The iPhone Ultra probably won’t launch for around another month, but we already have a fair idea of what to expect — and that’s not just thanks to leaks and rumors, but also because Samsung has launched what we think is a very similar phone.

That phone, of course, is the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8, a foldable device with a passport-like form factor, which is very much in line with what we’re hearing Apple is planning for its first foldable, reportedly called the iPhone Ultra.

That form factor, and particularly the screen sizes and shapes it results in, are arguably the most interesting things about these phones, since they’re different to the book-style and clamshell-style foldables we’re used to seeing.

But just how similar will the screens on these two phones be? Well, while we won’t be certain of anything until Apple unveils the iPhone Ultra, we’ve taken some educated guesses below, based on leaks and rumors about that phone, coupled with the confirmed specs of the Galaxy Z Fold 8.

How will their foldable screens compare?

Much like the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 folds open like a book, but unlike the tall and narrow Z Fold 8 Ultra, it has a slightly smaller and more passport-like display, and we’re expecting something similar from the iPhone Ultra.

To be more specific, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 has a 7.6-inch 1828 x 2448 AMOLED screen with around 403 pixels per inch, a peak brightness of 3,000 nits, and an aspect ratio of 4:3.

That aspect ratio makes it more suited to watching widescreen video than typical book-style foldables like the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, as our content viewing comparison shows, and speaking of books, it’s arguably also a better shape for reading, too.

So, what of the iPhone Ultra? Well, going by leaks, this device will probably have a foldable display of between 7.7 and 7.8 inches. Different sources point to slightly different numbers, but all the recent leaks put it in roughly that range.

So that would make it ever so slightly bigger than the Galaxy Z Fold 8’s screen — though still smaller than the 8-inch Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra.

We’re less sure of what the resolution will be, but leaker Digital Chat Station (via MacRumors) claimed last year that it would be 1920 x 2713 and that it would have a 4:3 aspect ratio. Though it’s worth noting that this resolution wouldn’t actually yield a 4:3 aspect ratio, so at least one of these numbers must be at least slightly wrong.

In any case, 4:3 would make for the same aspect ratio as the Galaxy Z Fold 8, and while this rumored resolution would be slightly higher, the marginally bigger display size should mean it still offers a similar number of pixels per inch.

We’re inclined to believe the aspect ratio here more than the resolution, as leaked renders of the iPhone Ultra show a very similar screen shape to that of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8.

We also fully expect the iPhone Ultra to have an AMOLED screen, just like Samsung’s phone, since other iPhones use that too.

We haven’t heard much about the iPhone Ultra’s screen brightness, but the iPhone 17 Pro, for example, has a 3,000-nit peak brightness, so the iPhone Ultra might well match that — and match the Galaxy Z Fold 8’s brightness in the process.

In which case, there may be no significant difference between their foldable screens, with the iPhone’s probably just being slightly larger — though it may also have a less visible crease, if rumors are to be believed. The iPhone Ultra’s corners are also likely to be curvier than the Z Fold 8’s, based both on leaks — such as the dummy unit above shared by Sonny Dickson — and Apple’s typical design practices.

How will their cover displays compare?

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 has a 5.5-inch 1248 x 1972 AMOLED cover screen with around 428 pixels per inch, and with an aspect ratio of 16:10. This leaves it a bit more of a square shape than the screens on most phones.

As for the iPhone Ultra, that could either have a 5.49-inch cover display with a 1422 x 2088 resolution (according to the source detailed in the section above), or a 5.3-inch cover screen (according to a paywalled report on The Information). So, in other words, it might either be slightly smaller than the Z Fold 8’s cover display or roughly the same size. It will also most likely use AMOLED tech, since other iPhones do.

Not much has been said about the iPhone Ultra's outer aspect ratio, but this again is likely to be similar to the Galaxy Z Fold 8’s 16:10 one — both because it looks similar in leaked renders and dummy units, and because that would make sense if its internal aspect ratio is the same, as has been rumored.

So, as with their foldable screens, the main difference between the cover screen on the iPhone Ultra and the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 might just be their size, with Apple’s possibly being slightly smaller in this case — though some leaks suggest there will be no real difference there either. In which case, it could just be the iPhone’s potentially curvier corners that set it apart.

How will their dimensions compare?

Screen sizes have a major impact on dimensions, but they’re not the only factor, with bezels and internal components also playing a role, so how will the iPhone Ultra compare to Samsung’s passport-style foldable there?

Well, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 is 123.9 x 161.4 x 4.5mm when unfolded and 123.9 x 81.9 x 9.7mm when folded shut.

Sources aren’t in total agreement about the iPhone Ultra’s dimensions, but going by various leaks, it seems likely to come in at 120.6 x 167.6 x 4.5-4.8mm when unfolded and 120.6 x 83.8 x 9.0-9.6mm when folded, so it’s mostly just the thickness that there’s disagreement on.

That, in any case, would make the iPhone slightly shorter than Samsung’s phone but also marginally wider. When unfolded, it could be either the same thickness or slightly thicker, and when folded shut, it would seemingly be marginally slimmer.

Based on these rumored screen sizes and dimensions, which foldable phone would you rather buy? Let us know in the poll or comments section below.

• Don't like the camera bump on your foldable? Take it off
• That's what one Redditor has done with their Galaxy Z Fold 8
• It now lies flat — but the selfie camera is the only camera left

How far would you go to get one of the best foldable phones looking and working exactly the way you want it? One Samsung user has taken the drastic step of cutting off the rear camera module on their new Galaxy Z Fold 8, just so it'll lie perfectly flat when placed on a surface.

The unusual DIY hack is documented on Reddit, and has been met with one or two raised eyebrows. Apparently, the owner of the phone used a razor blade to perform the operation, and says the end result is "not bad".

"The wobble is so annoying and I never use [the cameras] anyways" was the reason given by the user, when asked what prompted the customization — and they don't appear to have any regrets about what they've done.

Our Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 review doesn't mention the camera bump as being a particularly egregious problem, but we do have some praise for the performance of the dual-lens camera on the back — so it seems a shame, and a little drastic, to remove them.

A job well done

The reactions in the original Reddit thread are mostly of disbelief that someone would go to these lengths just to get a phone to lie flat, while taking away their ability to capture photos and videos at the same time.

Amidst a lot of well-chosen GIFs, there are comments like "no amount of explanation justifies it" and "what a mad man", as well as some appreciation for a tech-hack that seems to have been well done, based on the photo evidence.

There's also one request for more information from another Redditor who wants to do the same to their own Galaxy Z Fold 8 — perhaps an indication that the wobble you get when the handset lies flat is annoying quite a few users.

Samsung launched the phone on July 22, and the starting price is $1,899 / £1,699 / AU$2,699. It launched alongside the slightly more expensive Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra and the more affordable Galaxy Z Flip 8.

Since they were announced last month, I've been dual-wielding the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Z Fold 8 Ultra, the two new premium folding phones from the world's foremost foldable maker.

In the two weeks since the phones showed up at my door, I've taken hundreds of pictures on them (349 on the Fold 8 and 307 on the Ultra, to be precise). They've come with me on multiple holidays, been used for product photography for reviews I've published, and even accompanied me on a film location scout day, which saw them get a lot of use.

You'd expect that the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra would be my default photography foldable. As I'll explain a little later, it's simply a better camera phone, offering better-looking photos thanks to having more cameras.

However, that's not been the case. When I need to grab a shot, I've found myself reaching for whichever pocket the 'standard' Galaxy Z Fold 8 is in. And the reason has little to do with its photography chops.

Size matters more than sensors

The benefit of the best camera phone over a DSLR or mirrorless camera is convenience. You don't have to sling them over your neck or tote them around in a carry case; they fit in your pocket and, more importantly, come out of your pocket in a pinch.

The Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra is a long, thin phone; we're talking 158.4mm tall and just 72.8mm wide when it's folded (8.9mm thick and 215g heavy, if we're trying to get all the dimensions). When I put it in my trouser pocket, it digs its way right into the bottom, yet still sticks out the top a fair way.

Yet removing it can be quite a faff due to its frame. I have to angle and adjust it, feeling like Ross, Rachel and Chandler trying to pivot it to remove it.

By contrast, removing the Galaxy Z Fold 8 from my pocket is a breeze because of how small and stumpy it is when folded (123.9 x 81.9 x 9.7mm, 201g, just so we've got everything). It comes out easier than an average, non-folding smartphone.

Quite a vapid reason to prefer one phone over the other, right? But try to imagine this removing process 50, 60, 70 times in one day, when I'm on holiday or a recce; the Z Fold 8 Ultra becomes more effort than it's worth.

In fact, most of the Z Fold 8 Ultra's shots are from specific shoots or sessions, when I knew I'd be using the phone lots, and so didn't put it in my pocket at all.

One is clearly a better camera phone

Despite the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 being my preferred photography phone, I'm under no illusions about which takes better pictures.

Both phones have a 50MP f/1.9 ultra-wide camera, and two 10MP f/2.2 selfie cameras. But from here, the Ultra is, as you'd imagine, better.

For starters, its main sensor is more powerful, packing in 200 megapixels and an f/1.7 focal length, compared to the Z Fold 8's 50MP f/1.8. As photographers know, though, it's not all about megapixels, and I found it's the zoom lens that made the Ultra better.

The Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra has a 10MP telephoto camera which supports a 3x zoom. On paper, it's the same unit the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra packs.

A zoom lens gives the Z Fold 8 Ultra much, much more versatility for photography; in fact, I'd wager at least half of my pictures on the phone use this snapper. Its 67mm lens gives much nicer, softer depth of field than the main camera, even if the app keeps jumping between optical and digital zoom when you're using it.

When you zoom in on the Galaxy Z Fold 8, you're just getting digital zoom. The flower pictures above will show you how this looks in comparison to optical; it's fine, but to camera phone photographers, it won't compete.

As you'll notice when you look at the above pictures too, the Z Fold 8 Ultra offers some extra bokeh on the 1x zoom picture, likely thanks to the extra information presented from all those excess pixels it's capturing. However, for the most part, I've found them pretty matched when it comes to these 'standard' pictures taken on the wide camera.

Want some more Z Fold 8 Ultra camera samples? Every shot of the Z Fold 8 in this article was taken on the Ultra phone, using the 3x camera (hence why you're not seeing the Ultra in the shots).

Photography is only part of the process

Despite its lesser camera performance, I'm still using the Galaxy Z Fold 8 as my go-to photography phone. And the convenience of pulling it out of my pocket is only one reason. Another is what happens once I've captured the picture.

The inner, or main, screen of the Z Fold 8 has a 4:3 aspect ratio. For some comparison, the Z Fold 8 Ultra is 0.9:1, which is close enough to square that I feel comfortable referring to it as such for the rest of this article.

I don't know about you, but I don't capture or use square photos. I imagine you're in the same boat, given that Instagram basically single-handedly killed them off several years ago. No: for me, it's 16:9. Not only is this the required aspect ratio for every single website I write for, but it's a wide-screen aspect ratio which is appropriate for film reference shots, all-encompassing panoramas, or dramatic action shots. But the point I'm about to make would stand even more if you shoot in the camera app's default 4:3.

A wider display is much better for editing pictures. If you look at a wide snap on the Z Fold 8 Ultra's square display, you're given loads of black bars (or dead space) at the top and bottom. These are still present on the Z Fold 8, but much smaller, offering just enough space to house the edit controls.

When I'm holding an open Z Fold 8, I also find that my hands are in the perfect spot to easily manipulate the picture. Thanks to its display edges being taller, I have to move them around much more on the Ultra phone.

Based on coverage of the phones, both by critics and online users who've grabbed an early purchase of the phones, the aspect ratio is proving pretty divisive for the new phones. Some prefer the older shape of the Z Fold 8 Ultra; others like the 'passport'-style Z Fold 8. And for tasks like photo editing, I much, much prefer the latter.

Good, better, best

People who've read this article after glimpsing through the specs list of these new folding phones might find my preference for the worse one a little baffling. But those who've had hands-on time with the Z Fold 8 might understand my stance.

But if you're looking for a great camera phone, I'd be remiss not to mention something. Neither of these phones, not even the triple-camera Z Fold 8 Ultra, is actually a dedicated camera phone. They're fine for photography, but they won't hold a candle to the best mobiles on the market.

The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra would be a much better pick for people who want a camera phone, and don't need something that folds.

Don't just stick to Samsung, either. I've found most Galaxy phones have below-average battery lives — it's actually pretty poor on the Z Fold 8, at least compared to a non-folding phone, which cut some of my photo shoots short.

But if your main priority is a bending mobile, and the camera chops are a secondary consideration, don't rely on the specs list: the form factor is just as important.

• A Samsung exec has just done a Reddit AMA
• They answered all sorts of questions, including those criticising a perceived lack of innovation, and an undesirable focus on AI
• Among the answers, health was pointed to as an area of future innovation, along with technology that understands what you need

Following the recent launch of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8, Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, and Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8, Annika Bizon, VP of Product and Marketing for Mobile Experience at Samsung Electronics UK & Ireland, has taken to Reddit for an AMA about these devices and other topics.

Many of the answers are some combination of marketing jargon and tech support, but there are some genuinely interesting nuggets too, including a response to claims that Samsung has stopped innovating.

Reddit user densusenapi commented: "I've been a long-time Samsung customer since the original Note. I replace my phone every 3 years since the hardware innovation just isn't there anymore? I used to change my phone every 2 generations but the leaps are so small now. Start experimenting and innovating again, please."

To which Bizon replied: "If I may, I'd like to politely challenge the idea that the hardware innovation isn't there. The more people use AI every day, the more personal it becomes and that's pushing us to rethink how phones and wearables work for people alongside how they look. That kind of shift only happens if the engineering and craftsmanship behind it can keep up, and that's still where we put a lot of our energy as a company.

"The Galaxy Z Fold 8 is a good example. This year we're expanding our foldable range to meet a real need we kept hearing from customers who want a bigger, wider screen to go deeper into content. The new Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 has had a phenomenal upgrade this year too to make sure it can help you achieve your fitness goals in the most extreme environments. So, I promise you we're not slowing down; we’re experimenting based on what people are telling us they would like.

"Hopefully that's changed your mind!"

It’s a fair answer, but arguably this has been a far more innovative year for Samsung than most recent years have been — we don’t often get whole new phone form factors after all.

But between what Bizon detailed above and the Privacy Display on the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, the brand has genuinely done some very interesting things this year, so hopefully we’ll see more of that going forward too.

A focus on health

As for what form that future innovation might take, in a separate response, Bizon pointed to health as a real focus at least for her personally, saying:

"I think we're at a super exciting time for mobile innovation. As I'm sure you're aware, we've just launched our biggest ever foldables line-up, inspired by how people are using their devices. AI is really helping us think more about new form factors, because we're all using our phones in much more personalized ways.

"But if you want to know what excites me personally right now, it's health, because that's where I think our devices and the features on them are helping people in ways they would never have imagined. Suddenly we're shifting as a society to being more preventative in the way we approach health challenges.

"So let's start with some of our features, powered by the new sensors on the Galaxy Watch 9 and the Galaxy Watch Ultra 2. Vitals is a good example, because it tracks things like skin temperature and heart rate overnight, and flags meaningful changes so you can determine if you might be about to fall ill, and act by resting more.

"It's also become more personal. We've all been told about 'get eight hours sleep,' but our new sleep latency feature, which calculates how long it takes you to fall asleep from when your head hits the pillow, can help you work out what your optimum conditions are for falling asleep.

"I've seen this play out in my own training too. I did an ultramarathon a while back and pushed on for far too long despite how I was feeling and that's a really common mistake. Fitness Index now helps flag your strengths and weaknesses earlier, and Nutrition Alert will nudge me if my hydration levels are too low.

"That's the shift I'm most excited about — how technology understands what you need, and gives your personal experiences."

A nod towards AI

That — unsurprisingly — doesn’t really give us any concrete ideas of what to expect next from Samsung, but technology that “understands what you need” will almost inevitably involve AI, and this, of course, also came up in the AMA — though largely through people being negative about it.

Multiple Redditors essentially said that they don’t want AI on their phones, to which Bizon noted that “if AI isn't for you, every AI feature on Galaxy devices is opt-in. You can switch off anything you don't find useful.”

That said, Bizon also suggested people should give AI a chance, arguing:

“If you're open to dipping a toe into using AI, my advice is always the same — try one small thing and see if it saves you time. Say you're out and about and spot a concert poster, show it to your phone with the camera and ask it to find tickets for you to buy. If it's useful once, great. If it's not for you, that's fine too.”

That advice might work for some people, but many others are opposed to AI as much for ethical reasons as functionality ones — so they’re unlikely to give it a chance, and may object to it being on their phones even if it can be disabled.

Still, AI aside, it will be interesting to see whether Samsung continues its current innovative streak. We'll probably have an indication of whether it has done so or not early next year, when the Samsung Galaxy S27 series launches.

• Amazon beats its last all-time low price of AU$1,098 during EOFY, dipping below AU$1,000 for the first time
• Also discounted at Samsung Australia's store for AU$999, with exclusive colours and monthly installment payment options
• Trade-in options available from both stores for further savings

It’s an exciting time to be a Samsung phone fan right now with the recent launch of its new foldable range, including a brand new form factor for the Galaxy Z Fold 8.

Pre-orders are still ongoing, but with prices starting from AU$1,949, not everyone will be springing for these premium phones.

If you’re in the market for something much more affordable, then you’re in luck — the Samsung Galaxy S26 is currently at its all-time low price of AU$992 on Amazon, or a whopping 36% off.

Our Samsung Galaxy S26 review praised the bright AMOLED display, reliable 3-lens camera setup and surprisingly long battery life given its relatively small 4,300mAh capacity. It also has a 6.3-inch screen, perfect for those who like smaller-sized handsets.

Storage options now also start at 256GB, up from the predecessor’s 128GB. That change, plus the other improvements over the S25, meant the S26 came with a price increase from AU$1,399 to AU$1,549.

Aussies also miss out on the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset found in the US model, having to settle for an Exynos 2600 processor. Our reviewer also noted the relatively slow 25W charging speed and the lack of full Qi2 wireless charging support, commenting that this phone is only worth buying when it’s on sale.

And that’s why this phone is an easy recommendation for less than AU$1,000, despite its shortcomings. It’s a solid entry-level flagship with the specs to back it up, which also comes in an increasingly rare 6.3-inch size.

Also discounted at the Samsung store

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra: Two-minute review

Spare a thought for the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, which isn't having the easiest time of it right now. Yes, it's a fantastic foldable phone, but it was launched in the shadow of its upstart sibling, the Galaxy Z Fold 8, with Samsung taking the OG folding phones' name and applying it to a fresh, dare I say cute, design.

The Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, by contrast, is almost indistinguishable from its predecessor, the Galaxy Z Fold 7. That's hardly a criticism — I loved that Android device — but it's hard to stand out when you've launched alongside to the phone world's shiny new object.

If we can put the 4:3 aspect-ratio Galaxy Z Fold 8 aside for a moment — you can read our Z Fold 8 review if you're so inclined — I'll focus here on the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, a fantastic folding device in its own right.

If you're unfamiliar with the Galaxy Z Fold line, here are the highlights for the Z Fold 8 Ultra. 'Ultra', but the way, does not mean it somehow more closely resembles the Galaxy S26 Ultra, though the camera and CPU enhancements do bring it more in line with the performance of its flagship cousin.

Folded, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra looks like a standard, if slightly narrower than normal smartphone (the S26 Ultra is a few millimeters wider). Unfolded, it's an 8.0-inch flexible display — and the chief upgrade on the display side is a mechanical and material engineering marvel.

Under the protective plastic cover, ultra-thin glass and a flexible AMOLED screen are a pair of new titanium panels. One is pure titanium, with an all-new perforation design for better bending performance, and the other is an alloy that, while thinner than the previous polymer sheet, is stronger and more reliable.

The quite noticeable result is an essentially flat main screen with a far less visible crease, with the promise that over the years the bendy display won't suffer noticeable deformations (i.e., a more noticeable crease).

There are still five (yes, five) cameras, and while the 200MP main camera is essentially unchanged, the ultra-wide is now a more powerful 50MP camera (up from 10MP). The 3x optical zoom is still 10MP, and I do wish it were a 5x optical zoom (or at least 4x like the iPhone 17 Pro Max's). You can go far further with digital zoom, but then you have to wonder how much of an assist your photos are getting from the on-board AI (assume a decent amount). All of the photography is further improved by the upgraded image processing.

Under the hood is the latest Qualcomm silicon, which supports an impressive array of AI features. As with other Galaxy devices, there's almost too much AI here, but features like Photo Assist and Now Brief are standouts.

All in all, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra is an excellent follow-up to the Galaxy Z Fold 7, and is set to easily take over from its predecessor at the top of our rankings of the best foldable phones.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra review: Price and availability

• Even more expensive than the Z Fold 7
• Still a good value for a two-in-one device

I guess it was inevitable that with the price of RAM and components rising, the latest Galaxy Z Fold would be more expensive than its predecessor.

The new Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra starts at $2,099.99 / £1,899.00 / AU$2,999. If anything, the $100 bump in the US is less than I thought it might be; double that would not have been surprising.

Released alongside the smaller Galaxy Z Fold 8 ($1,899.99 / £1,699 / AU$2,699 ), the Z Fold 8 Ultra has an inarguably premium price, though it seems more reasonable when you consider that this is a two-in-one device.

The Z Fold 8 Ultra is available in Graphite, Cream, Green Shadow, and my test unit's Violet Shadow.

• Value score: 4 / 5

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra review: Specs

Here's a breakdown of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra's key specs:

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra review: Design

• Folded, it looks virtually identical to the last model
• Easier to unfold
• Unfolds flat... finally
• The crease is almost gone

There's little argument that the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra is, despite the new superlative, a visually iterative update. Folded, it's hard to distinguish it from the Z Fold 7.; it's virtually the same size and weight, meaning it's still lighter than the Galaxy S26 Ultra. It's still an Armor Aluminum Frame, though the Gorilla Glass Ceramic 2 from the last Fold 6.5-inch cover display is now Gorilla Glass Ceramic 3. On the back is Gorilla Glass Victus 2.

It's not until you unfold the handset, or rather attempt to unfold it, that the design changes, er... unfold.

First, there's a new chamfered edge along the fold inseam, which makes it far easier to insert the tips of your fingers and unfold the phone. Samsung told us it made this change because some users complained that the 4.2mm thick Z Fold 7 was difficult to open. The even thinner 4.1mm Z Fold 8 Ultra is, in fact, easier to open. I might even call it a pleasure.

Speaking of pleasure, there's another tiny little change that I really love. The power/sleep/fingerprint/Gemini button is no longer recessed, and is now so much easier to find by touch.

The biggest design upgrade is almost purely mechanical, and Samsung pulled it off by swapping out various materials and hinge designs to finally achieve a virtually flat and almost creaseless unfolded body and display. That is to say, the screen and chassis are flat, although if you lay it on a table, that ample camera bump will keep the whole thing rocking.

Inside the 4.1mm body — it's so thin it only just accomodates the USB-C port — Samsung has re-engineered the rigid titanium panel along the hinge strip, transforming the perforations into an almost 'A' shape, which allows for easier and more reliable bending. That panel is paired with a new titanium alloy sheet (it's thinner and stronger than the old polymer one). Together, they make the folding and unfolding processes better, and, when the phone is fully unfolded, allow for a virtually flat frame and the least noticeable crease yet. I'll have more to say about this design in the Display section below.

As I've been carrying around the Z Fold 8 Ultra and opening and closing it, people have consistently asked how long the phone might last, and whether it fatigues at the bend. I reply that, in the course of using and testing Samsung's folding phones over the last seven years, I've found them surprisingly resilient.

This model is actually water-resistant (IP48; yes, I ran it under water, yes, it survived, and perhaps enjoyed it), though I would not take it to the beach if it's not in a sealed case. When I traveled to South Korea last month. Samsung showed me how it torture-tests these devices, including folding and unfolding them thousands of times. I'm quite confident that with normal use the Z Fold 8 Ultra will last for years — at least through all seven years of Samsung's promised OS and security updates.

• Design score: 5 / 5

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra review: Displays

• Main screen is almost perfectly flat
• Responsive, colorful, main screen has sunlight-beating brightness
• Cover screen is wide enough to be useful as a regular phone
• I wish the cover screen was a little brighter

Samsung now has enough experience making folding phones to be well into the refinement phase. The Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra is already thin and light enough, and the last model, the Z Fold 7, folded the screen so tightly that there was barely any gap between the two halves of the display. Now, though, the new display technology allows the screen to unfold virtually flat and, thanks to both the hinge engineering and new anti-reflective coating, make the crease very close to invisible.

The crease is not entirely gone. When I run my finger over the center of the 8-inch display I can feel it, and if I view the screen at the right angle, I can just make out the slight half-inch-wide indent.

Still, everything looks fantastic on the tablet-size display, which now sports a 2504 x 2256 resolution, a slight upgrade from the Z Fold 7's 2184 x 1968 resolution. I played games, watched video, viewed countless photos, used it for full-screen turn-by-turn navigation in maps (it's easy to get lost in London, which I was visiting for the Galaxy Unpacked event at which this phone was launched), and played more games.

If I had one real criticism of the main screen, it's that it no longer has a digitizing display — but this is not an issue new to the Z Fold 8 Ultra. Samsung dropped this feature on the Galaxy Z Fold 7, and there were rumors that the S Pen-supporting digitizing layer would return with the 8, but that didn't happen. Without it, and a special S Pen, to protect the phone’s flexible display, I really don't feel comfortable drawing on it with a universal rubber stylus (which you can buy from third-party providers, but which lack the S Pen’s unique features.

The cover screen reads as a 6.5-inch display, but that's measured diagonally, and the reality is that it's not as wide as the display on the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra. The Z Fold 8 Ultra cover display is about 2.5 inches wide, and the S26 Ultra is about 2.75 inches.

I still find the Z Fold 8 Ultra's cover display more than usable. The virtual keyboard is large enough for me to comfortably type on it. Websites, texts, and social media look good on it. The only issue I found is that its max brightness is not as strong as the inner display (3,000 nits, max), and it was occasionally overwhelmed by direct sunlight.

It's also a good-looking screen across multiple content types and activities thanks to the variable refresh rate that can sit anywhere from a power-sipping 1Hz up to a silky smooth 120Hz.

• Display score: 5 / 5

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra review: Cameras

• Excellent collection of cameras
• Best image processing I've seen from Samsung to date
• Finally, a 50MP ultra-wide camera
• Wish the telephoto was 5x optical

As with most of the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, Samsung didn't completely reinvent the photography suite. Instead, we have a strong collection of cameras with some key improvements, chief among them a much more powerful 50MP ultrawide and the overall updates to the ProVisual engine for some of the best photography I've ever achieved with a Samsung smartphone.

I've spent more than a week photographing everything from the iconic landmarks of London to a soccer match between Wrexham and Liverpool at New York's Yankee Stadium. In virtually every scenario, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra's cameras did not disappoint. Samsung's ProVisual engine is finally focused on color fidelity, and while I can use Galaxy AI Photo Assist to alter mu images to my heart's content, I applaud Samsung's focus on photographic reality.

