Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Review: New Design, Real Battery Test, Same High Price

This is the best foldable phone Samsung has ever made and it might just be one of the best foldable phones on the market. But as always, like with every other foldable generation, there is a big catch. It’s been 3 days now using the new Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8, it’s time to tell you the truth, what is it like to actually use this phone on a daily basis in real life. I took it around some of London’s most iconic spots to shoot photos and videos, used 5G all day to really test the battery, plus a lot of other stuff.

Specifications

Let’s start off with the obvious, which is the best part of this phone, and that is the new form factor. This is Samsung’s first foldable phone with a passport-style design and it’s the first time I’m using a passport-style foldable for a longer time, and in my usage three things really stood out. First up it is so handy. When it’s closed, the shorter and wider design, combined with the 5.5-inch cover screen, makes it feel incredibly comfortable to use. Like it’s been a while since I’ve used a smaller phone in a long time so this definitely gives me that experience again. Watching content on the cover screen on this fold is a way way better experience than watching it on the cover screen of the ultra model. Plus I’ve been using the cover screen way more because of its super wide look. All the apps really utilize the space which makes me wanna use the cover screen way more than I would normally do on the narrow fold. Like I would only open the main screen when I have to watch media or do certain multitasking features. Other than that this cover screen is great and that actually translates well into saving battery life as well. And the third thing which was probably the most surprising one that I wasn’t expecting is that it is super light. When I was looking at the leaks I thought that this thing is going to be a big heavy boy but it’s actually Samsung’s, or I would say, the lightest foldable phone in the game right now. When it comes to foldable phones, I think being light matters more than being the absolute thinnest.

Display Quality and Durability

Regardless of all the other specs, just the form factor alone makes the Galaxy Z Fold 8 special in my opinion, even compared to the ultra model. Like I would go as far as to say this should have been the ultra model. Now the actual screens are really bright and comfortable to use both indoor and outdoors. These are definitely not the brightest screens we have seen on foldables when you compare it to other competitors, but they are plenty bright and they have some new durability improvements thanks to the titanium hinge. I actually had a brutal drop test of my Z Fold 8 accidentally. Luckily it survived it without any damage, so that is amazing. Watching media on this inner screen is actually amazing because of the new aspect ratio. It’s able to display more of the video in this kind of form factor, those 16×9 ratio videos look great even when you zoom them up on the full screen. You’re not really losing out on content like this one actually does the tablet part really well compared to Samsung’s narrow form factor. Not just the tablet part, it also does the phone part really well thanks to that shorter wider screen experience. As for the crease, this is the best that Samsung has done ever. Like this is so much less noticeable compared to previous generations. It is still there, yes, at certain angles you can notice it, but like I said it is much much better compared to Samsung’s older models. I still think that the Find N6 has the best crease performance, but this is very very close. Now I do wish Samsung had used the creaseless display technology they showed off at CES in this Fold 8. Maybe they’re gonna give that to the iPhone fold, who knows, but yeah it would have been nice to see that on these latest models.

Camera Performance

Now while the Fold 8 wins when it comes to the form factor is concerned as well as the displays, it definitely kind of lacking when it comes to the camera experience. So let’s talk about the cameras. I will say I was a bit surprised because on paper the Fold 8 doesn’t have a telephoto lens, but when you’re taking photos, especially in good lighting scenarios around 4x, these are actually kind of decent. I’m not making excuses for the lack of a telephoto camera, I’m just saying that the results aren’t potato quality. Obviously once you go up to 10x, that is definitely where you’re gonna see a lot of noise and you would wish you had a proper telephoto lens. Apart from the zooming, the actual image performance from the main and ultrawide angle lens are actually pretty solid. These 50 megapixel sensors are tried and tested, very optimized for the Fold 8, in almost all kind of lighting scenarios they would do pretty well. I took it on a full day trip around London, exploring some of the city’s most iconic spots while putting the camera, 5G and battery through their paces. The Fold 8 can shoot at 24 megapixel once you enable that option in the settings. I wish that was on by default, but once you do that the results get even better. The colors look nice, the detail is sharp and as I said before, it is a tried and tested Samsung sensor. Now when it comes to video performance, this is probably the best video that Samsung has put out on their foldable phones. So you get solid 4K video performance up to 60 frames per second, and you can also push it to 8K 30 frames per second. Now with the Fold 8 I love being able to use the rear cameras for selfies and videos in the cover camera experience mode. This is such a cheat code for taking super high-end 50 megapixel selfies as well as taking super high-end videos for social media. Like this is something that a normal phone cannot beat. Back cameras are always gonna be better than the front camera. Apart from the video resolution, Samsung also brought some of the pro video features from the Galaxy S26 Ultra, like being able to shoot in APV codec for those pro users. Plus you can also shoot in LOG as well as put on Samsung’s default LUT pack that they have on the phone. Like there’s a lot of cool options to play with. They also brought a new Fan Cam feature which uses AI to basically single out a subject. Now with that being said, I did notice the phone getting a little bit toasty during my testing in London. Obviously there was a bit of a summer heat going on. I was shooting videos in LOG mode 4K 60FPS along with taking a lot of photos in high resolution mode. That definitely did make the phone a bit warm, but the temperature would come back down afterwards. But I gotta say I definitely noticed it.

