Samsung's New Foldables Z Flip 8, Fold 8, and Ultra 8 Hands-On

So, something today I'm releasing not one, not two, but three foldables. So, we have a lot to talk about. Let's go talk some folds. Okay, so there is a lot to go through today with three new folds, the Z Flip 8, the Z Fold 8, and the Z Fold 8 Ultra. So, let's start with that one, the new Ultra folding phone. Before you even say it, I know this looks a lot like the Z Fold 7, but you can get it in some new colors, so violet shadow, graphite, cream, and this kind of green shadow online exclusive. And I love this color, but let's not have the Ultra name fool you because this is still your classic Z

Fold. The reason it's called Ultra is because there's now two book style foldables from Samsung. And I tell you, I'm not really sold on that Ultra name because this is more of refinement than anything radical in a redesign. I say that because Samsung in its briefing compared this more to the Z Fold 6 than last year's Z Fold 7. And you know, I loved the Z Fold 7, but it was always going to be difficult to follow that. But if you're asking, "Well, are there any differences? Do I need to upgrade to this?" Well, there are a couple and they are kind of subtle, but some of them are quite nice. I've got to talk about the crease because Samsung have done a very good job here. The Z Fold 8 Ultra

basically has like no crease at all. Like from an angle, you might be able to see it a little bit or you can feel it if you rub your finger across it, but that's only very minor. They've kind of just got rid of it completely. Samsung aren't the first to do this. Oppo did it with the N6 and you can see both phones side by side and you can kind of see here Samsung have done a great job of this. The way Samsung have done this is they've completely changed what was underneath that OLED, like supporting the actual panel. So, on other folds, the Z Fold, it's been a plastic layer which over time can become a little bit soft and it's not that strong. But now Samsung, what they've done here is put

two levels of titanium underneath that OLED. There's like an incredibly thin layer of titanium underneath the OLED directly. And then underneath that, it's backed up by a titanium plate. And Samsung said that this gives the display a much stronger foundation, so it stays flatter when opening, and that crease should be less noticeable over time. And I'm on the fence about this because every time you open a new fold, the crease is never there. Like the Z Fold 7, it basically didn't exist until a few weeks after you've opened and closed the phone like a thousand times. So, I'm going to hold judgment at the moment.

This is very impressive in my first couple of hours of using the phone, but after a couple of weeks, we'll see how this works. Something they've added one new thing though to the Z Fold 8 Ultra's folding display, and that is that we now finally get an anti-reflective coating. I can't say this is exactly the same as the one that's on the S26 Ultra, but it does pretty much the exact same job. It removes a lot of glare, and you can see it compared to the Z Fold 7, and it's like a massive difference here. I am a huge fan of this. That anti-reflective coating though is only on that folding

display. So, if you turn it around and have a look at the cover display, it is not on there. And I asked Samsung why they didn't do this, and one of the reps told me it was something to do with Corning and Gorilla Glass. I'm not sure they knew, but yeah, I still really like it on that big folding display. There is one upgrade that Samsung have done to the Z Fold 8 Ultra, which I am very happy about, and it is improved the very weak battery that was on the Z Fold 7. This is now gone from 4,400 mA hours, which it was for years, to 5,000. So, this is actually the same size as the battery inside the S26 Ultra, and this was so desperately needed. And it's not just that they've upgraded the battery

size, they've also upgraded the charging speed. So, you can get around about 65% in 30 minutes now, thanks to its 45 W fast charging. And it's not the fastest charging that we've seen on any fold ever, but I'm pretty happy with 65% in 30 minutes. I think that'll do. Okay, quick edit here, actually. I just got back from a discussion with Samsung, and they just told me that all three of these phones this year have silicon carbon. And like this is a big deal because it's the first time that Samsung have ever used silicon carbon in any of their phones. I did ask them the percentage of silicon in that battery, but they told me that they couldn't tell me. But either way, I think this is like

