Hands on: Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 review

One of 2024's biggest surprise hits had to be the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6. This five-star handset proved to be a superb handset for those who value picture and sound performance, and it had plenty of quality features to back up its AV prowess.

Likewise, this year's Galaxy S25 Ultra scored Samsung an additional five-star review, thanks to the excellent Pro Scaler video upscaling feature, which won us over with its crisp and contrast-rich performance.

So, you can imagine our excitement when Samsung announced the latest addition to its Galaxy Z Fold series, which incorporates many of the features we raved about in our S25 Ultra review.

The Galaxy Z Fold 7, to which we've been treated to an early sneak peek ahead of today's announcement, is said device – and it could be the smartphone for film enthusiasts, providing they have relatively deep pockets.

Price and availability

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 will launch later this month starting at £1799; that's the same starting price as the currently available Z Fold 6.

That will bag you the 256GB model with 12GB of RAM, however there is also a 512GB/12GB model for £1899 and a 1TB version with 16GB of RAM for a wallet-crunching £2149.

Samsung is offering a handy pre-order offer which will allow prospective buyers to double their storage for no additional cost. However, that does mean being an early adopter for this pricey new handset.

Build

Samsung's new foldable smartphone is absurdly slender; so much so that it outshines the recently released Galaxy S25 Edge. It's just 8.9mm when folded or just 4.2mm when unfolded; it's barely thicker than the USB-C socket on the bottom of the device.

In the hand, the phone feels even more futuristic than its predecessor, with an astoundingly thin side profile and a smooth new Armour Flex Hinge with a "multi-rail structure", according to Samsung.

This makes the folding action feel even slicker, and when the handset is folded, it's uncannily similar to the Galaxy S25 Ultra.

Despite being razor thin, the handset still feels comfortable in the hand. This is likely because it weighs just 215g, while the matte glass rear panel adds some much-needed grip to the large handset.

It's also set to be tougher than its predecessor, with a new under-display titanium lattice which should provide enhanced rigidity, as well as Corning's Gorilla Glass Victus 2 and Ceramic 2 coatings on the glass for better drop protection.

Furthermore, Samsung has outfitted the device with its new Advanced Aluminium Armour metal chassis, which also makes it more robust.

Samsung is offering the device in a variety of eye-catching shades, including Jetblack, Silver Shadow, and the striking Blue Shadow that we spent the majority of time with in our hands-on demo with the phone. There will also be a Mint Green finish available through Samsung's official website.

Features

Samsung has taken an uncompromising approach to stuffing its phones full to the brim with features in recent years, and the new Z Fold 7 is no exception.

Regardless of your chosen storage specification, you'll get the Snapdragon Elite for Galaxy chipset. This is Qualcomm's latest and greatest flagship processor with a slightly higher clock speed, as evidenced by the "for Galaxy" suffix.

The high-performance internals power the Android 15 operating system, with Samsung's One UI 8 system running over the top.

This processor allows for the inclusion of the well-established Galaxy AI feature suite, which includes the generative edit photo tools, live translation for phone calls and texting, writing suggestion tools, and Circle to Search with Google.

However, there is one feature in particular that we're pleased to see make a return. Pro Scaler, which launched with the Galaxy S25 Ultra, has officially made its way to the Z Fold series, with video upscaling – which Samsung says was developed in tandem with its 8K TV division.

This allows the handset to upscale lower-resolution content to suit the handset's Quad HD display. Speaking of displays, the Z Fold 7 sports a new 6.5-inch 21:9 aspect ratio cover screen and a larger 8-inch inside display – both of which use Samsung's Dynamic AMOLED 2X panel technology with a variable refresh rate up to 120Hz and can reach a claimed 2600 nits peak brightness.

These HDR-enabled displays use Samsung's HDR10+ format, and Dolby Atmos immersive audio is supported via the stereo speakers (comprising a downward-firing loudspeaker and an earpiece) and through headphones.

Elsewhere, the Z Fold 7 features a new main camera, the same 200MP main shooter that's on the S25 Ultra, as well as an upgraded 12MP ultrawide lens with autofocus, which doubles as a macro lens.

Interestingly, Samsung has abandoned the under-display selfie camera on the main screen, deciding that the performance tradeoff for an invisible front-facing camera was no longer worthwhile.

Finally, the Z Fold 7 sports a battery with the same 4400mAh capacity as its predecessor. However, Samsung claims that it has improved battery life through AI-backed software optimisation.

Picture

Here is where we should remind you that any assessments made regarding the picture and sound performance of this handset are by no means final; we saw the Z Fold 7 in a brightly lit space with no reference device on hand, and with no access to streaming services.

However, we do have a couple of early impressions regarding the picture performance. The good news is that the Z Fold 7 appears to carry forward much of what we liked from its predecessor.

We used YouTube to watch clips from the upcoming Fantastic Four: First Steps film, as well as the trailers for Superman, Predator: Badlands and the latest season of The Bear.

Throughout, we deduced that the Z Fold 7 appears to deliver a crisp, rich image with impressively balanced yet eye-catching colours.

Detail levels seemed to be impressive, and contrast also seemed to be solid. These last two positive aspects were also found on the Galaxy S25 Ultra, so we presume that this is the ProScaler at work.

We notice that the 8-inch main display features a lot of wasted space when watching 16:9 and 18:9 content, which is something that can't be avoided due to the aspect ratio of the internal display.

This is where the cover screen makes up some unexpected AV ground, as its 21:9 aspect ratio is perfect for watching cinematic content.

It appears to share the same characteristics as the main display, though we're willing to admit that those looking to purchase this phone will probably want to use the expansive 8-inch main display, and reasonably so.

Sound

Due to the nature of the environment in which we had our early look at this device, we didn't manage to conduct any sort of worthwhile sound testing with the device.

We did play the trailer to season four of the The Bear out loud, and could tell that the spatial separation achieved by the speakers is quite impressive. This has been a longstanding positive of the Z Fold, as the larger handset allows for plenty of physical separation between the earpiece and speaker.

We'll need to test audio performance more thoroughly using our full review process, including hooking a pair of headphones up via a USB C to 3.5mm headphone jack adapter, to draw any conclusions.

Early verdict

It's too early to say whether Samsung's new handset will outshine its impressive predecessor, but the early signs are promising.

Its futuristic, super-slim design is astounding, while the new displays are practically begging to be used for film-watching on the go, but only our full review will decide our final star rating.

MORE:

Read our full Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 review

As well as our Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra review

And our picks for the best smartphones