Instead of simply aiming for the slimmest and lightest foldable smartphone, Samsung has made the first, and seemingly strange move in the Android space by introducing a new form factor for its next foldable, alongside the usual Z Fold and Z Flip models. It’s a phone that unfolds into a device with an even bigger display and this time, it turns the 5.5-inch 10:16 cover display and opens it to reveal a gorgeous 7.6-inch screen with 4:3 aspect ratio for all your viewing needs!
Samsung’s new Galaxy Z series advances seven generations of customer‑driven foldable design, shaped by real-world use, service insights and long-term reliability improvements. We have spent a couple of days with the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 since the Samsung Unpacked event on 22 July in London, UK, and once again, the Korean chaebol has beat Apple and its Android peers to the game with its new square shaped flagship.
First, let’s get down to the numbers. The wide foldable features a 7.6‑inch QXGA+ OLED inner display when unfolded (1,848 x 2,448) with a squarish 4:3 aspect ratio, providing an optimal layout for both landscape and portrait use. When folded, its 5.5‑inch WUXGA+ cover screen (1,248 × 1,972) offers a 10:16 aspect ratio. The device remains impressively slim at 4.5 mm thin and lightweight at 201 grams, which Samsung touts as the world’s lightest fold.
On first look, one would expect the device to feel clunky due to its wider than usual form factor. However, after having used it for a couple of days, it not only feels comfortable and natural in the palm of our hands, but it makes perfect sense in quite a number of ways. When it comes to web browsing or reading e-books and PDFs, simply re-orientate it to 3:4 and it just feels so right for an enjoyable reading session.
Productivity-wise, when unfolded at 4:3 aspect ratio, it makes for the best viewing experience when having a dual-window setup. Imagine your document or contract on the left side of the screen and your email on the right side. You now have a wide enough screen on either side for comfortable reading.
Switching back to entertainment, be it watching videos on YouTube or streaming apps like Netflix or Disney+, the black bars on the top and bottom are minimal. If that’s not enough, just zoom in the video to fill more of the screen with two fingers, and the black bars are almost gone. Have a look at the little test we did below with an IMAX formatted trailer for Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey to see it in action for yourself:
The Galaxy Z Fold 8 is packed with the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 chipset which handles demanding games like Genshin Impact and Delta Force smoothly, though Zenless Zone Zero shows a slight performance dip. However, as our gaming test was conducted prior to its official release in August, it will only get better in the coming weeks after launch. Its thermal management is impressively steady, keeping temperatures mostly under 40°C. The real standout is the 4:3 aspect ratio when unfolded, which finally delivers true full‑screen gameplay without the black bars seen on earlier Fold models.
Speaking of upgrades, one other notable upgrade is something users won’t be able to see or feel. Flex Titanium is Samsung’s latest structural upgrade for its foldables, providing the strength needed to better support the display while remaining flexible. By refining the material through advanced processing and design, Samsung managed to reduce the display module thickness by 10 per cent, which reduces crease visibility, viewing immersion, durability and internal space efficiency. That extra internal room enables further enhancements across the battery, thermal system and camera, making Flex Titanium a key driver of broader innovation in Samsung’s foldable lineup. Thanks partly to this upgrade, Samsung is able to pack a 4,800mAh battery in, that supports up to 26 hours of video playback, and charging speeds of 45W (wired) and 20W (wireless).
In the camera department, the Z Fold 8 somewhat sacrifices a little on the specifications, as compared to the Z Fold 8 Ultra and S26 Ultra, which both have 200MP main cameras. The Z Fold 8 comes with dual cameras – a 50MP Ultrawide and 50MP Wide camera with 2x optical quality zoom. There’s no Telephoto camera, so we had to manually get close to our subjects when shooting photos and videos. In the sense, the camera system still admirably as can be seen from the photos taken across London these past couple of days:
Galaxy AI is a big part of any Samsung device these days, and the Z 8 Series now comes packed with all the AI features made available to the S26 series launched earlier this year. The impressive ‘Super Steady Horizontal Lock’ introduced with the S26 is available on the Z Fold 8, giving users unbeatable video stabilisation, keeping the horizon level, even when running or rotating the device. Fan favourite AI functionality such as ‘Dual Recording’ (capturing video with the rear and selfie cameras simultaneously), ‘Photo Assist’ (AI photo enhancements), Audio Eraser’, ‘Quick Share’ (sharing files across devices, even with iOS) and more are all on board with snappy performance on the Z Fold 8.
Newly introduced to the Z Fold 8 is ‘My FanCam’. This Galaxy AI powered function automatically tracks and reframes a selected person from a video and creates polished edits that keep the subject perfectly centred throughout the video. For best results, the video should be recorded in landscape mode, and in 4K resolution, which allows for effective reframing in portrait mode. This feature only works with humans in motion, which the AI detects, and not on animals and objects.
The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 debuts in Singapore on 14 August in four colour options – Lavender, Cream, Graphite, and Pistachio (online exclusive), with prices starting at S$2,498 for the base model (12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage).
Yonk is a geek who is fortunate enough to have an equally geeky Star Wars fan for a wife, who owns a LEGO Millennium Falcon encased in a glass coffee table as their home’s centre-piece.
Kevin Low
Si Jia