To recap, here are all the cameras (five of them!) you get:

• 200MP wide
• 50MP ultra-wide
• 10MP telephoto (3x optical)
• 10MP selfie (main screen)
• 10MP selfie (cover screen)

Like most high-megapixel main cameras on phones, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra's 200MP and 50MP cameras default to a binned mode, squeezing multiple pixels into one (the main 48MP camera on iPhone 17 Pro, for instance, similarly defaults to 24MP). The result with the Z Fold 8 Ultra is 12MP photos, unless you choose 50MP or 200MP. The majority of my photos were shot with the 12MP default.

Even though Apple defaults to a higher resolution, Samsung's overall higher megapixel count means it's theoretically squeezing even more information into each photo. In anecdotal side-by-side shots, Samsung's photography is now as good as, and sometimes better than, what I can get with the iPhone 17 Pro Max.

Portrait-mode photos have become a real highlight in Samsung's photographic arsenal. From the very first photo I took of my colleague Axel Metz (above) to a shot of my son and his girlfriend, I've been impressed with the phone's uncanny ability to capture every detail and strand of hair while warmly blurring the background. My favorite shot is this one, of one of the Beefeaters who guard the Tower of London guards. This gentleman was kind enough to pose for me, and I think even he was surprised at the result.

While I was generally pleased with the telephoto performance, I'm not thrilled with the underpowered, 10MP 3x optical zoom lens. It obviously pales in comparison to the iPhone 17 Pro Max's 48MP 4x optical zoom. Those extra megapixels also help the iPhone produce unprocessed 8x zoom sensor crops. After 3x on the Z Fold 8 Ultra, everything else gets some digital enhancement. Most of the images I've shared are optical-strength only.

One lens that's gotten a big upgrade with the Z Fold 8 Ultra is the ultra-wide, which is now a 50MP lens. This helps improve the quality of those wide-angle shots, and macro images, as well. There's some real drama in these ultra-wide images, and I'm impressed with how even the edges remain sharp.

Night photography is also strong, and I was often pleased with how much light, color, and detail the Z Fold 8 Ultra could find in even the darkest environments.

On the video side, the Z Fold 8 Ultra lives up to its name, letting you shoot and edit 8K video. I waded into my pair of hydrangea bushes and dozens of buzzing bees to capture some cool, up-close 8K footage that I was then able to fully edit inside the phone's camera app, including adjusting brightness, and even using the AI-powered audio scrubber to bring down the wind and sound of leaves brushing against the microphones.

One of the other highlights is the Dual Camera shooting mode, which, while using a front and back camera, produces a rather distinct result. Instead of the 10MP selfie-camera image appearing as a picture-in-picture window on the front-facing camera video — as it does when using the similar Dual Capture mode on Apple’s latest iPhones — the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra creates a split-screen view.

I used this mode a few times in London, most memorably at the Royal Palace and at Borough Market, where I shot the famous strawberry stand. It's a great effect, and creates some really engaging videos.

The other most notable video feature is a Galaxy AI enhancement called My FanCam. As the name implies, it lets you focus on your favorite video subject. The example we saw involved video of a soccer game. On playback in the camera app, you select the Galaxy AI icon and then the My FanCam option. The system identifies all the moving people (it doesn't work with animals or anything other than humans). You select the one you want, and the video tracks that subject. But the best part is that it can auto-crop around the subject in the aspect ratio of your choice — perfect for sharing on social media.

I ran a couple of tests with My FanCam, and it worked perfectly every time.

• Camera score: 4.5 / 5

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra review: Software

• One UI 9 is clean, elegant, and intuitive
• Lots of AI, but none of it gets in the way

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra arrives with Android 17 and OneUI 9. It's a great combination. Overall, OneUI is a great Android overlay, because it's useful without getting in the way of Android. There are still some odd choices, like the existence of a Galaxy web browser that I never use (does anyone?), but some of the native Galaxy features are actually quite useful.

It's also a system with multiple AI platforms: Bixby, Galaxy AI, and Gemini. Of the three, Bixby, which can answer general questions and step into controlling key phone features, got the least amount of use. I do like though for it for how it lets you dig down to settings like brightness control without ever digging into settings. I could simply talk to Bixby and tell it what I wanted, like when I asked, "Can you make sure the brightness is set to 100%?" Bixby opened settings, brightness control, and pushed it to 100%.

Galaxy AI is a far richer collection of native AI tools, ranging from on-screen awareness to voice-driven photo editing.

I had some fun editing photos with my voice — and I was shocked by how good the results were. With the above photo pair, I simply asked Galaxy AI to "Remove the old man". There was no hesitation, and in about 20 seconds I had the second image. I was gone, and Galaxy AI filled in the rest of my friend's arm, turned a small satchel he was carrying into a shoulder bag, and fleshed out the guy behind me. It looked like reality.

There's also a whole collection of Now features, including the "your world on a single screen" Now Brief, which now adds custom cards, and Now Nudge, which pops up contextual guidance for things like multitasking and automatically noticing that you might want to add an appointment to your calendar. I couldn't get Now Nudge working for me in messages in RCS — I suspect it may take some time for the system to learn about me and start making these suggestions.

On the quality-of-life front, the QuickShare updates that make sharing between this Android Phone and iPhones (and Macs) possible have been a revelation. I feel as if the world's been thrown open, and I can only say it's about time. Okay, I know that's a bit much, but this feature update is bigger than you might think.

Gemini is especially powerful if you give it access to personal details and data inside apps like calendar and mail. When I asked Gemini, without preamble, "Where am I going today?" it looked in my emails and gave me my schedule and location for my next meeting. Impressive.

Features like Circle to Search can be summoned by holding down the virtual home button and then circling on-screen objects. The results are quick and accurate

I can also hold down the power/sleep button to summon Gemini. Six months of access to the more powerful Pro version comes with the phone; after that, you have the most basic Google AI, which is still pretty good.

• Software score: 4.5 / 5

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra review: Performance

• Powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy
• Performance is peerless
• Back can get a little hot

This is a powerful and smoothly performing smartphone. Qualcomm's latest silicon virtually matches the iPhone 17 Pro Max's A19 Pro Geekbench 7 single- and multi-core scores. The numbers, by the way, appear lower than phones tested last year with Geekbench 6 because, in the upgrade to 7, Geekbench completely recalibrated how it measures performance.

In the real world, I have yet to run into a task or situation the phone couldn't handle. Games like Asphalt Legends looked and ran perfectly. The Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra can handle multitasking with ease — you can have up to four apps open simultaneously on the main screen — and editing 8K video is seamless.

There were times when I could feel the back of the phone getting warm, but not so much that it became uncomfortable to hold.

In other performance areas, like audio, the speakers can get loud but with virtually no bass; they can also sound a bit tinny. Call quality is excellent, though my first few call tests were with phone scammers who somehow instantly found the new number.

5G speeds and WiFi 7 connectivity were strong and, with enough signal, fast. I've also enjoyed a solid Bluetooth 6.0 connection to my Samsung Galaxy Buds Pro 2 and Galaxy Watch Ultra.

• Performance score: 4.5 / 5

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra review: Battery

• 5,000mAh battery
• 45W wired charging
• All-day battery life

Even though this is a thinner Z Fold than last year, the battery is now a larger 5,000mAh, a feat made possible by the thinner titanium alloy, which replaced the thicker polymer layer and the new silicon-carbon battery technology (more power in less space).

That battery gave me, with constant, all-day, mixed use in bright sunlight, 12.5 hours of battery life. In our lab tests, we got a solid 14 hours. It's an all-day champ, to be sure.

The phone can also charge quickly with a 45W fast charger — I almost 50% in 15 minutes and 76% in half an hour — while wireless charging supports 20W charging. You can also put another Galaxy phone on the back and share a little power via Wireless PowerShare.

• Battery score: 5 / 5

Should you buy the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra review: Also consider

How I tested the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra

I've been working, playing, and traveling with the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra for almost two weeks. I've tried to use it as I would any smartphone, but with the added benefit of the large screen.

This is my seventh year testing foldable phones, and I am constantly astonished by the progress that's being made with the form factor, especially by Samsung. The Z Fold 8 Ultra is the full expression of its smartphone ideas and, as I carried it with me and pulled it out to take photos in London, Manhattan, and at home, I was constantly surprised and pleased with its performance.

More broadly, I've been testing phones for over 22 years and technology for 40. I use my wealth of experience to put products like the Z Fold 8 Ultra in context and perspective. As I see it, this is the best folding phone on the market right now.
Read more about how we test

First reviewed August 2026

Samsung Galaxy S26: Two-minute review

Every year, Samsung's S-series lineup consists of three models. There's the entry-level option — in this case, the Galaxy S26 — followed by mid- and high-end offerings, which in 2026 are the Galaxy S26 Plus and Galaxy S26 Ultra. While the Ultra steals most of the headlines, the Galaxy S26 is no slouch. It's a great, well-rounded option for those who want a compact phone or don't want to shell out silly money on buying one of the very best Android phones.

The S26 features a slightly tweaked design versus the Galaxy S25, with a new pill-shaped camera array on the back, a 6.3-inch display, and several color options. Tucked underneath its exterior is a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset, 12GB of RAM, and storage options that now start at 256GB (RIP 128GB). All these specs, along with Android 16 and Samsung's feature-packed One UI 8.5 software, combine for a smooth mobile experience.

In terms of endurance, the Galaxy S26's 4,300mAh battery routinely delivered more than a full day of use in my testing, often leaving me with enough juice to go into the next day. And its trio of rear-facing cameras does the job, as does the selfie cam.

One downside is the $100 / £80 price increase over last year's model (though Australian buyers actually get a AU$50 saving). Yes, this is an industry-wide trend right now — but that doesn't make the numbers feel any better. Thankfully, while the S26 starts at $899 / £879 / AU$1,349, it can often be found on sale.

Another blemish is the limited 25W charging speed and lack of internal magnets to fully support Qi2 chargers and accessories without a case.

Overall, then, if you can find the Galaxy S26 on sale and want to stay within the Samsung ecosystem, it's a great pick-up. However, there's stiff competition at this price point — and below it, too.

Samsung Galaxy S26 review: Price and availability

• Starts at $899 / £879 / AU$1,349 for 256GB + 12GB RAM

Samsung announced the Galaxy S26 line, including the base S26, S26 Plus and S26 Ultra, on February 25, 2026. Preorders opened the same day, and deliveries started March 11.

You can buy the S26 directly from Samsung with a starting price of $899 / £879 / AU$1,349 (which represents a $100 / £80 increase and AU$50 decrease versus the S25). However, Samsung frequently offers discounts, and at the time of writing, the S26 is going for $799 in the US.

Regardless of where you're buying the phone, you'll get double the starting storage versus previous entry-level S-series models (256GB vs 128GB).

Buying directly from Samsung means you'll have two additional color options in Silver Shadow and Pink Gold. Picking it up from third-party retailers like Best Buy and Amazon, or a wireless carrier such as Google Fi or Verizon, limits you to Cobalt Violet, Sky Blue, White, or Black.

• Value score: 3 / 5

Samsung Galaxy S26 review: Specs

Here's a breakdown of the Samsung Galaxy S26's key specs:

Samsung Galaxy S26 review: Design

• Same core design as the S25
• New camera array on the back

At first glance, it'd be easy to mistake the S26 for last year's S25. The design differences are small. The biggest visual change is the triple camera array on the back of the phone. Instead of each lens protruding out of the phone's housing, there's a single pill-shaped camera bump. Otherwise, the display is only slightly bigger at 6.3 inches compared to the S25's 6.2 inches. That increase also means the overall size of the phone grew a bit, too. The S26 measures 149.6 x 71.7 x 7.2 mm and weighs 167g.

As previously mentioned, there are a total of six color options available: Cobalt Violet, Sky Blue, White, Black, Silver Shadow, and Pink Gold — the latter two of which are exclusive to Samsung.

My daily drivers are an iPhone 15 Pro Max and a Pixel 10 Pro XL, both of which are much larger devices than the S26. Yet, I rather enjoyed the smaller form factor of the S26, and I didn't feel like the smaller display was too small at any time during my testing.

I've often debated whether I should stop using the biggest phone every phone maker offers, and after using the S26 for a couple of weeks, that internal debate is stronger than ever.

The only area I struggled with regarding the design of the Galaxy S26 was the orientation of the sleep/wake button and the volume up/down buttons on the right edge. I found myself instinctively reaching for the volume down button while scrolling through Reels on Instagram, only to press the sleep/wake button and lock the phone. My muscle memory just couldn't adjust to the S26's arrangement, which is the exact opposite of the Pixel 10 Pro XL's, which has volume buttons below the sleep/wake on the same side of its housing.

On the bottom, you'll find a nano-SIM card slot (I thought we were done with physical SIMs?!) and a USB-C port. The left side and top edge of the phone are completely clean.

• Design score: 4 / 5

Samsung Galaxy S26 review: Display

• Easy to use in direct sunlight
• Smooth refresh rate

The Galaxy S26 features a 6.3-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X display with a 2340 x 1080 resolution and an adaptive 120Hz refresh rate. All these technical specs mean one simple thing: it looks fantastic.

Everything from standard text messages to high-res YouTube clips appears incredibly sharp. Gaming is equally impressive; the display delivers fluid, stutter-free graphics in fast-paced titles like Asphalt Legends, which can take full advantage of the S26's 120Hz refresh rate.

The AMOLED panel truly shines — literally — when you take it outdoors, thanks to a rated peak brightness of 2,600 nits. Even under direct midday sun, I had absolutely no trouble reading the screen or navigating through apps.

There's really not much more to say about the Galaxy S26's screen other than it looks great. No issues. 10/10, would recommend.

• Display score: 5 / 5

Samsung Galaxy S26 review: Software

• 7 years of software updates
• Multitasking features are nice-to-haves

The Galaxy S26 runs Android 16 with Samsung's One UI 8.5 adding customizations and features to the overall experience. If you've ever used a Samsung phone or tablet, you'll feel right at home with the S26's interface.

One UI used to feel duplicative of the base Android experience, particularly when it came to the apps preinstalled on a phone. For instance, Samsung Messages and Google Messages were both available. However, Samsung recently retired Messages in favor of Google's offering.

Samsung hasn't fully given up on its own apps. The Samsung Browser and Gallery are still available, for example. It's still confusing and a cluttered user experience, but it is getting better.

Default apps aside, One UI is mostly interface tweaks and customizations you don't see on, say, a Pixel phone. For instance, the new gestures to view your notifications or the quick settings panel in One UI 8.5 have taken me some getting used to.

Swiping down from the left three-quarters of the screen opens your notification panel, while swiping down from the top-right quarter reveals your quick settings.

I've been using a Galaxy Z Fold 7 running One UI 8.5 for a few months and adjusted to the new interaction with little effort, but for some reason, the smaller screen of the Galaxy S26 keeps tripping me up.

But I digress.

Galaxy AI is a big part of Samsung's AI initiative. You can use Galaxy AI to do things like let AI screen an incoming call, use writing and editing tools, photo editing, summarize and prioritize notifications, and even get personalized health insights using your Samsung Health data.

The feature list reads like a standard AI suite on any 2026 phone. That's not a bad thing, by any means.

I used the editing tool (Object Eraser) in the Gallery app to remove objects from photos a few times, and each time it nailed it. I'm not a huge fan of converting photos into pop art or retro anime, but in my brief experimentation with that feature, it mostly worked.

Having said all this, the redundancy of every phone maker and major tech company offering its own version of the same AI features can get overwhelming and confusing for users. Hopefully, after the AI boom goes bust, the mass spamming of AI features for the sake of AI features will stop.

Beyond Galaxy AI, one of my favorite features of the S26's software experience is the ability to touch and drag down on a notification to instantly create a small window for that app. It's super helpful when you want to reply to a message or continue a conversation without switching apps. The first time I triggered it was by accident, but once I figured out how it works, I'd routinely swipe down on the pop-up for an alert, do what I needed to do, and then close out the app — all without leaving whatever app I was in at the time. All phones should offer similar multitasking features.

• Software score: 4 / 5

Samsung Galaxy S26 review: Cameras

• 50MP main camera
• 12MP ultra-wide
• 10MP telephoto

The camera housing on the S26 might be new, but the actual hardware is unchanged from the S25. You still get a 50MP main camera, a 12MP ultra-wide, and a 10MP telephoto lens with 3x optical zoom.

I had fun taking photos with the S26. Samsung phones have historically taken photos that are slightly over-saturated, and sometimes overexposed, but that look pretty darn good at the end of the day, and the S26 is no different.

The phone performed beautifully in brightly lit environments, like when I snapped pics of the new Rivian R2 after a test drive. It also did a solid job of preserving detail and color late in the afternoon as the sun went down during my evening walks.

The telephoto lens works well up to its 3x optical limit, but its digital zoom past that point is hit or miss, especially once you get near the 30x limit. I had hoped I'd be able to read a 'no trespassing' sign posted down the street from me at 30x zoom, and while some of the text is legible, it's difficult to read.

The phone's 12MP front-facing hole-punch camera is centered along the top of its display. It takes good selfies, although it makes me look old. Or maybe I'm getting old. It's probably the latter. Sigh.

• Camera score: 4 / 5

Samsung Galaxy S26 review: Camera samples

Samsung Galaxy S26 review: Performance

• Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset
• 12GB memory
• 256GB starting storage

The Galaxy S26 is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset, with 12GB of memory and 256GB or 512GB of storage.

All of that combines to provide a smooth overall experience, with no obvious slowdowns in daily use. I spent my time testing the S26 using it as I would my daily phone.

I made random calls, talked in group chats and with my wife and kids, took pics of random stuff, played a game once in a while, streamed music, and watched some videos. The phone handled everything I put it through without any hiccups. Apps launched fast, and multitasking didn't trigger any lag or unresponsiveness.

One thing I noticed while gaming and running benchmarks is that the S26 gets hot. While it never becomes too hot to hold, it can become uncomfortable during extended gaming sessions. After noticing the temperature rise during a benchmark test, I grabbed my infrared thermometer and measured it at 113 degrees Fahrenheit.

Although I didn't have a case to test with, I imagine a case will likely cause the phone to heat up faster and potentially throttle its performance. This isn't a dealbreaker, but it's something to keep in mind.

• Performance score: 4 / 5

Samsung Galaxy S26 review: Battery

• 4,300mAh battery
• 25W wired charging
• 15W wireless charging

Inside the Galaxy S26 is a 4,300mAh battery that's big enough to power through 30 hours of continuous video playback, according to Samsung's claims. In practice, that claim held up. I was easily able to get through a full day of heavy use — starting at 6am and ending around 10pm — and still have enough juice left to make it into the lunch hour the following day.

I felt spoiled while testing the S26, especially since my aging iPhone 15 Pro Max now needs to be recharged multiple times a day.

I normally don't leave my phone overnight without plugging it in, letting it drain precious battery in the process. But I wanted to see just how far I could push the S26's battery, and it delivered. I routinely saw a drop in charge of 4-5% overnight.

When it came time to charge the S26, using a 25W power adapter nets you an 18% charge from empty in 15 minutes. A full charge with the same adapter took 1 hour and 35 minutes. That's slightly slower than the Motorola Razr Plus 2026 I recently tested, but to be expected considering the Razr charges at up to 45W.

Wireless charging is an option at 15W with support for the Qi2 standard. However, there are no magnets in the phone to hold any compatible wireless charger or accessory in place. Instead, you'll need to buy a Qi2-compatible case that includes a ring of magnets to take full advantage of the feature.

I'm sure this is a design and cost-saving decision, but it's an odd one. As someone who uses a MagSafe wallet and has MagSafe chargers all over my home, office, and even in my truck, I've noticed the lack of magnets in the Galaxy S26 daily. At least fixing the problem is just a simple case purchase away.

The S26 also supports reverse wireless charging at up to 4.5W, which isn't a whole lot of power, but it's perfect for those situations when you need to recharge your smartwatch or wireless earbuds while on the go.

• Battery score: 4 / 5

Should you buy the Samsung Galaxy S26?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Samsung Galaxy S26 review: Also consider

How I tested the Samsung Galaxy S26

I spent two weeks testing the Galaxy S26, using it as I would my everyday smartphone. I sent countless BlueBubble messages, played games, streamed music, and watched far more TheBurntPeanut streams and clips than I care to admit. I took pics of my food, my pets, and other daily randomness, as one does.

Read more about how we test

First tested July 2026

Samsung Galaxy Fold 8: Two-minute review

It’s high praise that one of my biggest problems with the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 is that I wish it had a different name.

The fact that the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra has taken up the mantle of the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and all previous Galaxy Z Fold models is a little confusing. But titles aside, what Samsung has actually done here with the Galaxy Z Fold 8 — that is, build a new kind of foldable for a new kind of audience — deserves recognition, and I'm glad the South Korean giant has once again moved the category forward in a meaningful way.

Ideal Galaxy Z Fold 8 users are those focused on mobile entertainment and exploring new ideas with a pair of screens that Samsung has shaped specifically for watching video and reading, respectively.

While the phone is still technically capable, with an excellent chipset, plenty of memory, and strong battery and charging specs, it’s being sold more on its everyday use cases — and convincingly so.

In one way, it’s going to be hard to judge how good the Galaxy Z Fold 8 is until we get the long-rumored foldable iPhone, which is going to be the second (and perhaps more important) passport-style foldable to hit Western markets. But what I can say right now, looking at the Galaxy Z Fold 8 itself and the wider foldable phone and Android phone markets, is that this mid-sized foldable may herald a new generation of folding phones. I just wish it wasn’t so expensive.

Samsung Galaxy Fold 8 review: Price and availability

• From $1,899 in the US
• From £1,699 in the UK
• From $2,699 in Australia

Starting at $1,899 /£1,699 / AU$2,699, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 is currently in its pre-order phase; it'll hit shelves on August 7.

These prices put the phone in between the Galaxy Z Flip 8 and Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra in terms of cost, and it's cheaper than the Galaxy Z Fold 7, which retailed for $1,999.99 / £1,799 / AU$2,899 at launch.

Samsung releasing a cheaper book-style foldable is absolutely a good thing, but the small price difference between the Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Z Fold 8 Ultra makes the former seem a little too keenly-priced.

That said, excluding the Huawei Pura X — which is hard to get in the West and requires some fiddling to get working with familiar Google services — and the as-yet-unnannounced iPhone Ultra, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 is the only representative of this size of foldable you can easily buy right now.

Hopefully future discounts will make this phone more affordable, but right now, it seems like Samsung’s charging a little uniqueness tax on top of what the Galaxy Z Fold 8 is truly worth.

• Value score: 3 / 5

Samsung Galaxy Fold 8 review: Specs

These are the key specs of the Galaxy Z Fold 8:

Samsung Galaxy Fold 8 review: Design

• Compact and light for a “big” folding phone
• Outer and inner screens equally useful

When open, the Galaxy Z Fold 8’s 7.6-inch screen resembles a typical foldable phone, with a few exceptions.

It’s easier to handle, with its 201g weight making it lighter than any other book-style foldable, while the phone's 4.5mm thickness also contributes to it feeling like a small tablet. The minimal crease, while not as invisible as the Z Fold 8 Ultra’s, is barely a distraction unless you happen to catch the light in a particular way, and it's only noticeable to the touch when you’re trying to look for it.

With its slightly rectangular open shape, the Z Fold 8 is much more similar in size and form to an iPad (specifically, the iPad mini) or ereader than most foldables, which tend towards a square shape. And while being square can have its advantages, I have really fallen for the Z Fold 8’s design during my testing time.

While working on this review, I often turned the Z Fold 8 vertically for a physical document-style view of my work. You get almost double the number of lines in Google Docs with the keyboard open as you do with the Fold 8 in its regular orientation, while the keyboard remains split for easier typing. As a result, the Z Fold 8 is now my favorite device without a physical keyboard to write on, even though Samsung considers the Z Fold 8 Ultra to be the top choice for anyone wanting to get serious work done.

However, I also found myself less inclined to open the Z Fold 8 than I have been with other book-style foldables. The phone's outer 5.5-inch screen is perfect for one-handed use of fully-sized apps, which isn't a given even on standard bar-shaped phones today.

To alleviate any (understandable) durability concerns about folding phones, Samsung has rated the Galaxy Z Fold 8 as IP48 for dust and water resistance, which means it's as well-protected against water as any other flagship phone.

The '4' in that designation means no foreign objects above 1mm in size will worm their way into the Galaxy Z Fold 8's inner components, though other foldables — namely the Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold and the Honor Magic V6 — offer superior IP68 dust protection.

There’s also Gorilla Glass Ceramic 3 on the display and Victus 2 on the back to avoid scratches or serious cracks, plus a Flex Titanium layer under the main display, which makes the most vulnerable part of the Z Fold 8 tougher.

Rounding off these impressive design credentials is a quartet of appealing color options: the Galaxy Z Fold 8 is available in Lavender (pictured in this review), Graphite, Cream, and the Samsung Store-exclusive Pistachio.

• Design score: 4.5 / 5

Samsung Galaxy Fold 8 review: Displays

• High-quality screens inside and out
• Display brightness could still be higher

The Galaxy Z Fold 8's 7.6-inch main display and 5.5-inch cover display have been crafted by Samsung to help you enjoy whatever kind of content you’re into.

The phone's outer screen has a video-friendly 16:10 aspect ratio, while its inner panel uses a more spacious, practical 4:3 ratio that's best suited to reading (though this inner panel is also better suited to widescreen video than the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra's square-shaped equivalent). We've compared the Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra's screen sizes elsewhere on TechRadar so you can visualize the difference between the two.

Both screens are detailed and colorful, which is no great surprise — Samsung is one of the best, if not the best, mobile display manufacturers in the world.

That said, despite a high brightness rating of 3,000 nits, the Galaxy Z Fold 8's screen readability can be a problem when using the phone in direct sunlight, even with the Extra brightness setting enabled.

Still, the low-reflection coating on the phone's inside screen makes some difference. It’s not as effective as the one you get on the Galaxy S26 Ultra or Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra, but the Galaxy Z Fold 8 definitely softens reflections better than most standard phones, making it easier to see what's on screen.

• Display score: 4.5 / 5

Samsung Galaxy Fold 8 review: Software

• The latest Galaxy AI features with foldable-specific upgrades
• A mix of fun features, like My FanCam, and practical ones, like Multi-Window

The Galaxy Z Fold 8 runs on One UI 9, which is based on Android 17. It’s quite different from other Android skins, which hew closer to Google’s original design, but it’s still one of the best options around in terms of adaptation to foldable phones.

Several of Samsung’s software features have been adapted for the Z Fold 8 series, specifically, including Now Nudge. These small, discreet but helpful prompts suggest what app or action you might want to use next depending on what’s on screen, and offer to open a split-screen view on your behalf.

For AI fans, Samsung has expanded task automation for select apps, assuming you’re in the US, UK, or South Korea, where this feature is currently enabled. These automations don’t work all that fast, but assuming your prompt is understood correctly, the Z Fold 8’s AI will work through your request until you decide to take back control, or when it alerts you when it’s time to intervene to finalize a booking or order.

My FanCam, meanwhile, lets you create a motion-tracked video of a particular subject from any video (from your photo gallery, YouTube, or anywhere else). I have not made a fancam before, so I don’t know how well this sort of software — which is popular among K-pop fans — works elsewhere, but Samsung’s version is relatively effective, albeit with some major limitations.

