It’s already been a few days since I started using the Galaxy Z Fold 8, and the kid inside me, the enthusiast who decided to enter this close-knit ‘consumer-tech’ media industry back in 2012, right when the Galaxy S3 launched, is very excited. And why shouldn’t I be? There are phones: good phones and bad phones, that keep launching year after year. But every once in a while, there are devices that change the game and reinvent the whole scene. That’s exactly what the Galaxy Z Fold 8 does. It’s not another smartphone launch by any company, but the phone launch unlike any we have seen in a very long time. Of course, beyond the hype and the myth, there are a bunch of things we need to address, like the price, and I will do that. But before everything else, can we take a moment and admire the beauty that is the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8? Here’s my early review after using the phone for about a week.
Also read: Galaxy Z Fold 8 in Digit Test Labs: Samsung has finally cracked the formula!
It’s going to be a while before reality kicks in because, even after days of using this phone, the novelty still remains. I am absolutely in love with the form factor Samsung has gone with on the Galaxy Z Fold 8. As I mentioned in my first impressions, you really need to hold the phone to understand how nice and different it feels. In fact, it’s been a while since people stopped and asked me about the phone I am using. I don’t even remember the last time it happened. I saw people looking at my phone on the streets of London, on the aeroplane, in the mall, and almost everywhere I carried the Fold 8 with me.
In fact, one of the air hostesses helped me click a photo on the plane, and while she was taking the shot, the words that came out of her mouth were, ‘Wow, what phone is this? This is something different.’ I replied, ‘This is the new Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8,’ a line which felt right out of a Samsung TV commercial.
But even after coming back to the office, as I write this piece and think back to the morning, my colleagues, more than asking how I was doing, were interested in seeing the new toy I had brought along. Some said they wanted to eat it like a chocolate bar, some said it felt like a passport, while others said it was unlike any other phone they had ever seen. Of course, the common consensus among them all was that Samsung has definitely nailed the design and form factor of the Galaxy Z Fold 8, and this is a phone people are going to talk about for a good while.
Alright, pardon me for my preachy language, but even realistically, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 not only has a brand-new form factor; it is also very thin and light. In fact, it has already grabbed the title of the lightest foldable phone in the world right now at 201 grams. In terms of thickness, or rather thinness, the phone is just 4.5 mm when unfolded. Understand this however you like, but this phone has been giving me a lot of anxiety. Most of the time, I don’t even feel that the Fold 8 is in my pocket; it is that slim and light. But it is also very slippery. If I am wearing trousers, it easily slips out of my pocket. Despite being able to manoeuvre the phone with one hand easily, I still feel I may drop it because of its smooth, soft matte finish. Which is why, once I am done with the review period, I am going to invest in a good case for the Fold 8.
The new design and form factor aren’t the only two things that come with the Galaxy Z Fold 8. In the process, the phone also brings back two very popular aspect ratios: 16:10 and 4:3. On the outside, there’s a 16:10 5.5-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X display (1,972 x 1,248 pixels), while the inside features a 4:3 7.6-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X display (2,448 x 1,848 pixels), both with a smooth 1-120Hz refresh rate.
I am still in the process of putting it through the usual testing at the Digit Test Labs, but when it comes to giving a realistic opinion on the display quality, do we even need to talk about it? I mean, this is Samsung’s territory and, true to the brand’s name, the AMOLED screens on this phone are bright and fantastic. I am not only using it to consume content, but I have also started reading e-books. Be it the inner or the outer screen, reading on this device just feels natural, with both the form factor and the display quality contributing to the whole immersive experience.
There’s still a lot to uncover about the Galaxy Z Fold 8’s display. As good as it looks, and as bright as it is, how colour accurate is it? What are the actual brightness numbers? What about app optimisation for the new screens? These are some of the things I will talk about after using the phone for a slightly longer time. In fact, Snapchat is the only mainstream app that I have come across that is not optimised for the full screen. Every other app that I use, including X, Instagram, BookMyShow and Facebook, etc., is optimised for the new aspect ratios, inside and out. More on this in the full review.
With the Galaxy Z8 series, Samsung has used two different hinge designs. While the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra and Flip 8 employ the traditional friction-dampened hinge, which makes them deliberately stiff and uniform in resistance from 0 to 180 degrees, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 takes a different approach. On the Ultra model, the traditional hinge will not assist you in opening the phone, nor will it snap shut on its own. More importantly, it is engineered this way to take advantage of Flex Mode, allowing you to prop the massive 8-inch inner display open at any angle, like a laptop, on a table without the weight of the screen causing it to collapse or fall backwards.
