Foldable phones have become more practical over the years, and Samsung has been one of the biggest names in this space. The company has spent years refining its flip phone design, turning a form factor that once felt experimental into something that can genuinely be used every day. With every generation, Samsung has worked on making its flip phone better.
If you have been following Samsung’s journey, the biggest step forward came with the Galaxy Z Flip 5 in 2023. The device felt more complete, practical and polished. It was more stylish, complete and finally a device that can be recommended to someone who wants to step away from a conventional form factor.
And now, eight generations in, the Galaxy Z Flip 8 arrives with a familiar approach and you will call it even more refined. But over the years, the question has changed from ‘whether a flip phone is practical’ to ‘is it a meaningful upgrade’? To find this out, I used the Galaxy Z Flip 8 as my daily driver for a few weeks. From its design and display to performance, cameras and battery life, here is what I think about it.
At a glance, the Galaxy Z Flip 8 looks almost identical to the Galaxy Z Flip 7. Samsung has not made any major changes to the overall design. However, there are some small refinements. The Galaxy Z Flip 8 is thinner when unfolded and a little lighter than its predecessor. At 180 grams, it is 8 grams lighter than the Galaxy Z Flip 7.
When folded, the Galaxy Z Flip 8 becomes very compact. This is still the biggest reason to buy a flip phone in the first place. The phone easily fits into smaller pockets and bags, and I found myself carrying it around much more comfortably than a regular or large-screen flagship.
The Galaxy Z Flip 8 also feels sturdy in the hand, and the hinge has a solid feel to it. However, there is still one thing I wish Samsung would improve with its flip phones. You cannot easily flip open the Galaxy Z Flip 8 with just one hand. The hinge is tight enough that you generally need both hands to unfold the phone.
Anyway, I like how Samsung keeps the flip phone’s design clean instead of adding unnecessary elements. The two rear cameras sit on the upper half of the phone, next to the cover display, while the rest of the back panel remains minimal, specifically that Pink shade.
The Galaxy Z Flip 8 comes with an IP48 rating for dust and water resistance. The frame uses Armor Aluminum, while the cover display is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2. Of course, I would still be careful around water and dust because this is a foldable phone with a hinge. But the added protection does provide some reassurance for everyday use.
The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8 features a 6.9-inch FHD+ Dynamic AMOLED 2X main display with a 120Hz adaptive refresh rate and Vision Booster support. The cover display measures 4.1 inches. Samsung claims that the main screen can reach a peak brightness of 2,600 nits. In our brightness test using a lux meter, we recorded a peak brightness of 2,400 nits, which is slightly lower than the claimed figure. However, it is still bright enough to offer good visibility even under direct sunlight.
Samsung being Samsung, the AMOLED panel itself delivers a very good viewing experience. Colours look vibrant without being overly saturated, blacks are deep, and text and images look sharp. The 120Hz adaptive refresh rate also makes scrolling and animations feel smooth.
I also tested the display using Calman and the SpectraCal C6 Colorimeter. It recorded an average Delta E of 0.65, which is a very good result. In simple terms, this means the display can reproduce colours quite accurately. The panel also covered almost 100 percent of the sRGB colour gamut, which is also excellent. This gives the screen a wide range of colours, and it is something you can notice while watching videos, browsing photos or simply using the phone.
Samsung has used its in-house Exynos 2600 chipset for the Galaxy Z Flip 8. The phone comes with 12GB of RAM and is available with up to 512GB of storage. To test its raw performance, I ran the usual benchmarks. The Galaxy Z Flip 8 scored 26,59,552 on AnTuTu. In Geekbench 6, it achieved 2,580 points in the single-core test and 9,147 points in the multi-core test.
There is no doubt that the device can handle demanding tasks, including heavy gaming, but it does get noticeably warm when pushed for longer periods. In our CPU throttling test, the device retained 62 per cent of the performance. This means that short gaming sessions or regular heavy use will not be a major issue. But if you plan to push the phone for longer periods (which most users never do), the heat and performance drop become more noticeable.
But, as always, benchmark numbers do not tell the entire story. In everyday use, the Galaxy Z Flip 8 feels fast and responsive, thanks to One UI 9 and Samsung’s optimisation. Whether I was switching between multiple apps, scrolling through social media, browsing the web or multitasking, the phone handled everything without any noticeable hiccups. Apps opened quickly, animations were smooth, and I rarely found myself waiting for the phone to catch up.
And the good part? The device gets 7 years of Android and security updates.
The camera setup on the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8 remains unchanged from its predecessor. You get a 50-megapixel primary camera and a 12-megapixel ultrawide sensor at the back, while selfies are handled by a 10-megapixel front-facing camera. So, while the hardware is familiar, the real question is whether the cameras can still hold their own in the premium segment.
In daylight, the primary camera produces images that are pleasing to look at. Colours have a natural tone, and the overall processing does not go overboard with saturation. There is also enough sharpness and detail in the shots for everyday photography. However, if you ask me, I have seen better camera phones in this price segment, if you are not only looking at clamshell foldables.
The camera performs well in low-light situations. It manages exposure well and does not make night scenes look unnaturally bright. However, as the light drops, you may notice some noise and finer details become softer.
While this is not the norm in this segment, I really missed having a telephoto camera. The phone instead relies on digital zoom for closer shots. The results are usable at lower zoom levels in good lighting. However, if you zoom in further, details start to look softer. But anyway, the portrait mode does a good job. Subject separation is good, and the camera manages to keep the focus on the subject without making the background blur look too artificial. Edge detection is also fairly accurate, although it can struggle with finer details such as hair.
For selfies, the Galaxy Z Flip 8 has a 10-megapixel front-facing camera built into the inner display. It is decent for quick selfies and video calls. However, the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8 offers a useful trick. You can use the primary rear camera to capture selfies by using the cover screen. This gives you much better image quality than the inner front camera. It takes a little practice to get comfortable looking at the small cover display while framing yourself. But once you get used to it, it is a feature you are likely to use often.
The Galaxy Z Flip 8 packs a 4,300mAh battery, which is the same battery capacity as its predecessor, the Galaxy Z Flip 7. Charging speeds have also remained unchanged, with support for 25W wired charging and 15W wireless charging. In our PCMark battery test, the phone lasted 13 hours and 37 minutes, which is a decent result for a battery of this size. In everyday use, the phone should comfortably get you through a full day with moderate usage.
When it comes to charging, the 25W charging support is not particularly fast by today’s standards. Using a 25W Samsung adapter, the phone took around 1 hour and 36 minutes to go from 0 to 100 per cent. So, while the battery life is acceptable, faster charging would have been a welcome upgrade.
If you ask me, the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8 feels like a refinement. It gets the basics right, with a compact and lightweight design, a sharp and vibrant display, decent everyday performance and battery life that can comfortably last a full day with moderate use.
However, at Rs 1,44,999, there are some compromises. The camera hardware remains unchanged, and while the cameras can take good photos, I expected little more. The 25W charging is also slow, and the phone gets noticeably warm during heavy workloads.
That said, the Galaxy Z Flip 8 is not a phone you buy purely for specifications or benchmarks. You buy it for the experience of having a full-sized smartphone that folds into a compact device when you are done using it. If portability, design and the foldable experience are your priorities, the Galaxy Z Flip 8 is definitely among the best options available in the market. But if you want the best cameras, faster charging, or strong performance, you can obviously choose a conventional form factor.