Making a My FanCam clip is easy: just open the AI tools menu with the video you want to use in the Gallery app, tap the relevant icon, then tap your subject. After some processing time, depending on the size of the original clip, you have your tracked footage. But after trying the feature with a number of videos, two problems appeared.

First, the subject needs to be large enough in the frame. Even if you have high-resolution 4K footage, you need to crop in before My FanCam will detect them. Similarly, they need to be well-lit — I tried to use a clip of a dance troupe moving around in dramatic stage lighting, and My FanCam simply would not work.

Since there is no manual tracking option you can use, you are at the mercy of Samsung’s algorithms as to whether your footage is compatible.

As for multitasking, although it’s not as much of a focus on the Galaxy Z Fold 8 as it is on the Z Fold 8 Ultra, I still appreciate Samsung’s updates to its Multi-Window system, which lets you use two or more apps at once. The Z Fold 8 and its sibling now let you use three apps side-by-side vertically or horizontally, as well as via the older splitting method, which sees one app taking up half the screen and the other two taking a quarter each.

Multi-Window is still not as versatile as the windowed system you now find on many tablets and rival foldables, but if you’re cross-referencing without wanting to make too many edits to what you’re looking at, it certainly avoids the need to open your laptop from time to time, which makes the Galaxy Z Fold 8 a valuable productivity companion.

• Software score: 4 / 5

Samsung Galaxy Fold 8 review: Cameras

• No telephoto camera at this price feels unfair
• But cameras that *are* present perform well

The Galaxy Z Fold 8 has the undistinguished position of having the highest relative price per camera of any Samsung phone. Unlike the Z Fold 8 Ultra, there’s no telephoto camera to speak of here, although at least the cameras you do get are of good quality. Specifically, there are 50MP main and ultra-wide lenses on the back, plus 10MP selfie cameras embedded in the phone's cover and inner displays.

Samsung’s camera processing has made an important step forward in recent years, going from exaggerated colors to more natural ones, matching the vibe of other flagship smartphone cameras. That’s why, even in the intense sunlight that was slowly melting me during my photo trip to Beckenham Place Park, we still get attractive-looking trees, grass, sky and brickwork.

Samsung’s 50MP main camera offers 2x in-sensor zoom for a little extra reach when you need it without compromising on image quality. The Camera app also offers presets for 4x and 10x (the latter is the maximum available digital zoom), although the image quality deteriorates, as you’d expect.

For selfies, the 10MP cameras on the inside and outside of the phone are identical, and therefore equally competent. You’re also free to open the Galaxy Z Fold 8 and switch the preview to the outer screen for hi-res or ultra-wide selfies — perhaps one of the most underrated abilities of foldable phones.

Portrait mode on Samsung phones is a particular strength, as it can cut accurately around glasses where other phones struggle. These examples show that the Z Fold 8 hasn’t missed out on this ability.

Video maxes out at 8K/30fps, or 4K/60fps if you need your extra frames. Samsung’s videography party trick from the Galaxy S26 series — Super Steady video with Horizontal Lock — has also made it to the Z Fold 8 series.

This feature levels out shaky footage at the expense of some resolution. It does a fantastic job, though, as you can see in these samples of me running along a path (the first is the original footage, the second is the edited footage).

Overall, while it would be nice if Samsung had given the Z Fold 8 a telephoto camera, what’s here works well. And since this phone is designed to appeal to a more casual user, there’s a reasonable chance that anyone interested in the Z Fold 8 won’t mind the compromise.

• Camera score: 3 / 5

Samsung Galaxy Fold 8 review: Performance

• Top-performing chipset with plenty of memory, even by default
• Great for games, even with below-par benchmark scores

The Z Fold 8 contains the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 for Galaxy chipset, which is the best version of the best silicon currently available in an Android phone. The scores I got in my own benchmarking tests are a little lower than I would have anticipated, but they're impressive nonetheless, and prove that the Z Fold 8 is absolutely a performance powerhouse.

Indeed, this top-end chipset proved its worth while I tested several games on the Galaxy Z Fold 8. Destiny Rising, set to its highest graphical setting and 60fps, ran perfectly smoothly. Similarly, Asphalt Legends at its full high quality/120fps settings proved no challenge for the Z Fold 8.

Under the hood, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 features 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage by default, but you can spec the device up to 512GB if you wish. There’s also a 1TB model, which gets a RAM bump to 16GB, though whether this upgrade is worth the money will depend entirely on how intensively you use your phone.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 benchmark scores

• Performance score: 4 / 5

Samsung Galaxy Fold 8 review: Battery

• The phone can last a surprisingly long time if you use the inner screen sparingly
• Charging isn’t the fastest, but it's definitely quick enough when you need it

Despite being smaller than last year’s Galaxy Z Fold 7, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 packs a larger-capacity battery — specifically 4,800mAh versus 4,400mAh. That’s thanks to Samsung finally adopting industry-leading silicon-carbon battery technology, which boasts higher energy density than the lithium-ion technology used by Samsung (and indeed most other Western phone manufacturers) in its previous batteries.

Samsung’s battery estimate claims you can get 26 hours of video playback from a single charge of the Galaxy Z Fold 8 — and I’m inclined to believe that, if you stick to the cover screen. In my light to moderate mixed usage of the phone during testing, switching between screens, enabling the always-on display and leaving the phone off charge overnight, I would get between a day and a day and a half between plug-ins.

Samsung is using its best 45W wired and 20W wireless charging options on the Z Fold 8 series, which, while slower than some rival devices, is still an upgrade on previous Z Folds. Using a compatible third-party charger, I was able to fill the Z Fold 8 to 43% in 15 minutes, and to 100% in 1 hour and 5 minutes.

In other words, you wouldn’t want to forget to charge this phone overnight, given the sub-two-day battery life, but if you do, it won’t take long to get a usable amount of charge in an emergency.

• Battery score: 4 / 5

Should you buy the Samsung Galaxy Fold 8?

Samsung Galaxy Fold 8 scorecard

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 review: Also consider

How I tested the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8

I used the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 for approximately a week and a half as my work phone, transferring my apps, messages, and SIM card from the Oppo Find N6 I was using beforehand.

As my work device, I used the Z Fold 8 for writing stories, answering emails, scrolling social media and watching tech YouTube videos.

Read more about how we test

First reviewed July/August 2026

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 is smaller, cheaper, and has fewer cameras than the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, but it may end up being the most popular Galaxy foldable to date.

Why? Because its 7.6-inch inner screen has a 4:3 aspect ratio, which is supposedly “the new standard for viewing content,” as Samsung told us in an interview — and if there’s one thing most of us can’t get enough of in 2026, it’s content.

The Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, meanwhile, has an 8-inch inner screen with a 10:9 aspect ratio, which is great for spreadsheets and multitasking, but less brilliant for movies and YouTube videos.

Don’t believe me (or Samsung)? I compared the experience of streaming Netflix, watching YouTube, and scrolling through Instagram Reels on the Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra — in both portrait and landscape orientations, where possible — to help you visualize the aspect ratio differences between these two devices.

Check out the side-by-side comparisons for each platform below, and let me know in the comments section which phone you’d prefer to use for watching videos. I've also included a roundup of each model's respective size specs for added context.

Netflix

Z Fold 8 (10:16) / Z Fold 8 Ultra (9:21)

Z Fold 8 (4:3) vs Z Fold 8 Ultra (9:10)

Z Fold 8 (4:3) / Z Fold 8 Ultra (10:9)

Z Fold 8 (3:4) / Z Fold 8 Ultra (9:10)

YouTube

Z Fold 8 (16:10) / Z Fold 8 Ultra (21:9)

Z Fold 8 (10:16) / Z Fold 8 Ultra (9:21)

Z Fold 8 (4:3) vs Z Fold 8 Ultra (9:10)

Z Fold 8 (4:3) / Z Fold 8 Ultra (10:9)

Z Fold 8 (3:4) / Z Fold 8 Ultra (9:10)

Instagram Reels

Z Fold 8 (16:10) / Z Fold 8 Ultra (21:9)

Z Fold 8 (4:3) vs Z Fold 8 Ultra (9:10)

Z Fold 8 (4:3) / Z Fold 8 Ultra (10:9)

Z Fold 8 (3:4) / Z Fold 8 Ultra (9:10)

Verdict

For Netflix and YouTube, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 provides a cleaner viewing experience than the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra in every orientation except 3:4.

The actual size of the video in every comparison is the same across both phones — unless you're watching native 4:3 content, which fills up the entire inner screen on the Galaxy Z Fold 8 — but the black bars (or negative space) above and below are noticeably narrower than those on the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, and there's no awkward pillarboxing (i.e., bars on either side of the video) when using the Galaxy Z Fold 8 in 10:16.

Of course, if you use the Galaxy Z Fold 8 in 3:4, the black bars are much bigger than those on the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, but I don't expect anybody to choose this orientation for watching video content (I've only included it for additional context). Samsung itself admits that 3:4 is “more natural for reading e-books or browsing the web,” which gives the smaller device another nice win over the pricier model.

For now, the Instagram Reels-watching experience is still better on the taller, narrower cover display of the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, but both phones offer a similar experience when opened up. The Z Fold 8 in 3:4 actually offers the smallest amount of letterboxing, and it's also a lighter phone (201g vs 215g), so there's no clear winner on the social media-scrolling front.

So there you have it: if watching videos and reading articles is your priority, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 is a better buy than the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra.

Of course, there is much more to both phones than their respective displays — the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra has better cameras, for instance — so I wouldn't jump headfirst into buying one over the other until you've read our full Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra vs Galaxy Z Fold 8 comparison.

Side note: You're not able to watch videos in 16:10 (Z Fold 8) or 21:9 (Z Fold 8 Ultra) on Netflix, nor videos in 10:16 (Z Fold 8) or 9:21 (Z Fold 8 Ultra) on Instagram, hence why these options don't appear in the above comparison.

Confusion is the typical first reaction. They hold the new Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 in their hands, marveling at the passport-sized cover screen, and ask without irony or sarcasm, "Is this new?"

I'm finding that people think the Z Fold 8's design is both familiar and completely alien. They roll it over in their hands and, initially, appear unaware that it also unfolds to reveal a far larger, and yet also oddly shaped, inner display.

It's, for all intents and purposes, the Nokia Feature phone of modern foldables. It's a completely new device featuring modern hardware, components, tech innovation, and AI that also somehow harkens back to an era of weird Nokia phones that proudly peacocked their oddball aesthetics.

Back in the early oughts when most thought the state of cellphones had been well-worked out and we'd settled on small-ish screens and an endless array of keyboard styles, Nokia was king of the hill. There was no one-size-fits-all in the world of cell phones. Your phone's physical design was an expression of your personal style. The tiny Nokia 31000 had virtually nothing in common with a T-Mobile Sidekick or a BlackBerry 7230. Nokia's designs, though, were fun (if not always practical — looking at you, Nokia N-Gage) and they made us think differently about mobile phones and what we should expect when using them.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8, which Samsung unveiled last week in London at Samsung Upacked (and that I'm carrying today), is perhaps serving a similar function now, trumpeting the very existence of foldable phones and why they might matter to you.

Why the Nokia Effect matters

In my discussions with Samsung about why they made the Galaxy Z Fold 8, it became quite clear that this was a phone and form factor designed to attract customers disinterested or dissatisfied with the current relatively vanilla set of folding phone options, not only available from Samsung, but also from its rivals at Motorola, Oppo, and Huawei.

After all, you had either the candybar style that opens into a mini tablet or the communicator flip-style. Camera arrays might all look different, but the basic size and shapes are all the same. And none of them were moving the market — foldables held just 1.6% of the global smartphone market in 2025. None of them appear to be making people stop and think. There was, until now, no Nokia Effect.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8, though, is fun to show off. I've seen people stop, smile, scratch their heads, and be generally interested in a way they weren't with recent Folds and Flips or even the new Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra I'm also carrying around. One coworker called it "dreamy". How often have you heard someone describe a smartphone like that?

They notice, for instance, that in its folded size, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 is a much better fit for smaller hands, and how it actually fits all the way in a pocket (not for nothing, the 201g size doesn't hurt for portability, either). Even opened and in portrait mode, the 7.6-inch display is more palmable than the Z Fold 8 Ultra's 8-inch display.

Weird and wonderful

Its inherent cuteness is an unintentional nod to the phones of a bygone era. When folded, the cover display and even the back with its smaller camera array say, "Look at me, I'm adorable."

Samsung will be leaning into this, and where the Z Fold 8 Ultra is a mobile multi-tasking and content capture and creation workhorse, the Z Fold 8 is a friend who tells you stories in a compact form. It's a lean-back reading experience, and a less letterboxed full-screen video viewing companion.

And yet, it's also a better confidant, letting you share your thoughts and texts in a virtual keyboard that's wider and more comfortable to use than one on even the Galaxy S26 Ultra or iPhone 17 Pro Max.

What Samsung has almost miraculously done with the Galaxy Z Fold 8 is create a foldable that will finally get people talking. Further, it's done so months before Apple enters the foldable ring. Imagine that, a knockout punch delivered by Samsung before the fight begins.

It won't be that easy, of course; I fully expect Apple to deliver something truly extra on the foldable front. It should share this unusual form factor, especially since Samsung is probably supplying the display. Samsung has told us that it's unconcerned about Apple's entry and actually welcomes it. Maybe that's just pole-position talk.

Will the freshness of this form factor evaporate when the iPhone Ultra arrives? Maybe, or maybe it'll be too late for Apple because surely Samsung has already cracked the code. All it had to do was take a look back and remind itself why people loved weird cellphone designs and how that might, if not shape, at least inform its expansion of the Z Fold line.

Samsung’s latest foldables have arrived with much fanfare. There’s the uniquely proportioned Galaxy Z Fold 8, which looks to be the precursor to the foldable iPhone Ultra later this year; the more conventional-looking Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra; and Samsung’s thinnest and lightest flip phone ever in the Galaxy Z Flip 8.

The first two of those three phones boast Samsung's new Flex Titanium display technology, which gives them thinner, flatter, and more robust displays than any Galaxy foldables before them. And having spent time with the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra already, I’ve been impressed with the progress Samsung has made in reducing the appearance of the crease, specifically.

From front-on, you can hardly make out the crease at all, and at an angle, it’s less obvious than on the Galaxy Z Fold 7. Running my finger across the middle of the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra's display, there’s only a very subtle undulation running down the center. It’s so subtle that I’d wager you’ll stop registering that it's even there after spending a few weeks with the new phone.

And yet, for how impressed I am with the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra’s display, I know there’s already something better available.

Enter the contender

The Oppo Find N6 launched in March 2026, four months earlier than Samsung’s Z8 series, and the big selling point was the claim that Oppo had managed to remove the crease in the foldable screen entirely.

Now, while that isn’t strictly true — at some acute angles, you can still see the crease — what is pretty amazing is the fact you can run your finger across the entire 8.12-inch display and not feel any interruption on the part of the screen that bends when folded.

I’ve been fortunate enough to have used most foldables, including reviewing the original Galaxy Fold, and the screen crease has always been there.

Most of the time, when you’re looking straight-on at the screen, it does disappear as your eyes focus on the content, but have the light hit at a certain angle, or run your finger across, and you’re immediately reminded of the minor imperfection.

I was stunned when I first got my hands on the Oppo Find N6. Swiping my finger back and forth across the middle of the display and feeling nothing, I thought, 'This is the next frontier of foldables.'

To make sure I wasn’t just looking at the Oppo through rose-tinted specs, I took it to the Samsung preview event so I could experience it side-by-side with the Z Fold 8 Ultra. And sure enough, the Oppo continued to impress with a screen that is smoother and flatter than Samsung’s, but not by much.

Which one is right for you?

Make no mistake, these are two very accomplished, flagship foldables. Both have similarly sized exterior and interior screens, and both are powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra is thinner, lighter, and actually readily available in multiple markets. It also has a brighter display (a peak brightness of 3,000 nits vs 2,500 nits on the Oppo) and the firm’s Galaxy AI, Now Brief, and Now Nudge features on top of Google’s Gemini assistant.

The Oppo Find N6 has the smoothest, flattest foldable display, an edge in the camera hardware, a bigger battery and faster charging — yet its availability is limited to just a few Asian markets at the time of writing.

So, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra wins by default, which doesn’t feel particularly satisfying as a conclusion, but this shouldn’t diminish the progress that’s been made.

The main issue with foldable displays has been conquered. The next major hurdle we need manufacturers to clear is price.

The Z Fold 8 Ultra is available for pre-order for a lofty $2,099.99 / £1,899 / AU$2,999, which makes it Samsung’s most expensive foldable ever (if we ignore the limited-run TriFold). The Z Fold 8 (from $1,899.99 / £1,699 / AU$2,699) and Z Flip 8 (from $1,199.99 / £1,149 / AU$1,949) are cheaper, but they’re still not cheap.

So, if a manufacturer can find a way to deliver the same premium features for under $1,200/ £1,200 / AU$1,500, it could open the foldable floodgates.

Samsung has unveiled three new foldable phones — the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, and the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8. And while the last of that trio falls into its own category, the former two phones have a lot in common.

Aside from having similar names, they’re both book-style foldables, and they also share plenty of specs. But between very different form factors and differences in their respective camera setups, there's lots to differentiate them, too.

So, below, we’ve compared the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, so you can easily understand how they stack up. We haven't reviewed either model just yet, but we have been hands-on with both, and so have been able to draw some early conclusions as to who they're best suited to.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra vs Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8: specs comparison

Before we look closer at the key features of these two phones, we've detailed their core specs below, so you can see their major similarities and differences at a glance.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra vs Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8: price and availability

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra and Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 were both announced on July 22, with pre-orders opening the same day.

General availability for both phones starts on August 7, though if you pre-order, you might get them earlier — at the time of writing, we’re seeing an August 3 delivery date in the UK, for example.

As for pricing, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 starts at $1,899.99 / £1,699 / AU$2,699. The Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra is more expensive, with a starting price of $2,099.99 / £1,899 / AU$2,999. In both cases, that’s with 256GB of storage, though you can pick either model up in 512GB and 1TB configurations.

So, in other words, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra starts at $200 / £200 / AU$300 more than the standard Galaxy Z Fold 8.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra vs Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8: design

In some ways, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra and Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 have similar designs — after all, they’re both foldable phones that fold and unfold horizontally like a book. However, their shapes and dimensions differ a lot.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra looks a lot like the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7, with a tall, narrow design, leading to dimensions of 158.4 x 143.2 x 4.1mm when unfolded, 158.4 x 72.8 x 8.9mm when folded, and a weight of 215g.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8, on the other hand, is shorter and wider, looking more like a passport than a book, with dimensions of 161.4 x 123.9 x 4.5mm when unfolded, 81.9 x 123.9 x 9.7mm when folded, and a weight of 201g.

Both phones, though, have an IP48 rating, meaning they’re water-resistant to depths of 1.5 meters for up to 30 minutes, and also resistant to dust and other objects greater than 1mm in size.

They also both have aluminum frames, and share Samsung's Flex Titanium technology, meaning their hinges are similarly invisible (you will notice their respective hinges at certain angles, but Samsung has come a long way in this department since the days of the original Galaxy Fold).

As for colors, while the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra is sold in Graphite, Cream, Green Shadow, and Violet Shadow, the Z Fold 8 can be bought in Graphite, Cream, Lavender, and Pistachio shades.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra vs Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8: display

Now we get to the biggest difference between these two phones: their displays. Or rather, the shape and purpose of those displays.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra has an 8.0-inch 2256 x 2504 foldable AMOLED screen and a 6.5-inch 1080 x 2520 AMOLED cover screen, both with a 120Hz refresh rate and around 422 pixels per inch.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 has a 7.6-inch 1828 x 2448 foldable AMOLED screen with around 403 pixels per inch and a 5.5-inch 1248 x 1972 AMOLED cover screen with roughly 428 pixels per inch.

So, both screens on the standard Z Fold 8 are noticeably smaller, but the aspect ratios arguably make a bigger difference, with the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra having an almost square 1.11:1 foldable screen and a narrow 21:9 cover screen.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8, on the other hand, has a 4:3 foldable screen, which is ideal for widescreen content, and a 10:16 cover screen, which is a bit more square than a typical phone and can be easily covered with one hand from top to bottom.

The taller, narrower Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra does have size benefits of its own, mind. It's harder to stretch your thumb to the top of this phone's display, but it's more easily covered with one hand from left to right. And when open, the Ultra is better suited to productivity apps that display square-shaped content like spreadsheets.

For video streaming, you'll want to go for the Galaxy Z Fold 8, since most video content is displayed in 16:9 (you'll see smaller black bars on a 4:3 screen), and it's arguably the better-shaped phone for gaming, too.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra vs Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8: cameras

There are big differences between the cameras on these two phones, with the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra coming out on top. This device has a 200MP f/1.7 wide camera, a 50MP f/1.9 ultra-wide with a 120-degree field of view, and a 10MP f/2.4 telephoto with 3x optical zoom. It also has a 10MP selfie camera on each screen.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 has one fewer camera and fewer megapixels in its wide one. Specifically, you’re getting a 50MP f/1.8 wide camera, a 50MP f/1.9 ultra-wide with a 120-degree field of view, and two 10MP selfie cameras. So, it lacks the telephoto snapper found on the Ultra.

Both phones, though, are capable of recording video in up to 8K quality at 30fps, or in 4K at up to 120fps.

We haven't had a chance to test both phones' cameras just yet, but we'll update this article with images when we have. The Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra will, for obvious reasons, be the superior zoom shooter, but there isn't likely to be too much to choose between the phones' 200MP and 50MP wide cameras, since both will default to smaller photo sizes anyway, as is standard practice for modern smartphones.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra vs Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8: performance and software

There’s nothing to choose here, with both the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra and the Z Fold 8 having a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy chipset and 12GB of RAM — unless you get a 1TB model, in which case you’ll get 16GB of RAM.

This combination of specs will ensure top-end performance regardless of what you're doing on your phone, and in our short time with both devices, they're equally capable gaming phones and productivity powerhouses (notwithstanding their respective display sizes, which makes each better suited to different tasks).

Both the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra and Galaxy Z Fold 8 also run Android 17 overlaid with One UI 9, and come with the promise of seven major Android upgrades.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra vs Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8: battery

Samsung has finally started putting silicon-carbon batteries in its phones, allowing for higher-capacity batteries in the same footprint. As a result, it's managed to pack a 5,000mAh battery into the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra (up from 4,400mAh in the Z Fold 7).

Unsurprisingly, the smaller Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 features a lower-capacity battery (4,800mAh), which should allow the Ultra to last slightly longer — but not by much.

Samsung claims you'll get 27 hours of video playback from the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, while the standard Galaxy Z Fold 8 is rated for 26 hours. In our early anecdotal testing, we've managed to use both phones for multiple days without needing to charge them, so those playback estimates are likely accurate.

Both phones also support up to 45W wired charging and 20W wireless, so you won't be losing out on charging speed by picking one phone over the other.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra vs Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8: early verdict

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra has bigger, more productivity-friendly screens than the Galaxy Z Fold 8, along with an extra camera, more megapixels in its wide camera, and a slightly higher-capacity battery. However, it also costs $200 / £200 / AU$300 more, and offers identical power.

Its larger screens also won’t be desirable for everyone — indeed, the Galaxy Z Fold 8's screens are much more video-friendly, and may soon become the norm for foldables — so the only indisputable advantages of the pricier model are its cameras and larger battery (though on the latter, we're talking fine margins).

Whether those extra features are significant enough to justify the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra's higher price will, of course, be subjective, but you might want to wait for our full reviews to see how these two phones compare in practice.

Isn’t it funny that we take the flexible screen so for granted that we complain over a crease and lack of flatness? The screen folds to become half its size and unfolds to about the size of a mini-tablet, and we’re still not satisfied. I guess that’s what makes us — or maybe Samsung — human. You see, it wasn’t satisfied, either, at least with the already quite thin and pretty remarkable Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7.

That 4.2mm thick device that features two displays and yet is somehow lighter than the Galaxy S26 Ultra was close to flat and did have a less noticeable crease at the bend, but apparently Samsung thought it could do better, which is how we got the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, unveiled at Galaxy Unpacked on July 22.

That’s right, it’s now an Ultra device, though that has more to do with the other new entry in the folding lineup: the 4:3 ratio Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8. This new Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra is not, after all, a full-scale redesign and is, instead, a refinement that brings better cameras (an upgraded 200MP camera with an f-stop adjustment, a new 50MP ultra-wide that matches the Galaxy S26 Ultra), a new 5,000mAh silicon-carbon battery, an anti-reflective coating on the display, and, somehow, a thinner body.

The slimming

At 4.1mm, you might be hard-pressed to notice the difference between Samsung's two most recent foldable flagships, though I can tell you that the chassis is now so thin, it barely squeezes in a USB-C port.

What is noticeable, though, is that the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra unfolds its 8.1-inch OLED display effectively flat, and the crease is all but gone. (The phone actually almost snaps to flat and is somewhat less adjustable between flat and folded modes.)

That’s due to the lightweight but also very strong titanium architecture behind that OLED panel. There has been a rigid titanium backplate behind the OLED panel since the Galaxy Z Fold 7, but the lattice work along the crease — in the center of the panel — has been totally redesigned from a seemingly infinite series of parallel holes to holes that start narrow on top but open up on the opposite side (it’s sort of an “A” shape). Stacked on top of that panel now is another far more flexible titanium alloy sheet (a mix of titanium and other metals like aluminum and chrome). It’s about as flexible as a sheet of paper (I touched it, I know) but with infinitely more strength.

The combination of these two panels, which are sandwiched and glued together along with the OLED panel, an ultra-thin glass pane, and a plastic screen protector, all work in concert to allow the panel to be both 30% easier to open (a new chamfered display frame edge also assists here) and more inclined to pop out flat. And that makes the crease almost invisible.

I know all this because I met with Samsung Electronics and Samsung Display engineers in South Korea who worked together to bring the Z Fold 8 Ultra to life.

Even though I sort of understood how these elements worked together to make a flatter whole, I couldn’t entirely figure out how the rigid back plane was flexible enough to make the folding and unfolding possible, but Byung Duk Yang, EVP at Core Component Technology Team, Samsung Electronics, put a finer point on it for me.

Sitting next to a specially designed flexible display blow-out diorama featuring all those aforementioned panels hanging inside like so many curtains, Yang explained, “You’re right. Titanium is basically not flexible. We use a titanium plate already, but there are micro-holes to get the stretchability — so that is basic titanium. But this time we used the new titanium alloy — we needed some stretchability. That’s why it is not 100% titanium; it’s titanium alloy.”

The switch to the titanium alloy, which replaced a thicker polymer layer, is key because, with titanium’s ability to better withstand long-term deformation, it’s less likely that the now mostly hidden crease will grow more prominent over time.

As I noted, people tend to, with these foldables, fixate on the crease, but Yang explained that in designing these panels, Samsung Display has many considerations. “The crease itself is not our only top priority. We have to consider durability and surface quality.”

Stress tests

I also traveled to Samsung’s Gumi Factory City in South Korea, where I witnessed the new Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra and its new sibling, the Galaxy Z Fold 8, undergo rigorous stress tests that included extreme heating and cooling, folding and unfolding tens of thousands of times, and ball-drop tests in which metal balls are repeatedly dropped on the screens from various heights.

