Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 review

Foldable phones have intrigued us for many years now, but they’ve rarely nailed the AV experience in the way we'd hoped.

Having an expanding, tablet-style display that can neatly fold away and slip into a pocket should be a sure-fire hit for us; the concept lends itself well to taking movies on the go, in theory. But there’s been one sticking point that stops us from going all-in on ditching our “slab” phones in favour of these foldables: the aspect ratio.

That all changes with the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8, which has gone more movie-focused with its screen dimensions.

That’s not to say we haven’t enjoyed previous Samsung foldable phones – the Z Fold 6 and Z Fold 7 were both impressive handsets for movies – but this totally redesigned smartphone takes Samsung’s Galaxy Z series in a whole new AV-focused direction, and it’s all the better for it.

Price

Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold smartphones have always been expensive, and the Fold 8 is no exception. At £1699 / $1899 / AU$2699 for the starting 256GB configuration, this phone is best avoided if you’re looking to stick to a strict budget.

Samsung also offers the handset in a 512GB storage option for £2069 / $2100 / AU$3299, and a 1TB option for £2239 / $2700 / AU$3599. It’s worth noting that the 1TB model is the only one to feature 16GB of RAM, while the others sport 12GB of RAM.

Interestingly, the Z Fold 8 launches at a slightly lower price than the Z Fold 7 (£1799 / $1700 / AU$2899); however, that is because the Z Fold 8 isn’t technically this year’s equivalent of the Z Fold 7. That honour goes to the Z Fold 8 Ultra, which starts at £1899 / $2099 / AU$2999.

Looking at the wider smartphone market, we reviewed the five-star Galaxy S26 Ultra at £1279 / $1300 / AU$1799, and the iPhone 17 Pro (review incoming) can be found for £1099 / $1099 / AU$1199. For a more like-for-like foldable comparison, Google’s new Pixel 11 Pro Fold starts at £1799 / $1899 / AU$2799.

Design

The Galaxy Z Fold 8 is the biggest departure from Samsung’s foldable formula to date. The slender folded and square(ish) tablet-style unfolded form factor is traded for a stockier, more compact design this year.

When folded, the Z Fold 8 takes on a passport-like shape, which is surprisingly charming and satisfying to use. The 5.5-inch cover display is ideal for brief tasks – think quickly typing out a text or finding a track on your streaming service of choice – whereas the internal 7.6-inch screen is best suited for entertainment and web browsing.

We’ll dig further into the displays shortly, but for now we have to marvel at how thin the phone is. At 9.7mm when folded, the Z Fold 8 is only slightly thicker than the Galaxy S26 Ultra, and at just 4.7mm unfolded, the phone is barely thicker than the USB-C socket on the bottom of the device.

On the other edges you’ll find a combination power/lock button with an integrated fingerprint sensor and a volume rocker.

Samsung is also challenging the notion that foldable phones are fragile, as it's clad the Fold 8 in tough materials that should ward off dings and scratches. The cover display features a Gorilla Glass Victus Ceramic 3 coating, whereas the back glass is covered in Gorilla Glass Victus 2.

The metal frame is constructed from Samsung’s upgraded Armour Aluminium material, so the phone should resist the odd drop, but we won’t be throwing our review unit on the floor any time soon.

Samsung has drastically reduced the crease that runs down the centre of the display. This is thanks to the new Flex Titanium Technology display structure, which now incorporates a thin titanium mesh layer and flexible titanium plates below the AMOLED panel.

This has been implemented to improve display uniformity, enhance structural rigidity, and reduce air pockets beneath the display. While it’s difficult to say in the short term, this should ensure that the display isn’t compromised by a deep crease the more it's used.

Here is where we should also mention that the Z Fold 8’s new hinge feels much smoother and slicker to operate than the Z Fold 7’s. Less force is required to pry the two halves apart, and the folding mechanism feels buttery smooth.

