Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7

Samsung's headline change is the chassis: 4.2mm thin unfolded, 8.9mm closed, 215 grams — 24g lighter than the Fold 6 and three grams lighter than the S25 Ultra. The new Armor FlexHinge cuts visible creasing significantly and the body uses Gorilla Glass Ceramic 2 on the cover with a titanium support layer behind the inner panel. The one near-universal complaint is the prominent rear camera bump, which makes the phone wobble badly on any flat surface.

• It is thin. It is luxurious — Samsung joins Honor and Oppo in making a folding phone that's almost as thin as a regular phone, with real benefits.— The Verge
• At 215 grams the Fold 7 is 24 grams lighter than the Fold 6 and lighter even than the non-folding Galaxy S25 Ultra, and 4.2mm unfolded / 8.9mm folded is a 27 percent reduction over its predecessor.— Engadget
• I've shown the Fold 7 to more than 30 people and none could immediately identify that it unfolded — Samsung's goal of a folding phone that feels like a regular phone is achieved.— Digital Trends
• Samsung has shaved about a quarter of the weight and thickness compared to last year's Fold 6, and it's immediately noticeable when picking it up.— Trusted Reviews
• The phone sits crooked on surfaces and wobbles when you tap the screen — the camera bump protrudes a lot and a case feels like a requirement.— The Verge
• The Fold 7 is the most wobbly phone on a desk you've ever fought — get motion sick trying to type because the camera bump shakes the whole device.— SuperSaf
• Samsung has outdone the Oppo Find N5 on thinness — the Fold 7 feels nearly the thickness of a typical slab phone when closed.— Unbox Therapy
• The hinge is harder to open than previous generations — there's less material to grip and Samsung didn't add a notch, so you really have to work it.— Dave2D
• Camera bump positioning leads to pronounced wobbling on flat surfaces, and the slimmer chassis means S Pen support is gone — those are the two design downsides for a 'good' (87%) score.— Notebookcheck

The main 8-inch Foldable Dynamic LTPO AMOLED 2X grew from 7.6 inches with the same 2,600-nit peak brightness as the S25 Ultra, and the redesigned waterdrop hinge has reduced the visible crease significantly. A new titanium lattice beneath the panel makes the screen feel more solid under touch than previous Folds.

• The main AMOLED 2X display is now 8 inches (up from 7.6), with up to 2,600 nits of peak brightness and tougher Corning Gorilla Glass Ceramic 2 protection.— Engadget
• The crease is virtually imperceptible when you run your finger over it — the most impactful year-over-year change and the answer if a crease has deterred you before.— Digital Trends
• A new grade 4 titanium lattice plus 50% thicker ultra-thin glass means significantly less flex when tapping the foldable display — it just feels more solid this time around.— Trusted Reviews
• Samsung dropped the under-display selfie camera and reverted to a regular hole-punch cutout — the UDC was clearly visible and hurt camera quality, so the change is welcome.— Trusted Reviews
• The crease is still there if you look for it, and one viewer pointed out it looks awful — even after years of folds it remains very subjective.— Dave2D
• PWM dimming is still not high-frequency on the inner OLED, so users sensitive to display flicker may run into problems.— Notebookcheck
• Apple's foldable iPhone is reported to use a Samsung-made panel even more advanced than the Fold 7's — the Fold 7 panel itself was reportedly slimmed down internally to prepare for that supply.— 9to5Mac

For the first time, the Fold's cover screen uses a normal 21:9 aspect ratio at 6.5 inches — reviewers consistently call this the most-noticeable everyday upgrade because the closed phone now genuinely behaves like a regular slab, with thumb-friendly typing and full app compatibility.

• The outer screen uses a normal 21:9 aspect ratio — previous versions were longer and skinnier, and now you sometimes forget you're using a folding phone when the Z Fold 7 is closed.— The Verge
• This is the first year Samsung has equipped its foldable with a genuinely usable cover screen — you don't always need to unfold the phone to browse apps or play games.— Trusted Reviews
• The Cover Screen is 4.7mm wider this year — wider than the Galaxy S25 but still narrower than the S25 Ultra, hitting a sweet spot for one-handed use.— Digital Trends
• It's a 6.5-inch 1080p panel that's not as sharp or pleasant to use in bright light as the screen on the far cheaper Galaxy S25 Ultra — the Fold's individual specs still fall short of the best slabs.— The Verge
• Because the phone is slightly narrower, my small thumbs can comfortably reach all the way across the cover screen — that closed-phone size is what hooked me on the Fold 7.— MKBHD
• Both displays are now bigger — cover at 6.5 inches and foldable at 8 inches — and the bigger cover screen is the most noticeable improvement.— GSMArena

The Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy delivers fluid everyday performance, but in this thinner chassis Samsung has clearly throttled the chip to manage heat — Digital Trends benchmarks show the Fold 7 trailing both the S25 Ultra and even the 7-core Oppo Find N5 on multi-core CPU. GPU performance is closer to flagship S25 levels, and the phone gets warm but not distressingly hot under gaming load.

