Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 Review: The Fold we’ve been waiting for

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Introduction

Samsung teased the ‘Ultra’ foldable experience, but it’s only now that I’ve used the new Galaxy Z Fold 7 that I can truly appreciate what that means.

It’s a massive year for Samsung’s book-style foldable, offering not only a much thinner and lighter design that can compete with some of the best foldable phones, but also boosted camera hardware, improved performance, better foldable technology, and enhanced One UI 8 smarts. 

It’s certainly a phone that has made an impact on me over the past week of use, more so than any other Fold that came before it. Frankly, it could be the best phone of 2025.

Design

• Ultra-slim dimensions
• The lightest book-style on the market
• Pretty durable for a foldable

Samsung’s big-screen Galaxy Z Fold has had a bit of a reputation for being thicker and chunkier than foldable alternatives from Honor, Oppo and Huawei over the past few years – but the new Z Fold 7 does away with that entirely.

Compared to last year’s Galaxy Z Fold 6, this is a huge leap forward in terms of design and foldable technology, with the Z Fold 7 now comfortably able to sit alongside ultra-thin alternatives like the Oppo Find N5 and Honor Magic V3 (and soon to be Magic V5!) and no longer stand out like a sore thumb.

In terms of numbers, the Z Fold 7 measures in at 8.9mm thick when closed, and a delightfully thin 4.2mm when unfolded. That is still slightly thicker than the Galaxy S25 Ultra’s 8.2mm when folded, but it is 3g lighter than the candybar phone at just 215g.  

For context, Samsung has shaved about a quarter of the weight and thickness compared to last year’s Galaxy Z Fold 6 – and it’s immediately noticeable when picking it up. 

Putting the phone next to the Oppo Find N5 – the world’s thinnest foldable until very recently – there’s very little between them. Both measure in at the same 8.9mm when closed, and they both measure in at 4.2mm unfolded – but the Fold 7 is much lighter than the 229g N5.

Seriously, this is Samsung’s foldable tech at its very best, and it’s what I’ve been waiting for from the company.  

It’s also available in some seriously attractive colour options this year, including my personal favourite, Blue Shadow, alongside Jetblack and Silver Shadow, while Mint is a Samsung Store exclusive. 

As a result of these upgrades, this year’s Fold is an absolute joy to handle, both in its folded and unfolded forms. 

The thin nature of the foldable means it no longer feels bigger or bulkier than the Xiaomi 15 Ultra I’m using as my daily driver at the moment, but it’s the phone’s lightweight nature that’s most notable. It really doesn’t feel like I’m holding a foldable, and it’s almost unnoticeable in my pocket – the first time I’ve experienced that. 

My one complaint about the design is that it wobbles when put on a table – and I don’t mean a little bit. Due to the protrusion of the rear lenses, the phone constantly wobbles when I tap or swipe the screen while resting flat on a table. It’s not quite as bad when unfolded, but it makes typing very difficult when folded up. 

Despite its ultra-thin dimensions, Samsung has doubled down on durability with the introduction of a new Armour FlexHinge system, which the company claims disperses stress and protects display integrity, paired with an Armour Aluminium frame. 

In contrast, a combination of Gorilla Glass Victus 2 on the rear and Ceramic 2 on the front screen should protect the panels from scratches and the like. I can’t say I’ve had any scratches or marks appear on either the screen or the frame, but I have only used the phone for a little over a week. 

It’s also still IP48 rated, like its older sibling. That would’ve been great if Honor hadn’t just announced that its upcoming Magic V5 will offer improved IP58/59 resistance. Still, that is a rarity, and among non-Honor foldables, it’s still some of the best around. 

Screens

• Larger, wider and more usable 6.5-inch cover screen
• Bigger 8-inch internal screen with a much less noticeable crease
• Big, bright and great for scrolling, gaming and multitasking

I’ve always found the Z Fold cover screen to be a little too tall and narrow, and although Samsung has slowly tweaked the shape over the past few years, this is the first year where it feels like it has nailed it. 

With a shorter and wider 21:9 aspect ratio, it’s much easier to type this year’s 6.5-inch cover screen, and there’s slightly more screen real estate to take advantage of compared to the Fold 6. It’s also comfortably packed with high-end screen tech, including an LTPO-enabled 120Hz refresh rate, AMOLED screen tech and a boosted 2600nit peak brightness for HDR viewing. 

Combined with the cover screen’s ultra-slim bezels, it has an air of the S25 Ultra screen experience – even if it’s not quite as technically accomplished. It’s big, bright enough for comfortable outdoor use, and media-heavy apps like Instagram and TikTok no longer feel quite as squashed as they once did. 

