Gadget review
Galaxy Z Fold 7 review: The foldable that finally feels like a flagship
Samsung’s latest foldable ditches compromises, but not the price.
Top Line
Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold 7 feels significantly more mature than its predecessors. It eliminates the compromises consumers were once forced to accept in exchange for foldability: it's no longer noticeably heavier, thicker, or bulkier than a regular phone. The battery is large enough, performance is fast and cool, and the camera has seen a serious upgrade.
In tablet mode, the display is excellent and often more convenient, even though most apps still aren’t optimized for it.
The main drawback? While the device has gotten smaller and sleeker, the price has ballooned, starting at around $2,200 and climbing to $2,500. Last year, the Fold 6 started at $2,100, and that was already $150 more than the Fold 5. What does this signal for Fold 8 pricing?
In terms of features and performance, the Fold 7 is easy to recommend, you really do get a sleek smartphone with bonus capabilities. But in terms of price, it depends on the depth of your pockets, the state of your bank account, and whether you can get a good trade-in deal.
Design: A Foldable That Finally Feels Like a Regular Phone
Foldable smartphones have been around for a few years now, improving steadily, becoming thinner, lighter, and offering better displays. But the Galaxy Fold 7 feels like a milestone.
“Foldable smartphone” used to imply compromise: a thicker, heavier device with a narrow, awkward front screen. That was just the price of innovation.
The Fold 7 changes that. It’s not just a “foldable smartphone”, it’s a smartphone that happens to fold. When closed, it feels like any flagship phone, and when opened, you get a mini tablet. (Yes, technically it’s a tablet when open and a phone when folded, but semantics aside, it’s impressive.)
Still, one major compromise remains: price. Starting at $2,200, it's Samsung's most expensive foldable yet.
Build & Design: Thinner, Lighter, Better
Samsung hasn’t changed the Fold design much in recent years, just incremental refinements. But the Fold 7 takes a bigger leap. It's 25 grams lighter than the Fold 6, and thinner too, just 4.2mm when open. Closed, it’s barely a millimeter thicker than the Galaxy S25 Ultra.
The external screen has grown from 6.3 to 6.5 inches, and its proportions are much closer to a regular smartphone. The result is a device that doesn’t feel like a compromise, even when closed.
There’s a potential issue, though: with almost no bezel around the USB-C port, it's unclear how much thinner Samsung can go while still leaving room for a battery.
There’s no room for a stylus inside the device, so you’ll have to rely on your fingers. Front protection has been upgraded to Gorilla Glass Victus Ceramic 2, and the back uses Gorilla Glass Victus 2. The device is IP48-rated, resistant to water (1.5 meters, 30 minutes) and small particles, but it still shows a warning about sand damage when first activated.
One flaw: the camera module still protrudes. When placed on a table, the phone wobbles. It's more stable screen-down.
Hardware: Fast, Capable, and Cool
Powered by Snapdragon 8 Elite, the Fold 7 ships with 12GB or 16GB of RAM, and storage options of 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB. Pre-orders get double storage for free.
We reviewed the base model (12GB RAM, 256GB storage), and it was blazingly fast. Chrome loaded instantly, and even graphics-heavy games ran smoothly, with no overheating despite the device’s slim build.
One minor issue: the power/fingerprint button is recessed into the ultra-thin frame and can be hard to locate by feel. It takes a bit of adjustment.
Both screens are excellent, the internal display has grown from 7.6 to 8 inches, and the external screen now feels spacious. Brightness is high enough for easy outdoor use, and colors pop.
Speakers are solid and loud, though still no match for an external one.
Battery capacity remains 4,400mAh, despite the slimmer design. Expect a full day of use, depending on your habits. Charging remains relatively slow, 30 minutes for 15% to 50%, and about 90 minutes to full charge.
Software: One UI 8 with Android 16, Minor Upgrades
Fold 7 comes with One UI 8 and Android 16, but don't expect major visual changes. The Galaxy AI suite is fully integrated, offering powerful features: photo editing, noise reduction, live translation, proofreading, and more. Google’s Gemini assistant is also on board.
Tablet mode app compatibility remains a weak spot. Many apps don’t adapt to the larger screen and simply scale up, sometimes making UI elements too large. Some, like WhatsApp and Outlook, make great use of split-screen mode.
Samsung leverages the display well, for example, when editing a photo, you can compare the original and edited version side-by-side. Image viewing in apps like Google Photos is significantly better on the large display.
Cameras: The Best Yet on a Foldable
The Fold 7 features a 200MP main sensor (like the S25 Ultra), a 10MP telephoto with 3x zoom, a 12MP ultra-wide, and two 10MP selfie cameras (one for each screen).
Photos are sharp and well-exposed. Even in low light, results were excellent without automatically switching to night mode. Switching to night mode didn’t significantly improve shots, but zooming in (up to 30x) yielded surprisingly good results when the phone was stable.