very exciting because it means that the batteries should hold up better and the longevity should be better as well. But I mean, I'll test this when we go into the full review. But for now, yeah, this is exciting. Let me move on to the cameras and there really isn't any change here. The main is still 200 megapixels, which is not bad. I'm all right with that. But the three times telephoto lens sadly is the same 10 megapixels as we had on the Z Fold 7. There is one upgrade though and that comes to the ultra-wide, which is now 50 megapixels and I'm kind of disappointed. I feel like the ultra-wide is the camera that you could probably leave out of the upgrade and upgrade

that telephoto. So, I'm a little bit sad about that because the ultra-wide is probably the camera that I would use the least. But at least we do have a little upgrade to this. Samsung did upgrade the video though. So, if you go into pro video mode, you can actually now use the four cine looks that were available on the S26 Ultra. And you can also now use the APV codec. So, you basically get better quality files in smaller storage sizes. So, I'm not complaining. Here's my problem though with the Z Fold 8 Ultra. Uh, I don't really understand the ultra of this. Like there's no S Pen support. The cameras, they're still not on the same level as a N6 from Oppo or the V6 from Honor. And like the battery, that still

doesn't stack up to those Chinese foldables. So, I'm a little bit confused why they went with the ultra-branded name here because there's nothing about the Z Fold 8 Ultra that screams ultra. It's basically like an S version of the Z Fold 7. Like I love that phone, but the ultra name here, I don't really think it makes sense. Okay, let's move on to the really new and I am excited about this one. This is Samsung's new form factor for folds. It's the Z Fold 8 and it's basically like a whole new way to look at folding phones. This is because it's

like a passport style phone. So, it has a 4:3 aspect ratio on that cover display. And then, when you fold it open to get the 7.6 inch folding display, those black bezels when you're watching content that you would get with a regular book style foldable, they are just not as big and in your face. So, I'm a I do really like this. This is one of those phones that you definitely have to use to understand why it feels so special because it weirdly feels like how every foldable should be now. If you were looking to pick one of these up, you can get it in four colors: lavender, graphite, cream, and my favorite, which is the online exclusive. It's a little bit subtle, but it's pistachio. And that folding display is pretty much on par with the Galaxy Z

Fold 8 Ultra. It has that same titanium propping up the OLED display. So, that crease over time should not really appear and that display should be a little bit stronger, according to Samsung. It also has the anti-reflective coating on that folded display. But, just like the Z Fold 8 Ultra, it's not on the cover display. Samsung spoke a lot about how this phone is about consuming content in loads of different ways. So, they went really hard about saying that it's the perfect sort of form factor for social feeds like TikTok and Instagram on that cover display. And I feel like this is definitely more of like a lifestyle phone. Even though Samsung are going to charge you $1,899 for

this. So, it's almost ultra pricing and you're kind of not getting an ultra phone. And you can tell you're not getting an ultra phone when you start to look at things like the camera. So, there are only two cameras on this: a 50-megapixel main and a 50-megapixel ultra-wide. And I haven't played with the cameras too much yet, so I can't really tell you exactly how they perform. But, there is a new feature that Samsung have added to the Z Fold 8 and 8 Ultra called My Fan Cam, which is actually pretty impressive. What this does is essentially you can take a video and after the fact when you go into the gallery and go to edit it, you can actually choose this my fan cam feature

and you can just make it select a certain person that the video will then track using AI and then you can change the aspect ratio so you can actually put it straight into like an Instagram story aspect ratio, export it and you're good to go. Like this is quite impressive. The other impressive part of this phone is just how light Samsung have made it. 201 g and Samsung say that this is the lightest fold ever. To put it into a comparison, 201 g is kind of like a medium size of apple holding it in your hand. So it is very light and when it's folded open and you're using that folded display, this feels all kinds of special. It's a very strange phone to try and talk to you about over video because you have to try

it to really understand what it's like. So you might think if Samsung have made this the lightest folding phone ever, there'll be a compromise somewhere and you might think it's on the battery, but it has a 4,800 mA battery and the same 45 W fast charging as the Z Fold 8 Ultra. And remember, this is silicon carbon. You can get to just over 60% in about 30 minutes. So while it's not the fastest in the world, I think this is good enough. I think this is quite good. When you use the phone and you've opened it up and you get to that new display, that anti-reflective coating makes watching videos so nice and because this is more of like a passport style foldable, those black bars that you would get on traditional book style

