Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8 review – the smartphone to open the floodgates for new foldable users

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8 is literally changing the shape of smartphones and has provided a more accessible gateway for customers to graduate to a foldable device.

For eight years Samsung’s foldable devices have looked like regular smartphones and won a loyal band of customers who have stayed true to the form factor.

But it wasn’t for everyone – until now.

The new Galaxy Z Fold8 is smaller and shaped like a passport and is a lot more approachable for customers who had never considered a foldable smartphone before.

Many have found the previous models to be too big or too advanced to suit their needs.

Tech Guide has been using the Galaxy Z Fold8 for more than two weeks as our daily driver and have enjoyed the experience and the choices the device gives you on how you can consume your content.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8 officially goes on sale this week and is priced from $2,699.

DESIGN

The first thing you notice is that new passport shape of the front 5.5-inch front screen.

It is shorter but wider than a regular smartphone display.

This comes in handy with the Z Fold8 because it makes it easier to do your everyday tasks like messaging an email right from that front screen.

And at this size it is comfortable to hold in your hand and easily fits in your pocket or bag.

It weighs just 201g when folded it is 123.9mm long and 81mm wide and 9.7mm thick.

When unfolded it is 123.9mm long, 161.4mm wide, and 4.5mm thick.

Even in the folded position the device is still fairly thin and not much thicker than a regular smartphone.

Galaxy Z Fold8 is easy to open and it smoothly unfolds to reveal the inside 7.6-inch display.

That’s all thanks to Samsung’s latest hinge design and its new Flex Titanium display that not only makes the screen more durable but enhances the quality as well.

And you can hardly see the crease when the screen is unfolded.

It has a fingerprint reader on the right edge below a volume rocker and a USB-C port on the bottom edge for fast charging.

On the rear panel is a small camera bump to fit the two 50MP cameras.

And the device has been built rugged with armour aluminium as well as Corning Gorilla Glass Ceramic 3 to easily handle the daily grind.

It also has an IP48 rating, which is enough water resistance to protect it against accidental spills and splashes.

DISPLAYS

One of the complaints we had about the previous Fold devices was that the long narrow front screen didn’t provide us with enough room to comfortably type out our messages, which forced us to open the device to complete those easy tasks.

The bright and sharp front screen offers enough space to type while still offering enough room to see the message or email you’re replying to.

The front display of the Z Fold8 is about 5mm wider than the Galaxy S26 Ultra but is about 40mm shorter.

It doesn’t take long to get used to this new size and shape. We took to it pretty quickly.

We appreciated that wider front screen because we could do all those day-to-day tasks, viewing notifications and message replies without having to open the device.

It’s also still a comfortable size to scroll social media, look through our image gallery, and do everything else you would normally do with a regular size smartphone.

In some cases, especially when viewing social media, the front screen could barely fit one post on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.

But the great thing about it was if we wanted to view things on a larger scale, all we had to do was open the device.

The inside 7.6-inch display has a 4:3 aspect ratio.

This means when you’re holding it in landscape it’s ideal for viewing video content.

Watching YouTube or streaming a show nearly fills the entire screen and delivers a result that’s even bigger than watching that same content on a regular smartphone held in landscape mode.

In fact, viewing a video on the Z Fold8 produces a larger image than you would see on the Fold8 Ultra. This is due to the Fold8 Ultra’s square inside screen that offers the same result no matter how you hold it.

That’s one advantage the Z Fold8 holds over the Fold8 Ultra.

It’s a 4:3 aspect ratio, which means that you can, like a regular smartphone, enjoy a landscape mode as well as portrait mode.

So if you want to read a book, scroll social media or browse a website on the Z Fold8, you simply turn it sideways to better display the content you’re enjoying.

It’s like having three screens in one.

And if you need to type with the device unfolded, the keyboard is a lot larger and adjusts whether you’re holding it in landscape or portrait mode.

There are still some apps that haven’t been fully adjusted for this new screen aspect ratio but we were still getting a bigger result than a regular smartphone.

MULTITASKING

The other advantage of having a larger display is the ability to run several apps at the same time.

We often had more than one app running on the larger inside screen so we could easily multitask.

There were times when we needed information from one app to use in an email or a message so being able have them side by side made it a whole lot easier.

Probably the best use of multitasking for us was recently at Optus Stadium in Perth when we were able to use our camera to shoot video on a pitch walk while viewing the the South Sydney Rabbitohs v Parramatta Eels match on Kayo Sports.

PERFORMANCE

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8 is powered by a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 Mobile Platform for Galaxy chip.

Performance-wise the Z Fold8 did not skip a beat.

It was snappy and our apps opened instantly.

We were also able to switch between them in a split second and run them at the same time without any issues.
The chip offers enhanced CPU, GPU, NPU and AI performance has been designed to offer power-efficiency.

The new One UI 9 operating system was also smooth and easy to navigate.

CAMERA

On the camera side the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8 two 50MP cameras on the rear panel to capture detail across wide and ultra-wide perspectives.

It also has a 10MP selfie camera on the 5.5-inch display and another 10MP selfie camera on the inside display.

There is also a mode to allow users to take selfies with the main cameras and use the front display to frame yourself.

The two 50MP cameras are quite capable and can capture some amazing images.

You don’t have the higher megapixel value of the Fold8 Ultra but that doesn’t stop users from capturing excellent pictures and shooting great video.

You can shoot 8K video at up to 30 frames per second on the Fold8, 4K at 30 or 60fps along with full HD and HD resolutions.

Another favourite feature was Dual Recording, where we were able to shoot video from the main cameras and the selfie camera at the same time.

This makes it possible to share your reaction to whatever you’re looking at whether it’s celebrating your team’s try or proudly watching your child while they are playing sport or performing.

You can choose to have the windows side by side, one on top of the other or inset.

We can tell you now the camera system of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8 is more than adequate to cover your photography needs.

BATTERY

The device has a 4,800mAh silicon carbon battery for enhanced performance and longer use.

And we can testify to the fact that it easily runs an entire day even when we’re using it as our daily driver and viewing the inside and outside screen constantly.

The Z Fold8 is a device that you will tend to use more to view content on that larger display.

We couldn’t keep our hands off it to watch various types of content wherever we were.

But despite this high use the battery performed admirably and got us through not only to the evening but also into the next day before we needed to think about charging.

THINGS WE DIDN’T LIKE

There’s lot to like about Galaxy Z Fold8 but having a phone of this size and shape does present some challenges.
Some apps don’t display properly on the smaller front screen with the bottom portion of some screens cut off and inaccessible. Most times opening the app on the larger inside screen helped us get around that.

Without a case, the Z Fold8 is not very grippy so be careful it doesn’t slip out of your hands.

Speaking of cases we think it would be a good idea to not only use a case to protect the device but to also look for a case with a stand to allow users to enjoy the larger screen hands-free.

The new Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8 is also expensive with prices starting from $2,699 for the 256GB variant.

But that new 256GB starting memory is double what was offered on previous foldable displays.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8 goes on sale this week.

VERDICT

The new Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8 is a standout new product that establishes a whole new size, style and shape to take smartphones into the future. The Z Fold8 will be the onramp for many new mainstream customers to experience the delights of Samsung’s foldable form factor. And there will be no turning back.