Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7 Review: The Boldest Fold Yet

I’ve reviewed foldables since the original Galaxy Fold — an ambitious start to what Samsung hoped would be the future of smartphones. Fast forward to 2025, and the global foldable market seems to have hit a wall. Growth has stalled at under 3% year-over-year, and some research firms are even predicting a further dip in demand. Consumers are also asking tougher questions now, and so is the competition, especially from China.

That’s the backdrop against which Samsung unveils the Galaxy Z Fold7, its slimmest and most confident foldable yet. The Z Fold7 isn’t just a refined product; it’s Samsung doubling down on its leadership in a stagnating category. A dramatically thinner design, a cover screen that finally feels like a real phone, the flagship 200MP camera from the S25 Ultra, and a crease you’ll almost forget is there. Clearly, Samsung is flexing its muscles with the Galaxy Z Fold7.

But in its quest to become the world’s slimmest folding smartphone, Samsung made a trade-off: no S Pen support. In trying to appeal to the mainstream with thinness and polish, Samsung has arguably turned its most productivity-focused device into a luxurious slab that looks the part — but doesn’t fully act like it anymore. And with the same 4,400mAh battery, slow 25W charging, and a $2,000 (₹1,74,990) price tag, the value equation isn’t getting easier.

So now the question is: has Samsung sacrificed durability for thinness and ceded its unique edge in the process? Is it finally time to buy the Galaxy Z Fold7? Let’s find out.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7 Review: Design and Build

Samsung’s seventh-generation foldable is the boldest design decision by the Korean giant. With its 8.9mm folded thickness and 215g weight, the Z Fold 7 is Samsung’s most pocketable foldable yet. For context, it’s now lighter than any Chinese rivals like the Oppo Find N5, OnePlus Open, vivo X Fold5, and Honor Magic V5. It even edges past Galaxy S25 Ultra and is thinner than many other flagships when closed.

Here’s where it gets tricky. The removal of S Pen support, once a key Fold productivity feature, is a direct consequence of slimming down the chassis. If they had to include the digitizer underneath the display to SPen to work, the Fold7 wouldn’t be the 4.4mm.

Samsung managed to achieve this by cutting down the side profile and shedding weight with a re-engineered hinge and chassis, and using Advanced Armor Aluminum material with titanium reinforcements to make the frame feel reassuringly solid.

Samsung has upgraded the outer display, now featuring a wider 6.5-inch panel, making it more user-friendly compared to earlier models. When you open it up, you’ll find an expanded 8-inch inner display that is now flatter and has a 50% thicker ultra-thin glass layer, which helps reduce the crease to the point where it is barely noticeable. However, it’s important to note that this remains an engineering challenge for all foldable devices in 2025.

Samsung has upgraded its water and dust resistance rating from IPX8 to IP48, marking a modest but significant improvement in dust protection. Additionally, the company has replaced the under-display selfie camera with a traditional hole-punch design. This shift reflects Samsung’s decision to prioritize performance over novelty in the Fold 7.

The camera bump on the device is notably large and off-center, causing the phone to wobble when placed flat on a surface. Everything else is pretty much what you’d expect. On the right edge, you’ll find the power button and volume rocker. The power button also works as a fingerprint sensor, and it’s responsive and accurate. There’s a USB-C port on the bottom, and an ejectable SIM tray finds a place at the top.

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Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7 Review: Display

The Fold 6’s narrow screen made typing uncomfortable compared to wider devices, but Samsung has improved this with the Fold 7. The outer display has grown to 6.5 inches from 6.3 inches, and has a 21:9 aspect ratio.

Engaging in activities such as social media browsing, WhatsApp replies, and quick photo edits is now easier and more intuitive. Samsung’s Dynamic AMOLED 2X panel boasts FHD+ resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate, ensuring visuals are smooth, vibrant, and highly responsive. Clearly, it’s not just larger but also an overall improved outer display.

Samsung has also upped its scratch and drop protection by opting for a Corning Gorilla Glass Victus Ceramic 2. It means you won’t have to worry about its durability as you get engrossed in your rigorous daily activities.

Unfold the Z Fold7, and you’re greeted by an expanded 8-inch Dynamic LTPO AMOLED 2X display, up from 7.6 inches last year, making it the largest foldable screen Samsung has ever shipped. On paper, that’s a 5% size increase, but in practice, it feels significantly more immersive, especially when multitasking or watching content.

The inner display of the Z Fold7 runs at QXGA+ resolution, 120Hz refresh, and HDR10+ support. Whether you’re streaming 4K content on Netflix or editing Reels on Instagram Edits, the screen’s clarity, contrast, and color accuracy are standout.

The inner display can hit an impressive peak brightness of 2,600 nits, making the display easily readable under harsh sunlight. The crease is less visible and less tactile. It is almost invisible, but you can see it from certain angles.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7 Review: Haptics and Audio

The Z Fold 7’s dual stereo speakers, surprisingly loud and well-tuned audio for speakers that are placed in such in slimmed-down 8.9mm chassis. Dolby Atmos support and a balanced stereo setup make for a good listening experience, whether you’re watching HDR content on YouTube or bingeing Netflix in Flex Mode. Unlike some Chinese foldables, which prioritize thinness at the cost of bass response, the Fold 7 delivers clear vocals, crisp highs, and a decent low-end thump — even without headphones.

Coming to haptics, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7 is one of the best you get to experience on a folding phone. The haptic engine delivers punchy, sharp, and tactile, which is nothing less you deserve from a premium phone.

