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Samsung came by the studio to show me their new phones. They have the Z Fold 8 Ultra, the Z Flip 8, and then the star of the show is the new short foldable, the Z Fold 8. Now, the naming is weird because for 7 years the term Z Fold meant the classic tall shape, but now this short king is the new Z Fold and the taller classic style is the Z Fold Ultra. And as I held the book-shaped Z Fold 8 in my hand, the burning question that I had was, why now? Because Samsung has made the same shape in foldable phones for the past like 7 years, the tall classic style fold, and they've seemingly avoided like purposefully avoided making a book-shaped device this whole time. This shorter book shape has
been tried by other companies many times and it keeps failing. So, Google's first Pixel Fold was like this, short and stout, and then one generation later they abandoned that shape and they went for like the taller style. And Oppo also built their earlier foldables like this, like the Find N1, the Find N2, and they killed those off and went tall as well. Basically, every company that has shipped a short foldable phone has eventually walked away from that form factor. And so, if all of these companies are failing at doing it, why would Samsung bet their flagship name on this? And so, I have a couple theories.
The first has to do with Apple. So, the foldable iPhone is rumored to come out this fall and it's rumored to be the same kind of shape, like short and wide, and Samsung is going to Samsung because anytime there's rumors of Apple moving into a space, Samsung likes to come in first and just be standing there. And I just don't think it's coincidence that both companies are doing this at the same time. Now, the other theory is that this has to do with the technology. Foldable tech is finally good enough to pull something like this off, a short and wide foldable that's still very thin. Like, look at this thing. It's 4.5 mm open and it's light. It's barely 200 g. It's lighter than most slab flagships
and it just feels really nice in hand because of its weight and its shape. The hinge mechanism is very smooth. It's nice and thin and Samsung uses the same new hinge across all three devices, which is a big reason as to how they've made it this thin. It's IP48 water resistant and the crease when you open it up is definitely reduced when compared to the crease we saw on the previous generation of Galaxy Folds. It's not as creaseless as the ones we see on the recent Oppo Find N6, but it's close. You have to tilt the screen around to be able to spot the visual imperfections. So, when this phone is folded up in its kind of closed position, it feels like a stout normal
phone. My hands aren't massive, so I do struggle a little bit when I'm trying to reach across the full width of that front screen, but I don't mind it and I take this reachability over that of like the tall foldable phone. I really like this size. Now, videos on the front screen are okay when they're rotated in hand, like it's a comfortable position, but the screen is relatively small, right? Cuz the phone is compact. When you open it up, regular 16x9 videos are like 30 to maybe 40% bigger than a large slab phone. It's even a little bit bigger than the viewports of the Fold 8 Ultra for 16x9 videos. Now, how much you gain on the aspect ratio though, right?
Really wide cinematic content will have big black bars on the top and bottom, so you don't gain anything there. But, if you're watching something that's in 4x3, like that classic TV look, that stuff will look awesome cuz it fills up the entire screen. And same with photos, cameras will shoot in 4x3 by default and they'll take up the full entirety of the screen. Now, vertical videos are different. If you're someone who watches a lot of shorts, when this thing is closed, short videos do not benefit at all because that content is taller than it is wide. It's totally usable, it's just smaller. You got to open it up and rotate it if you want the biggest vertical canvas. A quick note on the
speakers, they sound fine, they're decently loud, but the way that the stereo works on it is a little different than the typical classic fold. So, the speakers are on the top and bottom of the front screen. It's just the way that Samsung foldables always are. When it's closed and rotated in landscape, you get stereo sound. On the tall fold, like the classic shape, you would rotate it when it's open to go landscape for that big view, right? This will be stereo. But on this phone, the new short fold eight, the biggest view is in the unrotated open book. And when you hold it like that, the sound only comes out from the left side, if that's something important to you. So, this is obviously a very
great media consumption phone, but typically, historically, people don't buy phones like this to watch shows, right? It's usually because they want a larger screen for multitasking and doing multiple things, work-related things on their phone. And the taller screen of the fold Ultra is better at that. Like if you're a highly regarded Wall Street Bets user, a foldable is better for monitoring your stuff, and a bigger screen lets you see more. And same with multitasking. Like if you have two apps, like your email open and then a spreadsheet on the other side, the bigger screen will always feel more spacious and give you more room to see and do stuff. Typing on it is fine.
You'll likely need to use the split keyboard like this, but the wider format of the device doesn't make it bad or anything like that. Now, I've always had this theory that people who are willing to spend like $2,000 US on a foldable phone were people who want to use that bigger screen for work, not for just like watching shows and stuff. But maybe Samsung's betting on a shift in the audience, that there are more people who want to watch stuff on a bigger phone screen, but don't want the bulk and the size of the taller Ultra. Now, the cameras. The fold eight has a two-camera system. It's got a 50-megapixel main and a 50-megapixel ultrawide. There is no telephoto on this. You got to go to the
fold Ultra for a triple camera system. The battery on the fold eight devices are bigger than expected. Like the fold eight Ultra is actually a little bit thinner than the previous generation, but still has a bigger battery. And this phone, the fold eight, is also pretty big, despite them not using silicon carbon tech yet. Now, pricing, as you'd expect, is expensive. And it's frustrating that 7 years later, these things are still as expensive as they are, but we'll find out very soon if short foldables are what the market actually wants. Okay, hope you guys enjoyed this video. That's the fold eight.
