Samsung Z Fold 8 Hands On Impressions Reveal Surprising Upgrades

All right, welcome to your first look and hands-on with three. new Samsung folding phones today. in increasing order of interestingness. So we've got a new Z Flip 8, then a new Z Fold 8 Ultra, and then a Z Fold. 8. I promise that's the correct order. Okay, so the new Flip, the Flip 8 looks a lot like the Flip 7, but it's a bit thinner and, and lighter. Otherwise, this is gonna be a safe, incremental upgrade, which is right in line with what we've been expecting from Samsung.

It does get the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy to match the S26 series with all of its performance. and image processing pipeline and NPU. And then little things like they beveled the inner edges to make the phone slightly easier to open. And they improved the cover screen experience to be a bit more like a regular. outside screen. Pull down from the left for notifications, pull down on the right for quick settings, and then up from the bottom to get your apps. It's fine. Is, you know, is being 8 grams lighter and. half a millimeter thinner going to make a difference to someone who has last year's phone or the year before?

No. but this is the. slow and steady improvement that we've come to expect from Samsung. So then, speaking of slow and steady, year-over-year improvement, this is now the eighth generation of the big one, the Galaxy Z Fold. Now, honestly, they've been on this slow and steady thing for so long that it's felt like even though they kind of started first, a lot of the more aggressive competition has caught up and passed them. So what did Samsung do with this new generation of the big Fold? Well, it is a small. incremental improvement again, but then they also did something really clever, which you'll see what I mean in a second. So, new Snapdragon chip again, check.

Also slightly thinner and lighter than last year. check. But then they've also updated the ultrawide camera to a new 50-megapixel sensor, so it can now shoot 8K video alongside the same 200-megapixel primary as last year. And the telephoto is also unchanged. But the biggest change easily is the improved hinge and interior display. So in that Peak Foldable video I did a few months ago, I was talking about the Oppo Find N6, where they had basically eliminated any visible crease, which was incredible, and left Samsung looking a little bit behind. But now with a new titanium alloy film behind the OLED along with a titanium backplate, they've also made a pretty big step towards getting rid of their own crease down the middle.

I would say it's not perfect, like it's not quite reaching Oppo's level. If Oppo's a 10 out of 10, I feel like this is an 8, 8 and a half out of 10. But it is way better than last year, which would be like a 5. So probably by the time you turn the display on and actually look at content on it, plus there's a new anti-reflective coating and a 3,000-nit max brightness, so you really don't see much crease at all anymore, which is awesome. And then bonus! Samsung is also now. starting to use. some silicon in their batteries. Now they haven't gone nearly as far as Oppo or, again, some of the more aggressive competition, and I guess I shouldn't be surprised given Samsung's history with batteries. But,

but this is the biggest battery ever in a Samsung Fold now at 5,000 milliamp-hours. And for the first time, they're actually updating the charging speed as well, from 25 to 45 watts wired and from 15 to 20 watts wireless. So then Samsung also dropped a new Fold into the lineup. and they're doing something really clever here with positioning, or at least I think so. 'Cause basically we all expect in a few short months to see Apple unveil. the first foldable iPhone. And. word on the street is it's also going to be. like a shorter, squatter, smaller, like passport-style aspect ratio.

Now Samsung. has been making foldables for a long time. This is the eighth generation, and years ago we briefly flirted with that passport-shaped foldable, like the first Oppo Find N and the first-gen Pixel Fold. were this shape. But then eventually the industry kind of collectively moved on and settled on the candybar shape that Samsung's leading with today, where it kind of just looks like a normal slightly tall phone when it's closed and then it opens up to this big square. So in case Apple's gonna come along and try to change everyone's mind about this brand new innovative passport-shaped fold that's suddenly so reachable that we've never seen before, Samsung.

is also dropping a passport-shaped fold, and they're positioning it specifically underneath. their candybar-style fold. So that's why the candybar shape is now getting the Ultra name added to the end of it. So it's now the Z Fold 8 Ultra. And this brand new smaller passport-style fold is just. the regular Z Fold 8. So when Apple comes along in September, "Oh, that's cool. You guys finally made a fold. That's cute." "Well, we have one just like it, but we also have one that's better, the Ultra." But anyway, this smaller phone is actually really interesting.

