Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7 review: Exceptional, but not perfect

Even after seven generations, folding phones still have a real “wow” factor when you get them in your hand.

Two years ago, when I reviewed the Fold5, I found the phone was “too focused on being technologically advanced to be practical”.

Last year, Samsung’s decision to focus on AI software inclusions over major hardware modifications with the Fold6 meant it was harder to recommend.

But this year? Friends, the Galaxy Fold7 is an exceptional device. The engineers have slimmed it right down so that it feels like a normal-sized candy bar when folded, with a wider front screen and impressive camera array.

But it opens up to become a truly impressive tablet, capable of functioning like a pocket-sized PC.

As good as it is, though, the Galaxy Fold7 is still a far cry from perfection. There’s still plenty of room for improvement for Samsung’s engineering team, despite the massive improvements the team has made this year.

The question now is whether the $2,899 starting price is going to impact the potential takeup of what is arguably Samsung’s best phone to date.

What is the Galaxy Z Fold7 offering?

Where previous generations of the Galaxy Z Fold have been a bit thick when folded, Samsung has managed to slim this right down. If you forget the camera bump for a second, the Fold7 is only slightly thicker than the USB-C port you use to charge it when opened up at 4.22 mm.

That means that folded, it measures in at just 8.9 mm thick. For context, the iPhone 16 Pro Max measures in at 8.25 mm, so the extra depth is barely noticeable. Aside from the camera bump, but I’ll talk more on that a bit later.

For historical context, the Fold5 was 6.1 mm open and 13.4 mm folded and the Fold6 was 5.6 mm open and 12.1 mm when folded. The catch here is that Samsung had to lose support for its S-Pen stylus as part of this redesign.

So year-on-year, Samsung has managed to slice 4.5 mm off the thickness of the phone in two years. To be honest with you, I can’t see the device getting any thinner next year because of that USB-C port, but that’s okay! It feels great in the hand as it is!

Part of that is the fact that Samsung has also widened the phone. For the past few generations, the cover screen on the Galaxy Fold has been too narrow to be usable. Typing on the cover keyboard was awkward and unreliable.

But with the Fold7, the cover screen has been widened. It now has a 21:9 aspect ratio, with a 2520 × 1080 resolution. That extra bit of width makes it a bit larger than previous generations – it’s now a 6.5-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2x display, which looks gorgeous in all lighting conditions.

That extra width also plays a part when you open up the phone. Inside, you get an 8-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2x display, which is bigger than the Fold6’s 7.6-inch display. The Fold7’s internal screen has a 2184 × 1968 resolution and up to 2,600 nits of peak brightness, plus better colour reproduction.

The crease is still there and still visible, but arguably less so than previous generations. The extra real estate also comes in handy for multitasking, letting you easily split the main display into two “phone-sized” screens, so you can watch YouTube and browse the web at the same time.

The structured hinge is more robust than previous generations, while the external screen is made with Corning’s Gorilla Glass Ceramic 2. The whole phone feels incredibly robust, despite its thin design.

Being a flagship device, the Fold7 is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy, which is the same processor powering the S25 Ultra.

Another feature that’s transitioned to the foldable from the S25 Ultra is the 200 MP wide-angle camera. It’s partnered with a 12MP ultra-wide and a 10MP telephoto lens, and because of the folding design you can use these premium cameras for selfies (though it is a little awkward).

The main display does feature a pinhole 10MP 100º selfie camera, and there’s also a pinhole 10MP camera on the front screen as well, though it only has an 85º field of view.

While the most compelling aspects of this phone come in the form of its refined hardware, the Z Fold7 does also boast a slew of AI features. This includes things like Gemini Live, Circle to Search, as well as intelligent photo editing tools.

What does the Galaxy Z Fold7 do well?

This is Samsung’s seventh attempt at the Fold, and to be honest, the company has ironed out most of the kinks. I wasn’t joking at the start of this review when I said it was exceptional.

