The good and bad of Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Flip 7 leaks

Right now, it’s shaping up to be a mixed bag. It looks like we’re in for another year of familiar designs, but at least some of the spec upgrades are exciting — at least for one of the phones. The other? Not so much.

We’re still early on in the rumor mill for both phones, so everything here needs to be taken with a fair bit of skepticism. But assuming these leaks are an accurate glimpse at what’s to come, 2025 may be a frustrating year to be a Samsung foldable fan.

Let’s start on a positive note. At first glance, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 doesn’t look like a massive overhaul of the Galaxy Z Fold 6. And that’s because it isn’t. However, there are enough changes here that I’m more interested in the phone than I was a week ago.

Perhaps the biggest upgrade over the Fold 6 is the display size. The Galaxy Z Fold 7 is purported to have an 8.2-inch inner display — much larger than the 7.6-inch screen on the Z Fold 6. An 8.2-inch display would secure the Fold 7 as having the largest screen on a bookstyle foldable, even beating the 8.1-inch panel on the OPPO Find N5. Although Samsung has reduced the inner screen’s bezels each year, it’s had the same 7.6-inch display measurement since the Galaxy Z Fold 2. A jump to 8.2 inches would be significant.

And even with the display size increase, Samsung is also on track to make the Fold 7 notably thinner than the Fold 6 — supposedly measuring just 4.5mm thick when opened compared to 5.6mm for its predecessor. Although the OPPO Find N5 would still have the crown as the thinnest foldable in this class, shedding almost a full millimeter while increasing the inner display by over half an inch is no small feat on Samsung’s part. The cover display may get a bump, too, possibly going from 6.3 inches to 6.5 inches.

Also impressive is the rumored 200-megapixel primary camera that may finally replace the aging 50MP camera used on the Fold 6 (and the Fold 5 and Fold 4 before it). The Fold 6’s main camera isn’t bad, but it’s nothing special, either. The Z Fold has been long overdue for a new primary camera sensor, so to hear we might get one on the Fold 7 is exciting.

What’s not so exciting? We’re likely looking at unchanged battery and charging specs, meaning a 4400mAh battery and 25W wired charge speeds. Not only are those the exact specs we’ve had since the Fold 3, but other foldables have blown Samsung out of the water. The HONOR Magic V3 has a 5150mAh battery and 66W wired charging, while the OPPO Find N5 has a 5600mAh battery and 80W wired charging — and both are thinner than the Z Fold 7’s reported 4.5mm thickness, measuring 4.4mm and 4.2mm, respectively.

The overall design isn’t much different from the last few Z Fold generations, either. While less of a concern to me as the stagnant battery and charging specs, a fresh coat of paint is long overdue.

With Samsung supposedly making impactful changes to the Fold 7, surely that means similar attention is being spent on the Z Flip 7 … right? Unfortunately, it doesn’t look that way.

Like the Fold 7, Samsung is expected to enlarge the Flip 7 displays — taking the 3.4-inch cover screen and 6.7-inch inner screen from the Galaxy Z Flip 6 and increasing them to 3.6 inches and 6.8 inches, respectively, on the Flip 7.

That’s good to see, but unlike the potentially class-leading screen size for the Fold 7, this would still put the Flip 7 well behind the competition. Last year’s Motorola Razr Plus (2024) not only has a larger 4-inch cover screen, but the resolution, brightness, and refresh rate are miles ahead of the Flip 6. There’s no mention of other cover display upgrades for the Z Flip 7 beyond the larger size, and if that’s the case, that’ll be a tough pill to swallow.

The Z Flip 7 also reportedly has upgraded camera sensors, though the extent of those upgrades is unclear. Like the Flip 6, the Flip 7 is rumored to have a 50MP primary camera and a 12MP ultrawide camera. The potential for new sensors is promising, but I’m hesitant about how impactful they’ll be given the identical-sounding setup.

And that’s about it for the Flip 7. There aren’t any expected changes to battery capacity, charge speeds, RAM, or storage. I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t sound all that promising to me.

It’s worth reiterating that these are all leaks and rumored info. Not only that, but we’re still months away from the expected release of the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Flip 7 this summer. That’s all to say we don’t have a perfectly clear picture of how these phones will shake out and we’ll continue to learn more about them in the weeks and months ahead.

But based on what we know today, I can’t help but feel torn about these phones.

The Galaxy Z Fold 7 has some really promising upgrades, yet other aspects are getting far too long in the tooth. Larger screens for the Flip 7 are good to see, but if that and some minor camera tweaks are all we’re getting, that’s hardly an exciting upgrade.

It all leaves me feeling mixed about Samsung’s 2025 foldable lineup; not overly enthusiastic or disappointed. I want Samsung to wow me with its foldables like it used to, and looking at these latest leaks, I’m not there yet.