on the main display is now 50% thicker.
A Galaxy S25 Edge… that unfolds
In many ways, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 is more like a Galaxy S25 Edge that unfolds. It’s supremely thin and, by far, the sleekest phone that Samsung has ever made, especially in the outstanding Blue Shadow colorway.
It also features the same 200MP main camera as the Galaxy S25 Edge, and both are 18% smaller than the same sensor in the S25 Ultra. There’s also the same 12MP ultra-wide sensor we’ve seen on many Samsung phones, although this one finally has autofocus and supports macro photography.
There’s a 10MP telephoto lens with 3x optical zoom, which was also used in the Z Fold 6. While the 200MP main camera is a welcome improvement, I would have preferred that Samsung opted for higher resolutions across the other lenses, like Honor has done with the Magic V5. That said, I look forward to testing this camera over the coming weeks.
Flagship specs, but a smaller battery
Like every Samsung flagship this year, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy processor. It’s a customized version of the Snapdragon 8 Elite used by other phones, but it features a higher clock speed and has supposedly been optimized for Galaxy experiences. This is paired with 12GB or 16GB of RAM, depending on which storage option you pick.
The Snapdragon 8 Elite is a powerhouse flagship processor that offers incredible performance, but consumes more battery. Despite the thin body and its rivals using Silicon Carbon battery technology, Samsung has stuck with Lithium-Ion, and the Z Fold 7 has a 4,400 mAh battery that’s 250 mAh smaller than the Z Fold 6. This is paired with the same 25W charging found on the S25 Edge, and although it has wireless charging, you need the official case to get the Qi 2.1 fastest charging speeds.
Like every Samsung phone, you can also expect excellent hardware internals, including Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6.0, multi-band GPS, and more.
Android 16… out of the box
Software is where Samsung phones have seen significant improvement over the past few years, and One UI 8 is Samsung’s best software yet. The Galaxy Z Fold 7 runs Android 16 out of the box, and it will feature seven years of software and security updates. This means it’ll get an update to at least Android 23.
One UI 8 comes with all the usual Galaxy AI and Gemini features that we’ve come to expect from Samsung phones, but also adds Gemini Live and the ability to move the AI results window to different parts of the screen. You can also drag and drop AI-generated content between different apps in multi-window. For gamers, Circle to Search now works in mid-game, enabling you to utilize it for character builds, map walkthroughs, game tips and tricks, and more.
There are also some features designed to improve your photos and videos. Photo Assist shows the original alongside your edit on the big screen. The generative edit features have been improved to suggest people or objects to erase with just a single tap. Then there’s Audio Eraser, which lets you detect and remove unwanted background noise with just a single tap.
Samsung’s multi-window multitasking remains as good as it has been in previous years, but it doesn’t utilize a larger screen like the OnePlus Open and Oppo Find N5 do. However, One UI 8 does remove something: the S-Pen. While previous Folds supported the S-Pen on the main screen, the Oppo Find N5 has pen support on both screens. In contrast, the Z Fold 7 has no stylus support on either screen. There are probably only a few people who will be upset by this, and I’m not even one of them, but it’s worth keeping this in mind if you use the S-Pen.
The nicest Samsung folding phone ever made
The Galaxy Z Fold 7 is undoubtedly the nicest folding phone that Samsung has ever made. It’s outstanding in the hand, and like the Galaxy S25 Edge, you need to hold it to truly appreciate its beauty.
It comes in three colors — Jet Black, Silver Shadow, and this gorgeous Blue Shadow that will be widely available. Like previous years, there’s also exclusive color,s but this year there’s just one: Mint. By far, my favorite is the blue shadow color!
The Galaxy Z Fold 7 brings Samsung into the modern era of folding phones, representing a challenge for all its competitors. However, this doesn’t come cheap: at a starting price of $2000, it’s the most expensive Galaxy Fold yet. This is definitely worth the $100 premium over the Fold 6, but it’s still an expensive device, although you can save up to $1,100 with some of the best deals in the US.