• The Fold 7 had no problems running Diablo Immortal at the highest display settings and the phone didn't even get very warm — though using it as a hotspot in direct sun on a high-80s afternoon caused it to start closing apps after 10 minutes.— The Verge
• Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy boosts CPU and GPU by 38% and 26% respectively versus the standard 8 Elite, with NPU compute up 40% — paired with 12GB or 16GB of RAM.— Engadget
• In GeekBench 6 the Fold 7 scored 2650 single-core / 8143 multi-core / 16245 GPU — below the Galaxy S25 Ultra (2974 / 9475 / 17776) and even below the 7-core Find N5 in multi-core (7912).— Digital Trends
• Yet to experience a single stutter or any lag — high-end gaming on the internal screen with Crashlands 2 at max quality runs fine, and the 16GB RAM model handles three internal-panel apps simultaneously.— Trusted Reviews
• SoC performance turns out lower in benchmarks than the S25 Ultra, which can probably be traced back to the weaker cooling in the slimmer build — though this doesn't make much of a difference in everyday operation.— Notebookcheck
• The 20-minute 3DMark stress test drained 7% on the Fold 7 versus 13% on the S25 Ultra — the chip is throttled to manage battery, mostly affecting CPU.— Digital Trends
• Slight stutters at times compared to the best flagship phones — likely one of the compromises we have to accept in ultra-thin phones, similar to the Galaxy S25 Edge.— Digital Trends

The headline change is the new 200MP main sensor adapted from the S25 Ultra (using the slimmer 18%-smaller Edge variant) — a meaningful upgrade over the Fold 6's 50MP unit. The 12MP ultrawide and 10MP 3x telephoto carry over but with autofocus added to the ultrawide for macro. The 4MP under-display selfie camera is gone, replaced with a 10MP hole-punch. Reviewers agree the main camera is now close to the S25 Ultra in good light; zoom past 10x and tough low light still trail the best.

• The 200MP camera is adapted from the S25 Ultra and is a great camera here — low-light photos are detailed and Samsung's portrait mode with the 3x camera remains the best in the game.— The Verge
• Samsung's 200MP main sensor finally puts the Fold 7 in the same league as its candybar siblings — a 44% uptick in brightness and 4x boost to detail versus the Fold 6.— Trusted Reviews
• Digital zoom past 5x from the telephoto lens looks pretty watercolor-y — solid performance from each lens, but don't ask too much from the auxiliaries.— The Verge
• The 200MP main camera delivers a mostly similar experience to the S25 Ultra, but the 18%-smaller sensor and aging 3x telephoto mean zoom is still a step below the flagship.— Digital Trends
• It's incredible how good this is for a folding phone camera, but when light's not great, the ultrawide and telephoto are not it — and content creators will feel that limitation.— MKBHD
• Image quality is better this year, but the bulk the camera bump adds is so out of proportion to the improvement that it's hard to call this phone really thin overall.— Dave2D
• When zooming beyond 5x (115mm), quality of the Fold 7's results drops visibly — versatile main camera, decent auxiliaries in good light.— Notebookcheck
• Honor Magic V5's telephoto camera is better than the Fold 7's — zoom is just clearer, a recurring r/Android complaint from switchers.— Reddit r/Android

One UI 8 on Android 16 is the first major Samsung OS skin to launch on a foldable — visually similar to One UI 7, with the main upgrades around Gemini Live integration, Circle to Search gameplay tips, and large-screen optimizations like a foldable-specific Gemini side panel. Multi Window has a new tile mode for two big app windows side-by-side. Samsung promises seven years of OS upgrades through 2032 and has committed to keeping preloaded Galaxy AI features free.

• One UI 8 on Android 16 — Samsung's foldables are the first devices to run Android 16 out of the box, and Samsung is committed to seven years of major OS upgrades.— GSMArena
• Tap and hold the side button to launch Gemini Live and share your screen or camera — one of the best use cases for AI on a smartphone, optimized for the large foldable screen.— Digital Trends
• The new multi-window mode for two side-by-side big app windows is disappointing — just a lite version of Open Canvas, which is offered on the OnePlus Open and Oppo Find N5.— Digital Trends
• Samsung committed to keeping preloaded Galaxy AI features free in the future, although it's unclear whether this also applies to Google Gemini features.— Digital Trends
• The differences between One UI 7 and 8 are hard to spot visually — the core focus is on improving the AI experience because it's 2025.— Trusted Reviews
• Multi-app workflows are great on paper but most users don't end up using them — about 85% of inner-screen time is just sharing TikToks or photos with someone next to you.— MKBHD
• Folds are fantastic for messaging apps and split-screen doom-scrolling — a desktop-like experience where you can see your current chat plus contacts or another app at the same time.— Linus Tech Tips

Samsung removed the digitizer layer from the inner display to hit the new thinness target, which kills S Pen support entirely on the Fold 7 — no stylus on either screen, even with an external accessory. Long-time Note and Fold users see this as the symbolic moment the 'everything phone' lost a defining feature; reviewers are split on whether the trade was worth it.