The Z Fold 8 comes in four finishes; ours is the calming Lavender shade, though you’ll also find the Graphite and Cream finishes widely available. Samsung also sells a Pistachio version through its official channels.

Features

Stop us if you’ve heard this before, but this is yet another feature-packed handset from Samsung.

We’ll begin with the AV-focused specs, starting with the displays. The Z Fold 8’s 5.5-inch Dynamic LTPO AMOLED 2X cover screen sports a 1248 x 1972 resolution with a pixel density of 428ppi and a 1-120Hz variable refresh rate.

The more compelling of the two displays, however, is the interior one. It’s a 7.6-inch Foldable Dynamic LTPO AMOLED 2X display, with a 1848 x 2448 resolution and a 404ppi pixel density. Samsung claims that it can reach an impressive peak brightness of 3000 nits, and its 1-120Hz variable refresh rate makes for smooth scrolling and gaming.

However, the new aspect ratio is what truly makes this a killer portable AV machine. Samsung has switched to a 4:3 aspect ratio on the Z Fold 8, which means that the letterboxing bars above and below most content have been significantly shrunken down compared with the previous generation of Z Fold devices.

While the size of the content on screen isn’t drastically different to the Z Fold 7, the smaller bars mean that content fills more of the screen, resulting in a more immersive experience, and it generally means that more of that big internal screen is put to use.

And while it may not be the most common use for this phone, older 4:3 content (think TV shows from the early 2000s and before) looks absolutely fantastic, as it fills the entire display with no black bars at all.

HDR10+ and Dolby Atmos – the latter supported via headphones and the stereo speakers – flesh out the AV features, and while we don’t have Dolby Vision support here, that’s to be expected given Samsung prefers to push its HDR10+ rival.

The Z Fold 8 is powered by Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy processor, backed by either 12GB or 16GB of RAM depending on your storage configuration. This underpins the Android 17 software experience, which is delivered via Samsung’s One UI 9 software platform. It’s worth noting here that Samsung is promising up to seven years of software updates.

In practice, the Z Fold 8 is very responsive and slick to use. Apps load quickly, and the 120Hz refresh rate makes scrolling and app animations buttery smooth.

One area in which the Z Fold 8 lags slightly behind the other Samsung smartphones we’ve tested recently is in the number of cameras. It features just four cameras: two rear cameras and two selfie cameras.

The duo of rear cameras includes a 50MP main sensor and a 50MP ultrawide camera, while the main display’s selfie camera is a 10MP ultrawide camera. The cover display features a 10MP wide camera, although we found very little use for it when the main cameras are on hand for selfie duties.

Unfolding the phone and flipping it around allows us to use the cover screen as a viewfinder, which has been a godsend for selfies with friends, and even for shooting videos for our social channels.

As this is a modern Samsung smartphone, you can expect a raft of Galaxy AI features. This includes the expected suite of auto translation, writing prompts and photo editing tools, as well as Samsung’s Now Brief app, which can deliver contextual information based on your routines and information from throughout your calendars, texts, email inboxes and more.

There's an exhaustive list of features, and they can sound overwhelming, but Samsung has done a good job of integrating them into the operating system fairly naturally.

However, there’s one AI-backed feature that seems to have been removed this year, and unfortunately it was the best aspect of recent Samsung smartphones. ProScaler – the video upscaling feature we’ve raved about on other Samsung handsets – hasn’t been mentioned in the same breath as the Z Fold 8 by Samsung, and while we’ve quizzed the brand a couple of times to check if it’s been quietly included on the Fold 8, we’re yet to get an answer.

Finally, we should mention battery life and charging. Samsung has implemented a new 4800mAh silicon carbon battery, which is split across the two halves of the Fold 8, and it can be charged quickly with 45W wired USB-C charging or 20W wireless charging.

Battery life has been incredibly solid throughout our testing, with the phone lasting well over a day even under our video-heavy testing procedures.

Picture

This is a phone that’s been designed for content consumption, which has naturally inspired us to put it through its paces to ensure its picture performance is worthy of its considerable price tag.