I’d argue that this is the first year Samsung has equipped its foldable with a genuinely usable cover screen, which means you don’t always need to unfold the phone to browse apps or play games.

When you do unfold the slimline foldable, however, you’ll be faced with a new, larger 8-inch screen than the 7.6-inch alternative from last year – another benefit of making the cover screen that little bit wider.  

As you’d expect, the high-res 8-inch screen is packed with flagship tech, matching the exterior panel in most respects – both are AMOLED screens with smooth 120Hz refresh rates and even the same peak brightness – but the screen just feels more solid this time around. 

It’s largely due to a new grade 4 titanium lattice that sits beneath the foldable screen, which, when combined with 50% thicker ultra-thin glass, has significantly less flex when tapping and swiping on the screen.

Honor did something similar with the Magic V3 last year and I was similarly impressed – it’s one of those elements that’s hard to quantify, but makes all the difference to the everyday experience. 

Yes, there’s still a bit of a crease despite the use of a new waterdrop-style Armor FlexHinge system, but it’s now in line with some of the best implementations around. It’s much easier to look past, with a shallower dip when running your finger past the central crease, but it is still there if you’re hunting for it.  

Cameras

• 200MP main camera from Galaxy S25 Ultra
• Tweaks to auxiliary lenses
• No more under-display selfie camera

Camera tech is an area where foldables tend to fall behind compared to regular candybar phones, typically because there simply isn’t enough space to fit larger components, particularly sensors, into an ultra-thin chassis. However, Samsung has made strides this year – where the main lens is concerned anyway.

It has ditched the 50MP main camera of the Z Fold 6 for the same 200MP main camera as the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra. I actually suspect it’s closer to the compact 200MP sensor used in the Galaxy S25 Edge as that’s also suitably slimline, but either way, Samsung promises a 44% uptick in brightness and a 4x boost to overall detail. 

While it’s hard to quantify those exact claims, I have been pleasantly surprised by the experience on offer. The camera consistently captures sharp, in-focus shots, with punchy – some might say too vibrant – colours and plenty of detail. That strong performance continues even as light levels drop, delivering ample brightness and fairly accurate colour reproduction. 

Unsurprisingly, it’s very much in line with the S25 Ultra in most scenarios, which is an impressive upgrade and puts the Fold 7 near the top of the foldable pack in that regard. 

That’s paired with a 10MP 3x telephoto lens and a 12MP ultrawide lens. The spec is identical, but Samsung claims these are new lenses, with the ultrawide now offering macro photo capabilities, while its larger pixel size allows for a 56% boost to overall brightness. Considering the Z Fold 6’s ultrawide was the weakest of the trio in low-light settings, this is a much-needed upgrade.  

To be fair, I have noticed an uptick in performance from the ultrawide lens – even if it’s not as dramatic as the main sensor. It’s certainly not going to deliver fantastic results in true low-light conditions, but it makes it more usable in dimmer conditions, such as dusk, without looking over-processed. The macro capabilities are also pretty solid, allowing me to get a more detailed close-up shot of flowers than the main or telephoto lenses. 

Speaking of, the 3x telephoto lens is merely an average zoom lens. It’s consistently sharp at the native 3x mark and provides a fairly consistent experience in terms of colour science, but push it into digital zoom territory and things can fall apart pretty quickly – especially past the 10x mark. 

It does offer up to 30x, but the artefacting is blatantly visible at this level. I can’t help but wonder how much that would have improved if Samsung had followed in Honor’s footsteps with a higher-resolution periscope lens. 

As with the auxiliary lenses, the 10MP cover and internal selfie cameras have also had a refresh despite the identical resolution, with a wider 100-degree FOV making it a better option for group selfies and video calls, particularly if you’re doing any kind of presentation. 

The bigger change for most, I suspect, will be Samsung finally ditching the under-screen camera tech on the inner foldable screen, reverting instead to a regular cutout. Samsung’s UDC was never that great – it was both clearly visible and had hugely damaging effects on the camera quality – so it’s a change I welcome with open arms. As a result, it’s much better for video calls. 

Performance

• Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy
• Up to 1TB and 16GB of RAM
• Unsurprisingly rapid everyday performance

Samsung went left-field with the new Z Flip 7 by offering its own Exynos 2500 chipset rather than the Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy found in the S25 collection – but don’t worry, the Z Fold 7 does feature the top-end Qualcomm chipset. It makes sense, given its focus on performance and productivity.