It's got all of the same stuff I talked about with the Ultra, right? The titanium flex hinge, very little crease, the new anti-reflective coating, a little bit of silicon in the battery. But it is very much a smaller phone. Like the whole thing is very thin and really light, 201 grams to be exact. And it's so thin and short. It's honestly reminding me, and let me cook here, it's reminding me of the good parts of the Surface Duo. The good parts, the really nice hardware parts. It weighs about the same as a regular Samsung Galaxy S26 Plus. Yet it has two displays, the outside screen and the inner folding display, and a 4500 milliamp-hour battery.

And the more I use it and hold it and just mess around with it, I'm not going to lie, the more I'm liking it. Now again, it is clearly less phone than the Ultra. Like it's a smaller outside screen, a smaller inside screen, smaller battery, also one less camera. As you can see, it's just a primary and an ultrawide. But the way they're positioning these, basically the Ultra is, you know, it's for the power user. It's the person who's doing a ton of multitasking. Multiple apps open next to each other at once. That's what it's always been good at. That big open screen in the middle is basically two phones side by side. But the new smaller Fold 8,

while this is being positioned just a bit more as like a media-focused type of size, the outer screen is 5 1/2 inches. It's a 10 by 16 aspect ratio with pretty thin bezels all the way around. But then that makes the inside screen. 7.6 inches instead of 8, and now it's a 4:3 aspect ratio and 3,000 nits max brightness. So it's just as powerful on paper. It's got all the same specs, but the smaller form factor and the smaller displays make it a bit less ideal for multitasking but legitimately better, I think, suited for certain other media-related activities.

Like look at the camera viewfinder when it's closed! Everything's more reachable, all the buttons you can touch with your thumb, and the image you're taking actually fills the screen more. That's better than the candy bar-style fold. And then viewing the photos back too, especially when it's open. These photos are often literally 4:3, so they are perfectly fullscreen when you're reviewing them later, which is really nice. I also happen to think this form factor would be awesome for an e-reader experience. Open or closed. Because it's so damn light now. Of course, widescreen videos aren't gonna be perfect.

There's still gonna be black bars here and there. But yeah, it's definitely a nice. sized device open and closed that fits in the hand. So the positioning, to me it's clever, but it makes perfect sense, right? It's between the Ultra, which is the high-end one with everything, and the Flip. So it's just a bit less cameras, it's a 50-megapixel primary camera also instead of the 200. And a bit less screen, bit less battery, but same idea. It's also cheaper, but this year that doesn't really hit quite as hard because everything's more expensive. So these phones all start at 256 gigs, but the Flip 8 now starts at $1,200.

The smaller Z Fold starts at $1,900, and the Fold 8 Ultra starts at over $2,000. So 100 bucks more than last year, but. definitely a bit more sticker shock now that it starts for over two bands. But this is the world we live in now. I would not be shocked if. many more devices that come out over the next couple months are also. more expensive than last year because of the memory price increases and especially that iPhone. That iPhone is gonna be. We know that's gonna be expensive. Get subscribed to see it when it comes out. But like we know that's gonna be expensive. But yeah, I'm really impressed by how much I like the smaller Fold, and I can really see myself. dailying it.

I didn't think that coming in, but let me know what you guys want to see in the full review. of this phone. Also, if you're thinking about picking up one of these much more expensive Folds, you probably should also think about picking up a case from channel sponsor dbrand because they've got grip cases for all three of Samsung's new phones. The Galaxy Z Flip 8. covered, the Fold 8 Ultra also covered, and the new Z Fold 8. And like every other grip from dbrand, it's got great drop protection, but the folding grips, they add this magnetic hinge cover that opens and closes alongside your phone and that is. especially key to keeping that expensive folding mechanism protected open or closed.

It's kind of super clever. It's great. While you're at it, I also definitely recommend picking up one of their self-installing screen protectors. I've honestly started using screen protectors way more since dbrand launched these things. The installer tray perfectly aligns it, no trapped dust, just gives you some peace of mind in case you ever drop your phone. Also, fun fact: dbrand is one of only a handful of companies that basically got to get a head start on development with these cases by being a part of Samsung's official accessory program. So yeah, they're all compatibility tested alongside Samsung.

Good to go right out the gates. So if you want one of those, I'll leave a link down below in the description. And yeah, let me know in the comments section what you want to see in full reviews. of these new Folds. I'm very curious to get my hands back on them. and of course see if they're worth the money. Thanks for watching. Catch you in the next one. Peace!