The slim design is easily its killer feature, though. If you wanted to, you could easily use it purely as a candy bar-style phone, slipping it in and out of your pocket as you make calls, browse the web and scroll through social media.

The fact that it opens up to an impossibly thin 8-inch tablet is icing on the cake. I only had a few weeks of playing around with the phone, but being able to drop two separate apps onto the larger screen and multitask was so convenient.

There’s plenty of grunt in the Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy processor, too. I haven’t tested as many flagships this year as in previous years, so there are a few gaps in the Geekbench 6 benchmark table below, but you can still see the Z Fold7 holds its own.

That power was good for gaming, though if I’m honest, the almost-square aspect ratio of the tablet display meant that you lack the peripheral vision you need in many games. Playing Call of Duty: Mobile, for example, meant you could only see directly in front of you, missing enemies you would otherwise see.

Other titles, where a more traditional widescreen aspect ratio isn’t as important, were better, though controller support on Android still underwhelms.

The other big selling point for the Z Fold 7 is the camera. For the first time Samsung has packed its 200MP wide-angle lens into the Fold7, and that means you can capture some truly magnificent photos, if you know what you’re doing.

Even if you don’t know what you’re doing, the camera does a lot of the hard work for you.

It’s a little awkward to activate, but you can also use that impressive main camera array for your selfies, using the cover display to preview your shots. I wish it was a bit easier to activate than it is, but I like that I can use it if I wanted to record a quick piece to camera.

AI is still front and centre with this year’s model, but rather than focusing on “writing tools” and “digital portraits” (though you can still do both those things), Samsung has spent more time on things like Gemini integration and control across multiple apps.

I’m indifferent here – I didn’t love it, but I did appreciate the extra real-estate on the internal screen for image editing.

What could the Galaxy Z Fold7 improve?

I’ve already established that I love the new thinner design, right? So let me roll back on that ever so slightly: there are a bunch of design challenges here that bug me with the Fold7.

The first is the camera bump. Not so much when you put the phone in your pocket, but when you try to lay it on a desk? Its uneven placement means the phone rocks back and forth, back and forth, trying to find a sense of balance it will never achieve.

Next year, Samsung, it’s time to copy Google and create a camera bar that evens out the camera array so it doesn’t run the risk of rocking off a table.

The second is the slim design. I know, I know, I said I love the slim design, and I do! But when the Fold7 is folded, those slimline 4.22 mm halves sit really close together. And that makes it difficult to get a grip between them to actually open the phone.

It’s easier if you have fingernails, but even then, it seems harder than it should be. Give me a notch or something to make it simpler to open, please, Samsung.

And the third thing I’m disappointed in with the Fold7 is the fact they removed S-Pen support.

I wanted to write on that 8-inch screen so many times while I was testing this phone. Way more than I ever wanted to use the stylus on the S24 Ultra or S23 Ultra…

I understand that Samsung was only able to make the phone as thin and pocket-friendly as it did because it dropped support for the S-Pen. But I missed it.

Beyond design challenges, the other main concern here is the price tag. Don’t get me wrong, tris is probably about as premium a phone as you are ever likely to find, so it has to have a premium price tag.

But the Galaxy Z Fold’s starting price has increased by $150 for the past two generations. The Z Fold7 starts at $2,899. The Fold6 started at $2,749 and the Fold5 launched at $2,599.

While this year’s design is particularly good, is it worth $300 more than the model from two years ago? I’m not sure.

Verdict

The historic thickness of foldable phones meant I was never really going to consider one for myself.

But the Fold7 changes that. It is a stunning piece of hardware with incredible performance. It really does have the potential to be considered the best phone of the year.

But it’s not perfect. The camera array unbalances the phone, and it’s a bit harder than it should be to open up.

Part of me thinks that means the Fold8 next year will be the one to hold out for because Samsung will address these issues with its next version.

But if you can afford it, you shouldn’t wait. Those minor drawbacks don’t undo just how impressive this phone is overall.