Having used the new Galaxy Z Fold 7, I’m glad Samsung cut these two things to deliver a better foldable experience

Introduction

When it comes to making flagship smartphones, Samsung knows better than most how hard engineering these devices can be. Remember the explosive Galaxy Note 7 and the original, highly breakable Galaxy Fold? Part of the challenge when building the next entry in a particular product line is knowing what to leave out, as well as what to add.

After getting hands on the newly-unveiled Galaxy Z Fold 7, it’s clear that Samsung knew it needed to make some cuts to deliver a better overall product, and deliver it has.

It’ll be arriving imminently, with prices starting at $1999/£1799 for the 12GB/256GB entry-model, climbing to $2199/£1899 for the 512GB version, and topping out at $2149/£2149 for 16GB/1TB. Eye-watering, but not unexpected. In certain markets, Samsung is at least offering up a 100-day trial of the new Z Fold 7 and Z Flip 7 (throwing in a free case to boot), with front-door collection if you decide it’s not for you and a full refund.

While at a distance, the Z Fold 7 resembles its square-jawed predecessors, up-close, it’s a far more elegant foldable than anything the company has produced so far.

It’s 8.9mm when closed and just 4.2mm when open, making it almost 30 and 25% thinner, respectively, when placed alongside its Galaxy Z Fold 6 predecessor (which measures 12.1mm closed and 5.6mm open). The difference is almost comical in person, and immediately grounds the new Z Fold in an increasingly competitive space; where thinness is among the biggest selling points of the form factor.

Honor pipped Samsung to the post a week prior with the Chinese unveiling of its new Magic V5, but it’s now a close-run race. Despite taking the crown of the “world’s thinnest”, Honor’s win comes with a fair few caveats; namely that the title only applies to the composite-backed white colourway, and requires you to disregard what’s easily the most prominent camera bump on a book-style foldable yet.

The Z Fold 7 offers far more balanced proportions, so it’s able to slip into a pocket without issue. At 215g it actually clocks in at 3 grams lighter than the company’s Galaxy S25 Ultra non-folding flagship. An adjusted 21:9 aspect ratio on a larger 6.5in outer screen makes it better suited to everyday use too.

The Oppo Find N5 was the first foldable I used that, when closed, truly felt like a conventional smartphone in terms of size, weight and shape, both in the hand and in a pocket. The Galaxy Z Fold line finally now shares this important quality.

The Fold 7’s slimmer waistline partly comes from Samsung’s decision to nix the digitizer on its expansive new 8in main display. The Ultra-Thin Glass (UTG) might be 50% thicker to compensate, but it means there’s no more S Pen stylus support. That’s a shame, considering Galaxy AI features like Sketch to Image are better than ever. But having experienced the results of this cut first-hand, I’d wager most potential buyers will agree that Samsung made the right call here.

Another round of applause for the engineers for how they’ve reduced the feel of the screen crease. A new Grade 4 titanium lattice sits behind the display and the water-drop Armor FlexHinge has been reworked with a multi-rail design (rather than dual-rail) to more evenly distribute pressure.

The other long-standing Z Fold feature that’s absent on the Fold 7 is an under-display camera. It was an ambitious inclusion back when it debuted on on the Z Fold 3, because the tech was brand-new to smartphones at the time. The company must’ve thought building a folding screen wasn’t challenging enough already. Algorithmic improvements were never able to lift the lowly 4MP selfie snapper’s abilities, which isn’t really good enough on a device that both both claims to be a productivity powerhouse and commands one of the highest prices of any smartphone.

On the Z Fold 7, the inner screen’s selfie camera now matches the outer one, with a 10MP sensor punched through the panel. It has a wider 100º field-of-view – up from 85º previously – and Samsung reckons it can take in 25% more light.

The triple camera rear benefits from one significant upgrade too; a new 200MP lead sensor, just like you’d find on the S25 Ultra. It’s a major bump in resolution from the 50MP Galaxy Z Fold6, yet the module itself is 18% thinner than the S25 Ultra’s equivalent. Chalk up another point to those engineers.

It’s backed up by a 10MP 3x telephoto snapper and a 12MP ultra-wide, which gains autofocus here. This is the first Z Fold to also have a dedicated macro shooting mode.

Even with the thinner design and larger screens, the Z Fold 7 still sports the same 4400mAh battery as its predecessor. Samsung does promise longer lasting for common tasks like video playback: expect 24 hours here, up from 23 on the Fold 6. That’s largely thanks to the more efficient 8-core Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy chipset. It looks pretty anaemic next to rivals from Honor and Oppo, though.

The Fold 7 also brings One UI 8 out the box, atop Android 16 – even beating Google’s own Pixels to the punch. It was hard to feel out any major additions during my short demo, with refinement seemingly being the focus of this release after One UI 7 brought a major visual overhaul.

Now Bar and Now Brief can pull key information from elected apps and summarise your day, Google Gemini Live now includes screen sharing and Circle to Search can offer in-game hints and support, but otherwise I saw a familiar suite of AI tools and UI optimisations for than large new folding display. Samsung’s commitment to 7 years of OS and security updates persists too, it’s worth noting.

There was talk of an Ultra-branded Galaxy foldable this year, and while the Z Fold 7 doesn’t gain this particular identifier, on first inspection it unquestionably feels like a leap worthy of the name.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 technical specifications