Galaxy Z Fold 8: Samsung Rebuilds the Foldable – and Removes Features

On 22 July in London, Samsung unveiled the eighth generation of its foldables: Galaxy Z Fold 8, Fold 8 Ultra and Flip 8, on sale from 7 August. What makes it interesting is less what has been added – and more what Samsung left out, and what the price says about the market.

Key takeaways

• The Fold 8 starts at 1,999 euros (256 GB), the Fold 8 Ultra at 2,199 euros; the 1 TB flagship version reaches 2,799 euros.
• It is not a direct successor to the Fold 7 but a new format: shorter, wider, built for reading and watching.
• Telephoto and Flex mode have been cut – deliberate decisions in favour of price, weight and form factor.
• At 201 grams it is Samsung’s lightest book-style foldable; the battery grows to 4,800 mAh thanks to silicon-carbon technology.
• Samsung attributes the price increase to the DRAM shortage – a reason that has nothing to do with folding technology.

The new format: wider instead of longer

The most visible change is the geometry. Closed, the Fold 8 measures 5.5 inches at a 16:10 ratio; opened it becomes 7.6 inches at 4:3 – closer to a square than before. Samsung is moving away from the long, narrow cover display that characterised early Folds and that many found uncomfortably slim.

The result is a device that works like a normal, slightly wide phone when closed and, when opened, more like a small reading tablet than a multitasking tool. Samsung says as much: the audience is people who consume content – and first-time buyers who were previously put off by the form factor.

The technical side: Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, two 50-megapixel cameras, 4,800 mAh with 45-watt charging, 201 grams. The crease down the middle is all but gone thanks to Samsung’s “Flex Titanium” – though after the first hands-ons, reviewers agree that the crease-free display still has a crease. It is smaller, not absent.

What is missing – and why that is more honest than it sounds

Two omissions stand out. There is no telephoto lens, and Flex mode is gone – the half-open state in which the device acts as its own tripod for video calls or self-timer photos.

Neither is a quiet cost cut; both follow from the positioning. A device meant primarily for reading and watching needs less camera acrobatics and fewer propping angles. If you use those features, you are simply not the target audience – the Ultra or the previous generation remains your option.

It is remarkable nonetheless. The foldable narrative of recent years has always been about more: more surface, more modes, more possibilities. The Fold 8 is the first to actively take features away in order to be a clearer device. Whether that counts as focus or as a step backwards is decided by your own daily use, not by the spec sheet.

The price tells a bigger story

An entry point of 1,999 euros, and Samsung names the global DRAM shortage as the reason. That sentence is the real news.

The common expectation is that foldables are expensive because the technology is young and will get cheaper over time, the way flat panels or SSDs did. The Fold 8 contradicts that. The surcharge does not come from the hinge or the foldable glass but from a component found in every computer and every phone. When memory is scarce, everything gets more expensive – foldables simply from a higher starting point.

For the buying decision that means: do not wait for prices to fall, work out whether the device carries its cost now. And include the second-hand market in that calculation, which for premium devices has become dependable – why that is often the better decision is covered in our article on buying refurbished instead of new.

Who it pays off for

The honest answer is unspectacular: it depends on what you actually do with the device each day.

It pays off if you regularly read long documents on the move, check spreadsheets, proofread or need two apps side by side. In those cases the unfolded surface replaces the tablet that would otherwise have to come along. If you drop a tablet from your bag, the maths changes.

It does not pay off if your phone mainly handles messages, calls, navigation and photos. Then you pay roughly twice the price of a very good conventional smartphone for an advantage you rarely call on – and accept a more delicate device in return.

The second point is easily overlooked at purchase: foldables are the most demanding repair class the mass market knows. The inner display is tied to the hinge, a display swap is correspondingly involved, and dust in the hinge is the classic late-life failure. There is no reliable long-term data on the eighth generation yet – the device has not shipped. But if you are planning four years of use, look up repair costs before buying, not after. Why that is more than a footnote is covered in our article on the right to repair.

The bottom line

The Galaxy Z Fold 8 is the most interesting foldable of this cycle, but not because of new records. It is the first to make a clear choice: a manageable reading device rather than a multitasking machine, with the loss of telephoto and Flex mode as the price.

Whether that is the right choice depends less on Samsung than on you. Two questions settle it: do you regularly read or work on the move on a surface that ought to be bigger? And can you deploy 2,000 euros so that they deliver value for more than two years? Answer yes to both and you get a good device here. Hesitate on either and you already have your answer.

The dependable part of any verdict – real-world battery life, hinge durability, repair prices – will only be settled once the first long-term tests are in. Until then: pre-ordering is a decision made without data.