The good news is that watching movies on that expansive foldable screen really is a joy; however, we need to make a few tweaks from the default settings to ensure that it performs at its best. We switch to the natural colour profile for our testing, and turn off auto brightness in favour of the extra brightness.

With these settings dialled in, the Z Fold 8 delivers a sharp, colourful and solid image that is impressively impactful considering it can easily fit into your pocket. Streaming Superman on HBO Max reveals a bright, punchy image that suits the exciting content well; the blues, reds and yellows of Superman’s suit are especially eye-catching.

These colours can sometimes be a touch too excitable, especially when it comes to the slightly rosy skin tones of some characters. That said, the Samsung’s natural colour preset is definitely more balanced than the vivid alternative.

As Superman zips around the air above Metropolis, we find that motion – a noted shortcoming of the Z Fold 7 – is handled very well. We don’t find judder noticeable throughout any of our testing, and we could even accuse the Fold 8 of being a little too slick at times, though that doesn’t break our immersion.

Switching to the dark and gritty Crime 101 on Amazon Prime Video in HDR10+, the Fold 8’s contrast capabilities become quickly apparent. The shimmering lights of Los Angeles offer punchy bursts of brightness against the night sky, and there is a tangible sense of depth and solidity to the city skyline that makes it all feel impressively immersive.

Much like the Galaxy S26 Ultra, the Z Fold 8 feels like a little Samsung OLED TV here, as it shares some characteristics with the brand’s five-star S99H TV.

Interestingly, the Z Fold 8 handles dark detail like a Samsung TV too. That’s to say that some detail is sacrificed to maintain the solidity of shadows and general black depths.

While a touch more dark detail would be nice, it does mean that the moody shadows present throughout the opening sequence of this film are conveyed with integrity.

Overall, the Z Fold 8 serves up a very enjoyable cinematic experience that almost makes us forget that we can snap the screen closed at any moment.

Sound

As is the case with many recent Samsung smartphones, the sound performance isn’t quite on par with the picture. That’s not to say that the Z Fold 8 gets things explicitly wrong, but it doesn’t go above and beyond in the same way that Apple and Sony smartphones do.

Plugging a pair of wired headphones into the Fold 8 via our trusty USB-C to 3.5mm adapter – unsurprisingly there’s no headphone jack built in here – and streaming from Apple Music, we find that this Samsung phone really doesn’t put a foot wrong.

Detail levels and the clarity of vocals and instruments alike are all very impressive, and the placement of sounds is also handled well. There’s generally a good sense of space and openness to the sound; however, switching on Dolby Atmos makes this even more evident. You do sacrifice some focus with this setting applied, but it’s not a detrimental tradeoff by any means.

Timing is solid, and dynamics are good too. Even so, the Samsung doesn’t feel like it's trying all that hard to impress.

Swapping to an Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max or the Sony Xperia 1 VIII (review coming soon) reveals a warmer, richer and more textured sound, with a particular focus on dynamics that Samsung seems to neglect in its smartphones.

Swapping to the speakers, and the Z Fold 8 does have a smattering of positive attributes worth celebrating. The sheer size of the device means that the stereo speakers are separated to an extent that sound has a surprising sense of scale and punch, and the speakers can also go quite loud.

Switching Dolby Atmos on once again, we find that the Z Fold 8’s positioning of sounds is really quite impressive

At their maximum volume, a little bit of fuzz and distortion can creep in, but this is only really evident with the volume cranked all the way up.

Verdict

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 is the most compelling foldable phone we’ve tested to date. The fun and functional new form factor is a pleasure to use, and the enhanced screen uniformity and durability should soothe the nerves of those reluctant to embrace the folding format.

It also happens to be a stellar portable movie-watching device. That bright, colourful and contrast-rich OLED display makes up for a few audio-related shortcomings, although it’s hard to ignore that substantial price tag.

SCORES

• Picture 5
• Sound 4
• Features 5

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Read our review of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra

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