The all-new Galaxy Fold 8 is a fresh take on the folding smartphone, something Samsung has been toiling at since the launch of its first Galaxy Fold back in September 2019.
Until now, the Galaxy Z Fold lineup has sported a tall screen that resembled two standard smartphones stitched together. Designed to bolster productivity on-the-go, this aspect ratio let you run two full-sized apps side-by-side — dragging files between them for desktop-like multitasking.
When closed, the Galaxy Z Fold looked almost indistinguishable from any other smartphone, especially as engineers at Samsung managed to dramatically shrink the thickness of the chassis last year. But while it was the perfect form-factor to manage spreadsheets, annotate PDFs, and draft emails, it wasn't ideal for watching movies on-the-go.
Samsung has built this new foldable for content consumption — whether that's binging a boxset on Netflix, streaming YouTube or Twitch, watching a must-see match, or enjoying a blockbuster movie on a flight. The 7.6-inch foldable screen arrives with a 4:3 aspect ratio, which minimises the black bars from the top and bottom of video.
Hold the Galaxy Z Fold 8 upright, and that becomes a 3:4 aspect ratio, which is better for scrolling through webpages, documents, and eBooks. It's much closer to what you'd expect from a Kindle than previous Galaxy Z Fold devices.
GBN Tech had the opportunity to trial the Galaxy Z Fold 8 at the Galaxy Unpacked launch event — and it's breathtaking how much of a difference this new form-factor really makes. It might look a little squat and awkward in photographs, but it feels like the natural shape and size for a foldable in the hand.
Aside from the Galaxy Z Flip lineup, this is the most pocket-friendly handset we've seen from Samsung's foldable department in some time. The fact that its paperback-like design harbours one of the most expansive screens to watch the biggest shows, films, and streams feels like a clever optical illusion. Unfurling the 7.6-inch AMOLED display is a genuine treat, with apps like Disney+ and Netflix expanding to fill (almost) every corner of the screen.
It's still possible to run multiple apps side-by-side, so you can keep an eye on your Instagram feed while typing a reply to a text message. But it's not as natural as the Galaxy Z Fold 7 or its successor, Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, which keeps the taller screen that resembles two flagship smartphones shoulder-to-shoulder.
If you want to follow turn-by-turn directions on Google Maps, skip a track on Spotify, reply to a text message, or check your calendar, this screen works perfectly. It's bright and colourful, and very comfortable to use one-handed. But you're unlikely to spend much time with this exterior screen when you're not on the move.
Like the rest of the lineup, Galaxy Z Fold 8 boasts a redesigned hinge mechanism, dubbed Flex Titanium. As the name suggests, Samsung has introduced an ultra-thin layer of titanium into the foldable screen.
This titanium-alloy film is under 30% of the width of a single human hair. Still, Samsung says that's enough to seriously bolster the strength of the pliable AMOLED to better withstand repeated folds.
Elsewhere, there's an anti-reflective coating that should reduce glare on the screen, making it easier to read or watch video outdoors on the expansive 7.6-inch screen.
Maximum brightness has been boosted to 3,000 nits, which should also improve visibility on the brightest days.
Powering the Galaxy Z Fold 8 is the latest Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy system-on-a-chip from Qualcomm, coupled with a 4,800mAh battery cell. That's bigger than the lithium-ion battery found inside the Galaxy Z Fold 7 launched last year. According to Samsung, this beefier battery can endure 26 hours of continuous video playback, although we'll need to put the handset through its paces ourselves to see if that's accurate.
When it's time to recharge, Galaxy Z Fold 8 supports 45W wired fast-charging, which should refill the foldable from 0% to roughly 50% in around 20 minutes. A full recharge promises to be finished in some 60 minutes.
The biggest compromise with the Galaxy Z Fold 8 is the camera setup. Unlike the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and its follow-up, Samsung has only equipped this smaller handset with two cameras. There's a 50-megapixel main camera and a 50-megapixel ultra-wide sensor stacked vertically on the back of the handset.
Expect all of the usual trimmings from a flagship camera system, including portrait mode, 4K Ultra HD video capture, slow-motion, Nightography to brighten low-light shots without a blinding LED flash, and even a dedicated mode for capturing the best shots of your food.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) lets you remove unwanted people or objects from your pictures or add entirely new elements that weren't present when you hit the shutter button.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 ships with either 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB of built-in storage. Prices start from £1,699. For comparison, that's £100 less than the starting price of the Galaxy Z Fold 7 when it launched last year. It's also £200 cheaper than the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra announced at Galaxy Unpacked today too.
