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The internet has absolutely exploded with excitement about foldable phones lately. And why shouldn't they? The latest devices, including the Samsung Galaxy Fold 8, have great cover screens, nearly creaseless inner screens, cuttingedge processors, fast charging, and much, much more. But as someone who's been using them since the very beginning, I wanted to take this opportunity with some help from Samsung Canada, who sponsored this video and sent over every generation of phone to go back in time and look at the history of Samsung's Galaxy Fold phones, going through the incremental improvements that have been made over the years that took us all the way from here to here. I gotta say this takes me way back
and not necessarily in a good way. As much as I loved the slim fold factor, they should call it that. As much as I loved the slim candy bar form factor of the original Fold, um, typing on a screen this size was a major problem. And that was just the beginning. This was a device filled with compromises. The main camera was a huge downgrade compared to other flagships, and that ignores the giant notch that they needed in order to have an inner camera. Also, this is as bright as the screen gets. And yet, in spite of all those issues, I loved it. Once I went fold, for me, there was just no going back. It was a media consumption beast thanks to its large screen and stereo speakers. I said at the time that it
felt like having a tablet in my pocket and there was just a wow factor to it. Pulling it out at parties or in public. No matter where I was, people wanted to start a conversation about it. And honestly, even all these years later, that's something that hasn't changed. Fortunately, something that has changed is the quality of the hinges. The Zfold 2 introduced major improvements to the inner screen. It got brighter, hitting a maximum of over 700 nits. It had a hole punch camera instead of that giant notch. Samsung eliminated the screen like jello effect that you got when you were scrolling through web pages. And they dramatically improved the quality of the hinge, allowing it to open at any
angle you wanted, which was fantastic for like putting down on gym equipment and watching some content on the upper half of the screen while you were working out or putting onto a little ledge and then positioning your camera exactly where you needed it. Other major improvements included a giant 4500 mAh battery, which was finally enough to get through the day, and an integrated fingerprint sensor and power button. How was that not a thing on the first gen? It made all the difference in the world. With that said, there were still some challenges. the inner screen protector. Well, it protected the inner screen, so you didn't need that warning anymore, but it felt plasticky and grippy and
collected grease like just about nothing else. Also, the visibility of the Fold, eh, not that improved over the first gen. With that said, the usability of the outer screen was night and day improved. like we're talking 2 in larger, which makes all the difference. With that said, we didn't really get a no compromises experience until the Fold 3. This was the first foldable to hit the market with IPX8 water resistance, meaning that just like your friends with candy bars, you could chill by the poolside without worrying that a momentary splash was going to destroy your expensive device. This was also the first fold to get an underd display camera. Look at that. No notch, no hole punch, and the camera quality was
usable. This was also the first fold to get some really great software optimization in apps like Spotify, YouTube, and Plex. It was also the first to support the S Pen, which is kind of a critical application for a tablet, right, that you're carrying around in your pocket. Last and probably least, the outer display got an upgrade to 120 Hz to match the 120 Hz of the now brighter at over 900 nits inner display. This was a great phone, but there were still some annoyances. It got a slightly wider outer screen to once again make typing and reading text a little more comfortable. It got an aluminum frame and Corning Victus Plus glass on the
front to make the device more resilient. The main camera got an upgrade to 50 megapixels and the telephoto was upgraded to 3x optical zoom. And uh yeah, not many changes on this one, but that's okay because the Fold Five was a banger. This was the first Fold to actually fold flat instead of having a small gap at the hinge, which really improved the pocketability and ergonomics, as well as just the overall premiumness of the feel of the device. like my knuckle cracked just there before this phone did. It also got boosted to up to 1,700 nits peak brightness on both the inner and outer display, making media consumption way better than ever and outdoor usage much improved. It got fast charging from 0 to
94% in an hour. And the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor walked all over competing folds like it was kind of embarrassing for the competition. It also got a noticeably better rear camera. This was just a freaking awesome phone. The Fold 6, on the other hand, for me, ended up being a skip. There were some improvements. It got a little bit lighter. The screens reached as high as 2600 nits peak brightness, and the outer display was changed with an aspect ratio that was a little bit shorter and a little wider to improve the typing experience. One cool thing about the Fold 6 though was this was the first generation of Android phones that really got to take advantage of RCS for cross-platform text messaging with rich
media as well as group chats supported with your um Bluebubble friends. Also, Samsung introduced a program that gave customers who bought the phone directly from them a free screen replacement or screen protector replacement within 2 years. But a controversial move for me was this sharpening of the corners that I found really didn't make sense from an ergonomic perspective until the Fold 7. Now, there is one that Samsung provided, but this is actually my daily driver pretty much since it came out, and I freaking love it. Yes, it still has the sharp corners, but Samsung dramatically improved both the weight of this device and the thickness.
This was the first fold that really just felt like using a regular old candy bar phone whenever it was folded and then magically would turn into a giant freaking tablet whenever you opened it up. Another cool thing that didn't launch with this phone, but did get backported to it is Quick Share with cross-platform compatibility so that I can easily share with AirDrop users. Some reviewers dogged on this phone for not being as good as the S25 Ultra in terms of battery life or durability or camera quality, but like guys, you sound like the sorts of people who don't need to be able to, you know, really use a
spreadsheet when you're on the go. Well, I do. And this is the way to do it. It's so freaking awesome, but not perfect. They did away with my precious underscreen selfie camera. So, I do have a hole punch in my content when I turn it into landscape mode. Sponsored video or no, Samsung. A little bit of feedback. Love to see that improved. But overall, battery life's great, performance is great, software is getting so much better. Like this is one of my favorite features of Android. You can have auto rotate disabled, but you can like temporarily override it with this nice little hotkey here. Like, oh, freaking love this phone. But if you want the ultimate content consumption experience, you and
I may need to upgrade. That is where the Fold 8 comes in. Its 4x3 aspect ratio means much smaller black bars compared to previous generation folds, and it got big improvements to battery life, a little boost in maximum screen brightness to 30,000 nits, and improvements to the main cameras. It's also an extremely pocketable device when folded, making it potentially appealing to former Flip users who want something that unfolds a little bit larger. For me, the biggest improvement here though is that now this tablet that you carry around in your pocket has here, I'm going to try and catch this in the light. A marketkedly improved crease.
Hold on, we can still catch it. Yeah, there we go. But when you compare that to even just the last generation, it's a big difference. Now, the Fold 8 changed the form factor dramatically. But Samsung didn't leave folks like me who just want the largest possible screen in their pocket out in the cold. And that's where the Fold 8 Ultra comes in. It gets improved anti-glare performance, which you can actually see very clearly right now, an improved crease, a silicon carbide battery that it remains to be seen if it will offer long-term benefits, but sounds pretty cool, and it adds a titanium film layer that's supposed to improve the durability of the screen. And that's it. So, you're probably
wondering, "How do I switch?" It's their smart switch software. It makes it easier than ever to switch, whether you're coming from an older Samsung foldable device, some other Android device, or a competing platform. If you guys want to check out the Fold 8 and Fold 8 Ultra, we're going to have those linked down below. Thanks to Samsung Canada for sending over all these phones. It was actually a really fun trip down memory lane today and for sponsoring this video. Thank you for watching. If you guys enjoyed this one, hey, why don't we just chuck a playlist up here where you guys can check out our previous full videos. I uh can't believe I never did a video on the 7. I've just been like
quietly using it and never talked about it. I love this phone though. Whoops.
