I’ve been using the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 for the last few weeks and whilst I was extremely excited for this form factor in the lead-up to it being announced, I’m even more convinced that this is the right size for a foldable going forward.
It’s hard to really get a grasp on how short this phone is without seeing it in person. The outer display is 5.5-inches with a 10:16 aspect ratio. It’s perfect for web browsing, viewing photos or quickly checking social media. 9:16 content is a tiny bit awkward as its chopped at the left and right, so it’ll be interesting to see how that changes if this form factor takes off (and there’s good reason to believe that it will), but that small trade off is well worth having a phone that perfectly fits into your pocket.
It’s also great for reachability. I don’t have the larger fingers, and even smaller slab phones can cause me trouble to reach the top of the display, so this feels like the perfect height for that as well.
Unfolding the display gives you a stunning 7.6-inch inner display that has a 4:3 aspect ratio. Not only does this feel correct for productivity, but it’s also the right aspect ratio when watching 16:9 content on a super large display that is equally bright and vibrant with 3,000 nits of peak brightness. Again, without having it in your hands it’s hard to put into words why this feels so right, but if you’ve used an iPad Mini it’s very similar to how great that feels in your hands.
Turning it around into portrait mode makes it the perfect e-reader, almost perfectly mimicking a Kindle, and whilst not everyone is a digital reader, I think it’s just the fact that this device feels like an all-in-one which has been the promise of every foldable to release. Both displays are anti-reflective as well, which I’ve come to love in all of my displays, and that paired with the 3,000 nits of both displays means you won’t have trouble seeing them out in the sun.
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The split screen functionality has come a long way with OneUI and it really shines here, with that extra width being perfect to have two apps running side by side, and I absolutely loved gaming on the device as well, both for the wider display and that vibrancy from the displays too.
Some people will be unhappy that it doesn’t get the full camera array that the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra has, but I think this is more than enough for most people. You still get the 50 MP wide camera with a 2x optical quality zoom, as well as a 50 MP ultra wide camera. There’s a 10 MP selfie camera too, but for those that haven’t used a foldable, the whole advantage is that you can use the external cameras to take a selfie to maximise the quality.
There’s a bunch of other cool improvements on the software side when it comes to the camera as well, with a new My FanCam feature that allows you to put the spotlight on one person after the fact, so if you’re shooting a group scenario, but want to focus in, you can do just that.
All-in-all, I think this form-factor is going to be a winner for Samsung, and with Apple set to likely follow suite in the very near future, I can see the only doing more for the Z Fold 8 as well, both in terms of interest levels, but also longevity in this becoming THE foldable form factor that sticks and finds mass appeal.
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