Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8 vs Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7

One family, one generation apart, and not a simple upgrade. The Fold8 costs $100 less, weighs 14 g less and opens sideways out of a much shorter body. The Fold7 keeps the larger screen on both sides and the dedicated 3x telephoto the newer model does without.

Overview

These two are one family one generation apart, and that is the most misleading thing about them. A Fold8 is not a Fold7 with more of everything: it is a redesign that moved in several directions at once. It costs $100 less, weighs 14 g less, and opens sideways out of a body 34.5 mm shorter. It also has a smaller screen on both sides and one fewer rear lens. What follows is what actually changed, in each direction.

What changed, and which way

Five things moved in the Fold8's favour on paper: the starting price, the weight, the folded height, the charging claim and a published update commitment. Three moved the other way: the inner screen is 0.4 inches smaller, the cover screen a full inch smaller, and the dedicated 3x telephoto is gone. Three things did not move at all: storage, water resistance and the shape of the fold itself. Nothing here makes one of them the right answer.

Price

$1,899.99 against $1,999.99 for the 256GB configuration, both current list prices from Samsung, reconfirmed before this page was published. The ladders differ in the middle and meet at the top: 512GB is $2,099.99 on the Fold8 and $2,199.99 on the Fold7, and 1TB is $2,499.99 on both. So the $100 gap exists at the bottom two tiers and disappears entirely if you want the largest one.

The screen when it is open

This is the real change and it is not about the diagonal. The Fold7 opens upward: its body goes from 158.4 by 72.8 mm folded to 158.4 by 143.2 open, so the open screen is taller than it is wide, 2184 by 1968 pixels at 8.0 inches. The Fold8 opens sideways: 123.9 by 81.9 mm folded becomes 123.9 by 161.4 open, so the open screen is wider than it is tall, 1,848 by 2,448 pixels at 7.6 inches. A taller panel suits reading and one app at full height; a wider one suits video and two apps beside each other. Those are different tools, and 0.4 inches of diagonal is the least interesting difference between them. The Fold8's panel is the denser of the two, 403 ppi against 368.

The cover screen

A full inch separates these, and here the shape follows the size. The Fold7's cover screen is 6.5 inches at 2520 by 1080 and 21:9 — the proportions of an ordinary tall phone, usable all day without opening anything. The Fold8's is 5.5 inches at 1,972 by 1,248 on a body 81.9 mm wide, so it is shorter and broader, closer to a square than a phone. If you spend most of the day with the thing shut, this is the single row that will decide it, and it is the clearest thing the Fold8 gave up.

Folded size and weight

Folded, the Fold8 is 123.9 mm tall, 81.9 wide and 9.7 deep at 201 g. The Fold7 is 158.4 tall, 72.8 wide and 8.9 deep at 215 g. So the Fold8 is 34.5 mm shorter, 9.1 mm wider, 0.8 mm thicker and 14 g lighter. It is not simply smaller: it trades height for width and a little thickness. Opened, the thicknesses are 4.5 mm and 4.2 mm. Whether a short broad block or a tall narrow bar sits better in your pocket is a question only your pocket answers.

Cameras

The clearest thing the generation removed. The Fold7 has three rear lenses: a 200MP wide, a 12MP ultra-wide and a 10MP telephoto with 3x optical zoom. The Fold8 has two: a 50MP wide and a 50MP ultra-wide, with a 2x telephoto produced by cropping the main sensor rather than from a lens of its own. So the Fold8 reaches 2x from a crop where the Fold7 reaches 3x optically, and it has no dedicated telephoto at all. Megapixels are not a measure of quality and we do not read them as one — the count that matters here is lenses, and it went from three to two. Both put a 10MP camera on the cover and another on the inner screen.

Charging

Samsung quotes up to 63 per cent in around 30 minutes for the Fold8 with a 45W adapter, and up to 50 per cent in around 30 minutes for the Fold7 with a 25W one. Read that as two of the maker's own claims made with different adapters rather than as a measured race: the metric itself changed between generations, so the only thing you can take from it is that the newer one is specified with a larger charger. Wireless goes from Samsung's Fast Wireless Charging 2.0 to a stated 20W, and both carry Wireless PowerShare.

The chip and the software generation

The Fold8 runs a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 Mobile Platform for Galaxy and the Fold7 a Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy. Those are two different parts, and that is all we will say about them: Samsung publishes no benchmark the two have both run, so any claim about speed would be ours rather than theirs. The software ships a generation apart too — Android 17 with One UI 9 against Android 16 with One UI 8 — which is the same Android platform, two releases apart.

What did not change

Worth stating plainly, because three of the rows a reader might expect to differ do not. The storage is identical: 256GB and 512GB with 12GB of memory, 1TB with 16GB, on both. The water and dust classification is identical: IP48 on both, tested for submersion in up to 1.5 metres of fresh water for up to 30 minutes, with Samsung advising against beach and pool use for both. And both fold the same way, inward along the long edge with a cover screen outside. Where the stored wording differs on these, it is the wording that differs and not the phone.

Battery, and why it is not compared here

The Fold8 carries 4,800 mAh typical, rated 4,660. The Fold7 carries 4,400 mAh typical, rated 4,272. That is 400 mAh more in the newer one, and it is the only thing we can honestly say, because the two do not share a runtime figure: Samsung publishes video playback of up to 24 hours for the Fold7 and no runtime claim at all for the Fold8 in the sources we use. A larger cell is not a longer day — screen size, chip and software all moved as well — so we will not put a number on how long either lasts.

Updates

One-sided, and worth stating exactly. Samsung publishes an explicit commitment for the Fold8: seven generations of OS upgrades and seven years of security updates from the initial global launch date, with the timing varying by model, carrier and market. We found no equivalent published minimum for the Fold7 in the official sources we use, so our software support field for it is empty. That is a difference in what has been published, not a measurement of how long either phone will be supported, and we are not going to turn it into one.

Which one may fit you better

Consider the Galaxy Z Fold8 if a shorter body matters more to you than a larger screen, if 201 g and $1,899.99 are the numbers you care about, if a landscape screen when open suits what you do with it, or if a written update commitment is part of what you are buying. Consider the Galaxy Z Fold7 if you want the larger screen on both sides, if a 6.5-inch cover screen shaped like an ordinary phone is how you will mostly use it, or if you want a dedicated 3x telephoto lens rather than a 2x crop.

Important considerations

Do not read the generation number as a ranking. The Fold8 is cheaper, lighter and shorter, and it is also the one with less screen and fewer lenses — if the Fold7's larger displays and telephoto are what you wanted from a foldable, the newer model does not offer them at any price. Samsung also sells a Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra, which keeps the Fold7's size class, from $2,099.99. And both of these remain on sale, so this is a live choice rather than a question about what to replace. Neither link on this page is paid: both go to Samsung's own store.