From what I could tell, the Z Fold 8 and Z Fold 8 Ultra are quite resilient and, in the Z Fold 8 Ultras I saw, less reflective.

The new antireflective coating appears to do its part in helping the flexible display hide the crease. After all, less light is bouncing back to your eyes. And when I visited the Gumi testing lab, I saw how they used a special box with a dome of brilliant white light and a spectrometer to test display reflectivity. The light robotically moved around the Z Fold 8 Ultra panel to assess general reflectivity but also how the light might bounce off the crease. Results are gathered by a computer in a lab that runs 24 hours a day. We were, by the way, the first reporters ever to see it in person.

I’ve been pondering, though, what comes next for the Galaxy Z Fold lineup. Unless Samsung removes the USB-C port, it really can’t get any thinner. But the display could get at least one cool improvement; Samsung confirmed to me that they are thinking about how the Privacy Display on the Galaxy S26 Ultra might come to a future folding device. As you may recall, that privacy technology works at a pixel level to hide your screen from prying eyes, so it would require a very specific update to the flexible OLED panel.

In the meantime, though, consumers will have to consider this new Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, perhaps the thinnest, flattest, and fullest expression of Samsung’s foldable ambitions.

Do you own a lot of Samsung devices? If so, why not test yourself to see how well you know the brand's products and services by taking the quiz below.

Back in November, Google surprised-dropped an update for its Android-based Quick Share tool that allowed Pixel 10 users to share files to iPhones via AirDrop. Four months ago to the day, Samsung followed suit by rolling out the same functionality to the best Samsung phones, and at the time of writing, over 30 different Android phones can now seamlessly send and receive files to and from Apple’s iPhones.

Yesterday saw the launch of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, Galaxy Z Fold 8, and Galaxy Z Flip 8, and because they all run One UI 9 (which is based on Android 17) straight out of the box, all three new phones have access to AirDrop via Quick Share.

So, as any humble tech journalist would do when opening up their Galaxy Z Fold 8 unit for the first time, I immediately sent a picture of myself to my iPhone Air and back again. For testing purposes, you understand. Here’s how quick the process was:

As above, this functionality is not unique to the Galaxy Z Fold 8 nor particularly new to Android phones more generally any more — but I realised while watching Galaxy Unpacked that we hadn’t yet published an article showcasing AirDrop via Quick Share in all its seamless file-sharing glory. So there you go, readers — I know you’ve all been on tenterhooks for eight months straight. This is a big deal.

Incidentally, if you own an Android phone that currently supports AirDrop via Quick Share, you’ll have to select ‘Everyone (10 minutes)’ in the Quick Share settings menu to ensure your device is viewable to the iPhone you want to send or receive your file to. On iPhone, you’ll have to select ‘Everyone for 10 minutes’ from the Bluetooth menu in Control Center. Happy file-sharing!

Having just watched the Samsung Unpacked event, I think the Korean company has just fixed every major problem that existed with foldable phones. They’re now thinner, wider and more normal-looking, and yet even at the point where most of the kinks have been ironed out… I still find them a bit uncool.

There’s still something about unfolding a phone in 2026 that feels unnecessary and a bit like a throwback from the 90s. It takes something that has been refined into a seamless sheet of glass and puts a hinge back into the middle of it.

Sure, retro is cool, but foldable phones still feel stuck between two worlds to me.

Cheaper in Korea

Foldable phones are also still pretty expensive — I wasn’t the only one in the office raising an eyebrow at the Z Fold 8 Ultra’s eye-watering $2000+ price when it was announced— although at this point I’m tempted to blame AI for making everything more expensive, even if it's up to 48% cheaper in Korea.

The new foldable phones look amazing, but it’s taken Samsung a while to get here — it launched its first foldable phone, the Galaxy Fold , back in 2019 — at the time we called it, “The most forward-thinking phone you shouldn't buy”.

But the real cultural test of the foldable phone may not arrive until Apple does what Apple does best — walks into an established category, removes a few visible seams, adds a name that sounds like it came from a yoga retreat, and behaves as if everyone else had merely been beta-testing the future.

Under Steve Jobs, being best, not first, was Apple’s greatest trick. The iPod was not the first MP3 player. The iPhone was not the first smartphone. The iPad was not the first tablet. Apple’s genius was letting other companies prove there was a category, then making the version people could imagine actually buying.

It remains to be seen if the incoming CEO John Ternus has the ability to work the controls of Steve Jobs’ reality distortion machine in exactly the same way and convince people that Apple’s version of a folding phone will make them cool.

Enter the iPhone Ultra

That rumoured Apple foldable phone is the iPhone Ultra, which could arrive in September this year. I’d also be surprised if it wasn’t well over the $2,000 mark, too. Some reports suggest $2,500.

I haven’t gotten hands-on with the new Z Fold 8 Ultra yet, but I’ve used foldable phones before and they always felt incredibly geeky to me. They’re impressive but slightly awkward to use, especially in public, and mostly bought by people who like explaining their phone to strangers.

I understand that the foldable form factor makes it better for watching videos using that massive inner screen, or by using the design to prop the phone up on a desk so you can watch on its outer display without having to hold it or carefully balance it against something.

I get that a large screen is better for gaming, too, but I can’t remember the last time I played a game on my iPhone.

My problem is that I don’t want to attract attention to myself. Phones are expensive and waving a larger screen around in public seems like it could make you more of a target for thieves, or the simple curiosity of strangers. I’d rather be left alone to enjoy my journey in peace with a phone that doesn’t advertise my presence.

The real problem isn't the hinge

All of which makes me think that in September, Apple’s biggest challenge might not be around making the perfect, seamless hinge, camera or screen aspect ratio.

It might be simply to convince people that foldable phones can be cool, even at their ridiculous prices, and that’s going to be a tougher task than any of the technical hurdles it will need to overcome.

Saying that, if anybody can make us think that folding phones are for everyone, it’s Apple. Samsung has done the brave work of making foldables exist. Apple’s job is to make them feel less like a magic wallet and more like an iPhone that has learned a party trick.

If success is measured by commitment, then Samsung’s foldable business is now more successful than ever.

With the addition of the quirkily sized Galaxy Z Fold 8, introduced here at Samsung Galaxy Unpacked on July 22, there are now three Samsung Galaxy Z smartphone options to choose from. Sure, foldables account for perhaps a single percentage point of the overall smartphone market, but Samsung is now more committed to the category than ever. So, success, right?

To understand that commitment, I, along with Tom’s Guide Global Editor in Chief Mark Spoonauer, sat down in Samsung’s South Korea headquarters a few weeks before the Galaxy Unpacked with Jay Kim, Samsung’s EVP and Head of CX Office, to talk about the newest foldables, how Samsung measures success, and the pesky new folding phone competitor that might be waiting in the wings.

Getting to the Fold 8

Kim acknowledged the journey over now eight generations of foldable devices and told us that when the exquisite Galaxy Z Fold 7 arrived (it remains my favorite foldable but might be supplanted by the Z Fold 8 Ultra), something shifted.

Consumers stopped nitpicking core stumbling blocks of foldable phones like thickness or thinness. Instead, they were celebrating the core benefit, saying, in Kim's words, “I have a phone that actually can be a tablet, and then that full capability of a phone is not compromising anything. So, we felt,” continued Kim, “like, 'okay, now… consumers are really understanding why we're pushing the boundary for such a long time.'”

So instead of bystanders watching a man balance a chair on his chin for no reason, they were on the journey with Samsung and getting excited about a device that could slip into a pocket as effortlessly as your classic flagship phone but also double as a productivity powerhouse.

Sitting before us as we talked were all three of the latest Samsung Galaxy Z devices, but only one is a head-scratcher: the 4:3-ratio Galaxy Z Fold 8. Sure, its size makes it the lightest Fold ever, but the question remains: why? From the outside, it’s hard to understand how Samsung came to this design conclusion, let alone how consumers would react.

Samsung, though, tracks the demands and behaviours of its consumers, and Kim told us that the company saw signals that there was a market for this device, and it came to what sounds like a very scientific conclusion.

“When we looked at our consumer… insight on how people react to the products, almost over 50% are focused on media; they consume media, whether on the outside cover screen or the inside, the main screen; they engage in content, and we thought, ‘Why not?’”

That’s right, why not? It’s not necessarily a market research-tested conclusion, though Kim admitted that Samsung threw out a lot of designs before arriving on this content-friendly and still pocketable display size.

“We put together the form factor where the media makes most sense, the content native [form factor], but in terms of, like, how do you engage with the device? So basically, we looked at when you engage with content, what is the best form factor [that doesn't] compromise anything on the full bar type,” recalled Kim. And by “bar type,” Kim is referring to slab phones like its Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra.

How does Samsung know it’s on to a winning design with the Galaxy Z Fold 8? Well, it did test it, at least internally, and the feedback appears to have been positive.

“I'm really happy how our hardware and the design team came out with the product, because it's beautiful, and when we test[ed] it with the market for the preview, everybody's asking about when it's coming,” said Kim.

Samsung may not have been excessively focused on the thinness of the Galaxy Z Fold 8 line, but it was, in one instance, acting on feedback about how hard it can be to open the Z Fold 7. "Folding and unfolding was some of the most important feedback we got [with last year's phones]." The result in the Z Fold 8 Ultra is a chamfered frame that's easier to pry open with a fingertip. "[They] spent days and nights changing the angles," recalled Kim.

There will be thoughts

It’s also fair to say, though, that everyone will have an opinion about the Z Fold 8, which is arguably a confusing name because the follow-up to the Z Fold 7 is not the 8, but the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra. The Z Fold 8 is, essentially, a totally new animal. And that size — the wide and squat cover screen, and the internal display that essentially unfolds to a screen quite similar in size and shape to your average Kindle ereader — is not going to be everyone’s cup of tea.

Yes, content like ebooks, comics, and video look great with smaller black bezels around them, but does the Galaxy Z Fold 8's new aspect ratio help with things other than content consumption? Kim sees benefits there, too.

“How do people use a cover screen? Most of the time [what] they do is communication. So, you text a lot, and… [the cover display on the Galaxy Z Fold 8] is actually a pretty good size for texting.”

Kim told us he also thinks the cover screen is an optimal size for flicking through all that scrollable video content, too.

Since he has responsibility for not just these new foldables but for standard Galaxy phones (and XR glasses) too, I wondered how Kim (and therefore Samsung) explains to consumers that there might be value in a foldable device over a standard S26. After all, these flexi phones are priced at a considerable premium over standard smartphones.

Kim knows that most consumers are satisfied with standard phones: “At the same time, bar type is very confined to the screen size, so everything must be squeezed into the size, but I think there's a consumer who would love to leverage different sizes of the display. You know, you have a size, but you can actually expand it to the bigger screen, or you can actually engage with content better, or you could be more productive. You can actually play a game on a bigger screen.”

No compromises

So, yes, there’s a market for those who feel constrained by the single screen size idea, but — and this is an early lesson Samsung learned —it’s not enough to just give a second screen size option on a single device. Samsung has arguably been doing that since the first Fold, but it was a terrible device.

“I think the only condition is you can't compromise anything that you have on the bar type. So, on top of not compromising from bar type, if you can actually provide additional screen experience, I think there's a need for the consumers,” added Kim.

It’s probably the reason why the Galaxy Z Fold 7 has been so well-reviewed. It is a no-compromise dual-screen device.

While the new Galaxy Z Fold 8 is by no means a compromise, it is a complication. We wondered how consumers might decide or be guided when they walk into, say, a Verizon store and consider the Z Fold 8, Z Flip 8, and Z Fold 8 Ultra.

“We’re happy for the consumer to make a choice,” said Kim, adding that the choice may boil down to where you spend most of your time on the phone.

People who like split screens and productivity — maybe they even set two phones side-by-side for double the productivity — they’ll gravitate toward the Galaxy Z 8 Ultra.

“If you use a lot of media, you read books, or you play games, you know, if that's like your focus area, then you take the Fold 8. And then if you are more, you know, very expressive, and you feel like you want to have a small phone in the pocket, and you want it to be glanceable, and then you want to have more of a native type of AI, a native type of experience, then you go with the Flip.”

There’s bound to be some market confusion as consumers adjust to the “Fold 8” being not the standard fold but the unusually shaped one, but Kim told us that Samsung spent a lot of time working on the names, and one thing was clear: “We weren’t trying to create a new category,” he said. This was still a Fold just in a different form factor and aspect ratio. "We went back to basics, saying it’s a Fold 8," said Kim.

And while Samsung wondered how the market would react, Kim says the company is pleased with the level of attention. “Whether it's a form factor, whether it's a name, or anything, it's a good sign [and] we were very happy that consumers and the market are very interested to get their hands on it.”

Kim, by the way, wouldn't talk pricing for any of the new folds, but he did reveal that, like the rest of the industry, Samsung is grappling with RAM crisis challenges. "The costs of components going up is not just our problem; it's an industry-wide problem... We take it pretty seriously, looking at [the] balance and [seeing] how to adjust based on the market situation. We’re not free from that and [are] addressing it very actively," he told us.

What's coming next and the Apple threat

While the Z Fold 8 is the exciting new look, the Z Fold 8 Ultra is now, at 4.1mm, essentially the same thickness as a USB-C port. It’s unlikely that the foldable could get any thinner without Samsung removing that port. I asked Kim if the company is considering doing so for future generations.

“Definitely, we look at all the options, but I think the most important thing is: do you need to make it thinner? That question is the most important. We made it thinner and lighter because that was the biggest sort of feedback we got for many, many years [...] So, I think now consumers are asking for different things.”

We also talked, naturally, about Apple. Most rumors point to a foldable iPhone Ultra possibly arriving in September, and it might even match the Galaxy Z Fold 8’s unusual aspect ratio.

Kim, though, doesn’t appear nervous about the industry’s most-watched company entering a market Samsung created.

“If our big sort of market player is coming into the market and bringing the fold type, then it proves that what I have been thinking and what I've been envisioning, and how much of the effort that we put in is actually the right direction. If not, they wouldn't really come into the market,” said Kim diplomatically.

Apple's anticipated entry will surely change the folding market, but only as a follow-up to the transformation Samsung has already wrought. “I think it’s important that we pushed the industry. [But] it's a collaborative effort. I don’t think we could’ve done it just ourselves.”

If you believe Kim, Apple’s folding entry, if it arrives, could be seen as a major validation of Samsung's years-long efforts. And, unless we are very mistaken, Apple will have one folding phone, while Samsung now has three. With that number of flexible devices and screen size and shape choices available on store shelves, that may be all the validation this still relatively young market needs.

We could even be approaching a foldables breakout moment. “I think we’re on the verge where [foldables] could actually become mainstream going forward. It has the potential,” Kim told us, “Because we had these two form factors for a very long time. Introducing another one is a bold move, actually, because that shows that we’re confident in the category and we’re confident in how the market is reacting to it. So I’m more excited about what’s to come than what we have achieved.”

Imagine an automated torture chamber where one calamity after another is inflicted upon you. Worse yet, it’s all robots doing the pushing, pulling, pressing, switching, and lighting. A robot even delivers you to this house of horrors.

Of course, you’re a Samsung Galaxy phone, and you were actually built to take this kind of punishment, or at least expected to survive it. Housed in a basketball court-sized room, this is one of Samsung’s endlessly running test suites for its growing line of Samsung Galaxy S series and Galaxy Z folding phones.

A few weeks ago, Samsung flew me out to South Korea to visit its Gumi factory where, among other things, they build and stress test their newest phones, including the Galaxy Z Fold 8, Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, and Galaxy Z 8 Flip, all of which were introduced this week at Samsung Galaxy Unpacked in the UK.

As a lab engineer guided us through the space, a robot waited impatiently behind him while trying to deliver more phones to its Guantanamo of tech indignities. The engineer seemed unconcerned as the robot edged closer to us, but it always remained a safe distance away, finally delivering a phone to the first chamber when we’d cleared a path.

Of course, before Samsung checks the viability of these handsets, it builds them.

Make 'em and (try to) break 'em

When I visited the factory — one of nine dotted around the globe and where millions of units are assembled — for the first time a few years ago, I noticed a mix of robots (not humanoid, just automated platforms and a wide variety of robot arms) and humans. This time, however, there were just a handful of humans, who were often checking the robots’ work for imperfections.

As we walked the pristine aisles while wearing thin, blue protective covers on our shoes, I caught the eye of one factory worker and gave her a thumbs up. To my surprise, she smiled and nodded back at me before quickly returning to product inspections.

Across a series of metal and plexiglass boxes, I saw all manner of robots and mobile device manufacturing activity. There was never a pause or moment of indecision. In one enclosure, I watched as camera boards were robotically placed in a Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra board and then expertly screwed into place.

Virtually every robot in every enclosure has a specific job, like the one that does nothing but remove thin-blue packing material from a phone circuit board. Its tiny fingers delicately grab a pair of thin blue tabs and strip away the filament. We found ourselves cheering on the little bot.

In another spot, a colleague noticed that a copper line wasn’t properly affixed to a phone’s main circuit board. I could see it bouncing freely and wondered if the error would be caught or end up in someone’s wonky Galaxy device. I needn’t have worried. Samsung’s automated systems are fully capable of both the build and error-catching. As we watched, the offending board shifted off course and was held at bay while other properly built boards moved along.

I saw many different enclosures with so many automated manufacturing capabilities that it was mind-boggling.

Box 'em up but test them first

In another space, I saw sensors identifying phone IMEI numbers, while another robot printed out corresponding labels, and then a third affixed them to boxes that matched the packages to each phone.

Most of the robots I saw were small, but at the end of the line was an almost car-sized palletizer that takes the 10-per-box cardboard crates and stacks them on a pallet, placing the boxes first around the perimeter and then filling in the middle. The motorcycle-sized arm was remarkably fast and accurate.

Some of the phones never make it to the pallet. Instead, a select few are destined for a special test room where a large horseshoe of enclosures determines if the models in the current batch are fit for purpose.

There are two types of test systems in Gumi: the boxes that run the same test over and over again in a single device, and the U-shaped automated test bay where one phone is run in serial through the entire array of tests. These tests will often replicate what is done repeatedly in other enclosures.

The number of test systems and kinds of tests Samsung runs on its products is impressively comprehensive, though some of the boxes look downright bizarre.

Weird tests, reliable products

Folding and unfolding the devices thousands of times is to be expected, as is pressure testing, but I also saw extreme heat and cold tests. There were also enclosures that do nothing but check AI vision systems, millimeter wave, waterproofing, and a facial recognition chamber with life-like mannequin heads that I can still see when I close my eyes.

There’s even a room where partners like Google can remotely access and run tests on Samsung phones.

More astonishing is that this is a living, ever-changing facility. Just imagine what happens every time, like now, Samsung unveils new phones and watches; they must retool. Walking the floor, I noticed how the brand-new Galaxy Z Fold 8 was already undergoing rigorous tests. The lab engineer told us, “For every new form factor, we develop new technology for it,” and they develop new automation to test it.

Look, I’m not saying other companies don’t put their mobile hardware through similar wringers, but I’m not sure any other tech giant has been so transparent about their process. It’s wild, bracing, and I must admit, gives me more than a bit of confidence about each new Galaxy device Samsung delivers.

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When the trio of Samsung Galaxy Z 8 foldables — the Galaxy Z Fold 8, Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, and Galaxy Z Flip 8 — arrive in consumers' hands in the coming weeks, they will be among the first mainstream handsets, aside from the Motorola Razr Fold, to feature silicon-carbon batteries. That's a big deal for the industry, but perhaps an even bigger deal with Samsung, which, a decade ago, had one of the biggest negative smartphone battery stories in a generation.

That was way back in 2016 when the Note 7, an otherwise excellent phablet (yes, that was a thing), occasionally blew up because of battery manufacturing imperfections. Ever since then, Samsung has not only had a perfect record; it's often been at pains to explain the lengths it goes to ensure smartphone battery stability and safety.

Now, as it introduces a relatively new and somewhat untested battery technology — silicon-carbon — Samsung is again making the effort to dive deep into the construction and chemistry of these new-fangled power sources to show just how much care and effort it's putting into the new tech, and into its new foldable phones.

What is silicon-carbon?

Silicon-carbon is not a wholesale refashioning of lithium-ion battery technology. Instead, it replaces a key component of the battery makeup, swapping the negative electrode (graphite) for silicon-carbon. This material allows for higher density (more power in less space) and far faster charging speeds. It's part of the reason why Samsung can, despite not making the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra any thicker than the Z Fold 7 (it's actually 0.1mm thinner when unfolded), make the battery larger — it's now 5,000mAh.

With Samsung now having a solid decade of battery safety under its belt, perhaps no one is questioning the quality, let alone the safety, of this new battery technology. But Samsung clearly wants to shout about it, and has been sharing extensive details.

In a recent briefing ahead of the July 22 Galaxy Unpacked event in London, Samsung executives walked us through a near-atomic-level chemistry class to explain how it's custom-building the silicon-carbon batteries to ensure they work as expected.

"With Samsung's highest standards, we carefully verified the silicon-carbon battery so that our users can trust it and use it with competence," said Samsung EVP Moon Sung-hoon.

As for what that means, Samsung told us it fully redesigned the cathode, separator, and anode, which means that, at an atomic level, Samsung is managing the chemical reaction inside the battery that delivers the power to your next Galaxy Z Fold device.

Samsung wouldn't share the exact amount of silicon-carbon that's in the batteries, but it did confirm that its new Z Fold 8 Ultra, Z Fold 8, and Z Flip 8 phones in every region would feature the new battery technology.

On coatings and voltage management

Even though we didn't learn the percentage of each battery element in the Galaxy Z8 phones, Samsung dove deep into the component construction, explaining that, in an effort to manage the reactivity of the silicon-carbon cells, it "innovated every single part of the battery system. This is why we call it the system level of innovation at battery."

A Samsung executive showed off a colorful illustration to detail all the work (sadly, I cannot share it with you here). But here's what I learned.

To the anode layer, Samsung's engineers added a micro-carbon coating, which offers protection to the layer without, thanks to carbon's natural pores, constricting it during charging and discharging,

On the cathode layer, they "injected additional atoms" to manage the naturally higher voltage and stability of the cells. To maintain that higher voltage, they added a solid electrolyte interface (SEI) that adds a "small coating to the anode cells". This also manages the cell reactivity.

Finally, for the chemical reaction that occurs in the battery, Samsung added a "hyperporosity separator," which has larger holes without reducing the stress or durability of the cell's separators, and therefore helps maintain stability.

While most of us non-chemical engineers might feel like we've just about wrapped our minds around this information, this is an unprecedented level of battery construction detail, which I don't think Samsung would have shared if not for its history with batteries.

For consumers, though, this may not matter as much as the fact that these are larger-capacity batteries in smaller frames that charge far faster than their predecessors — and that will feel like a win for most Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, Z Fold 8, and Z Flip 8 owners.

For our early impressions of all three new phones, check out our hands-on Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra preview, hands-on Galaxy Z Fold 8 preview, and hands-on Galaxy Z Flip 8 preview.

• Samsung has raised prices for the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra and the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8
• This is likely in large part due to rising memory costs
• However, prices in South Korea are substantially lower

As expected, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra and Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8 cost more than their predecessors, with the Z Fold 8 Ultra’s starting price being $100 / £100 / AU$100 higher than the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7’s, and the Z Flip 8’s being $100 / £100 / AU$150 more than the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7’s.

Given the rising prices of memory, that’s not entirely surprising, but what you might be surprised by is just how much of a better deal South Korea is getting, with the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra starting at just ₩2.58 million there. As the Korea Times points out, that’s 20.4% lower than the US price and a whopping 44% lower than the European price.

The difference in pricing for the standard Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 is even greater. We don’t have a previous model of this to compare to (since the Z Fold 8 Ultra is the successor to the Z Fold 7), but this phone starts at $1,899.99 / £1,699 / AU$2,699, with that US price being 23.2% higher than Korea’s, while in Europe, buyers are paying 48% more.

The table below details the full price rises this generation, but in South Korea, people are paying less for the Z Fold 8 series than other places were charged for even the Z Fold 7 series.

Home-field advantage

So, what’s going on here? Well, the Korea Times reports that, during a press conference on the sidelines of the Galaxy Unpacked launch event, Samsung Electronics co-CEO Roh Tae-moon said, “The support, feedback and encouragement from Korean consumers have been the foundation for strengthening the Galaxy brand's global competitiveness. In recognition of the importance of the Korean market, we will continue striving to offer Galaxy devices at the most competitive prices in Korea and maintain that policy going forward.”

So, in other words, Samsung is rewarding its home market for supporting the company. But that explanation is unlikely to satisfy Samsung fans from other countries, given that this shows Samsung could clearly charge less and still turn a profit — after all, it’s not going to be losing money on South Korean sales.

Now, there will be other factors in the differing prices, such as different taxes, but while from one perspective this could look like a nice gesture from Samsung, from another it looks like most of the world is facing unfair prices.

In any case, one other interesting detail from this press conference was Roh’s claim that the three models offered this year are “the complete form" of Samsung’s foldable line, with two models no longer offering enough variety now that foldable phones are becoming more mainstream.

I’m not sure what that says about the Samsung Galaxy Z TriFold, if that’s not part of the “complete form”, but it does suggest there will be more Galaxy Z Flip models in the future, which goes against a rumor hinting that the Galaxy Z Flip 7 would be the last one. So, that’s some good news at least.

The pint-sized Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 just made its debut at Samsung Galaxy Unpacked, but as someone who has been in a year-long love affair with the Galaxy Z Fold 7, there’s a different phone turning my head: the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra.

This new entry in the Z Fold lineup is, in effect, the true sequel to last year’s Z Fold 7, because the new Z Fold 8 adopts a passport-like design that’s squatter than we’ve seen before. Meanwhile, the Z Fold 8 Ultra has identically sized 8-inch inner and 6.5-inch cover displays to the Z Fold 7.

However — and as you’d hope for from a new entry in the series — the Fold 8 Ultra isn’t the same in every way. Here are five key differences you'll want to know about if you're thinking of upgrading, or buying your first foldable (you can also read my first impressions of the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra elsewhere on TechRadar).

1. Get ready for a (small) price hike

The elephant in the room I need to address before we get into the exciting stuff is the price: the Z Fold 8 Ultra does cost more than the Z Fold 7.

Admittedly, this was entirely expected — thanks to the RAM crisis, we’ve been hit by price hike after price hike, even for older gadgets which would normally see price drops over time. But the news here isn't as bad as many expected.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 launched at $1,999 / £1,799 / AU$2,899, and the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 will set you back $2,099.99 / £1,899 / AU$2,999.

Any price increase is unwelcome, but considering that I and many others were bracing for something much worse, I’m not too frustrated by this, especially factoring in the upgrades on offer here.

2. A bigger battery

Ahead of its reveal I shared the changes I most wanted to see from the Z Fold 8, and the most important entry on that list was a bigger battery.

Despite, on paper, boasting a longer battery life than the Z Fold 6, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 never kept going as long as my previous foldable, and many other Z Fold 7 owners have shared their battery-life frustrations with me over the past year.

That’s why I’m excited to see the Z Fold 8 Ultra boast a 5,000mAh battery capacity thanks to its silicon carbide cell.

