A New Foldable Experience With Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8 & Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra

Samsung has spent seven generations refining the fold. With the Galaxy Z Fold8 and Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra, the brand stops trying to be all things to all users and instead builds two distinct devices around two distinct lives.

Words: abdul aziz draim
Published: 28 October 2026
Reading time: 2 min

The Fold8 is the lighter proposition, in every sense. At 201g, it is the lightest Z Fold Samsung has made, yet it carries a 4,800mAh battery and the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip beneath its titanium-reinforced frame. But let’s be honest: from the get-go, it’s that new format that gets us excited.

A New Format

This new size truly engages the user with how the screen behaves rather than what sits inside it. Folded, the 6.5-inch cover display suits the quick, habitual checks of a day: messages, social updates, a scroll on the commute.

Unfolded, the main screen shifts to a 4:3 ratio built for losing an afternoon to a film or a game. Turn it on its side and the same canvas becomes a page for reading, an e-book or a longform feature without reaching for a tablet. And it spite of the added width, it feels so natural in the hand.

Maximum Output

Camera specs of the Samsung Z Fold8 Ultra

The Fold8 Ultra, by contrast, is built for people who measure their phone in output. Samsung’s Ultra tier finally arrives on a foldable, and it shows in the specification sheet: an 8-inch main display, a 200MP main camera with HDR support, 8K video recording through a new APV codec, and a 5,000mAh dual battery paired with 45W dual-path charging.

The Slimmest Samsung Fold Yet

At 4.1mm unfolded, it remains Samsung’s slimmest Fold to date, which is no small feat given the workload it is asked to carry, from split-screen multitasking to Cine LUT colour grading on the move.

A Matter Of Distinction

Both phones run One UI 9 with Galaxy AI woven through, including Now Brief for daily insights and Gemini Intelligence for cross-app automation, but the emphasis differs by design. On the Fold8, AI supports discovery. On the Ultra, it supports throughout.

There is a neatness to the distinction. Not every foldable owner wants a mobile production studio, and not every creative professional wants a phone optimised for binge-watching. Samsung has, at last, stopped pretending the two ambitions belong in the same body.