Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold8 is a Passport-Sized Smartphone That Puts a Tablet in Your Hands, Perfect iPhone Ultra Alternative

Samsung spent countless hours stretching book-style foldables taller and slimmer. Galaxy Z Fold8, priced at $1,649.99 (was $1,900), goes the other direction, folding into a short, wide slab that sits in a pocket like a passport and opens into a 7.6-inch screen built for movies, books, and two apps at once. Folded, the phone measures 123.9 by 81.9 by 9.7 millimeters and weighs 201 grams, light enough that reviewers keep comparing it to a regular flagship rather than a hinge-and-glass experiment. Opened, the body thins to 4.5 millimeters. Armor aluminum, Gorilla Glass Victus Ceramic 3 on the cover, and an IP48 rating (dust over 1 millimeter, 1.5 meters of water for 30 minutes) keep the package from feeling fragile after a month of daily carry.

A 5.5-inch Dynamic LTPO AMOLED 2X panel with 1248 by 1972 resolution, 428 pixels per inch, and a refresh rate of 1-to-120 Hz takes care of the cover duty. That outer screen is wide enough for two-thumb typing and social feeds, short enough that some testers shrink fonts to see more at once. Most people continue to rely on it for 80 percent of their daily needs. When unfolded, you’ll find a 7.6-inch inner panel with a resolution of 1848 by 2448, approximately 403 ppi, HDR10+, and a peak brightness of 3,000 nits.

Flex Titanium has flattened the crease into a line that is only noticeable if you look for it. The aspect ratio is close to 4:3 in portrait and 16:10 in landscape, which is suitable for documents and video without the skinny-book cut that older Folds imposed on everything. Apps still stretch or letterbox from time to time, but One UI 9 on Android 17 improves on that with split view, pop-up windows, and DeX for desktop access. Seven significant OS updates are promised.


Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 Samsung Galaxy, which uses the same 3-nanometer CPU as the S26 series, drives 12 GB of RAM on the 256 GB and 512 GB variants, and 16 GB on the 1 TB version. Everyday tasks, games, and three-app setups remain zippy. Sustained loads continue to produce heat and some throttling after half an hour, therefore many owners leave the performance profile set to lighter. The battery is a 4,800 mAh silicon-carbon cell, up from 4,400 mAh last year. Mixed use across both displays results in a full day, with video playback testing lasting more than 21 hours and Samsung claiming up to 26. Wired charging is 45 watts, or approximately 63% in 30 minutes. Wireless has a power output of 20 watts, whereas reverse wireless has 4.5 watts. The cycle rating spans from 1,200 to 80 percent, making it shorter than prior Folds, which is a minor trade-off for thinner cells.


Cameras are the standout feature. The rear duo has a 50-megapixel f/1.8 main camera with OIS and in-sensor 2x, as well as a 50-megapixel f/1.9 ultrawide camera with 120-degree coverage. Both 10-megapixel selfies are at f/2.2, one on the cover and one inside. Daylight stills and 8K or 4K footage appear clear. Ultrawide attention is advantageous. There is no dedicated telephoto lens, so zooming beyond 2x is digital, and the main sensor is smaller than the 200-megapixel units on the S26 Ultra and Fold8 Ultra. This Fold is not suitable for long-range photography. The speakers are stereo, but they only fire from one side when the phone is in landscape mode, causing movies to lose breadth. The remaining features include a side fingerprint scanner, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6.0, UWB, and dual eSIM.