Admittedly, this isn’t the wild 7,000mAh capacity some recent handsets from brands such as Oppo have delivered, but compared to the Fold 7’s 4,400mAh battery I’m hoping to see a major improvement in stamina with the Z Fold 8 Ultra.

3. Closer to Ultra cameras

Last year, Samsung made some serious improvements to the main camera on the Galaxy Z Fold 7 by giving it a 200MP lens that more closely matches the capabilities of the Ultra models in its flagship S series. Admittedly, the Z Fold 7 still fell a little behind the S25 Ultra in this area (and behind the newer S26 Ultra), but certainly not as far behind as the Z Fold 6 was behind the S24 Ultra.

This year it's the turn of the ultra-wide camera on the Z Fold 7's successor to get an upgrade, with the 12MP snapper getting upgraded to 50MP on the Z Fold 8 Ultra — and the 200MP main camera is also getting the S26 Ultra’s HDR capabilities for more vibrant-looking shots.

The 12MP 3x telephoto camera is still the same, which is a shame — I’ve been loving the 50MP 5x telephoto on my Galaxy S26 Ultra — but this latest upgrade brings us one big step closer to the Galaxy Z Fold series boasting the same camera hardware as the Galaxy S Ultra lineup, and I can’t complain about that.

Besides the hardware, the Z Fold 8 Ultra is also getting the S26 Ultra’s impressive Horizontal Lock stabilization tech, which keeps your shots looking steady even with some absurd levels of camera tilt.

4. Display enhancements

While not the flashiest or most obvious change, especially because it’s the same size and shape as before, the Z Fold 8 Ultra’s display has received two notable improvements.

First, peak brightness is increased from 2,600 nits on the Z Fold 7 to 3,000 nits, which should make your screen easier to see in bright sunlight and enable better HDR performance.

Second, Samsung has added a matte coating to the inner display to reduce glare. Coupled with a new hinge design which lets the screen open more fully flat than before, this does seem to have resulted in a less noticeable crease than we’ve seen on previous Z Fold phones.

In fairness, I would say the crease on the Z Fold 7 is close to nonexistent, but, especially when light reflects off the inner display in a particular way, it can become annoyingly apparent. Thanks to this flatter design and reduced glare, my initial assessment is that the screen looks much less noticeably 'unfolded' when you open up the Z Fold 8 Ultra — though it’s worth noting this is comparing a new Z Fold 8 Ultra with a Z Fold 7 that's seen close to a year of constant use.

5. A Gen 5 chipset

Rounding things off, all three of Samsung's new foldables — the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Galaxy Z Flip 8 — get a chipset upgrade over last year's models, in the shape of the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy, the same processor you’ll find in the Samsung Galaxy S26 lineup.

Compared with the chipset in the Z Fold 7, Samsung says you can expect a 19% faster CPU, 24% better GPU performance, and an NPU that’s 39% more powerful than before — leading to better onboard AI processing.

I personally haven't found that the Galaxy Z Fold 7 left me wanting for more power. It’s quick and responsive in use, gaming on the foldable has been a delight, and its AI abilities are fine for my needs. That said, I won’t say no to better performance, even if it is the upgrade I’m least excited about compared to the bigger upgrades coming to the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra.

Samsung’s new Galaxy Z-series foldables have been officially unveiled, and pre-orders have also kicked off in Australia.

We’ve covered Samsung’s pre-order offers through its Australian eStore here, but retailers and telcos across the country are jostling for your attention with their own pre-order deals.

The best outright pre-order deals are direct from Samsung with up to AU$650 in savings, while the best telco deal is from Vodafone, with savings of up to AU$1,000.

In case you missed the Galaxy Unpacked last night, you can check out our live coverage of the launch. As for the handsets themselves, you can also read our first impressions of the newly redesigned Z Fold 8, Z Fold Ultra and the Z Flip 8.

I’ve collected the best outright and telco deals for the 2026 Samsung foldable range below, with links taking you straight to the pre-order pages:

Best Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 pre-order deals

Best Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra pre-order deals

Best Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8 pre-order deals

Other retailer pre-order deals

Want to check out what else is out there? These other retailer offers are also available:

• JB Hi-Fi: Get a AU$300 JB Hi-Fi gift card if you pre-order any of the 2026 Samsung Galaxy Z-series phones
• The Good Guys: Get a AU$300 The Good Guys eGift Card and free delivery if you pre-order any of the 2026 Samsung Galaxy Z-series phones

If you thought the whole point of a foldable smartphone with multiple screens was that “one size does not fit all,” then you were only half right. It seems that we’re rapidly entering the era of multiple foldable phone size choices with — no surprise — Samsung in the lead.

That’s just one reason why now, in addition to the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8 and the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, we have the unusually proportioned Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8, a flexible smartphone that, when folded closed, is quite close to the dimensions of a passport. All three of the new devices were officially unveiled at Samsung Galaxy Unpacked on July 22, and you can read our first impressions in our Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra preview and Galaxy Z Fold 8 preview.

After Samsung flew me out to visit its factories, meet its executives, and see these new foldables in person, I must’ve asked a dozen times: Why did you make this? Who is it for? I expect you'll be wondering the same thing.

There’s no arguing that the Galaxy Z Fold 8 (taking over the base name for the thinner and larger Z Fold 8 Ultra) is a compelling device. But the 10:61 aspect ratio of the 5.5-inch external display (it’s both wider and shorter than any typical flagship) and the opened 7.6-inch internal display, with its 4:3 aspect ratio, is almost unlike any handset we’ve seen in modern smartphone history.

The unusual size gives the Galaxy Z Fold 8 standout specs. At 201g, it’s the new folding phone weight leader. Unfolded, the screen resembles in size and dimensions your average Kindle e-reader (as a content-first handset, this makes some sense).

Different, yet the same

As part of the folding phone family, the Z Fold 8 does share some specs with its larger sibling. Both have the new titanium-backed folding screens that are stronger than the older polymer-backed ones, but also more resilient thanks to the properties of the new, ultra-thin titanium-alloy sheet. I took a closer look at this new screen technology in my deep dive with Samsung Display. As with the Ultra unfolded, the screen on the Galaxy Z Fold 8 is virtually flat and has an almost unnoticeable bezel.

Both the Fold 8 Ultra and Fold 8 screens support a peak brightness of 3,000 nits and feature a new anti-reflective coating. Like the Ultra, the Fold 8 has a large (in this case, 4,800mAh) silicon-carbon battery with exceptional claimed battery life and fast wired (45W with a 69% charge in 30 mins) and wireless (20W Qi2) charging capabilities.

But this is not an Ultra device. There are just two external cameras: a 50MP wide and 50MP ultra. So maybe this is a device focused less on content creation than it is on content consumption. Even so, it's backed by the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy chipset as the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra (and Z Flip 8), as well as the same 12GB of memory, which means it’ll be no slouch on the performance side.

Still, knowing the specs doesn’t answer why the Z Fold 8 exists and how Samsung expects to sell it to consumers.

Why and how we got here

As executives walked me through the new foldable devices, they called the Z Fold 8’s screen size “The new standard for viewing content.” Samsung believes that the 4:3 aspect ratio on the 7.6-inch foldable display is what consumers have been craving (even if they didn’t know it themselves). The result of this unusual screen size is that, in landscape mode, videos viewed on the screen feature shallower black bezels on the top and bottom for a more immersive experience. I did see this in numerous demos, though I kept thinking, “The black bars are smaller, but still there.”

When reading comics in portrait mode, though, the contrasty images filled the screen. It was a nice effect.

It’s also worth noting that the wider cover display, which accommodates a wider keyboard, makes for a slightly more pleasant texting experience.

When I spoke to Samsung Display executives about the new size, they told me that it wasn’t that they could not build this unusual size sooner. Instead, it was more about what they’ve learned about how people used their other foldables. The Flip seems to be more about self-expression, while the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and its predecessors, especially those that support multitasking, are about productivity and utility (though, since the Fold 7 lost support for the S Pen, they're no longer about drawing).

The new Galaxy Z Fold 8 sits in the middle. Sure, it’ll run the same One UI 9 platform, the usual smorgasbord of Galaxy and Gemini AI, and support multi-window navigation (including a new AI-based context-aware ability to sense when you need multi-windows and offer it up with a click). But the design speaks to those who primarily read, browse the web, watch videos, or scroll through endless TikToks and Reels.

Settling on a design

Getting to this rather unusual design wasn’t easy. When I asked Samsung EVP & Head of CX Office, Jay Kim, just how many designs were cast aside before arriving on the passport look, he told me, “Oh, so many, so many. I mean, because you need to have a size for the color screen, you need to have a size for the inside, and you know, you have to look at the display yield and everything around the technology around it, and you know it's a balance between thickness and weight, performance and everything about the product.”

In that design was a clear recognition of a perhaps underserved target market: “We realize that there's enough of a segment where consumers are very heavy on media, and basically you consume social media, you consume videos, you play games, and you read books in a most similar form factor. So, basically, we came up with a phone that's actually a very content native device.”

One thing is certain: the size and shape of the Galaxy Z Fold 8 is sure to provoke a reaction. The first time I held it, I was sort of amused. The folded size feels almost playful, but it’s also a very useful cover display. Opened, I noted the familiarity, especially in portrait mode, which is when I first realized it reminded me of my Kindle.

Still, the risk is inescapable. When I asked Samsung’s Jay Kim how they tested this new form factor, he told me they basically dogfooded multiple designs within the company.

“We did a lot of internal testing on different factors and different sorts of usage, and how do you use it?” recalled Kim.

As he spoke, I thought about how Samsung employees might hold back a bit on honest reactions, but then there are always the bold ones, and you assume a few unvarnished opinions on the new Fold look in there, too.

Kim sounded mostly confident. “We hope the market reacts the way we planned originally, and I think it's all based on the planning, and we're waiting for the [reaction], but I think when we did our internal sort of testing, I think that was very aligned with our sort of original plan, so we hope... I think we're pretty confident.”

It’s a big day for Samsung — and for fans of the company’s devices — with the brand unveiling three new foldable phones, two new smartwatches, and its first pair of smart glasses.

And it’s not just those glasses that are a truly ‘new’ thing from Samsung, as one of the phones is a new form factor too.

Below, you’ll find a rundown of the five biggest announcements at the second Samsung Galaxy Unpacked of 2026 — these are the key reveals you need to know about.

1. Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8

If you’re assuming that the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 is a direct successor to the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7, well, think again, because this is that new form factor I mentioned above.

Rather than a book-style foldable like the Z Fold 7, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 is a shorter, wider device with more passport-like dimensions. When unfolded and turned to portrait orientation it’s the ideal size and shape for reading, while in landscape it’s better suited to movies and games.

It has a 7.6-inch 120Hz foldable screen, a 5.5-inch 120Hz cover display, a 50MP wide camera, a 50MP ultra-wide, and a pair of 10MP selfie cameras — one on each screen.

It also has a top-end Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy chipset, 12GB of RAM, and up to 1TB of storage, while the battery is 4,800mAh. It starts at $1,899.99 / £1,699 / AU$2,699, making it a bit cheaper than the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, detailed below.

2. Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra

Confusingly, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra is effectively the successor to the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7, so you probably have some idea of what to expect here.

This phone has an 8-inch 120Hz foldable display, a 6.5-inch cover screen, a 200MP wide camera, a 50MP ultra-wide, a 10MP telephoto with 3x optical zoom, and two 10MP selfie cameras. It also has a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy chipset, 12GB of RAM, up to 1TB of storage, and a 5,000mAh battery — which is a big increase over the 4,400mAh cell of the Z Fold 7.

So this is a bigger, more book-like foldable than the Z Fold 8, and it has more cameras, but the same amount of power. It’s also extremely slim at just 4.1mm thick when unfolded, and it starts at $2,099.99 / £1,899 / AU$2,999.

3. Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8

Samsung has also unveiled a new device for fans of compact foldables, in the form of the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8.

This clamshell phone has a 6.9-inch 120Hz foldable screen, a 4.1-inch 120Hz cover screen, a 50MP wide camera, a 12MP ultra-wide, a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy chipset (or an Exynos 2600 outside the US), 12GB of RAM, up to 512GB of storage, and a 4,300mAh battery.

So it’s the smallest and most basic of these phones, but at 6.1mm thick when unfolded and 180g, it’s Samsung’s slimmest and lightest Flip model yet. The Galaxy Z Flip 8 starts at $1,199.99 / £1,149 / AU$1,949.

4. Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra 2

As well as phones, Samsung has also announced the Samsung Galaxy Watch 9 and the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra 2, and it’s the latter of these that’s the most exciting.

This watch has a mammoth 800mAh battery, which is up from just 590mAh in the original Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra. It’s also slimmer and lighter than its predecessor, with the brightest screen of any smartwatch, and a ton of new features, including the ability to track Daily Cardio Load and Vascular Load.

This is Samsung’s ultimate smartwatch, and it’s priced accordingly, at $699.99 / £649 / AU$1,299. If you’re happy with a slightly less feature-and-tech-packed smartwatch, then the Galaxy Watch 9 can be had from $379.99 / £349 / AU$649.

5. Samsung Intelligent Eyewear

Samsung also gave us a closer look at what it’s calling ‘Intelligent Eyewear’ — said eyewear being the company’s first smart glasses.

Unlike the devices above, you can’t pre-order these yet, with Samsung promising they’ll land “this fall” — so presumably sometime between September and November.

No pricing was revealed either, but we did learn that these glasses will have a built-in camera and speakers, but no screen.

Initially, Samsung is partnering with Gentle Monster and Warby Parker to offer a selection of frames, and you’ll be able to access both Gemini and Bixby through the glasses.

I’ve been using, and loving, my Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 for the past year — for me it's simply the best phone money can buy.

The foldable form factor is perfect for watching videos — either on the massive inner screen, or using the design to prop the phone up and watch on its outer display — and also for gaming, productivity, or capturing selfies with the 200MP main sensor rather than the lower-res selfie cam.

Its thin design is comfortable to hold and easily slips into any pocket, and the design has been durable enough to survive without me using a case; I did have a case for a few months but I hated it, so I’ve reverted back to my screen-protector only strategy.

As great as the Z Fold 7 is, though, it isn't flawless. The cameras could be better (a fact highlighted by the excellent cameras Samsung put in the Galaxy S26 Ultra that I also carry with me), the battery life isn’t as good as I need at times, and the crease can be quite noticeable in certain lighting thanks to annoying reflections on the inner display.

Thankfully, Samsung looks to have addressed a lot of my issues with the new Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra — the true successor to last year's Fold 7 (the new non-Ultra Z Fold 8 adopts a squatter design this year), and the frontrunner to be my favorite phone of 2026, after spending just an hour or so with the new device.

Ultra by name, Ultra by nature

At first glance, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra looks almost identical to the Galaxy Z Fold 7.

Unlike the Z Fold 8, the Z Fold 8 Ultra offers the exact same screen dimensions as the Z Fold 7, with an 8-inch inner display and 6.5-inch cover display.

It’s supremely thin and light, so that even when folded it doesn’t feel like a brick, and it offers a similar camera array to the Z Fold 7 (more on that in a moment).

The only design change you’ll notice is the redesigned hinge. It makes it easier to open the Z Fold 8 Ultra, and allows the phone to sit more flat when open — which in combination with the inner screen’s new matte coating makes the crease less noticeable.

Instead of reinventing the wheel in areas where the Z Fold 7 already shines, such as its superb form factor, Samsung has introduced upgrades with the Z Fold 8 Ultra that make this phone even more capable.

My favorite improvement is new silicon carbide battery tech that allows for a much larger 5,000mAh battery than the Z Fold 7’s 4,400mAh cell, despite the Z Fold 8 Ultra being (very slightly) slimmer.

The battery life of the Z Fold 7 isn’t ideal. I frequently find that my typical usage — which admittedly involves streaming a lot of video, gaming, and multitasking to watch and work at the same time while on the go — leaves my battery running low by late afternoon.

The larger capacity of the Z Fold 8 Ultra probably won’t save me from needing to carry a charger with me ‘just in case’, but I’m hoping it’ll mean that I rarely, if ever, run out of juice completely — which can happen with my Z Fold 7, even when I adapt my usage to be more conservative.

The Z Fold 8 Ultra's cameras are a solid upgrade too. Alongside the Z Fold 7 I also use the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, because its cameras are so impressive — in particular, I’m in love with its 5x 50MP telephoto lens.

The Z Fold 8 Ultra doesn't, unfortunately, improve on the Z Fold 7’s 12MP 3x telephoto camera, but the existing 200MP main sensor has been enhanced with new HDR abilities to match Samsung’s S26 lineup, and the 12MP ultra-wide has been upgraded to 50MP, making the new phone's array feel more 'Ultra'.

It also gets the impressive Horizontal Lock video stabilization tech which I've loved on the S26 Ultra.

Having tried out the new cameras, the Z Fold 8 Ultra is certainly a major upgrade, and I’m keen to test them out further. Sure, the Z Fold 8 Ultra won’t win any prizes for best camera phone of 2026, but the versatility offered by the new camera array should help to make this foldable feel like a supremely capable all-round device, and not a phone with so many compromises that you can’t appreciate its incredible design wins.

A sort of silver lining

There's also a new chipset — the same Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy the S26 series is outfitted with — that powers a suite of new AI tools, and a brighter 3,000-nit display, which should help to make colors more vivid on the Z Fold 8.

As you might expect from a phone that's packed with upgrades and sporting a new Ultra moniker, and which is launching in the middle of the ongoing RAM crisis, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra will cost more than the Galaxy Z Fold 7.

The silver lining is that the price hike isn't as big as I and many others feared — the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra starts at $2,099.99 / £1,899 / AU$2,999, where the Z Fold 7's launch price started at $1,999 / £1,799 / AU$2,899.

No price increase is ever ideal, but considering how much worse I was expecting it to be, I’ll happily take the $100 / £100 / AU$100 increase on the chin.

I can't wait to spend more time with the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra. I love my Z Fold 7, but after spending just a short time with its successor, I already know that it’s time for an upgrade.

I’ve tested plenty of the best foldable phones in my time at TechRadar, but I’ve never opted to use one of these devices as my main handset long-term.

I use my phone for consuming content — scrolling, reading, watching — more than I do for productivity tasks, and so the appeal of having a heavier phone with a giant, square-sized foldable screen isn’t, for me, all that strong. Why would I watch a YouTube video with big black letterboxing above and below it, when I could simply use my regular phone in landscape for a better video-watching experience?

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 is a different proposition entirely. It’s still a book-style foldable — it’s got one smaller screen on the outside, and one larger screen on the inside that you open with both hands — but it’s shorter, wider, and dare I say cuter than the Galaxy Z Fold 7 before it. It’s the Galaxy Z Fold 7.5 in all but name (or maybe the Galaxy Z Fold Fat?).

This passport-shaped foldable has a 5.5-inch cover display and a 7.6-inch main display, with aspect ratios that make it, when closed, easier to use one-handed and better suited to video-watching when open. Specifically, when closed, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 has a 10:16 ratio — meaning your thumbs can easily reach the top of the screen — and when open, it’s a 4:3 ratio that’s optimized for widescreen content.

For comparison, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 — and indeed the new Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, which retains the former’s tall and narrow form factor — has a 21:9 cover display and an almost square 1.11:1 inner display, which is great for spreadsheets and multitasking, but less brilliant for watching World Cup highlights on the train home.

Here’s how the video-watching experience on the Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra — which you can read about in our hands-on Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra preview — compares, in both orientations:

Yes, I know — the black bars are still very much visible when the Galaxy Z Fold 8 is unfolded. But still, they're significantly smaller than those on the Ultra, and as for the outer display, the difference is night and day.

This is the key selling point of Samsung’s new shorter, wider foldable. Its displays have the same 120Hz refresh rate and 3,000-nit peak brightness as the pricier Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, but they don’t waste as much screen real estate as those on that square-sized premium model. If, like me, you use your phone primarily for watching videos and scrolling through social media, this is a big deal.

“We realize that there's enough of a segment where consumers are very heavy on media, and basically you consume social media, you consume videos, you play games, and you read books in a mostly similar form factor,” Samsung told us for our deep-dive into why it built the Galaxy Fold 8.

The company also describes the phone’s unfolded screen size as “the new standard for viewing content,” which makes sense when you consider that Apple is also rumored to be releasing a similarly sized foldable iPhone later this year.

Small but mighty

An important note: in the case of the Galaxy Z Fold 8, smaller does not mean less powerful. It’s got the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset under the hood — i.e., the same chipset as the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra and the entire Galaxy S26 line — plus 12GB of RAM in every storage configuration except 1TB, in which you’ll get 16GB of RAM.

Naturally, I didn’t have enough time to really test the mettle of this chipset, but let’s be honest: we already know it’s a beast. It powers plenty of the best Android phones, and I don’t expect the Galaxy Z Fold 8 to feel any different to those Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5-equipped devices from a performance perspective.

The first real differences between the Galaxy Z Fold 8 and its larger sibling come in the camera department. This wider foldable packs a respectable 50MP wide lens and a 50MP ultra-wide lens, but the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra gets a superior 200MP wide lens and a 10MP telephoto lens for zoom shots.

The Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra also has a slightly larger battery (5,000mAh) than the Galaxy Z Fold 8 (4,800mAh), but both phones finally — finally! — use silicon-carbon battery technology, so you should still get plenty of life from the latter’s smaller cell.

Silicon-carbon batteries can store up to 50% more energy in the same physical space as conventional smartphone batteries, so I’m expecting the Galaxy Z Fold 8 to deliver longer battery life than the 4,400mAh-equipped Galaxy Z Fold 7, which lasted for around 12 hours (standard use) in our testing.

For reference, Chinese foldable manufacturers like Oppo, Honor, and Vivo have been using silicon-carbon batteries for some years now, so Samsung’s adoption of this technology is a significant (if long overdue) step forward in markets like the US, where it hasn't been readily available.

As for charging, you’ll get 45W wired charging and 20W wireless charging, regardless of which model you choose, so the choice here is really between content and cameras. Would you prefer the wider Galaxy Z Fold 8 for scrolling and watching videos, or the taller Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra for productivity and taking photos?

Personally, I think the former’s shorter, wider form factor will be better suited to my needs, though I'm intrigued to see how much weaker the Galaxy Z Fold 8's main camera is compared to the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra's. At $2,099.99 / £1,899 / AU$2,999, the latter phone is more expensive than the Galaxy Z Fold 8 — which starts at $1,899.99 / £1,699 / AU$2,699 — so it's safe to expect a noticeable gulf in photo quality.

I look forward to testing both devices properly after Unpacked.

When it comes to battery life, foldables have it harder than regular phones. These devices need to power not one, but two screens (one of which is twice as large as the other), and so it's important to pick a model with decent endurance if you don't want to lug around a portable battery at all times.

Yet in the throes of a seemingly unquenchable thirst for thinness, Samsung has somewhat neglected the battery tech in its foldable phones. That is, until now, because the brand has finally introduced silicon-carbon batteries in its latest devices, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra and Galaxy Z Fold 8. The former, specifically, packs a 5,000mAh cell that, based on Samsung's own testing, offers 27 hours of video playback.

Now, as uninteresting as this may sound, it's actually pretty big news, especially given that the phone is thinner than ever and the same weight as last year's Galaxy Z Fold 7. We were invited to an exclusive, early-access hands-on session alongside SuperSaf to try out the new phones, and we discussed this change (and others) in our latest podcast episode, which you can watch just below.

It's not just us professional tech nerds moved to excitement by the news; in a poll we shared in the weeks running up to the latest Samsung Galaxy Unpacked show, our readers overwhelmingly agreed that a larger battery life would be their biggest wish for the latest and greatest Samsung foldable, and those prayers have been answered. Feels good, right?

The sad news is, the second-most desired change remains unmet — that being the re-introduction of the S Pen and the digitizing layer under the display that makes the technology compatible. In fact, as reported by 9to5 Google, Samsung recently quietly removed product listings for all previous-generation S Pens, which perhaps doesn't bode well for the longevity of the styluses overall.

It's a real shame, and one I highlighted in the podcast as being particularly at odds with the phone's productivity-first marketing messaging; if the idea is that the best way to use this phone is like a tablet, which, for me, includes doodling, taking notes and not having to constantly wipe off grubby fingerprints, then hand me the S Pen and be done with it, even at the cost of a few more millimeters thickness.

That being said, at least in the case of the S26 Ultra phones, a Samsung exec shared with TechRadar just last year that the S Pen is a crucial part of the phone's DNA, so I hope that gives at least a little more runway for these handy accessories.

You can watch the full episode of the TechRadar podcast above or head directly to YouTube to hear all of our expert opinions on the latest slate of Samsung foldables and smartwatches.

It’s not long now until Samsung’s second major phone launch of the year, with the next Samsung Galaxy Unpacked showcase set to take place later on today — and you can join us live from the event in our liveblog.

This follows February’s Unpacked event, where we saw the Samsung Galaxy S26 series, but this time, we’re not just expecting phones, because along with a selection of new foldables — including a whole new form factor — we’ll probably see new smartwatches too, and even perhaps the Samsung Galaxy Glasses.

So, whether you’re in the market for a handset or a wearable, there could be something for you here, and below, you’ll find full details of how to tune in, along with exactly what we’re expecting to see.

How to watch Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2026

The next Samsung Galaxy Unpacked is being held in London, but as with most major tech launches, it will also be streamed online, so you can watch it from anywhere.

It kicks off at 9am ET / 6am PT / 2pm BST / 11pm AEST on July 22, so at least it’s not the middle of the night for any of those places, though viewers on the west coast of the US will have to get up early, and if you’re in certain parts of Australia, you might have to stay up late.

To tune in, you can simply head to Samsung’s website, where the video will be streamed live. It will also be viewable live on Samsung’s YouTube page. But there’s no need to head to either, because the video embedded on this page (above) will play the stream once it’s live as well.

Wherever you choose to watch it, you don’t need to tune in live if the times are inconvenient, as you’ll be able to watch the video after the fact too. However, you might prefer to just head back to TechRadar, where we’ll be covering all the announcements with in-depth analysis.

What to expect at Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2026

We’ve written a full rundown of what to expect at Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2026, but in brief, there’s probably going to be a mix of phones and wearables.

On the phones side, it’s likely to all be foldables, with the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8, Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8, and Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra all rumored to be making an appearance.

Of those three, the Z Flip 8 and Z Fold 8 Ultra are thought to be fairly conventional successors to the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 and Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7, respectively. Look out for new chipsets, smaller creases, and potentially some new cameras, but nothing too game-changing is expected there.

The more interesting phone is the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8, which, despite its name, is reportedly going to have a new form factor, making it wider and shorter than the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 or the Z Fold 8 Ultra. This will also probably be a more affordable phone as a result.

For wearables, we’ll probably see the Samsung Galaxy Watch 9 and the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra 2, with the latter of those products sounding the most interesting, as it might have a high-capacity 800mAh battery and — for the first time on a Galaxy Watch — support 5G.

Finally, Samsung might also take the opportunity to launch its first smart glasses, which could be called the Samsung Galaxy Glasses. These are reportedly screenless glasses that run Android XR, let you talk to Gemini, and look set to rival the likes of the Ray-Ban Meta glasses.

The metal ball dropped 40 centimeters onto a hair-thin flexible Samsung display with a resounding, cringeworthy clunk, but it did not break, and yet that wasn’t the most remarkable thing.

