Samsung’s latest foldable phone abandons the familiar narrow design for a squat, passport-like shape that evokes the BlackBerry era, unfolding into a tablet with proportions similar to an iPad mini. While the wide, short form makes it a more natural tablet when open, the closed phone is awkward to use with one hand and raises the question of whether the compromise is worth the hefty price tag.
The Galaxy Z Fold 8 is a brand-new addition to Samsung’s foldable lineup this year, arriving alongside the more conventional candy-bar-shaped Fold 8 Ultra. Both devices are extremely expensive, with the Fold 8 starting at £1,699 (€1,999 / $1,899.99 / A$2,699) and the Ultra at £1,899 (€2,199 / $2,099.99 / A$2,999). Even at the premium end of the market, rising memory costs have pushed prices up.
At 9.7mm thick when closed, the Fold 8 is comparable to a regular phone in a protective case, but its short and wide dimensions give it the look of a mini tablet or notepad. The width also makes reaching the far side of the screen with your thumb difficult, so most tasks require both hands, much like using an extra-large ‘superphone’. The bright, sharp cover display is excellent for apps, photos, games and websites, but when the keyboard is opened it covers more than half the screen, leaving little room to see the text you are typing. Apps with a top bar, such as WhatsApp, reduce that visible space even further.
Opening the device like a book reveals a beautiful 7.6-inch OLED display that is crisp, smooth and easily readable in direct sunlight. As with all foldables, the softer screen material is fragile and attracts fingerprints, requiring regular gentle cleaning. The 4:3 aspect ratio matches Apple’s iPads and Microsoft’s Surfaces, meaning landscape video shows smaller black bars than on squarer foldables. In portrait, websites look great and the keyboard takes up only about two-fifths of the screen, leaving plenty of workspace. Most apps run a dual-pane tablet interface in either orientation. However, comparing the Fold 8’s internal screen with last year’s Fold 7 or the new Fold 8 Ultra shows that landscape video is nearly the same size on both; only the thickness of the letterboxing bars differs significantly.
The Fold 8 is powered by the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip found in Samsung’s top-end S26 Ultra, making it one of the fastest Android phones on the market with ample power for multitasking and gaming. During testing, the battery lasted a solid 40 hours with an even mix of both screens and eight hours of combined 5G and Wi-Fi usage. Heavier activities drained it faster, but the device should comfortably survive even the busiest day without needing a recharge.
Samsung’s One UI 9 software, based on Android 17, offers the most flexible foldable experience available, supporting split-screen layouts with up to three apps in a grid plus floating windows. The company guarantees Android and security updates until 31 July 2033. The Now Bar returns for live sports scores, music and timers, while the improved Now Nudge AI assistant surfaces information from more sources. The Now Brief remains a weak point, rarely offering more than weather or calendar reminders. Google’s Gemini is preinstalled, along with various AI tools. One quirk: if you choose different home screens for the inner and outer displays, the tablet screen gets two separate layouts for portrait and landscape, resulting in three customizable home screens in total.
The camera setup includes two 10-megapixel selfie cameras and two 50MP rear cameras, with no dedicated telephoto lens. The main 50MP camera performs well across a range of conditions, matching the standard S26’s main shooter, and the 50MP ultrawide is solid with consistent colors. The 2x crop zoom is acceptable, but pushing to 4x or 10x digital zoom quickly degrades quality. The selfie cameras are adequate for video calls, though using the main rear camera yields better results.