5 Android phones you should buy instead of the Galaxy Z Fold 7

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 doesn’t officially hit store shelves until later this month, but it’s already established itself as one of the most exciting foldable releases of the year. With its impressively thin and light design, larger screens, and better cameras, the Z Fold 7 makes a strong argument for being the folding phone to buy in 2025.

Although the US isn’t teeming with foldable handsets the way other markets are, there are still options to choose from. And as good as the Fold 7 looks, it’s worth considering those options before deciding that Samsung’s latest is the right fit for you.

So, before you click “Buy now” with the Galaxy Z Fold 7 in your online shopping cart, here are five alternatives I may recommend buying instead.

However, if you’re OK with the Fold 6 being a bit chunkier and heavier, it may be worth going with last year’s handset. While the Fold 7 has slightly larger displays, they’re not dramatically bigger than the ones on the Fold 6. The Fold 6’s 50MP primary camera may not sound as impressive as the 200MP one on the Fold 7, but it’s still a good, reliable sensor. And the Fold 6’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip, while over a year old at this point, is still plenty fast for virtually any app or game.

More importantly, many aspects of the Fold 7 and Fold 6 are identical. Both phones have 256GB of storage and 12GB of RAM for the base model, 4,400mAh batteries, 25W wired charging, a 10MP telephoto camera, and a 12MP ultrawide camera. The Fold 7 is a better phone, but it also has a lot in common with its older sibling.

Although Samsung is no longer selling the Fold 6, plenty of retailers and carriers still are. More importantly, given the Fold 6’s age, you should be able to find it at a pretty great discount. Simply put, if you want a Samsung foldable and don’t need the new design of the Fold 7 — or don’t want to pay a whopping $2,000 for it — the Galaxy Z Fold 6 can make an excellent, cheaper alternative.

If you want a foldable phone but don’t have to have a Samsung foldable phone, the next best choice right now is the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold. Google’s folding phone is slightly thicker (and a lot heavier) than the Fold 7, but if you can overlook that, it’s a great alternative to Samsung’s latest.

In terms of hardware/specs, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold has a lot to like. It has an 8-inch inner display (the same size as the Fold 7), 16GB of RAM for the base model, and a decent camera setup — including 48MP primary, 10.8MP telephoto, and 10.5MP ultrawide sensors. Its battery is also a bit bigger than the Fold 7, featuring a 4,650mAh capacity.

What really makes the Pixel 9 Pro Fold stand out, however, is its software. The Pixel 9 Pro Fold has all of the same Pixel-exclusive software features found on other Pixel phones, and they’re among the best you can get. With features like Call Screen, Hold For Me, Now Playing, Pixel Screenshots, etc., there are so many great software goodies you can only get on a Pixel. Plus, if you like the Material 3 Expressive interface that’s coming as part of Android 16 QRP1, only the Pixel 9 Pro Fold — not the Galaxy Z Fold 7 or Fold 6 – will get that makeover.

The Pixel 9 Pro Fold’s $1,800 retail price is already $200 cheaper than the Galaxy Z Fold 7, and it’s another phone that’s not uncommon to find heavily discounted. The biggest reason not to buy the Pixel 9 Pro Fold is that the Pixel 10 Pro Fold is likely launching on August 20, potentially with a massive chipset upgrade. That’s probably worth waiting for, but if you want a new foldable right now, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold remains a solid pick.

My next recommendation may not be the most practical, but it’s a phone I still enjoy so much almost two years after its release that I can’t help but include it. The OnePlus Open is far from the newest foldable phone on the market today, but for the right person, it can still be well, well worth it.

Design-wise, the OnePlus Open still looks fantastic. I love the large circular camera bump (which is a great place to rest your finger while holding the phone), and the leather back on the black model is fantastic. Both the outer and inner displays hold up extremely well by 2025 standards, and I’d argue that the cameras are more than competent, too. You also get 512GB of storage and 16GB of RAM by default, a large 4,805mAh battery, and super-fast 67W wired charging.

As you might expect from a phone released in 2023, there are downsides to buying the OnePlus Open in 2025. Its IPX4 rating isn’t nearly as comprehensive as the IP48 rating for the Galaxy Z Fold 7, its Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip is getting a little long in the tooth, and the Open is guaranteed just two more OS upgrades to Android 16 and Android 17. There’s also no wireless charging.

Those are real drawbacks to consider, and for many folks, the Fold 6 or Pixel 9 Pro Fold will be much safer choices. But even so, the OnePlus Open is still special. It’s a phone I occasionally return to every now and then, and if you find it on sale, it can still make a very good purchase — even in a world where the Galaxy Z Fold 7 exists.

If you’re considering buying the Galaxy Z Fold 7, it’s probably because you want a big, powerful Samsung phone that can do it all. While a slab phone will never replicate the versatility offered by a foldable, the Galaxy S25 Ultra gets pretty close.

The S25 Ultra is Samsung’s best non-foldable currently available, and what it lacks with its non-folding design, it makes up for with significantly better specs in some key areas. While both the S25 Ultra and Z Fold 7 have the same 200MP primary camera, the S25 Ultra’s other cameras — including a 50MP 5x telephoto camera, a 10MP 3x telephoto camera, and a 50MP ultrawide camera — are substantially better than those on the Fold 7.

The Galaxy S25 Ultra has a much larger 5,000mAh battery than its foldable counterpart, faster 45W wired charging, and comes with a built-in S Pen for all of your handwritten note-taking and doodling desires. As a reminder, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 doesn’t support the S Pen at all.

You get all of this with the same One UI software and Snapdragon 8 Elite chip that powers the Z Fold 7 – all for a much lower starting price of $1,300, a full $700 less than the Fold 7.

The Galaxy S25 Ultra is a great Z Fold 7 alternative if you want the biggest and best specs possible, but what if you still want a Samsung phone that folds? If you aren’t married to the book-style foldable form factor, the Galaxy Z Flip 7 is well worth a look.

Where previous Z Flips have been hampered by a small and cramped cover screen, the Flip 7 breaks that trend with an edge-to-edge 4.1-inch display. It’s one of the largest on a flip phone foldable today, and the bump to a 120Hz refresh rate is great, too. Meanwhile, the 6.9-inch inner display is the same size as the Galaxy S25 Ultra’s screen.

The idea behind a flip-phone foldable is obviously quite different from a book-style one, but depending on what you want out of a folding phone, the Flip 7 may be the better fit. If the prospect of having a “normal” Android phone that can fold in half to slip into a pocket or bag sounds appealing, the Galaxy Z Flip 7 — not the Galaxy Z Fold 7 — is what you should buy.

The best part? With a starting price of just $1,100, the Galaxy Z Flip 7 gets you a foldable Samsung phone for almost half the cost of the Fold 7.