It was that I was the one dropping the ball, using one of Samsung Display’s own pieces of testing equipment, and I was doing so inside Samsung Display headquarters, a place where no media has gone before.

I’d come to South Korea for a wide-ranging Samsung Electronics product briefing and tours of its massive Gumi Digital City Factory and this first-ever look inside Samsung Display. With Samsung Unpacked now just days away (July 22) and new foldables anticipated, the visit would prove more than illuminating.

While obviously connected and working closely to deliver products like the Galaxy S26 Ultra and Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Z Flip 7 (and whatever comes next), they’re also separate, working in a partnership that also allows Samsung Display to supply displays to, for instance, Apple (more on those Apple folding phone rumors later).

Samsung Display is a display specialist operating in a vast and in some ways nondescript (and in other ways beautiful) factory that is just a stone’s throw away from its nearest competitor, LG Display, which works in South Korea with its partner LG Electronics in a similar fashion.

Most of Samsung Display's buildings are unattractive, brutalist monoliths, but the interiors feature some eye-popping examples of their work. Ironically, we were initially greeted by a conference-hall-sized display featuring our names, which Samsung Display did not build.

But on an adjacent wall was an animated edifice of phones, tablets, TVs, and other screens that all tell the story of Samsung Display technology, one that has taken it from tiny feature-phone displays and tube TVs to the vast OLED panels and flexible displays featured in the latest foldables.

The ball-drop demo was part of a whistle-stop tour of Samsung Display's latest innovations and stress tests. I only dropped the 21.7-gram ball on the panel after watching a Samsung Display tech do it multiple times from a height of 30 centimeters on a 220lb machine that Samsung Display had moved into this small room just for this one demonstration.

However, Samsung seemed in the mood to open up, and we were soon visiting multiple rooms where Samsung Display puts panels through the wringer.

Following our guides, we hopped on a special elevator and soon were standing outside a 24-hour lab that’s running tests even when Samsung employees are asleep. “Only authorized technicians get in,” our guide warned us before unlocking the door with her ID and ushering us inside.

Many of these tests Samsung Display runs are designed to test “how long can I use it?” So, there are the folding and unfolding tests to the tune of thousands of times a day, and stress tests that heat the panels up to 60 degrees Celsius or cool them to minus 20 degrees Celsius. Many of the large gray or beige metal boxes where the tests are performed are sealed, so technicians must track the tests via video feeds from internal cameras.

But as I learned while touring other Samsung facilities, the company likes to automate these processes, so it’s often an unemotional computer that will recognize and report a failure.

Our next stop was another few levels down (B5, to be precise) where we saw image quality and reflection testing. The latter was interesting because, as is often the case, Samsung Display built a special rig, this one a barium sulfate-coated contraption to shine ultra-bright light on the panel and then use a spectrometer to read the light refracted back. For foldable displays, they even check how light bounces off the crease, which will, of course, affect visibility of the crease.

Samsung Display is also where they’re unsurprisingly pushing the boundaries of display technology. Company execs showed us a series of displays that, I think, speak to the future of many of our display-worthy electronics.

The first display, a visual trick of sorts, may have been my favorite. It looked like a small, bezel-less OLED screen showing off the inside of an ornate cathedral.

However, when I got close and shifted my view to the left or right, I realized it was two displays sandwiched on top of each other; a small portion of the image was on the smaller display, and behind it was the complete image. Head-on, they seamlessly blend together.

This optical illusion only works because Samsung Display has figured out how to reduce its tolerances so much that the small gap necessary for electrodes and encapsulation is almost zero, meaning that the top display has no visible black border around it.

The other 7.2-inch displays were of the flexible variety. We saw screens flex, we saw them roll away, but the most interesting was the hybrid: a foldable and rollable screen, something that’s never been tried before.

As for when these displays might come to consumer devices, that’s hard to say, but it does seem inevitable. After all, I first saw Samsung flexible displays more than a decade ago, and now they’re part of a growing legion of consumer-grade foldable phones.

Display executive perspective

Later, we moved to another part of the vast facility for a sit-down with Samsung Display executives

Byung Duk Yang, EVP at Core Component Technology Team, Samsung Electronics and Kyung-jin Yoo EVP & Head of Mobile Display Product Development Team, Samsung Display.

Unquestionably, the bleeding edge of the work they do continues to be the foldable phone partnership with Samsung Electronics, where these innovations presented a series of unusual challenges, many of which the firm has overcome over seven generations of foldable devices (and whatever we expect to come next week at Samsung Unpacked).

“The two companies are always thinking about how we can continue to improve the usability of the foldable,” said Byung Duk Yang.

Yang talked about how these flexible devices and their folding screens introduced diverse user paradigms. Some of the work they do is figuring out how to handle challenges like drops, pressure, and collisions with heavy objects.

But it sounds like it’s been rewarding work and the company is undoubtedly committed to the foldable space. “The future of the foldable device is very promising,” said Byung Duk Yang.

But when we asked about how soon some of those fold and slide screens might be in our hands, Samsung Display execs cautioned us, “We have to consider the real-world usage pattern. The display might be ready, but we should consider many aspects of the usage.

When we have confidence that we can deliver meaningful innovation to the user, then every other aspect of technology are ready, then we are going to list the product,” said Byung Duk Yang, who added that as an engineer, he knows they’re not ready.

When I asked, though, if there were any intrinsic barriers in folding displays to the introduction of the privacy display — a breakout feature for the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra — the answer surprised me.

“We are exploring and we are thinking, when and how to implement the privacy display into foldable display. Because we know many people love the feature. We are thinking, considering,” smiled Yang.

Speaking of innovation, the Samsung Display execs revealed that, with the upcoming new line of foldables, it's introducing a new material, or rather, doubling the use of a material generally associated with strength and not flexibility: Titanium.

Samsung Displays described it as "Flex Titanium Technology," and what it means is that upcoming foldable Galaxy phones, which the company will reveal next week, will feature not one but two titanium layers.

One is an update to the relatively rigid one that's existed in previous Galaxy Fold models, with a new, special structure at the fold or crease to give flexibility and reduce crease visibility.

The second, new, almost paper-like titanium alloy film replaces the polymer layer below the OLED in previous foldable devices and sits on top of the more rigid titanium plate. It's both thinner than that old polymer layer and, Samsung claims, more resilient.

"Polymer layers are good for flexibility but [we] want to minimize permanent deformation; titanium alloy has a much better quality to reduce permanent deformation,” they explained.

To help us visualize the new flexible display construction, Samsung Display brought out a bread-box-sized diorama, with each display layer hanging inside like a curtain. The new titanium polymer layer felt smooth, thin, light, and quite strong.

Naturally, we had to ask about Apple’s rumored foldable phone, which may be called the iPhone Ultra, and how Samsung Display might supply the screen.

They wouldn’t comment on the rumors but did share, “I think it’s more than welcome because when the other competitors and other companies join the market, this market will be standard and the owners will increase….We really welcome the big competitor joining this market…

We mean it, we love other companies to join this market.”

• Samsung is reportedly giving up on small-screen foldables
• That means the upcoming Galaxy Z Flip 8 could be the last in the series
• It's a credible claim, but if enough people vote with their wallet perhaps the Flip line can still be saved

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 is a superb phone, achieving 4.5 stars in our review. But despite its excellence, Samsung might be giving up on this clamshell series after the Galaxy Z Flip 8 launches.

This is according to reputable leaker @UniverseIce, who stated on X that “the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8 is likely to be Samsung's last small folding product.”

They didn’t say why that might be, but we can take a guess. For one thing, while the Flip line used to be Samsung’s most popular foldable phone series, there’s evidence that this trend could be starting to change. For example, FN News reported that in South Korea at least, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 received more pre-orders than the Z Flip 7.

So there could be a growing appetite for large-screen book-style foldables, which makes sense given that larger conventional phones tend to outsell compact models. And with the book-style iPhone Ultra reportedly launching this year, the appetite for that style of foldable is only likely to grow.

Plus, arguably one of the main selling points of the Z Flip line was that it provided a relatively affordable way to get a foldable phone, but with rising memory costs that might cease to be the case.

And on top of all that, Samsung is reportedly launching a shorter, wider book-style foldable this year alongside its conventional successor to the Galaxy Z Fold 7, with this new form factor being bigger than a Flip but still smaller than the company’s current large-screen foldables. So Samsung might see this as something that fans of smaller phones could buy instead of a new Flip.

A phone that would be missed

While this claim from @UniverseIce is believable, I certainly hope they’re wrong. Despite all the reservations above, the Flip is still an appealing line of fofldables.

They’re extremely compact when folded shut, which is sure to appeal to some people, and even with rising memory prices they’re likely to remain cheaper than book-style foldables. So it would be a shame for choice and variety if they disappeared.

Still, it’s likely that Samsung will be looking at sales of the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8 and the new wider Galaxy Z Fold before making any final decisions, so if the former does particularly well or the latter struggles, there’s still hope for a Galaxy Z Flip 9.

In other words, if it’s something you’d like to see then you should vote with your wallet this year and give Samsung’s upcoming clamshell device some love.

The next major smartphone launch is just weeks away: Samsung has set the date for its next Unpacked event as July 22.

The invite doesn’t say exactly what to expect at the London-based showcase, but it does tease that we’ll see a foldable phone with a new form factor, thanks to the tagline “a new shape unfolds”, and that lines up neatly with leaks and rumors.

In this article, we've detailed exactly what that “new shape” might be below, along with details of the other phones, watches, and even glasses that we might see at Galaxy Unpacked 2026.

1. The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8 is likely to be the most affordable of Samsung’s upcoming phones — and the only one with a clamshell design.

Leaks suggest that this device could use a new Exynos 2600 chipset — though the US might instead get a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5. Either way, that would be an upgrade on the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7, which uses the Exynos 2500 chipset in every region.

The Galaxy Z Flip 8 could also have a smaller crease and a slimmer build, but might otherwise be similar to the Galaxy Z Flip 7, coming equipped with a familiar 6.9-inch foldable display, a 4.1-inch cover screen, a 4,300mAh battery, a 50MP main camera, a 12MP ultra-wide, and a 10MP selfie snapper.

2. The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 could be that foldable with a “new shape” that Samsung hinted at, with reports suggesting that the company is planning a new book-style foldable that’s shorter and wider than the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7.

This device is rumored to have a 7.6-inch 120Hz foldable screen, a 5.5-inch cover display, a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset, 12GB of RAM, two 50MP cameras on the back, and a 4,800mAh battery.

This could be one of the more interesting devices at the next Samsung Galaxy Unpacked, since it’s a form factor that Samsung hasn’t tried before. But aside from the size and shape of the screen, it will probably be quite a conventional foldable.

3. The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra

Along with the wider model detailed above, Samsung will almost certainly launch a standard successor to the Galaxy Z Fold 7 at Unpacked, and this device is rumored to be called the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra — though it’s unclear whether it will do anything to earn that name.

Leaks suggest the phone might have an 8-inch foldable screen, a 6.5-inch cover screen, a 50MP wide camera, a 50MP ultra-wide, and a 10MP telephoto with 3x optical zoom.

As with the phone above, it’s likely to have a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset and 12GB of RAM, but its battery could be of a higher capacity, with leaks pointing to a 5,000mAh cell.

So in all, the Ultra could have bigger screens, a higher capacity battery, and an extra camera over the wider model — along with an almost certainly higher price.

4. The Samsung Galaxy Watch 9 and Ultra 2

We’re also expecting new smartwatches from Samsung, specifically the Samsung Galaxy Watch 9 and probably also the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra 2. There’s an outside chance we’ll get a new Samsung Galaxy Watch Classic, but this is looking less likely.

The Galaxy Watch 9 will probably have a circular display again, with leaks pointing to an Exynos W1000 chipset, 2GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, and two screen sizes: a 1.34-inch (438 x 438) one and a 1.47-inch (480 x 480) one.

The Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 might instead have a Snapdragon Wear Elite chipset, and could be the first Samsung watch to support 5G.

It could also have a massive — by smartwatch standards — 800mAh battery, 64GB of storage, and a high 5,000-nit peak brightness for its screen. The display, however, might otherwise be similar to the original Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra’s, and it will reportedly come in the same 47mm size.

5. The Samsung Galaxy Glasses

Finally, we might also see the Samsung Galaxy Glasses at Unpacked. These would be Samsung’s first smart glasses, and they reportedly run Android XR with access to Gemini.

They might also have a 12MP camera, a 155mAh battery, directional speakers, and weigh just 50g. But they’re not expected to have a screen, so they could be direct rivals to products like the Ray-Ban Meta.

• The next Galaxy Unpacked is set for July 22, 2026
• Samsung teases "A New Shape Is Unfolding"
• A new foldable form factor could debut alongside the existing Fold and Flip phones

A week after wiping its social media accounts and replacing them with cryptic teasers — and following months of rumors — Samsung has officially set the date for its second Galaxy Unpacked event of 2026.

Everything will be revealed, unpacked, or perhaps more fittingly, unfolded, on July 22, 2026, at 9 a.m. ET / 6 a.m. PT / 2 p.m. BST (11 p.m. AEDT). Samsung will livestream the Galaxy Unpacked keynote from an in-person event in London, UK, and yes, TechRadar will be on the ground at the unveil.

The invitation itself is already dropping hints, as Samsung tries to build anticipation. Alongside the tagline, "A New Shape Unfolds," the animated invite shows what appears to be a ticket printing before its top edge is torn away, revealing a noticeably wider, shorter silhouette than Samsung's current Galaxy Z Fold devices.

Samsung hasn't confirmed exactly what it will be announcing come July 22, but between the tagline and the animation, it's hard not to see them as clues pointing toward an all-new foldable design. It's also already accepting pre-reservations for whatever it will formally unveil at the July 22 event.

Specifically, you can sign up with your email on Samsung's main site at no cost to score a $30 Samsung Credit that can be applied to your pre-order and unlock up to $1,230 off with an eligible device trade-in.

So, if you're considering one of the next Galaxy devices, it's worth getting in line now ... and there's no cost involved.

Samsung's summer Galaxy Unpacked events have traditionally been the stage for its newest foldable smartphones and fresh wearables such as Galaxy Watches and Galaxy Buds. This year, though, the spotlight looks set to extend beyond the usual annual refreshes.

While we're expecting successors to the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Galaxy Z Flip 7, Samsung has already hinted that something different is on the way. When it began teasing the event last week, the tech giant said that "after seven generations of pushing the boundaries of foldables, Samsung is taking a different approach to how it builds anticipation this year."

That statement, combined with months of leaks pointing to a wider foldable form factor, has fueled speculation that Samsung is finally ready to unveil an entirely new kind of foldable phone.

Unlike the Galaxy Z Fold lineup's familiar book-style design, this rumored device is expected to feature a much wider form factor. Based on the leaks we've seen so far, it resembles the now-discontinued Microsoft Surface Duo, Apple's long-rumored foldable that's widely expected to arrive later this year, or even a classic Moleskine notebook when folded shut. If the rumors prove accurate, Samsung could once again be first to market with a new foldable form factor.

Galaxy AI is also expected to be front and center throughout the keynote, with Samsung likely showcasing new AI-powered features across its latest folding phones and potentially teasing its forthcoming Android XR Glasses.

TechRadar will be on the ground in London for Galaxy Unpacked, bringing you live coverage of every announcement as it happens, along with hands-on impressions of Samsung's newest devices. We'll also be running a live blog throughout the keynote, so be sure to follow along as Samsung unveils what's next come July 22.

In the meantime, let us know what you're most excited to see Samsung reveal at Galaxy Unpacked in the comments below.

• Samsung Messages has been killed off to make room for Google Messages
• Right now it's just affecting US users, but a wider shutdown is likely to happen
• We recommend making Google Messages your default SMS service

After months of waiting, the dreaded day for Android users arrived: Samsung Messages has finally been shut down for good as of July 6.

The Korean tech company announced its decision to axe its messaging service for Galaxy Phones and tablets in April, with Google Messages taking over as the new default communication platform for devices released in 2022 and onwards.

Samsung stopped installing its flagship messaging platform on devices in 2024, so if you’re using the Galaxy S26 Ultra, for example, Google Messages will already be installed.

So what happens now?

At the moment, Samsung Messages’ demise is only impacting users in the US, according to recent reports. According to SamMobile, it may still work outside the US on devices the app was pre-installed on, but it’s likely that a wider shutdown will follow suit in other countries later — it’s been removed from the Galaxy Store and Google Play Store, and UK users on Reddit are reporting its replacement with Google Messages.

That said, if your device is running Android 11 or lower, the shutdown won’t affect you, according to Forbes. However, the outlet notes that those on a more recent version should switch to Google Messages.

Samsung Messages’ shutdown has been a long process, and though users have been anticipating the move for some time, it doesn’t mean that they’re ready to bid farewell to the app just yet.

Across the board of reactions on Reddit, the general consensus is that Samsung Messages will be missed. “If I wanted to use Google’s POS services I would’ve bought a pixel,” one user explains, but from Samsung’s perspective, it’s all about giving users a messaging experience enriched with handy features.

The company says that the switch to Google Messages will help bring features to Samsung Galaxy devices to align with modern messaging tools used in third-party apps such as WhatsApp. This includes end-to-end encryption, AI tools, and RCS messages, which Google Messages now allows to be sent between iOS and Android devices.

Still haven’t made the switch to Google Messages? We’d recommend doing this sooner rather than later, and it’s quite a straightforward process.

Once you’ve uninstalled Samsung Messages and downloaded the Google Messages app, launch it and a pop-up reading ‘Set default SMS app’ will appear on your device. Tap this, select Google Messages from the options, then tap ‘Set as default’. You can add Google Messages to your Home screen by tapping and holding the app and selecting ‘Add to Home’.

We’re now halfway through the calendar year (yes, really), so what better time to round up our favorite phones of 2026 so far?

I say ‘our favorite phones’, but I really mean ‘my favorite phones’ — I’ve collated five models that may not have perfect TechRadar review scores, but either surprised me in testing or offer something unique in today’s busy smartphone landscape.

The reviews for each model (which I’ve included in each entry) may have been written by someone else, but I’ve personally used all the phones listed below for specific feature deep-dives, video shoots, or general device comparisons. Don’t agree with my list? Let me know your favorite phone(s) of 2026 so far in the comments below.

5. Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra

• Release date: March 11
• Review rating: 4.5 / 5

Any phone-related ‘best of’ list has to include Samsung’s latest Ultra-branded Galaxy device. This year’s edition is the feature-packed Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, and while it’s not the most surprising phone I’ve tested this year (hence its place at number 5), it is the most powerful and versatile of the bunch. It’s an everything phone — an all-you-can-eat buffet of top-end hardware and software.

Chief among the Galaxy S26 Ultra’s new software features are Privacy Display and Super Steady Horizontal Lock. The former stops prying eyes from viewing content on your screen, while the latter stabilizes videos even when you turn the phone a full 360 degrees. I’m a die-hard Apple fan, but the iPhone 17 Pro doesn’t have either of these features, nor classic Samsung tools like DeX and the S Pen, so the Galaxy S26 Ultra feels like a cut above the current best iPhone when it comes to productivity.

Add in some customarily premium hardware specs, and you’ve got a formidable pocket companion — albeit one that will cost you an arm and a leg to own.

Read our in-depth Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra review

4. Google Pixel 10a

• Release date: March 5
• Review rating: 4 / 5

Like the Galaxy S26 Ultra, the Google Pixel 10a is the definition of ‘iterative upgrade’, but it’s still my go-to recommendation for buyers looking for an affordable Android phone with great cameras. Google’s excellent Android software is just as good on this cheaper device as it is on the premium Google Pixel 10 Pro, and I’d go as far as to say that the 10a is actually the better-looking of the two phones (look at that flush camera!).

Sure, Google’s Tensor G4 chipset is underpowered compared to the midrange competition, and you don’t get any PixelSnap compatibility here, but at $499 / £499 / AU$849, it’s hard to argue against the Pixel 10a’s value for money. Its 6.3-inch Actua display is gorgeous, its two cameras are as good as anything you’ll find for the same price, and its AI-powered software features — from Camera Coach to Call Screen — are genuinely useful. Bravo, Google.

Read our in-depth Google Pixel 10a review

3. Motorola Edge 70 Fusion

• Release date: March 2
• Review rating: 4.5 / 5

I know what you’re thinking: the Motorola Edge 70 Fusion? Surely this little-known device — which isn’t even available in the US — is not my third-favorite phone of 2026 so far? Well, it is, if only because it surprised me (and our reviewer) so much in testing.

The Edge 70 Fusion costs just £379.99 / AU$499, but it looks like a flagship phone. It’s slim and lightweight for its large size, and boasts a nice textured finish on its rear panel. Its 6.78-inch display can reach 144Hz, and the 7,000mAh battery routinely got me through two days on a single charge. And don’t forget the IP68 and IP69 resistance ratings.

There are, of course, compromises. Motorola’s software continues to be… just OK, while the Edge 70 Fusion specifically is only due to receive three years of major software updates. But for such a low price, these shouldn’t be deal-breakers. The Edge 70 Fusion is my surprise package of 2026 so far, and it deserves more attention than it’s been given.

Read our in-depth Motorola Edge 70 Fusion review

2. Nothing Phone (4a) Pro

• Release date: March 19
• Review rating: 4.5 / 5

I recently played around with the Nothing Phone (4a) Pro for an upcoming ‘best midrange phones’ video, and it floors the competition in terms of value for money.

As much as I love the Google Pixel 10a (as you’ll have read above), for the same price, Nothing’s latest a-series phone adds a 50MP telephoto camera, faster charging, and a more powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 chipset into the mix. And best of all, the (4a) Pro is a thoroughly unique-looking device.

Nothing swapped the transparent rear panel of its other phones for an industrial, aluminum backplate on the (4a) Pro, making the huge camera module the star of the show. This module also features the gimmicky-but-fun Glyph Matrix introduced on the Nothing Phone 3, which, for me, has drawn as much attention in public places as the iPhone Air this year.

If the Google Pixel 10a is my safe value-for-money Android pick of 2026, the Nothing Phone (4a) Pro is my exciting value-for-money Android pick.

Read our in-depth Nothing Phone (4a) Pro review

1. Oppo Find X9 Ultra

• Release date: May 8
• Review rating: 4.5 / 5

And now we come to the Oppo Find X9 Ultra — my favorite phone of 2026 so far. This is the first Ultra-branded Oppo phone to ship outside of China (though it’s unfortunately still not available in the US), and it blows the competition out of the water in terms of camera performance.

Specifically, the Find X9 Ultra boasts a 200MP (f/1.5) main lens, a 50MP ultra-wide (f/2) lens, a 200MP 3x telephoto (f/2.2) lens, and a 50MP 10x telephoto (f/3.5) lens, which is the sort of combination we rarely see on even the best camera phones.

We recently compared the Oppo Find X9 Ultra against the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, and the Chinese flagship won out in almost every category. My colleague, Tim, even compared the Oppo Find X9 Ultra to a Lumix TZ300 and Nikon Z8, and the phone absolutely held its own, particularly at 10x zoom.

Away from camera performance, the Find X9 Ultra boasts a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset, 12GB of RAM, a 6.8-inch OLED display, and an enormous 7,050mAh battery, so it doesn’t leave you wanting for power or endurance.

It’s heavy, it’s thick, and it’s eye-wateringly expensive, but the Oppo Find X9 Ultra is still the most exciting phone of 2026 so far.

Read our in-depth Oppo Find X9 Ultra review

We’re approaching the first anniversary of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7, which means it won’t be long before we see the phone (or phones, as the case may be) that will replace it in Samsung’s lineup.

As someone who has relied on the Fold 7 as my daily driver since it landed, I couldn’t be more excited to see what the next generation holds, and I have a few wishes I hope Samsung will make come true — with leaks teasing some of them just might…

Before we get into that, vote in our poll to tell me which upgrade you most want to see in the Z Fold 8 when it’s finally announced.

1. An Ultra camera boost

The Z Fold 7 has been my go-to every day since I first received it, but for the past six months I’ve also consistently carried a second phone in my pocket — becoming the kind of kind of tech journo I hoped I never would, one obsessed with tech perfection no matter how inefficient and niche my collection of gadgets is (just you wait, I’ll be wearing two smartwatches next).

The reason I mention this is that the second phone is the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, and its primary purpose is as a camera, because it frankly puts my Z Fold 7's shots to shame.

If you want a clearer sign that 200MP sensors aren’t made equally, see this pair’s photos side by side. Couple that with the Ultra’s superior zoom cameras — further amplified by its boasting dual 5x and 3x telephotos compared to the Fold 7’s lonely 3x — and for photo enthusiasts, it’s clear the S26 Ultra has an edge.

My hope is that if the Z Fold 8 is getting an Ultra moniker, as some leaks suggest, it’ll boast identical cameras, or risk feeling like a subpar alternative, despite having a price point that demands excellence in every category.

2. Affordability dreams

Speaking of price, the reality I’m preparing for is that the Z Fold 8 will cost more than the Fold 7, thanks to RAM and storage cost increases. There’s a chance Samsung could avoid this by having its memory-producing arm give its mobile division a discount, although there are conflicting reports about a cost-saving collaboration based on leaks and Samsung’s own comments.

Regardless, I think the Z Fold 8 design could hint at a slight discount. I’m not talking about the wider display — though it does seem to have a smaller area, which should reduce costs somewhat — I’m referring to the lack of a third camera.

With it being rumored to boast 12GB of RAM and a top-end Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset — essential components for Samsung’s top-tier AI — it’s yet to be seen if the display and camera downgrades will bring the cost down in real terms or merely counteract the cost increases we would have faced thanks to the RAM crisis. I have my fingers crossed we might see the cheapest Samsung Fold yet with the 8 (defeating the reigning champ: the $1,799 / £1,599 / AU$2,499 Galaxy Z Fold 3).

3. Begging for battery

The Z Fold 7 boasts a 4,400mAh battery just like the Z Fold 6 before it, but thanks to software and chipset optimizations, Samsung promised the battery life of the 7 would be a little longer. My anecdotal evidence, however, as someone who used the Z Fold 6 as my main handset before the 7 launched, is that the battery seems to disappear faster on the newer model.

Now, this isn’t based on any tests, but speaking to a few other regular Z Fold 7 users who had upgraded from the 6, my perception of worse battery life was echoed. Thankfully, leaks tease a bigger battery for the 8, taking us up to a whole 4,800mAh. The Ultra will apparently stretch to 5,000mAh.

Considering some reasonably priced Chinese brands are delivering phones powered by silicon-carbon batteries with capacities over 7,000mAh, the leaked specs leave me underwhelmed. However, considering my usage currently forces me to charge my phone in the middle of the day — or risk it running dry before I get home — I’ll be happy with any upgrade in the battery department.

4. Privacy display please!

The star of the show on the S26 Ultra is the privacy display, but after spending more time with it, the tech does need a little tweaking. An easy software update would be to add app controls that let me choose which software uses maximum privacy mode. I don’t want to use it all the time, but I would love for it to come on automatically for password entry and mobile banking. However, it is still impressive.

Seeing it on the Z Fold 8 would be fantastic, especially on the Z Fold 8 Ultra, as, like the cameras, it would bring the Fold Ultra on par with the unbending Ultra, though I’m willing to accept the tech only showing up on the outer screen.