Either way, that’s paired with either 12GB of RAM if you go for the 256- or 512GB variants, or a whopping 16GB of RAM if you go for the top-end 1TB model – and with a spec like that, it’s unsurprisingly rapid in everyday use. 

I’ve yet to experience a single stutter or any kind of lag when using the Galaxy Z Fold 7, and I’ve really been pushing it to its limits over the past week. That includes high-end gaming on the large internal screen, with titles like Crashlands 2 running at maximum quality, along with running three apps on the internal panel simultaneously. 

The surplus of RAM also means that on-device AI tasks – like Samsung’s translation tech – feel fast and responsive. It’s a phone that just keeps on going, barely breaking a sweat.

Even when gaming, the phone gets warm but not distressingly hot – though it will throttle performance if it does get too toasty internally. 

Benchmarks largely support this, providing a snapshot of a phone that’s at the top of its game, whether that’s CPU- or GPU-related tasks. It’s not quite up to the same levels as the likes of the Galaxy S25 Ultra, but that’s likely down to the much thinner chassis on offer here. 

Software and AI

• One UI 8 based on Android 16
• Focused more on AI updates than visual upgrades
• Seven years of OS upgrades

The top-end Snapdragon chipset powers the phone’s Galaxy AI smarts, some of which have been upgraded as part of the new One UI 8 experience. Yep, we’re skipping One UI 7 and headed straight to 8, based on the new Android 16. Samsung certainly doesn’t want a repeat of last year’s delayed OS upgrade debacle, it seems…  

Admittedly, the differences between One UI 7 and 8 are quite hard to spot. While the jump from One UI 6 to 7 included various redesigned elements and a general facelift, One UI 8 is largely the same, visually, at least. 

Instead, the core focus seems to be on improving the AI experience on offer – because it’s 2025 and that’s just what manufacturers do. 

Improvements include boosted Circle to Search smarts that can now help you get gameplay tips without actually leaving the game you’re playing, as well as a foldable-optimised layout for Gemini that appears in a smaller window on the larger internal screen – though as these are Google-powered features, I expect they will also come to other phones in the near future. 

There have also been tweaks to the Galaxy AI photo editing experience, where editing a photo on the internal screen will now provide a new side-by-side preview to see exactly what has been changed. There are also improvements to elements like audio eraser technology, which now allows for its use in recordings and call transcripts, as well as videos. 

None of these are exactly revolutionary features and don’t really represent a specific reason to choose the Z Fold 7 over any other foldable, but they all add to the already solid Galaxy AI featureset available. That includes features introduced after the launch of last year’s Z Fold 6, such as Now Brief and Now Bar, which debuted on the Galaxy S25 series earlier this year.

And, as always, Samsung has committed to a market-leading seven years of OS upgrades for the Z Fold 7, so it should continue to improve with age like a fine wine. 

Battery Life

• Same 4400mAh battery as Z Fold 6
• All-day battery life – just about
• Slow 25W charging

If the Z Fold 7 falls behind the foldable competition in one key area, it’d have to be battery life.

With the same 4400mAh cell, bigger screens and a beefier chipset than last year’s Galaxy Z Fold 6, it doesn’t look great on paper – especially when you consider the much smaller Z Flip 7 has a 4300mAh battery and the similarly-sized Find N5 has a 5600mAh cell. You need more than an additional 100mAh to power those larger screens… 

It’s once again down to Samsung’s reluctance to adopt silicon carbon battery technology – an issue that also presented itself with the Galaxy S25 Edge earlier this year. 

That said, I’ve still managed to get through the day across much of my testing. There have been a few instances of particularly screen-heavy days where it hit the 10% mark in the late evening and required a little top-up, but with more regular use, I’d get to bed with around 30-40% remaining.

However, I did notice quite significant power drain when streaming video on the bigger internal panel, whether that’s on TikTok or Netflix, with the latter draining an above-average 8% over an hour. It’s a similar story with gaming, with the phone draining 7% in just 30 minutes, suggesting that true power users might be better off elsewhere.

Samsung could have mitigated this issue by offering faster charge speeds for quick and convenient mid-day top-ups, but the charging speed remains at 25W and 15W wireless. Considering the Find N5 offers 80W and the upcoming Magic V5 boasts 66W, it’s one of the few elements of the Z Fold 7 experience that still feels dated.

That translates to a 24% charge in 15 minutes, 49% in 30 minutes, and a full charge in just under an hour and a half. It’s not that egregious for most people’s needs, but the phone did drop down to around 5W when passing the 80% mark in testing. That’s painfully slow for a 2025 flagship – foldable or not. 

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