foldables, they're so much smaller and you kind of feel like a little bit more immersed watching content on this. The Z Fold 8 is also as powerful as the Z Fold 8 Ultra. So they're both powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 and have 12 gigs of RAM and start at 256 gigs of base storage. This does feel like Samsung are experimenting a little bit. It's lighter, squarer and I don't know, it just is different and I don't know whether I'm going to genuinely prefer this over the Z Fold 8 Ultra long term, but after a few hours of playing with this, this is the phone that I'm probably the most excited to use. Like, I cannot wait to get my hands on this and start using it as my main phone.

There's There's something about this that I think I might actually just fall in love with. Okay, let's move on to the other phone, which is the Z Flip 8. Samsung didn't spend that much time talking about the Z Flip 8. And when they did, they compared this a lot to the Z Flip 6. So, just like the Ultra, this feels more like a refinement than a redesign. It comes in four new colors: pink, cream, graphite, and this kind of not very nice mint. I'm not really about this. The upgrades that Samsung have given to this are very small. Like, for example, this is the lightest flip they've done at 180 g, and it's a little thinner at 6.1 mm when it's unfolded. But, honestly, in the hand, this kind of feels the same as

the Z Flip 7. There's not a huge change here. And then, the battery. So, I was going to complain about this being the same 4,300 mA hours as it was last year. And while it is the same, it now has a silicon carbon. So, I'm interested to see how this battery will perform and how much battery you can actually get out of this in a day. Sadly, though, this battery does not have the same fast charging as the other phones. So, the same as the Fold 8 and the Fold 8 Ultra. So, maybe that is a little disappointing. It has the same 50-megapixel camera and the exact same 12-megapixel ultrawide as last year. So, if you have the Z Flip 7, I don't think this is something that you really need to upgrade to because there's no

anti-reflective coating or anything like that on the displays. So, it's a very similar phone. The only other update to the Z Flip 8, again, I think it's pretty small, but it's that the Flex Window bezels have shrunk by 35%. To my eye, I don't really see this as a big change. But, Samsung did make quite a big deal that you can now use that cover display as almost a proper phone without having to go into Good Lock and enable loads of different apps. So, you can now use YouTube and Netflix on that cover display natively along with 16 other apps, but Samsung didn't tell me exactly what all those 16 other apps were. You can also have an app drawer and go to your recent apps as well on that Flex Window and use Gemini automation.

However, I still think this is pretty far behind what you can do on the Razer Ultra, for example. So, Samsung are trying to catch up here, but it's definitely not like a big upgrade. There is another issue with the Z Flip 8. Now, if you're in the US, this is not an issue because it's going to be powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, but for people in Europe, especially in the UK and a couple of other places, you're going to be getting this powered by the Exynos 2600. And I asked Samsung why they did this and they didn't really give me a good answer as to why we have to have Exynos and the US has the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5. Not really sure why they've done this. So, that is

the Z Flip 8, the Z Fold 8, and the Z Fold 8 Ultra. There's a lot of Zs and 8s and folds and flips going on here. I'm excited though to get my hands on these phones before we do the reviews and give them a proper good test over the next few weeks. And I'll be honest, the Z Fold 8 is the one that I really, really want. There's something about this phone. I don't know what it is yet, but that form factor feels like this is the way that all foldables should be. And honestly, I think I might just fall in love with this just a little. Let me know what you think though in the comments of Samsung's folding phones this year. Are you a little bit disappointed? I feel like I'm a slightly bit disappointed. I love the Z Fold 8,

but the upgrades on the other two, I don't know. We're going to do the full reviews on these, so make sure you subscribe if you want to see that. And if you do subscribe, then thank you very much. I massively appreciate it. And then, I'll see you. I'll see you in the next one. See you later.