Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Review

Eight generations in, Samsung stopped making the Fold taller and made it wider. Closed, the Z Fold 8 is a 5.5-inch rectangle shaped roughly like a passport; open, the inner panel is 7.6 inches at 4:3 instead of the near-square of the Fold 7. The effect on reading, maps and side by side apps is larger than the numbers suggest, and the folded body is easier to hold in one hand than a tall foldable of the same area. At 201 grams and 9.7 millimetres folded it undercuts the Fold 7, which was already the first Fold most people could carry.

The hardware underneath finally moved. The battery goes to 4800 mAh and charging to 45W, after four generations stuck at 4400 mAh and 25W, and the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy is the quickest chip Samsung sells. One UI 9 on Android 17 carries the seven-year update promise, and Flex Titanium flattens the crease further than any Samsung foldable before it.

Then there is the camera. The Fold 8 ships with a 50-megapixel main and a 50-megapixel ultrawide and nothing else: the telephoto is gone, held back for the Fold 8 Ultra above it. At $1,899 that is a hole no digital crop fills, and it is why the cheaper Fold is the harder one to recommend. IP48 still covers water and not dust.