Unfortunately for me, leaks don’t tease this addition making its way to Samsung’s latest foldables, but maybe I’ll get lucky!

5. Keep the S pen away

I’ve come around a little on the S Pen after experiencing it in the S26 Ultra, though I’m still not keen to see it return to the foldable line.

Why?

There’s no space to add it without making the phone thicker again. Frankly, the supreme thinness of the Z Fold 7 is what makes it infinitely more manageable than Samsung’s previous foldable phones.

With the Wide design being more tablet-like, I 100% see the appeal of a stylus to make the design perfect for casual digital artists, but I don’t think the S Pen’s positives outweigh the negatives. I hope it stays gone when the Z Fold 8 debuts.

If you own one of the best Samsung phones, and have a habit of mislaying your wallet or keys, then the Samsung SmartTag 2 is exactly what you need. Samsung’s answer to the Apple AirTag, the dinky SmartTag 2 can be attached to, or inserted in, practically anything you can think of. If you lose said item, you can use your Samsung device to track it down.

And right now you can grab a 4-pack for the low price of just AU$71.06 at Amazon for a limited time. That’s just under AU$18 per tag, which is a surefire bargain.

The SmartTag 2 is incredibly simple to use. Just connect a tag to any object, register it with the SmartThings Find app and use Search Nearby to find your item. You can also make the Galaxy SmartTag 2 play a sound if it's near enough to find with its ringtone feature.

You can track the Galaxy SmartTag 2 so long as it stays attached and intact. And, don't worry, with a battery life of up to 700 days and IP67 rating for protection against dust and water, it will last long enough for you to find your items, even if they somehow find their way to the desert or the bottom of the pool.

If you're looking for an iOS compatible smart tag, try the Apple AirTag 2, which is also seeing a discount on the 4-pack at Amazon, now down to AU$132.82 thanks to a AU$6 saving at the checkout, but I’d wait to see if these drop in price further come Prime Day 2026 in Australia.

If you want a smart tag that works for multiple devices, including iPhones, Samsung Galaxy, and Google Pixel, try the much cheaper Life 360 Tile, which is now AU$55.95 for a 4-pack.

• A near-complete specs list for the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 has leaked
• We've also seen leaked renders of the Z Fold 8, Z Fold 8 Ultra, and Z Flip 8
• Plus, a leaker claims none of these phones will have a Privacy Display

We’re probably less than a month away from the launch of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 and its siblings, with July 22 being repeatedly tipped as the announcement date, and Samsung even recently teasing its upcoming foldables.

Sadly, those teasers didn’t actually reveal much, but a trio of leaks has told us almost everything we need to know about the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 — assuming the details here are correct.

First up, reputable leaker Ahmed Qwaider has shared a near-complete specs list, claiming that the Galaxy Z Fold 8 will have a 7.6-inch 120Hz foldable screen and a 5.5-inch cover display, both with QHD+ resolutions.

It will also apparently have a 50MP wide camera, a 50MP ultra-wide, and two 10MP selfie cameras (one on each screen). For power, it’s said to use a top-end Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset and 12GB of RAM, paired with a choice of 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB of storage.

Qwaider also claims that the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 will have a 4,800mAh battery, will weigh 201g, and come in at 123.9 x 81.9 x 9.7mm when folded and 123.9 x 161.4 x 4.5mm when unfolded.

Some of these specs might sound like a step down from the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 — for example, there’s one less camera listed here — but that’s because the phone dubbed the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 is expected to be a new, wider, shorter model, with the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra likely to be the true successor to the Z Fold 7.

All three phones pictured

In any case, Android Headlines has also recently shared some renders of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8, Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, and Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8.

The phones are shown in cases, so we don’t get an unobstructed look at them, but they’re largely as you’d expect, with the Z Fold 8 Ultra and Z Flip 8 looking a lot like their predecessors, while the Galaxy Z Fold 8 looks like a squatter version of the Galaxy Z Fold 7.

And finally, leaker @UniverseIce has claimed that none of these upcoming phones will have the Privacy Display found on the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra.

This feature — which means people can’t see sensitive content on your screen when viewing it from the side — is arguably one of the highlights of Samsung’s latest flagship, and one of the most innovative features the company has come up with in a while, so it will be a real shame if none of its upcoming foldables have this too.

Still, at least we shouldn’t have long to wait before we find out exactly what these phones are capable of.

• Samsung launches cryptic social media campaign
• It appears to be about the next generation of foldables
• More specificially, Samsung is trying to tell us about shapes

Samsung is slicing up pizza, smearing paint, and playing with puzzles all in an effort to hint about what's to come in its next big Unpacked product event this month, which we all expect to be about foldables.

After clearing out its social media accounts, Samsung returned with a handful of social, almost ASMR videos that focus on sound and visuals but offer little in the way of concrete information.

The social media campaign starts with a photo booth printout that features four images of a woman and her dog. The print includes a substantial top border with the word "Snapply." Someone cuts that off before we see the words, "Cut to what matters."

Next, there's a pepperoni pizza where someone uses a rolling pie cutter to slide out a small, rectangular shape. They remove the slice, slide away the remaining pie, and the words "A whole new slice" appear. Next, there's a tiny dog puzzle. Someone removes the top row of pieces, and the words "Feels just right" appear. The last one, though, might be most telling.

It starts with some paint drops on a white palette. A squeegee slides over them to mix the colors and reveal the number 8 with the words:

"Bold stroke

New shape"

One thing we can glean here is that all of these social media bits are talking about design, shape, or aspect ratio. After all, the word "shape" and words that apply to shape appear throughout.

The "8" makes sense. We're still sporting our Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Z Flip 7 devices, and the Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Z Flip 8 are, presumably, the next phones in line. There are rumors of a new wide device, too, which fits the "new shape" idea Samsung is teasing here. Beyond that, though, we don't know much.

This is different

Samsung told us via email that the company is "hitting reset."

"After seven generations of pushing the boundaries of foldables, Samsung is taking a different approach to how it builds anticipation this year," the company wrote.

This new social media campaign is purposely devoid of product details and encourages guesswork. The recurrent shapes and patterns are intentional.

Clearly, all these videos are not just about the shape. They might be trying to tell us about some of the new features coming with the next generation of Galaxy Z foldables. For instance, there is another hint, perhaps unintentional: both the puzzle and the paint video are, according to the fine print, AI videos with edits. Were they created on the new devices? Only time will tell.

Take our advice and keep watching all of Samsung's social media channels for additional hints and details.

• Samsung Messages is shutting down for US users in July
• Google Messages is the suggested alternative, but there are other options
• You should switch to a new app before the shutdown date to ensure you keep your chat history

If you’re a Samsung Messages user then you’re probably already aware that the app is soon shutting down in the US — and if you’re not, you need to be, because there are steps you’ll need to take to preserve your messages and continue being able to chat.

While the exact shutdown date hasn’t been confirmed by Samsung, the company has said that it will be switched off at some point in July, and it’s looking like it will probably happen on July 6, as some users reported getting notifications with that date.

So, you don’t have long to get your messaging house in order. With that in mind, we’ve detailed the five things you should do before Samsung Messages shuts down.

1. Check if you’re affected

Oddly, it seems that right now at least, Samsung isn’t shutting down its messaging app everywhere. In fact, initially, it’s only shutting down in the US.

Even then, it will seemingly continue working on devices running Android 11 or older, so if you’re outside the US or running a very old version of Android, you don’t necessarily need to do anything (though you might still want to, as detailed below).

But Android 11 is likely to have numerous security vulnerabilities these days, so if you are still running that version of Google's software, it’s worth updating your device or getting a new one anyway if possible.

2. Consider switching even if you’re not affected

While Samsung has said that it currently has no plans to shut down Samsung Messages outside the US, it’s hard to imagine this isn’t something the company is at least considering.

We’d think it’s likely that the US shutdown is just the first step, with other regions potentially following sometime later, and even if it isn’t shut down elsewhere, this move rather suggests that Samsung Messages isn’t a priority for the company, so you might find it doesn’t get updated as much as alternative apps.

All of which is to say it could be worth switching messaging apps anyway, even if you don’t actually have to yet.

3. Choose and download a new messaging app

Assuming you either have to switch or have decided that now’s the time, you’re going to need to choose an alternative.

Handily, there’s no need to give this much thought, as Samsung is directing users to Google Messages, so if you’re happy with that, you can download it from Google Play and skip to the next step.

But you might want to consider other options too, such as Fossify Messages, Textra SMS, Beeper, or Pulse SMS.

However, be aware that only Google Messages and Beeper support RCS (Rich Communication Services) — the others are limited to SMS, which has fewer features and is less secure.

4. Set it as your default messaging app

Next, set whichever app you’ve chosen as your default messaging app. In most cases, you should see a prompt asking you to do this when you launch the new app for the first time, but if not, just head to Settings > Apps > Choose default apps > SMS app, and then tap the one you want to use.

5. Wait for your chats to move across

In most cases, once you download a new messaging app and set it as your default, your previous conversations from Samsung Messages will move across to it automatically, though this can take up to 24 hours, so don’t panic if they don’t immediately appear.

But if you choose to switch to Beeper, then the process is a bit more involved, as you’ll first need to download Google Messages anyway and move your conversation history over to that. Then you can connect Beeper to your Google account to give it access.

• Images of cases for the rumored wider Galaxy foldable have leaked
• They look like official cases, but they call the phone the 'Galaxy New Fold'
• Fans have cast doubt over whether these are the real deal

One of the big questions surrounding Samsung’s rumored wider foldable is what it will actually be called.

Early leaks referred to it as the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Wide, but then more recently, we heard that it might simply launch as the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8, with the direct successor to the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 now being called the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra. Now, though, another possibility has emerged.

Some leaked images have been shared on X by Mohammed Khatri and @thinborne showing packaging for seemingly official cases for the phone, which here is listed as the ‘Samsung Galaxy New Fold’.

But there are reasons to doubt this name, as while the photos are probably real, there’s a high chance the products they show are knock-offs from China.

As one Reddit commenter purported: “These are fake cases made by Chinese companies sold through eBay, temu, shein, ali express, etc... they copy Samsung boxes well, but they don't know the new name of the fold wide, so you can see that on the box where it's just called new fold. Samsung would never do that.”

Another Reddit poster agreed, writing, “I've seen cases like that appear all over Aliexpress and almost all of them are knockoffs with the Samsung logo on them.”

And on top of all that, these are supposedly ‘Kindsuit’ cases, which are a style of case that Samsung offers for last year’s flagship phones, but not for the Samsung Galaxy S26 series. So there’s some doubt over whether the company’s upcoming foldables would get this style of case.

We'll find out soon

On the other hand, questionable name aside, these do look like they could be official Samsung cases, so we can’t completely rule out the possibility that this will be the wider foldable’s official name.

But it would seem an odd choice, as subsequent wide models will no longer be ‘new’ in the same sense, so it would quickly become a clunky naming scheme.

We’ll probably find out very soon anyway, as Samsung is rumored to be launching its next batch of foldables on July 22.

• Samsung has announced the Galaxy A27
• This budget phone has a faster chipset than the A26 along with a refined design and an improved selfie camera
• However, it has worse water resistance and fewer megapixels in its ultra-wide snapper

Samsung has just launched a new budget phone, with the Galaxy A27 arriving to take the place of last year’s Samsung Galaxy A26. But while there are some worthwhile upgrades here, there are also at least two downgrades.

Most notably, while the Galaxy A26 has an IP67 rating, the Galaxy A27 is instead stuck with a lesser IP64 rating, meaning it’s less water resistant.

At least one of the cameras also looks to be a downgrade, as while both phones have a 50MP wide camera and a 2MP macro one, the Galaxy A27 pairs those with a 5MP ultra-wide, whereas the Galaxy A26 has an 8MP ultra-wide snapper.

Looking purely at megapixels, the front-facing camera may seem a slight downgrade too, as it's 12MP on the Galaxy A27 and 13MP on the Galaxy A26. But overall, this is probably actually an upgrade, as Samsung claims the new camera can capture “a wider range of brightness and richer colors” for more natural-looking selfies.

A faster chipset and smaller bezels

As for things that are clear upgrades, there’s a more powerful Snapdragon 6 Gen 3 chipset, a punch-hole camera in place of a notch, and smaller bezels. The Samsung Galaxy A27 also has improved AI capabilities, such as multi-object recognition in Circle to Search, and more precise results from Object Eraser.

Beyond that, most of the specs are the same as last year, including a 6.7-inch 120Hz screen, up to 8GB of RAM, up to 256GB of storage, and a 5,000mAh battery with 25W charging.

The Samsung Galaxy A27 also runs Android 16 and comes with the promise of six generations of Android updates and six years of security updates.

It’s launching in the UK and Australia on July 3 and the US on July 14, starting at £319, AU$499 and $349.99 respectively.

It will be sold in black, blue, light green, and light pink, but not all regions will necessarily get all of those colors — we know, for example, that in the US and Australia, it’s only going to be sold in black.

A smartphone can be a major investment — especially if you’re shopping for one of the best phones around — so it’s important to be sure that the device you’re buying isn’t just good for now, but good for many years to come.

Software support is a key factor in determining how long a phone will last, and in recent years, manufacturers have been committing to much longer product support windows than they used to. But not all phones get the same amount of support, and indeed some older phones will be approaching their final update in 2026.

So, below, we’ve detailed how long phones from Apple, Samsung, Google, and Motorola will continue to receive updates.

To keep things simple, we've focused on major brands with US availability, but if you have a recent high-end phone from the likes of Honor, Oppo, or Xiaomi, it will likely be in line for between five and six years of updates from its launch date. Older and lower-end models tend to be in the two-to-three-year range.

Apple iPhones

Apple never used to commit to a specific support window for its phones, but that changed in 2024, when new UK regulations required brands to outline a minimum support window. As a result, Apple now promises a minimum of five years — but this only applies to security updates, not the kinds of iOS updates that add new software features. And five years is a minimum, with Apple often going beyond that number anyway.

All of which is to say we can’t be certain when iPhones will get their final update, but typically, they’re supported for between five and seven years.

So, the list below is our best guess for how many years of updates each currently supported iPhone model has left.

• iPhone 17 series — 4-6 years (last update in 2030, 2031, or 2032)
• iPhone Air — 4-6 years (last update in 2030, 2031, or 2032)
• iPhone 16 series — 3-5 years (last update in 2029, 2030 or 2031)
• iPhone 15 series — 2-4 years (last update in 2028, 2029, or 2030)
• iPhone 14 series — 1-3 years (last update in 2027, 2028, or 2029)
• iPhone SE (2022) — 1-3 years (last update in 2027, 2028, or 2029)
• iPhone 13 series — 0-2 years (last update in 2026, 2027, or 2028)
• iPhone 12 series — 0-2 years (last update in 2026, 2027, or 2028)
• iPhone 11 series — final update will probably be this year with iOS 27
• iPhone SE (2020) — final update will probably be this year with iOS 27

Samsung Galaxy phones

Samsung offers as much as seven years of support for some of its recent phones, but older and lower-end handsets get fewer updates, so how long your phone will be updated for can be quite variable depending on the model.

• Samsung Galaxy S26 series — 7 years (last update in 2033)
• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 — 6 years (last update in 2032)
• Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 — 6 years (last update in 2032)
• Samsung Galaxy Z TriFold — 6 years (last update in 2032)
• Samsung Galaxy S25 series — 6 years (last update in 2032)
• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 — 5 years (last update in 2031)
• Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6 — 5 years (last update in 2031)
• Samsung Galaxy S24 series — 5 years (last update in 2031)
• Samsung Galaxy A57 — 6 years (last update in 2032)
• Samsung Galaxy A56 — 5 years (last update in 2031)
• Samsung Galaxy A36 — 5 years (last update in 2031)
• Samsung Galaxy A26 — 5 years (last update in 2031)
• Samsung Galaxy A17 — 5 years (last update in 2031)
• Samsung Galaxy A17 — 4 years (last update in 2030)
• Samsung Galaxy A55 — 1 year (last update in 2027, security patches until 2029)
• Samsung Galaxy A35 — 1 year (last update in 2027, security patches until 2029)
• Samsung Galaxy M35 — 1 year (last update in 2027, security patches until 2029)
• Samsung Galaxy A25 — 1 year (last update in 2027, security patches until 2028)
• Samsung Galaxy A54 — final Android update this year (2026), final security patch in 2028
• Samsung Galaxy A34 — final Android update this year (2026), final security patch in 2028
• Samsung Galaxy S23 series — final Android update this year (2026), final security patch in 2028
• Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 — final Android update this year (2026), final security patch in 2028
• Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 — final Android update this year (2026), final security patch in 2028
• Samsung Galaxy M54 — final Android update this year (2026), final security patch in 2028

Google Pixel phones

Google has committed to supporting all handsets from the Pixel 8 onwards for seven years, while phones from the Pixel 6 and Pixel 7 lines get five years of support.

Note that, as a-series models launch later than their mainline siblings, they technically get supported for longer. But depending on when major new Android versions launch, they may not get additional significant updates.

• Google Pixel 10a — 7 years (last update in early 2033)
• Google Pixel 10 series (excluding 10a) — 6 years (last update in late 2032)
• Google Pixel 9a — 6 years (last update in early 2032)
• Google Pixel 9 series (excluding 9a) — 5 years (last update in late 2031)
• Google Pixel 8a — 5 years (last update in early 2031)
• Google Pixel 8 series (excluding 8a) — 4 years (last update in late 2030)
• Google Pixel Fold — 2 years (last update in mid-2028)
• Google Pixel 7a — 2 years (last update in mid-2028)
• Google Pixel 7 series (excluding 7a) — 1 year (last update in late 2027)
• Google Pixel 6a — 1 year (last update in mid-2027)
• Google Pixel 6 series (excluding 6a) — final update this year (2026)

Motorola phones

Motorola’s update commitments feel quite messy and inconsistent, with some phones getting more or fewer updates than you might expect, but you’ll find an overview of the currently supported handsets below.

• Motorola Signature — 7 years (last update in early 2033)
• Motorola Edge 70 series — 3 years (last update in 2029, security patches until 2031)
• Motorola Edge 60 Neo — 3 years (last update in 2029, security patches until 2031)
• Motorola Edge 50 Neo — 3 years (last update in 2029)
• Motorola Razr 70 / Razr 2026 series — 2 years (last update in 2028, security patches until 2030)
• Motorola Edge 60 series (excluding Neo) — 2 years (last update in 2028, security patches until 2029)
• Moto G75 — 2 years (last update in 2028, security patches until 2030)
• Motorola Razr 60 / Razr 2025 series — 1 year (last update in 2027, security patches until 2029)
• Motorola Edge 50 Pro — final Android update this year (2026), final security patch in 2028
• Motorola Edge 50 Fusion — final Android update this year (2026), final security patch in 2028
• Motorola Edge 50 Ultra — final Android update this year (2026), final security patch in 2028
• Motorola Razr 50 / Razr 2024 series — final Android update this year (2026), final security patch in 2028
• Moto G86 — final Android update this year (2026), final security patch in 2029
• Moto G56 — final Android update this year (2026), final security patch in 2029

The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra is a balanced flagship phone, but can it compete with Ultra-branded camera phones from China? To find out, I pitted the best Samsung phone against the Oppo Find X9 Ultra, which is widely considered the best camera phone available right now. But while the Oppo flagship was the favorite going into my photo walk, the Samsung surprised me in a few ways.

With the S26 Ultra, the Korean giant doubled down on software and bundled it with larger apertures on two sensors, whereas Oppo went all-in on hardware upgrades and paired them with meaningful software advancements. It also added 10x optical zoom, making the Find X9 Ultra the only Ultra phone with this feature in 2026. Oppo says its 10x telephoto camera is 3x more light-sensitive than the Galaxy S23 Ultra's 10x camera.

The resulting camera system beats the Galaxy S26 Ultra in most scenarios, but Samsung's flagship phone surprised me on multiple occasions. It's certainly a better camera phone than the Galaxy S25 Ultra, despite having seemingly similar hardware.

Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra vs. Oppo Find X9 Ultra: Specs

The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra covers 13-111mm focal lengths. It has a 50MP 13mm f/1.9 ultra-wide camera with a 1/2.5-inch sensor, a 200MP 23mm f/1.4 main camera with a 1/1.3-inch sensor, a 10MP 67mm f/2.4 3x telephoto camera with a 1/3.94-inch sensor, and a 50MP 111mm f/2.9 5x periscope telephoto camera with a 1/2.52-inch sensor. It looks formidable until you see what Oppo has on offer this year.

The Find X9 Ultra covers focal lengths from 14mm to 230mm. It has a 50MP 14mm f/2 ultra-wide camera with a 1/1.95-inch sensor, a 200MP 23mm f/1.5 main camera with a 1/1.2-inch sensor, a 200MP 70mm f/2.2 3x telephoto camera with a 1/1.28-inch sensor, and a 50MP 230mm f/3.5 10x telephoto camera with a 1/2.75-inch sensor.

I took more than 500 photos on each phone and narrowed down this comparison to 25 images. Here's how the two Ultra phone cameras compare:

Main camera

Both Samsung and Oppo shoot pixel-binned images from their 200MP sensor by default. I recommend using a higher resolution mode (like 24MP or 50MP on the Galaxy S26 Ultra and 50MP on the Oppo), but I kept the default settings for this comparison.

The Galaxy S26 Ultra boosts color saturation to add a pop, whereas Oppo's shots look more natural. While I like Samsung's contrast, there's some artificial color sharpening going on, making it look less natural.

On the other hand, the Find X9 Ultra gives you a more pleasing bokeh, thanks to a bigger sensor. Both phones captured good amount of details, as you can see the texture on the leaves.

However, I prefer Oppo's color science and Master Mode, which give me natural tones with minimal phone-like color processing.

In evening shots, the Galaxy S26 Ultra gave my photos a teal hue, whereas the Find X9 Ultra had a pink hue. My skin tone was better captured by the Oppo phone, and it had more details. In comparison, the Samsung shot looks slightly noisy and less appealing overall.

Samsung has been working on improving its night mode photos for a few years now, and the Galaxy S26 Ultra beats its rivals in this scenario on most occasions. I want my low-light photos to look like low-light shots instead of artificially brightened photos. That's why I like Samsung's saturated colors on the entrance board versus Oppo's brightened picture quality at night.

However, if you switch to the Master Mode, things change drastically. The Find X9 Ultra handles night light well and doesn't overexpose the shots to brighten every detail. In my testing, Master Mode consistently delivered better results than Oppo's default processing, and I relied on it for night shots.

Telephoto cameras

This is one of the scenarios where Samsung surprised me. I like its cooler tone versus Oppo's warmer look, which gave my skin a yellow tint. It doesn't look bad, but I'm simply not that pale. Again, this could be fixed by using the Master Mode, but I expected better color science from the default processing. However, Oppo's shot captured rich details as compared to a slightly smoother-looking skin on the Samsung flagship.

In challenging lighting situations like the above, when the setting sun was directly hitting my face, Samsung processed the photo better than Oppo.

The Galaxy S26 Ultra managed to get the golden hour look, while the Find X9 Ultra's shot looks washed out. Both photos were captured with tap and shoot, so the focus was set, and the cameras didn't struggle to find the subject automatically. Again, I wish Samsung captured more details with a more natural-looking bokeh. It looks soft and slightly artificial in comparison to the Oppo's.

Oppo's bigger lens and smarter processing comes in handy when you need rich details in shots like above. Samsung struggled to focus on the thick webbing, while the Find X9 Ultra focused and captured even the single strands. And this extends to the 10x telephoto camera.

Oppo demolishes the Galaxy S26 Ultra in macro shots. This was a tricky subject because the small flower kept moving in the slightest breeze. I struggled to get it in focus with the Galaxy S26 Ultra, which it simply couldn't do. That's why I don't have a comparison photo for this shot. The Oppo Find X9 Ultra, by contrast, focused on the same subject with a single tap and even captured those white threads in the picture.

One of the reasons I love having big telephoto cameras, like the one on the Find X9 Ultra, is that they allow me to get so close to small subjects and capture things I'd never be able to focus on with my eyes. Oppo's macro mode is right up there with Vivo's, and Samsung doesn't have a match for it.

Ultra-wide camera

When it comes to my ultra-wide testing, the Oppo Find X9 Ultra was able to get more contrast and highlight the blues of the sky without blowing out the green leaves as the Galaxy S26 Ultra did.

Overall, I prefer Oppo's shot here because it has more details on the tree trunks and didn't overexpose the leaves. However, Samsung's processing focused on better exposing the leaves and didn't have the same halo effect as its rival.

Verdict

The Oppo Find X9 Ultra consistently captured richer details compared to the Galaxy S26 Ultra. However, the Samsung flagship stood its own and even beat the Oppo phone on a couple of occasions. While I prefer having bigger sensors, the Galaxy phone surprised me in the best ways.

That said, Oppo easily wins in most scenarios. It is, hands-down, the current king of smartphone telephoto cameras. TechRadar's Cameras Editor Timothy Coleman also compared the Find X9 Ultra to two dedicated cameras and concluded, "It feels like this flagship Chinese phone renders most travel zoom compacts redundant," which can't be said about the Galaxy S26 Ultra. The Master Mode is an added benefit if you like shooting film-like colors. I simply can't stop shooting with this phone.

If your phone of choice is a Samsung Galaxy handset, then you'll know that the Android-based One UI software that comes with it is packed with handy settings and features. There's more to explore than there is on many other Android phones, including the Google Pixel series.

In fact there are so many options that Samsung has hidden some of them away. One UI includes a Connectivity labs menu, which includes a variety of useful features, but you have to jump through a number of hoops before you can find it.

Once you do have it enabled, you can check the strength of the Wi-Fi all around your home, troubleshoot problems you might be having with the network, change the way your phone switches between mobile data and Wi-Fi, and more besides.

Here's how to find Connectivity labs, and how to use it.

Enabling Connectivity labs and Wi-Fi scans

To get this menu visible, you need to head to Settings on your Galaxy phone and tap Connections then Wi-Fi. Tap the three dots in the top right corner, and select Intelligent Wi-Fi. You then need to tap the Intelligent Wi-Fi label at the bottom of the next screen seven times (you'll see a countdown appear after a few taps).

Hey presto — you now have a new Connectivity labs menu to make use of. Open this up and you'll see a host of different statistics about your network, and numerous features and options to explore. Right at the top, for example, you can see how long the device has been connected to Wi-Fi today, and what the daily average is.

Go further down the screen and there's a breakdown of the Wi-Fi bands that your Galaxy phone has been connected to, and the standard of Wi-Fi it's been using (so you can check that your new Wi-Fi 7 router is working as advertised). You're also able to see how many Wi-Fi networks are saved to the phone.

One of the most useful features in Connectivity labs for me is the Home Wi-Fi inspection. If you select this then choose Start, your phone will take you on a tour of your home, showing you in real time the Wi-Fi signal strength from your router and giving you warnings about areas with weaker connectivity.

Fortunately, the Wi-Fi in my home is relatively strong, but there are a couple of spots where the signal is weak, and the inspection tool flags them up. It can also be useful to make changes to the Wi-Fi setup (such as moving the router somewhere else) and seeing how that effects the signal coverage.

