Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 review
I wasn’t expecting to love Samsung’s latest foldable phone, the Galaxy Z Fold 8, as much as I did – but I do.
A lot, actually.
When I went to a preview media event in Auckland, New Zealand, a month or so ago, I couldn’t really get much of an impression of it as I only had the Z Fold 8 (and its larger sibling the Z Fold Ultra) in my hands for a few scant minutes – then I left and carried on with my week, barely thinking about them.
Fast forward to now (early August at the time of writing this) and the Fold 8 has been my daily driver for the past two weeks, and honestly, the more I used it, the more I just about liked everything about it.
Form is everything, well almost.
The Z Fold’s small form factor when folded – 81.9mm (w) x 123.9mm (h) x 9.7mm (thickness) – means it can fit in my front trouser pocket without causing uncomfortableness, when unfolded its 7.6-inch AMOLED screen makes consuming video content a delight (I used it to watch downloaded Netflix shows and YouTube videos during a flight to Nelson recently), and it seems almost indestructible, surviving a 28kg Samoyed dog stepping on the screen for a few scant seconds (by accident, of course) and a drop from a cinema seat onto a wooden floor.
The more time I spent with the Z Fold 8, the more I questioned the much larger Galaxy S25+ that I’d recently bought. However, there’s one big factor that my S25+ has over the Z Fold 8 … but more on that later.
Under the hood of the Galaxy Z Fold 8
Powered by a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy CPU, the Z Fold 8 packs 16Gb of memory and comes in 256Gb, 512Gb and 1Tb variants. It comes with all the features you’d expect in a high-end smartphone: Solid cameras, fast performance, great battery life. It even includes a rock solid fingerprint reader embedded into the power on/off button on the right hand side (underneath the volume rocker). All the bells and whistles.
At the aforementioned media event, Samsung proudly proclaimed how the Z Fold 8 Ultra was the same size as a passport. Well, I measured the Fold 8 against my passport and it’s also roughly around the same size as my NZ passport, although it’s actually narrower.
Unfolded, its dimensions are 161.4mm x 123.9mm x 4.5mm.
The device’s front display sits at 5.5-inches, with an aspect ratio of 10:16, but open it up and the screen expands to 7.6-inches with a 4:3 aspect ratio, which means it’s ideal for bingeing on Netflix or YouTube videos. Both screens offer a super smooth 120Hz refresh rate.
The smarts in the moving parts.
Something that impressed me – and friends that held the Z Fold 8, too, – was the fold itself is barely perceptible. I had to actually squint to see a faint hint of the hinge. It’s mighty impressive.
The screen apparently has a titanium film underneath the screen that allows for a thinner screen and allows for smoothing unfolding/folding (and probably more protection from the right front paw of a large dog). The screen has a maximum brightness of 3,000 nits.
They’ve also managed to somehow squeeze a 4,800mAh battery into a device that is just 45mm thin – and the battery life is excellent: I got a couple of days (perhaps more) with fairly standard usage before having to charge the battery back to full capacity.
The cameras do a decent job of photos and video, too – the outdoorsy images in this review were taken on the Z Fold 8, including a couple utilising the zoom functionality.
OK, any faults? A big one is the wobble when you put the phone down, camera bump first, on a flat surface. The Z Fold 8 has more wobble than a perfectly set jelly so if you’re planning on picking one up I’d suggest a case that will reduce that rocking.
I bought my near new S25+ for half that.
Probably the biggest thing holding me back buying a Z Fold 8 is the price. The 256Gb storage variant that I reviewed will set you back around $3,009 NZD. As much as I love the phone, that’s an insane amount of money for an average Joe to spend on a new phone, no matter how good it is.
Putting the price aside for a minute (and many people have if the pre-order figures around the world were anything to go by), I think Samsung has struck gold with the Galaxy Z Fold 8 and has put other big phone makers on notice with a foldable that has amazing screens, a friendly form factor, great performance and dependable battery life.
Alas, parting is such sweet sorrow.
As I finish writing this, the review unit has been carefully packed into its padded courier bag and will be back with the PR company by now – and I’m back to using my S25+, which, by the way, I think is an awesome phone, by the way.
That said, I’m sure I’ll think fondly of the Z Fold 8 every time I squeeze the larger S25+ into a trouser pocket.
The review unit was loaned to Koru Cottage by Samsung New Zealand’s PR company for a two week trial period.
