Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 Hands-on: The Big Design Revamp We’ve Been Waiting For

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold statement has been treading water for a couple generations. But that’s changing successful a large measurement astatine today's Unpacked arena pinch nan Galaxy Z Fold 7 boasting a dramatically thinner design, caller cameras and an moreover larger elastic display.

For 2025, Samsung has importantly decreased its latest flagship foldable’s weight and thickness. Compared to nan erstwhile model, nan Galaxy Z Fold 7 is 26 percent thinner, measuring conscionable 8.9mm erstwhile folded (or 4.2mm unfolded) versus 12.1mm for nan Z Fold 6. Meanwhile, nan Fold 7’s heft has dropped to conscionable 215 grams, which is down 24 grams from its predecessor.

Now I’ve said before that nan single-minded quest to make thinner phones is comparatively pointless, but that’s mostly erstwhile it comes to modular candybar-style solid bricks. That’s because for larger devices, for illustration those successful nan Z Fold line, much streamlined dimensions tin make a large difference. And pinch nan Z Fold 7, Samsung has created a instrumentality that’s fundamentally nan aforesaid weight and thickness arsenic nan Galaxy S25 Ultra (8.2mm and 218 grams), which tin beryllium opened astatine moment’s announcement to uncover a monolithic elastic display.

Speaking of nan Z Fold 7’s main display, contempt its recently streamlined design, Samsung managed to summation its size from 7.6 inches to 8 inches level — which intends you get 5 percent much room for movies, games and multitasking. Granted, that mightiness not sound for illustration a ton, but erstwhile nan main intent of a gadget is to supply a large show that still fits successful your pocket, that’s a very invited upgrade. And while its IP48 standing for particulate and h2o guidance is nan aforesaid arsenic before, Samsung claims it reworked nan phone’s soul creation to supply much robust protection against liquids.

Elsewhere, nan Z Fold 7 features a redesigned Armor FlexHinge that’s noticeably sleeker than earlier pinch Samsung saying it besides disperses accent from opening and closing nan telephone much evenly. Additionally, nan hinge has other room wrong to trim nan quality of a crease, though it’s still location if you look intimately aliases from acute angles. Durability has besides been improved arsenic nan Z Fold 7 comes pinch Gorilla Glass Ceramic 2 (which we first saw connected nan S25 Edge) successful beforehand and Gorilla Glass Victus 2 astir back.

The Z Fold 7 now has a superior 200-megapixel sensor akin to nan 1 utilized successful nan S25 Ultra and S25 Edge. Samsung says this should thief present “best successful people image quality,” though because its 12MP ultra-wide cam is mostly unchanged and its 10MP telephoto cam is still constricted to a 3x optical zoom (instead of nan 5x for illustration successful nan Pixel 9 Pro Fold), I’m going to hold until I tin decently trial things retired earlier making a last judgment.

That said, possibly nan biggest alteration to nan Z Fold 7’s photograph toolkit is that Samsung has gotten free of nan under-display camera it has been utilizing since nan Z Fold 3 successful favour of a much accepted 10MP holepunch module. This represents a mini retreat from what was erstwhile seen arsenic a much blase solution. But for anyone who regularly uses nan interior camera for video calls and meetings, nan improved image value is almost surely worthy nan mini cutout successful nan phone’s elastic display.

Inside, nan Z Fold 7 features a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy chip, either 12GB aliases 16GB of RAM and up to 1TB of storage. Some whitethorn beryllium somewhat disappointed to spot that nan phone’s artillery capacity is staying nan aforesaid astatine 4,400 mAh, though Samsung claims nan accrued powerfulness ratio of nan caller processor results successful amended longevity overall.

For longtime Fold fans, nan astir troubling downgrade whitethorn beryllium that nan 7 nary longer supports Samsung’s S Pen. The institution says it made this alteration because information showed that nan number of owners who utilized stylus integration was “very low” and that by removing nan dedicated digitizer furniture from nan Z Fold’s screen, it was imaginable to make nan telephone moreover thinner. This whitethorn beryllium a dealbreaker for some, but it shouldn't really travel arsenic a surprise. Existing S Pen features person stagnated complete respective generations and aft Samsung removed nan dedicated S Pen retention slot from nan Galaxy S Ultra line, I consciousness for illustration nan penning connected nan wall for nan demise of S Pen support.

But moreover pinch nan nonaccomplishment of stylus integration, from what I’ve seen truthful far, nan Z Fold 7 is simply a awesome upgrade complete nan 3 erstwhile models. Samsung has yet made a large flagship foldable that won’t measurement you down compared to an balanced solid ceramic for illustration nan S25 Ultra. Its caller main camera sensor offers a immense jump successful solution while refinements for illustration a faster spot and its streamlined creation lend to a overmuch much well-rounded package. The 1 rumor is that starting astatine $2,000, nan Galaxy Z Fold 7 remains prohibitively expensive.

The Galaxy Z Fold 7 is disposable for pre-order today, pinch charismatic income slated to statesman connected July 25. It will beryllium disposable successful 3 main colors: blue, metallic and black, on pinch mint, which will beryllium an online exclusive astatine Samsung.com.