Other features you'll find in Connectivity labs

There's lots more you can do with Connectivity labs, as you'll see if you keep scrolling down the page. Turn on Auto reconnect to carrier Wi-Fi, for example, and your phone will automatically connect to public Wi-Fi hotspots operated by your carrier. There's also a Wi-Fi 7 toggle switch, to make sure you're always using the latest Wi-Fi standard, on networks where it's available.

If you enable the Switching to mobile data faster toggle switch, your phone then automatically hops to a cellular connection when it detects that the Wi-Fi it's using is spotty and weak. It means you might end up using more data, but you'll have fewer problems with interruptions when the Wi-Fi you're connected to isn't the best.

The Intelligent Wi-Fi Handover and Switching to mobile data with AI features work in a similar way. The former will hand over some tasks to cellular data on a weak Wi-Fi signal without disabling the Wi-Fi completely, while the latter uses your typical usage patterns (in terms of downloads, browsing, and so on) to decide when to switch off Wi-Fi.

You can use the Connect to 2.4GHz for IOT setup to force your phone to use the 2.4GHz band on your router — this is the one a lot of smart home devices attach themselves to, so you might have to do this to configure them — while L4S is a special low-latency connection protocol that can speed up your connection, if your router supports it.

There's also the option to Show network quality info in the list of networks when you're connecting to Wi-Fi, so you can see what the best pick is when you've got multiple options to choose from. These are all genuinely useful features to have access to, and it's not really clear why Samsung thinks they should stay hidden by default.

When I was doing all the testing for our Samsung Galaxy A57 review, I enjoyed how streamlined its software was compared to that of the best Samsung phones. But since publishing that review, I've been jumping back and forth between the A57 and another Samsung flagship, and I've got a more nuanced view.

Before the A57 (and, for a little while, after it), I was using the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, which is pretty much the best Android phone money can buy. It has similar hardware specs to the Galaxy S25 Ultra, with its biggest advancements instead coming in the form of new software tools and features.

Now, I know the Galaxy A57 and S26 Ultra aren't exactly comparable. The former is a mid-range phone starting at $549 / £529 / AU$749, while the latter is a premium phablet which costs a minimum of $1,299 / £1,279 / AU$2,199. That's over twice as much.

But from the right angle, they're the same phone. Both are the top models in their respective Galaxy categories, and they're undoubtedly the two best Samsung phones released in 2026 so far. If you've got the budget, you buy the S26 Ultra, while the A57 is designed to be a great corner-cutting alternative.

And for the most part, Samsung made the right corner-cutting calls. Zoom cameras? Gotta go. Blazing chipset? Not here. Stylus? Styl-off. But when I tested the A57, there were definitely a few absent software features that I missed from the S26 Ultra.

So come on, Samsung — please add these 5 software features to cheaper phones like the Galaxy A57 in future software updates.

Audio Eraser

Audio Eraser is a really nifty AI feature. It basically works as an on-device noise cancellation tool for videos you're watching.

The use case Samsung demonstrated during the feature's announcement — which I've since tried myself on several occasions — was for live sports events or recaps. Usually, the crowd is so loud that you can barely hear what's going on. Audio Eraser can identify the crowd noise and strip it from the audio, letting you hear the commentary and even sports noises.

It's also useful for eliminating environmental sounds, like the rush of the sea or roaring wind, helping you hear spoken words better.

Given that Samsung designs its hardware around its AI features these days, I wouldn't be surprised if iAudio Eraser is dependent on the power of the S26 Ultra's chipset. Still, surely a scaled-down version can make its way to the A57. Right, Samsung?

Search with Finder

I found Search with Finder so useful on the Galaxy S26 Ultra that I'm surprised it isn't available in all smartphones.

On Android phones, Finder is the search bar in the app drawer. When you can't find an app because you have no organizational system to speak of (no shame, I'm the same), you search for it in Finder.

But Search with Finder, as Samsung calls it, supercharges this little tool on the Galaxy S26 Ultra. It will search your entire phone for your target; boarding passes, tagged photos, and email attachments are all within its purview.

This feature was designed for messy organizers like me. I have no central system for organizing files, apps, or documents, and I'm often engaged in wild goose chases trying to find things on my phone. Not with Finder on the Galaxy S26 Ultra: if I'd lost something on my phone, it could find 'er (sorry).

Let me tell you, going from the S26 Ultra to the Search with Finder-less Galaxy A57 was quite a shock; in fact, its absence is what prompted me to write this article.

Search with Finder is basically just an in-depth search function, and I was really surprised when the A57 couldn't find documents I'd received in emails or videos I had saved to its internal storage. It feels like a natural function to bring to all of Samsung's phones, not just the A57.

Bixby to control your phone

This one's less of a "feature I love" kind of deal, but something that really makes sense when you think about it.

Bixby is given more responsibilities on the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra. Oh, you haven't met Bixby yet? It's Samsung's on-board assistant, which most people either forget about or don't realize they're using.

In the S26 Ultra, Bixby can now directly change settings on your phone. If you tell it you're having a problem seeing the screen, or your eyes are aching, it can automatically turn up the brightness or apply the eye comfort shield mode...

... in theory. I found it quite unreliable at implementing any such changes. Much of the time, it just prompted me to do it myself, telling me to go into settings, even though the whole point of this new feature is that Bixby should do it for me.

Anyway, onto the Galaxy A57. This sort of phone is bought by those whose budgets don't stretch to the top Samsung model, but also by general users who just need a mobile from a brand they trust and aren't interested in top-tier features.

This kind of buyer is, if I'm not being too rude, a little technophobic. They don't know the correct word for certain features available on their phone — or perhaps even that those features exist in the first place.

A smart assistant that can directly tweak settings on your behalf makes sense, therefore, in a phone like the Galaxy A57. I can see seniors, for instance, getting loads of mileage from this kind of Bixby tool.

And, yes, I know I've said that it doesn't work all that well on the Galaxy S26 Ultra, but I am quite surprised that the A57 doesn't offer more in the way of smart assistant tweakery like this.

Now Brief

What you're looking at above is Now Brief, a feature of Samsung's recent S- and Z-series phones. I like to call it 'Random Affirmations mode' because... well, you can see from the picture. The phone, an inanimate object, is wishing me well?

The point of Now Brief is that it gives you a brief overview of things you need to know. Commonly, it'd show me the weather, and usually a random news article yanked from a publication I'd never touch, as well as some other odd things if relevant: calendar events, reminders I'd made, fitness information I'd tracked, and so on.

I'm not going to pretend that Now Brief is a great feature just yet. It feels like it's missing one or two (or ten) extra data points before it's able to fulfill its purpose of providing a daily (or multi-daily) briefing of things I need to know. In the two months I used the S26 Ultra, Now Brief — more often than not — didn't seem to really understand what I wanted to know, and didn't pull information from many of my apps and tools.

But I see this being the kind of feature that Samsung refines over the next few years and One UI updates, and possibly (hopefully), in a while, it'll be a pivotal part of the smartphone experience.

Now and then, Now Brief became just that for me: I'd look at it and know everything I needed to know. I could put my phone back down, ready for the day (or at least the next hour). These instances were rare, mind, but they did occur.

Now Brief is a big miss on the Galaxy A57. People buying this kind of phone probably aren't power users like those who buy the S26 Ultra. They just want to be able to pick up their handset, see a quick summary of their notifications, events, and interests, and put it back down.

That's why I think Now Brief — even in its current, basic form — would fit really well on Samsung's cheaper phones.

2026 could be a big year for foldable phones, as Apple is rumored to finally be launching a foldable of its own, reportedly called the iPhone Ultra.

This could push foldable phones into the mainstream, and Samsung — as well as welcoming the competition from its biggest rival — looks set to cash in, as it’s reportedly launching a foldable phone in a new wider form factor, so that it can better compete with Apple’s device, which itself is expected to be quite wide.

This new phone was once referred to as the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Wide but is now rumored to be launching simply as the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8, with the more familiar, narrower model said to be landing as the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra.

Obviously, we don’t know for sure how the iPhone Ultra and the Galaxy Z Fold 8 will compare just yet — nor even whether they'll officially launch — but thanks to leaks, rumors, and previous foldables, we’re starting to get a good idea of what to expect.

iPhone Ultra vs Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 rumors: price and availability

We haven’t yet heard much about what the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 might cost, but there’s a good chance it will either be in line with or slightly cheaper than the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7, since it will reportedly have one fewer camera and sit beneath the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra. That would mean a starting price of $1,999.99 / £1,799 / AU$2,899 or less.

As for the iPhone Ultra, leaks suggest that it might start at over $2,000 (around £1,485 / AU$2,785), which could mean it’s at least slightly more expensive than the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8.

As for availability, it’s likely that the Galaxy Z Fold 8 will launch in July, alongside Samsung’s other 2026 foldables. If it really launches with that name, it will probably be available globally, though there's a chance Samsung could limit the Galaxy Z Fold 8 to a few regions to test the waters, just as it did with the Galaxy Z Tri-Fold.

The iPhone Ultra will probably launch in September alongside the iPhone 18 Pro series, though there has been some talk of a possible delay until 2027. Whenever it does land, it’s likely to be sold globally.

iPhone Ultra vs Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 rumors: design and display

The iPhone Ultra and Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 might have quite similar designs, with both being rumored to have wider, shorter screens than typical book-style foldables like the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7.

This form factor could give you a more widescreen experience when they’re unfolded, but would leave you with a slightly squat device when folded shut.

Going by dummy units, the iPhone Ultra might be 117.71 x 84.27mm when folded, and come in at 11.02mm at its thinnest point and 16.57mm at the camera bump. It could be just 5.24mm when unfolded, though some other leaks put it at a slightly slimmer 4.5mm when unfolded and between 9 and 9.5mm when folded. We’ve also heard repeatedly that there will be no visible crease on the iPhone Ultra.

Various leaks also suggest that it will have a roughly 5.5-inch cover screen and an approximately 7.8-inch foldable display.

As for the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8, that phone might have a roughly 7.6-inch main screen with a 4:3 aspect ratio, and weigh around 200g according to TechManiacs. That same screen size, along with a 5.4-inch cover display, has been put forward by Android Headlines, which adds that the phone will be 123.9 x 161.4 x 4.9mm when unfolded and 123.9 x 82.2 x 9.8mm when folded.

So, Samsung’s phone might be marginally smaller — at least in terms of screen sizes — and thinner than Apple’s, though there’s a high chance it will also have a more visible crease.

iPhone Ultra vs Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 rumors: cameras

It’s expected that the iPhone Ultra will have two cameras on the back: specifically, a wide and an ultra-wide, both of which will be 48MP, according to leaker Digital Chat Station. The iPhone Ultra is also expected to have cameras in both its screens, and while no specs have been leaked yet, they might be 18MP like the selfie cameras on the iPhone 17 line.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 likewise looks set to have a dual-lens camera, and as with the iPhone, you’ll probably get wide and ultra-wide lenses. Leaks also point to similar numbers of megapixels, with both sensors apparently being 50MP. The phone is also almost certainly going to have a camera in each screen, with these rumored to be 10MP.

So, on paper, there might not be much to choose between these phones when it comes to the cameras, but it will be interesting to see how they compare in practice.

iPhone Ultra vs Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 rumors: performance and software

The iPhone Ultra will almost certainly have the same chipset as the iPhone 18 Pro Max if it launches this year, which likely means a top-end A20 Pro chipset. Leaker Fixed Focus Digital suggests the phone could also have a vapor chamber, which would further boost performance.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8, meanwhile, is likely to have a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset, which is also very powerful — this is what you’ll find in the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, for example.

So, both of these should be very powerful phones, though the iPhone Ultra, with its slightly newer chipset and rumored vapor chamber, could have the edge in terms of performance.

As for software, the iPhone Ultra will likely run on iOS — specifically the yet-to-launch iOS 27, if it lands in September — though there's a small chance that Apple could debut some foldable-specific software for its first foldable device.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7, on the other hand, will run Android — most likely Android 17, overlaid with Samsung’s One UI. These are both highly capable operating systems, so it really comes down to personal preference as to which is best.

iPhone Ultra vs Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 rumors: battery

The iPhone Ultra could have a surprisingly high-capacity battery for a foldable phone, with one leak putting it at 5,800mAh. A slightly earlier leak from Lanzuk puts it at between 5,400mAh and 5,800mAh, but even at that lower end, it would still have a lot of foldables beat.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 is rumored to have a 4,800mAh battery — so not as good as the iPhone, though still better than the 4,400mAh-equipped Galaxy Z Fold 7.

iPhone Ultra vs Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 rumors: early verdict

Based on what we’ve heard so far, the iPhone Ultra could have a more powerful chipset and a bigger battery than the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8, as well as a less visible crease.

But it could also be thicker and have a higher price, and there may not be much to choose between the two phones' cameras and screens.

So, it’s sounding like the iPhone Ultra and Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 might be quite evenly matched overall. We'll likely find out for sure before the end of the year, as we're expecting Samsung to debut the Galaxy Z Fold 8 in July, and Apple to debut the iPhone Ultra in September.

Which foldable phone are you most excited for? Let us know in the poll or comments section below.

2026 will be the year foldable phones sink or swim. Samsung has been chipping away at the category for several years now — its latest book-style foldable, the Galaxy Z Fold 7, is the best foldable phone money can buy — but these niche, expensive devices still represent less than 3% of the global smartphone market.

Could that be about to change? Apple is strongly rumored to be launching its first foldable iPhone, the iPhone Ultra, in September, and I’ve been itching to ask Samsung for its thoughts on whether Apple’s entry into the foldable market will boost or threaten its own success.

Given that the iPhone Ultra doesn’t exist yet, and that Samsung rarely acknowledges its competitors by name, I’ve been waiting to broach the subject with the Korean tech giant — but in my preparation for this year’s Galaxy Unpacked event, I stumbled across a revealing 2025 interview in which Samsung addresses the potential implications of a foldable iPhone head-on.

Here’s how the President and COO of the company’s Mobile eXperience (MX) division, Won-joon Choi, responded to questions posed by Bloomberg’s Shery Ahn about growing competition in the foldable market:

Shery Ahn: How does Samsung think about competition? Because you have so many Chinese makers coming out with foldables with good cameras.

Won-joon Choi: You know, rather than focusing on the competition, I think we have been focusing on our consumers. What is the experience that we can bring to consumers, and how complete are those experiences? I think healthy competition with other companies will bring more innovations, and then bring more benefits to consumers. So we are welcoming others to join this category, which we created back in 2019.

SA: Even if Apple comes out with a foldable next year, which is what people are saying, how do you keep that edge?

WC: We've been doing this for many years, and we have accumulated a lot of technologies and know-how. Having another global company join this category, I think it's good for the industry, and also, it's going to be great for consumers.

Now, for obvious reasons, Samsung isn’t going to publicly admit that it’s fearful of Apple’s entry into a market that it’s dominated for years, but I do think Choi was being more honest than diplomatic in his response.

The emergence of improbably thin and lightweight foldables like the Honor Magic V3 and Oppo Find N5 forced Samsung to step up its game with the Galaxy Z Fold 7, and I expect that the market-leading IP68 durability rating of the Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold won’t be market-leading any longer once the Galaxy Z Fold 8 arrives later this year.

Choi’s assertion that “competition with other companies will bring more benefits to consumers” has already proven itself to be true, then; and if Apple delivers something unique with the iPhone Ultra — whether that’s a hardware- or software-related innovation — you can bet that the likes of Samsung, Honor, and Oppo will endeavor to replicate that innovation in their own future products.

As for whether “having another global company join this category” is “good for the industry,” Choi will likely be proven right about that, too.

Counterpoint Research predicts that global foldable smartphone shipments will grow 20% in 2026 following Apple’s entry into the category, and I suspect that this rise will be driven by existing iPhone users upgrading to a foldable iPhone, rather than existing Galaxy Z Fold users switching to a foldable iPhone. The market will expand, but I don't think Apple will eat Samsung's lunch (existing foldable-averse Android users aren't going to be convinced by an iOS-powered foldable, that's for sure).

Of course, Samsung won’t want consumers to forget that it stuck by and popularized foldable phones when other companies wouldn’t — just as it pioneered the large-screen phones we’ve all become accustomed to using today.

But Choi’s addendum — “we are welcoming others to join this category, which we created back in 2019” — suggests Samsung won't simply share the foldable stage with Apple without reminding buyers of its heritage in this long-existing market.

The iPhone 17 Pro Max and Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra are the two most obvious choices if you want a no-compromise flagship phone in 2026.

Both are big, powerful, expensive, and built around the same basic promise: you get huge displays, elite cameras, long battery life, high-end performance, and a growing number of AI tools if you're willing to pay the high asking price.

The iPhone 17 Pro Max and Galaxy S26 Ultra are also very different phones. Apple’s flagship is the cleaner, more tightly integrated option, offering iOS and MagSafe. Samsung’s Ultra is the more maximalist device, with the S Pen, a sharper display, a more flexible camera setup, and a software experience packed with Galaxy AI and Google-powered features.

For many people, this choice will come down to ecosystem.

If you already use Apple products like the Apple Watch, MacBook, and iPad, the iPhone 17 Pro Max has an obvious pull. If you prefer Android, multitasking, stylus support, and more control over how your phone works, the Galaxy S26 Ultra makes a very strong case.

But there are still big differences in price, design, display, cameras, performance, software, and battery life between these two phones — so let’s break them down.

iPhone 17 Pro Max vs Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra: specs comparison

Before we dig into the details, here’s an overview of both phones’ key specs:

iPhone 17 Pro Max vs Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra: price and availability

The iPhone 17 Pro Max went on sale in September 2025, with prices starting at $1,199 / £1,199 / AU$2,149 for the 256GB model. The 17 Pro Max is also available with 512GB, 1TB, and 2TB of storage, with the top configuration rising to $1,999 / £1,999 / AU$3,799.

The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra arrived later, in March 2026, and starts at $1,299 / £1,249 / AU$2,149, making it slightly more expensive than Apple’s flagship in the US, slightly more affordable in the UK, and level in Australia at launch.

It's worth noting that the Galaxy S26 Ultra's storage runs from 256GB to 1TB; there is no 2TB option, unlike with the iPhone.

Both phones are widely available through their makers, carriers, and major retailers, so this is less about finding stock and more about finding the right deal that suits you.

Winner: Tie — unless you specifically need 2TB of storage, in which case the iPhone 17 Pro Max takes it.

iPhone 17 Pro Max vs Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra: design

There is no getting away from the fact that these are both very large phones, but Samsung does more to make its Ultra feel slightly more manageable.

The Galaxy S26 Ultra is slightly taller and wider than the iPhone 17 Pro Max, but it is much thinner at 7.9mm and noticeably lighter at 214g.

The softened corners also help it feel less slab-like than older Ultra models, while the built-in S Pen remains Samsung’s clearest hardware advantage.

The iPhone 17 Pro Max has the more dramatic redesign versus its predecessor. Apple moved to an aluminum unibody (which facilitates the inclusion of a new vapor cooling chamber), added a full-width camera plateau, and kept both the Action button and Camera Control.

As such, the 17 Pro Max feels like a clearer break from the previous few Pro Max models, and the new thermal design gives the changes a practical purpose beyond looks.

Still, the Galaxy S26 Ultra is the easier phone to live with day-to-day, giving you the same 6.9-inch screen size in a slimmer, lighter body, while also finding room for a stylus.

Winner: Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra

iPhone 17 Pro Max vs Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra: display

Both phones give you an almost tablet-sized 6.9-inch OLED display with an adaptive 120Hz refresh rate, so either one is built for streaming, gaming, editing photos, reading, and general big-screen phone use.

The iPhone 17 Pro Max has the brighter panel on paper, with a peak outdoor brightness of 3,000 nits, which gives it an edge if you often use your phone outside.

Samsung fights back with resolution and features. The Galaxy S26 Ultra’s screen is sharper than the iPhone’s display, and its 1-120Hz refresh range gives it the same smooth scrolling and power-saving flexibility you would expect from a top-end flagship.

Samsung's new Privacy Display feature also gives it a practical advantage in public spaces, especially if you often work from cafes or public transport.

Winner: Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra

iPhone 17 Pro Max vs Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra: cameras

The iPhone 17 Pro Max has a simpler camera pitch: it's got three 48MP rear cameras, covering main, ultra-wide, and telephoto shots, plus a new 18MP Center Stage front camera.

Apple is offering a more balanced system than previous Pro Max models — especially now the telephoto camera can handle 4x optical zoom and 8x optical-quality shots — and the selfie camera is also a real upgrade; it uses subject tracking to automatically keep you in the frame, and lets you switch between portrait and landscape modes.

Samsung gives you more hardware to play with. The S26 Ultra has a 200MP main camera, 50MP ultra-wide, 10MP 3x telephoto, and 50MP telephoto for longer-range shots, plus a 12MP selfie camera with a wider field of view.

Its camera setup is less of a clean overhaul than Apple’s, but the extra lens and longer zoom range make it more flexible, especially if you often shoot subjects at a distance.

For video, the Galaxy S26 Ultra supports 8K shooting at 30fps, whereas the iPhone is capped at 4K at 120 fps. That said, with its Apple ProRes and ProRes RAW support, the iPhone 17 Pro Max is our favored option for consistent, high-quality video results.

This comparison is a close call because the iPhone 17 Pro Max has the stronger selfie upgrade, a very consistent rear camera setup, and impressive video capabilities. The Galaxy S26 Ultra still has the edge for pure versatility, with more lenses, more zoom reach, and the bigger main sensor.

Winner: Tie

iPhone 17 Pro Max camera samples

Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra camera samples

iPhone 17 Pro Max vs Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra: performance and software

The iPhone 17 Pro Max runs on Apple’s A19 Pro chip, with improved cooling to help it hold high performance for longer.

The 17 Pro Max feels built for heavy use, from gaming and video editing to AI features, and iOS 26 also benefits from Apple’s usual joined-up approach, with the chip, hardware, software, and wider ecosystem all working together.

The Galaxy S26 Ultra counters with the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy, plus either 12GB or 16GB of RAM. It is a true ultra-premium Android flagship, with more flexibility for multitasking, split-screen apps, S Pen notes, customisation, and productivity.

Samsung is better for flexibility, stylus support, and Android customisation, but the iPhone’s combination of Apple silicon, iOS, cooling, and ecosystem integration gives it more cohesive performance in our testing.

Winner: iPhone 17 Pro Max

iPhone 17 Pro Max vs Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra: battery

The iPhone 17 Pro Max has a 5,088mAh battery, based on reported capacity figures (Apple does not share these details officially), and Apple rates it for up to 37 hours of video playback.

In our day-to-day use, it's comfortably an all-day phone, with enough headroom for heavy camera use, navigation, streaming, and gaming. It also supports fast USB-C charging and 25W MagSafe/Qi2 wireless charging.

The Galaxy S26 Ultra has a 5,000mAh battery, so there is very little difference between these two devices in terms of raw capacity, and indeed it carried well past 24 hours of operation in our testing.

Samsung has the advantage for wired charging, with 60W speeds that should get you topped up faster than the iPhone. The S26 also supports 25W wireless charging, putting it on par with Apple there, though there's no MagSafe-style wireless charging to speak of.

So, this comparison is close... again. The iPhone has excellent endurance and the convenience of MagSafe, but Samsung’s faster wired charging is more useful when you need a quick refill before heading out.

Winner: Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra

iPhone 17 Pro Max vs Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra: verdict

The iPhone 17 Pro Max and Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra are — unsurprisingly — close enough that the “best” choice depends less on raw power and more on how you actually use your phone.

Choose the iPhone 17 Pro Max if you want the smoother all-round experience. Its biggest strengths are consistency, ecosystem integration, long-term performance, and a camera system that feels easy to trust. It's also the better fit if you already use Apple's other products.

Choose the Galaxy S26 Ultra if you want the phone that simply does more. The S Pen, sharper display, lighter design, longer camera reach, faster charging, and broader AI toolkit make it the more versatile device, especially for power users.

Overall, the Galaxy S26 Ultra wins more individual categories, but the iPhone 17 Pro Max may still be the better buy for many people. Samsung has the stronger spec-sheet argument; Apple has the more cohesive flagship experience.

Winner: Tie (sorry!)

• A photo has been taken of what appears to be the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8
• This is the rumored new wider foldable Samsung might be working on
• We've also seen a comparison image showing it alongside the more conventional Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra

The long-rumored Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Wide — which, confusingly, will reportedly launch simply as the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 — might be Samsung’s worst-kept secret, and now we’ve seemingly seen the phone in the flesh for the first time.

A photo shared on DCInside’s forum (via @UniverseIce) shows what appears to be the phone being used in a restaurant, presumably by a Samsung employee.

It’s housed in an anti-leak case, designed to hide the details, but you can see that it has a wider screen than a typical phone, and that there’s a dual-lens camera on the back.

Short and squat

If you’re wondering just how much wider than the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7’s successor — now reportedly called the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra — this device will be, @UniverseIce has also shared comparison images, as you can see below.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra appears tall and narrow, and has a triple-lens camera, much like its predecessor, while the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 (Wide) has a shorter, wider appearance.

That should make the latter phone good for viewing wide-screen content like movies when unfolded, but it leaves it with a rather unusual form factor when folded and used like a conventional smartphone.

So, it will be interesting to see whether it’s successful, but given that the taller model apparently has the ‘Ultra’ suffix, it’s likely that this new wide version will be cheaper, and it’s also expected to be closer to Apple’s foldable iPhone Ultra’s form factor. Odd or not, then, it’s a form factor that Apple might be about to make popular.

In any case, we probably won’t be waiting too much longer for the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, as both of these phones — along with the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8 — will likely launch in July.

• We've got a newly leaked look at the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Wide
• It could be the thinnest Samsung foldable to date
• A 'wide' foldable iPhone from Apple is also expected this year

This could be the year when the foldable phone market really gets interesting, and a new leak has given us what could be our best hint yet at the design of the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Wide — and it looks to be an impressively thin phone.

Well-known tipster Sonny Dickson described the thinness as "insane" when showing off a short clip of a Galaxy Z Fold 8 Wide dummy unit. These physical mock-ups are made from information sourced from the supply chain, and give accessory makers a chance to get their wares ready ahead of time.

The leaker compares the thinness of the foldable to the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge — when unfolded, at least — but the replies to the original post are less positive, with adjectives like "weird" and "chunky" used to describe the handset.

Based on information recently sourced by SamMobile, this 'wide' foldable will actually be called the Galaxy Z Fold 8, while the true successor to last year's Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 is going to be named the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra.

Here comes Apple

If you're wondering where this 'wide' nomenclature has come from, it describes the shorter, wider aspect ratio for the phone display — both when opened and closed. It's a move away from the tall and narrow screens of current book-style foldables.

While the currently popular form factor — used on the Galaxy Z Fold 7, for example — means foldables are more like standard phones when closed, when they're opened out they're rather square-ish. With wider displays, foldables will be more like conventional tablets when opened (and better for use cases like watching movies).

This change hasn't come out of nowhere: the long-rumored iPhone Fold is expected to use a wide form factor, with something like a 4:3 aspect ratio when open. Samsung clearly wants to get ahead of Apple on this, as Huawei has already done.

All the indications are that the foldable iPhone is launching in September, alongside the iPhone 18 Pro, perhaps with new hinge technology that makes the crease almost invisible. For foldable phone fans, there's a lot to look forward to.