Also read: Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8 in Digit Test Labs: The Fold gets productivity, the Flip gets personality
The Galaxy Z Fold 8, on the other hand, uses a bistable spring-loaded hinge, and it’s the best thing to happen to a Samsung foldable in years. I know Flex Mode and the ability to prop your phone up at different angles are all nice and cool, but the spring-loaded hinge brings back that classic premium flip-phone feel. As you open the Fold 8, you feel a slight initial resistance, but once you hit a certain angle, the internal springs take over and mechanically snap the phone completely flat with a highly satisfying, crisp thud.
Again, to understand the engineering, by removing the heavy friction gears needed to hold a screen open at random angles, Samsung stripped away massive amounts of internal bulk. This is exactly how the company engineered the Galaxy Z Fold 8 to be a hyper-thin, 201-gram device that feels like a traditional smartphone in your pocket.
Also, because the Galaxy Z Fold 8’s spring-loaded hinge snaps 100 per cent open or closed, Samsung engineered it to exert maximum mechanical tension on the display panel when fully opened. It stretches the inner screen completely taut, flattening the centre crease almost entirely. Not that the crease is completely invisible, but its visibility is greatly reduced.
Add to that the Flex Titanium plate and the anti-reflective coating, two innovations shared across both Fold 8 models. With Flex Titanium, Samsung placed a thin yet rigid titanium-alloy film and plate directly under the flexible OLED panel. This structure physically stops the screen from dropping into the hinge cavity over time, meaning you barely feel a dip when running your finger across it. Additionally, thanks to the anti-reflective coating on the inner screen of both models, reflections and glare are nowhere near as noticeable as they used to be on earlier folding phones.
Cameras on foldable phones are good, but they have traditionally been a step down compared to the usual slab phones. Now, I am not saying the Galaxy Z Fold 8 changes that and immediately topples the Galaxy S26 Ultra as the new best camera phone money can buy. But I can say that the gap between the cameras on a slab phone and a foldable phone is very narrow now.
From the time I have had the Galaxy Z Fold 8 in my possession, I have travelled a lot with the device in London and, in the process, clicked a bunch of photos with it. The camera setup is pretty straightforward: a 50MP primary sensor along with a new 50MP ultra-wide camera on the rear. There are also two 10MP selfie cameras on offer, one on the inside and one on the outside.
I am impressed here by three things. First is the overall camera performance. The way this camera takes pictures, the colour science involved, and the processing happening behind the scenes, the results are superb.
The second thing that I am most impressed with is the ultra-wide camera. I think 2026 is the year phone makers have finally started taking ultra-wide cameras seriously. As I said, I have clicked a lot of photos with this phone, and I particularly like how detailed the output from the new 50MP ultra-wide lens is. Even the colour disparity between both lenses is negligible, which is great to have.
The third thing I wanna talk about is the selfies. Interestingly, I have not used the main 10MP selfie camera a lot. In fact, with access to the cover screen as a viewfinder, I have clicked a bunch of selfies using the main rear camera. Again, this is a feature that is only possible to pull off on a foldable.
But then there are the software features on board. The Galaxy Z Fold 8 gets 8K video recording with stabilisation. The Horizontal Lock feature with Super Steady mode and 4K 60fps capability is here. Dual Recording lets you record separate clips using the phone’s front and rear cameras, while also allowing you to save those files together or separately. Again, it’s a thoughtful addition to have.
I think it is still too early to talk about the Galaxy Z Fold 8’s performance. Again, not all the phones that I review become my main phones. Over the last 10 months, while I have reviewed a bunch of devices, they have always remained my secondary devices. When I joined Digit, my primary phone was the iPhone 17 Pro Max. From that, I shifted to the Galaxy S26 Ultra, while the iPhone became my secondary phone. And now, I have put my main SIM inside the Fold 8, while the S26 Ultra has become my secondary device. First-world problems, I say!
But jokes apart, I have wanted to run the traditional benchmarks and check the thermal performance of the Fold 8. However, as of right now, we are still waiting for most benchmark apps to be whitelisted. And understandably so. This is a new phone, and while Samsung has done a phenomenal job with the product on its first attempt, there are still a few things that need to be ironed out, and I am happy to wait for them.