Battery Life

Now with all the camera testing that I was doing in London, along with 5G, along with other app usage, Galaxy Z Fold 8’s 4800 mAh battery was pushed to its absolute limits. I end the day with about 4 hours plus screen on time, which is obviously not that impressive. But considering I was outdoor the whole time with the phone’s brightness being pushed to the max with the full camera usage, this is actually pretty decent because the very next day, my phone usage was completely different because I wasn’t using the camera as much. I was using it for normal tasks like checking emails, using social media apps, all that stuff. And it actually held to the battery much much better. Like compared to my heavy camera usage day, by evening it was around 40 to 30%, whereas today it was close to 50%, so I definitely saw the improvement based on my slightly less heavy usage. Is this the best battery performance I’ve ever seen on a foldable phone? No. That would go towards Find N6 or the Honor Magic V6. So you’re not gonna get that level of performance here, but it’s still really really good. Like it’s gonna get you through the day, again depending on your usage.

Software and Multitasking

Now let’s talk about the everyday usage, software and performance. We’ve got Samsung One UI 9.0 in here based on Android 17, and as usual, because this is a foldable phone, you have so much room to play with across both screens, but especially on the inner display. For me, foldable phones definitely push me to do the multitasking that I normally don’t do on a standard phone. For example, I can scroll through Reels while browsing the web at the same time, or watch a YouTube video while reading a book while at the same time comfortably catching up on the news. All of that can be done on this 7.6-inch screen. Also editing photos and videos on the larger display is also a lot more fun compared to a standard display, especially when you start playing around with the Galaxy AI features like creatively it’s a pretty fun feature to try out on the big screen. You get a ton of AI features like you’re really not missing out on anything. Like all in all, the software experience feels incredibly complete.

Performance and Price

As for the performance we have Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 with 12 gigs of RAM, so really you’re not gonna face any lags or any issues with this phone. It can handle pretty much any game that you can throw at it at top level frames per second. Now what’s the big catch? Well the big catch with the Z Fold 8 is the same one we had with the previous model, and that is the price. It starts at $1,899 meaning it’s very close to $2,000, so it is definitely not a cheap phone. It is a luxury product let’s be real. It’s a lot of money. It’s the kind of amount you could spend on both a laptop and a phone. Most people wouldn’t be able to afford this and if you can, then you have to first decide whether you actually want a foldable phone. And if the answer is yes, and money isn’t an issue, Z Fold 8 is actually a really really good buy. Like I’ve genuinely really enjoyed using this phone and I’m going to continue to use this phone as my main foldable phone. Even though yes it doesn’t have the absolute complete camera setup, or the fact that we don’t have a 7000 mAh battery inside like some of the other foldable competitors we have, still it is a very very enjoyable experience. In my experience passport-style foldable form factor is definitely the best form factor to have for a foldable device. Compared to the ultra model, unless you really specifically like that narrow form factor, and plus the fact that you really wanna have the absolute best camera setup from Samsung, even though that 3x zoom is still 10 megapixel, it doesn’t really add too much of that ultra level of experience in my opinion compared to the standard fold. It doesn’t even have s-pen support or a proper 5x lens. Looking at all those factors I genuinely think that the Fold 8 is a better buy.