• Samsung removed the digitizer layer, meaning there's no S Pen support — one key downside of the thinner chassis.— Digital Trends
• Even users who rarely use the S Pen will miss it the first time they have to sign a PDF on the go — signing with a finger on the larger screen takes much longer.— Digital Trends
• Samsung sacrificed the S Pen holster and S Pen support altogether — but in doing so killed two birds with one stone: larger displays and a thinner profile.— GSMArena
• Lack of S Pen is a real loss for power users who relied on it for generations, alongside the silicon-carbon battery omission and the dropped under-display camera.— Austin Evans
• If they'd kept the stylus support, I would have considered it for a work phone — better calendar organization and notes-on-documents are wildly better on Android than my iOS solution.— Reddit r/gadgets
• Hopefully they bring back stylus support some day, because I'm going to be pretty sad if there's no foldables in the US that support it when I'm ready to upgrade from my Fold 6.— Reddit r/Android

Same 4,400 mAh dual-cell battery as the Fold 6 with unchanged 25W wired and 15W wireless charging — well behind silicon-carbon rivals like the Find N5 (5,600 mAh / 80W) and Honor Magic V5 (5,820+ mAh / 66W). The phone is still IP48 (water-resistant, not fully dust-rated), and iFixit gave the Fold 7 a 3/10 repairability score thanks to extensive glue and a tear-down required just to replace the battery.

• A day of moderate use ends around 50% — heavier inner-screen use plus an hour of hotspotting drops it to about 30% by bedtime, which is pretty good for a foldable.— The Verge
• Same 4,400 mAh battery as the Fold 6 with 25W wired and 15W wireless charging — Samsung's reluctance to adopt silicon-carbon shows next to the Find N5's 5,600 mAh and the Magic V5's 6,100 mAh.— Trusted Reviews
• Streaming on the inner panel drains an above-average 8% per hour on Netflix, and gaming hit 7% in just 30 minutes — true power users might be better off elsewhere.— Trusted Reviews
• Battery life is fairly inconsistent — always lasts a full day, but little beyond that, with screen time ranging three to six hours depending on inner-vs-outer screen use.— Digital Trends
• It would be dope if Samsung went silicon-carbon with this — same wish from MKBHD's Becca after a long-term run with the phone.— MKBHD
• iFixit gave the Fold 7 a 3/10 repairability score — replacing a battery requires removing ribbon cables, screws, the USB-C assembly and tearing apart the bezel before you even reach the cell.— 9to5Google
• Still IP48-rated — fully water-resistant but only immune to very small particles, so take extra care and consider Samsung's extended warranty for pricey inner-screen repairs.— The Verge
• Battery life on the Fold 7 has been doing great — even compared to a Fold 4, the rest of the package makes the small battery feel like less of a compromise.— Reddit r/Android

At $1,999 the Fold 7 carries a $100 hike over the Fold 6 and has already seen a further mid-cycle price increase nine months after launch (per a much-discussed r/gadgets thread). It is one of the most expensive non-folding phones on the market, but it is also the only book-style foldable in the US that delivers a true 'feels like a normal phone' closed experience — the OnePlus Open is two years old, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold has been superseded, the Find N5 and Magic V5 aren't sold here. For most US buyers who want a foldable, this is the only realistic choice.

• It's so nice. It's two thousand dollars. Somewhere between those two statements you'll know whether the Galaxy Z Fold 7 is for you.— The Verge
• Unequivocally, you should buy the Galaxy Z Fold 7 — the first folding phone that can persuade people globally to try a folding phone, and the only book-style foldable available worldwide.— Digital Trends
• Samsung has finally delivered the ultra-slim, lightweight foldable so many have been waiting for — it could be the best phone of 2025.— Trusted Reviews
• After Unpacked I was hovering over the checkout button to pre-order the Flip 7 and hesitated; when the Z Fold 7 landed in my hand, something clicked that had never clicked before.— Austin Evans
• I'm a foldable believer now — this phone proves it's not a precious item that needs to be coddled, and it has totally made me a believer in the form factor.— MKBHD
• This is the first 6.5-inch slab phone and 8-inch tablet two-in-one that doesn't feel like a two-in-one — even committed iPhone users were amazed by the form factor.— Snazzy Labs
• Two weeks in I just don't like it nearly as much as I thought I would — the tablet experience is noticeably worse than previous generations, the hinge is harder to open, the speakers are worse and the camera bump is severe.— Dave2D
• Even with the most aggressive trade-in promo the Fold 7 still costs more than $1,000 out of pocket — agony of a $1,400+ replacement makes a $200 used Chromebook the smarter big-screen buy.— Reddit r/gadgets
• It is probably cheaper to get a normal phone and a separate tablet for when you want a large screen — the dominant view among Ars Technica forum commenters skeptical of the foldable form factor.— Reddit r/gadgets
• The Z Fold 7 just got a price hike nine months after release, with users on r/gadgets blaming memory shortages — a recurring complaint that this should have gotten cheaper, not more expensive.— Reddit r/gadgets