Which is why I have already installed a bunch of games on the Galaxy Z Fold 8, and I found that the games are still not utilising the phone’s true potential. BGMI is currently capped at 90fps, while COD: Mobile, Asphalt Legends and Genshin Impact are capped at 60fps. Of course, all it will take is a software patch from the developers’ side to unlock the true 120fps gaming performance. But for now, it is a little early to pass full judgement.
That said, strip away the numbers and trust me, the real-world gaming experience is absolutely lovely on the Galaxy Z Fold 8. First things first, the hardware, including the top-of-the-line Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen for Galaxy paired with 12GB of RAM and up to 1TB of storage, is the best there is, and all the aforementioned games run flawlessly. But once again, the real star of the show is the form factor, especially how natural and interactive the inner 4:3 display feels.
I would also like to give a quick shout-out to the software. In one of my previous articles, I mentioned how, despite the fact that Google owns Android, Samsung is the real face of the platform. So, the Galaxy Z8 series is the first to feature Android 17 out of the box, rather than the Pixel smartphones. And why shouldn’t it be? Samsung sells the most Android phones in the world, and naturally, when you think Android, you think Samsung.
But even when it comes to the feature set, Galaxy AI is front and centre on the Galaxy Z8 series. Back in London, when I first came across these phones, I saw a bunch of demos on the Fold 8 that absolutely blew my mind. Two of those were Gemini Intelligence and Gemini Notebook.
With Gemini Intelligence, you can actually automate a complete process on your phone. For instance, if you want to book a hotel for ‘xyz’ dates and an ‘xyz’ location, you can simply talk to Gemini while showing it a photo from your Gallery, and the phone will do the entire process for you in the background. Of course, you will still have to hit the final payment button, but all the heavy lifting will be done by the AI while you keep using your phone for other things. Sadly, this feature is coming only to users in the US and Korea, with no word yet on availability in India. But wouldn’t it be cool to book your next trip with a simple voice prompt? I really hope this arrives soon.
Gemini Notebook, on the other hand, is aimed at streamlining your research work. If you are the kind of person who does a lot of research and depends on documents, PDFs, audio files, images and whatnot, the AI collates all that data and turns it into clean summaries, study guides or audio overviews, so you don’t have to waste hours sorting through the clutter yourself.
As I’ve mentioned above, there’s a lot more to cover when it comes to performance and software. More details will follow in the full review.
While it’s anyway too early to talk about a phone’s battery life in its first year of use, let alone during its initial weeks of review testing, the 4,800mAh battery is solid. Yes, it is not the biggest battery you get on a phone, but hey, this is a silicon-carbon battery, and it was a long time coming.
There are a lot of positives here. While this is a 4,800mAh cell, because it utilises silicon-carbon engineering, Samsung is able to fit a higher energy density into a compact space. This makes the phone slimmer and lighter as well. Speaking of which, this battery also enables faster charging, and the Fold 8 supports 45W wired and 20W wireless charging. Personally, I have had no complaints with the battery life so far. It is easily a one-day phone. It charges quickly, and the battery comfortably lasts until I plug it back in at night before going to sleep.
This finally brings me to the trickiest bit about the Galaxy Z Fold 8: its pricing. The phone starts at Rs 1,79,999 for the 12GB RAM + 256GB storage option, and costs Rs 1,99,999 and Rs 2,39,999 if you buy the 512GB or 1TB storage variants, respectively. This is a lot of money to invest in a phone and, sadly, we have already started to see the impact across smartphones in every price category, courtesy of increasing component costs.
Also read: Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra in Digit Test Labs: The ultimate foldable at an ultimate price
Will this phone be a runaway hit? Looks like it. But it will come at a cost. And given the current situation in the industry and the ongoing chip shortage, don’t expect smartphone prices to drop any time soon. At least, it is not happening this year. What I will say is, if you have the budget and want to buy the absolute latest and most unique smartphone experience, you just can’t go wrong with the Galaxy Z Fold 8.
To soften the pricing blow caused by the industry scenario, Samsung has also bundled a bunch of offers, along with up to 30 months of no-cost EMI options. This way, even if you don’t have the complete budget upfront, you can look at various financing options to complete your purchase.
With everything said, despite all the hurdles, I think the Galaxy Z Fold 8 is going to sell well. In a long time, Samsung has not just released a phone; it has awakened the happy enthusiast in me, and I am sure many people will resonate with that feeling. This phone has got me excited in so many different ways, and I don’t remember the last time I felt like this.
If you have made it this far in what is still not a full review of the Galaxy Z Fold 8, thank you for reading. But as the headline says, there’s still lots to unpack. Stay tuned for the full review, dropping soon on Digit.