Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8 Review

The Flip 7 spent a year as the clamshell to buy, and the Flip 8 is that phone with a better chip and a higher price. The American model drops the Exynos 2500 for the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, ending the odd year in which a Samsung flagship ran slower silicon than the Fold sold beside it, and the main panel is brighter. The hinge is refined, the crease is shallower than the Razr's, and at 180 grams and 13.1 millimetres folded it is the most pocketable phone Samsung makes.

Everything else is carried over. The 4.1-inch cover screen is the same size and shape as last year's, and still needs Good Lock installed before it will run ordinary apps, which remains an absurd thing to be true in 2026. The cameras are the same 50-megapixel main and 12-megapixel ultrawide, good in daylight and ordinary after dark, with no telephoto. The battery is still 4300 mAh and charging is still 25W, which needs about an hour and reads badly next to clamshells taking 45W and more. Flex Titanium, the layer that flattened the Fold 8's crease, did not reach this phone.

Seven years of Android and security updates remain the best promise in the class. The price is now $1,199, a hundred more than last year for a phone that does very little more.