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Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7 Review: Performance, Thermals & Benchmarks

The Galaxy Z Fold7 is not only the slimmest folding phone it is also the fastest foldable phone. It’s fast. Period. At the heart of the Fold7 lies Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy, a bespoke variant of the chipmaker’s flagship silicon designed specifically for Samsung. It isn’t mere branding fluff. Samsung, thanks to its partnership with Qualcomm, gets high-yield, better-binned silicon with tighter voltage control and slightly higher clock speeds, particularly on the performance and prime cores.

The result is a device that not only does well in benchmarks but feels noticeably quicker in real-world usage than any other folding smartphone right now. Whether it’s launching heavy apps, switching between full-screen gaming and multitasking windows, or editing high-resolution photos on the go, the Fold7 doesn’t break a sweat.

It is paired with up to 16GB LPDDR5X RAM and 1TB UFS 4.0 storage across the lineup. It keeps apps in memory longer, multitasking feels fluid and uninterrupted, and One UI 7’s new multi-window tricks work flawlessly.

Running three apps in split-screen while floating a fourth in pop-up view doesn’t phase the Fold7, not even when switching from the cover screen to the main display mid-session. Multitasking on the Fold7 will be a pleasant experience, so if you are creators, professionals, and power users, you will enjoy it too.

Coming to Benchmarks, the Galaxy Fold7 comfortably scores over 8500 on the Geekbench 6 multi-core test, and it crosses 2.1 million on Antutu, making the Fold7 in the absolute top tier of Android performance in 2025.

Samsung has redesigned the Fold7’s thermal architecture, incorporating a split vapor chamber system and multiple layers of graphite to dissipate heat more evenly across the ultra-thin frame. Even under sustained loads, such as 4K video recording or extended gaming sessions, the device shows minimal throttling. It never gets uncomfortably hot, which historically has been a weak point for foldables.

Gaming, traditionally a sore spot for foldables, finally doesn’t feel compromised. Titles like BGMI now run at 90fps on the inner display, with frame stability hovering in the high 80s even after 30 to 40 minutes of play. During that same BGMI game test phone’s temperature hovered around 35-36°C, which is impressive and worth mentioning.  

When I pushed graphics settings to the extreme, even demanding games like Genshin Impact maintain a consistent 60fps thanks to GPU and software optimizations, and the thermal efficiency of the phone. What’s most impressive is how the Fold7 maintains this performance without overwhelming heat or battery drain.

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Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7 Review: Software and AI

With the Galaxy Z Fold7, Samsung isn’t just showing off thinner hardware or a brighter display; it’s also delivering the most polished software experience ever seen on a foldable phone.

Right out of the box, the Z Fold7 runs One UI 8 based on Android 16, making it the first phone to do so. While past iterations of One UI occasionally struggled with stutter or scaling issues on the Fold series, those days are over. The One UI 8 delivers a seamless, lag-free experience, with animations, transitions, and multi-window usage feeling consistently responsive and reliable.

On the productivity front, One UI 8 brings new tricks that take full advantage of the Fold7’s screen real estate. The drag-and-drop experience between apps is more fluid than ever. Features like Samsung DeX now support give it a clear edge over the competition. Samsung has made other refinements, like lock screen fonts that adapt to wallpaper tones, or customizable interactive widgets, and more. It clearly shows how much thought Samsung has put into polishing the foldable UX.

But it’s the AI layer that sets the Fold7 apart. Samsung’s Galaxy AI suite, now deeply intertwined with Google’s Gemini platform, offers far more integrated and useful AI features than you get with other phones. Features like Circle to Search can now be summoned by gamers during a session, for a walkthrough during gameplay. That’s right, with just a circle on the screen and you can get real-time help without pausing the action.

Generative Edit allows you to drag to move objects, fill in backgrounds, or delete photobombers with precision, then view both the original and AI-enhanced photo side by side.

Samsung’s Instant Audio Eraser is another standout, capable of stripping background noise not just from videos, but from voice recordings too. Journalists, students, and content creators will find this especially useful for interviews or field recordings. And notably, much of this AI processing is done on-device, minimizing privacy concerns and reducing dependence on cloud connectivity.

A particularly meaningful development is Samsung’s AI pricing policy. While Google may eventually charge for Gemini-powered features, Samsung has committed to keeping all of its own Galaxy AI features free forever.

Then there’s the software longevity. With seven years of OS and security updates, the Fold7 offers one of the most future-proof commitments in the Android ecosystem.

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Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7 Camera Review: Photography and Videography

At the heart of the Fold7’s camera setup is a 200-megapixel primary sensor, the same shooter that is found on the Galaxy S25 Ultra. It’s an upgrade from last year’s 50MP sensor. Samsung has clearly re-engineered the sensor to fit into the Fold7’s slim frame, and it shows.

Coming to its performance, the images I took with it turned out sharp in detail, the dynamic range is strong, and colors skew more realistic compared to the oversaturated tones of the Fold6.

The real surprise, however, comes from the ultrawide camera. On paper, it’s still a 12MP sensor, but now it has autofocus, enabling true macro photography for the first time on the Fold. It’s a small tweak with a big impact. Flowers, textures, and intricate subjects now come alive with detail that older Folds simply couldn’t capture.

The telephoto lens is the Achilles’ heel for the Galaxy Z Fold7 camera setup. At 10MP with 3x optical zoom, its performance is not in the same league as the telephoto lens that we get in other folding phones. It is not that sharp, and it struggles in low light. Zoom quality at 10x or beyond is passable but clearly interpolated. Samsung’s decision here is understandable given space constraints.

Samsung has upped the selfie game for foldables. The upgraded 10MP punch-hole sensor captures sharper selfies, video calls are crisper, and overall image quality is vastly improved.

But hardware is only half the story. Samsung’s Pro Visual Engine and Galaxy AI features play an increasingly central role in how the Fold7 processes and enhances its imagery. Features like Suggest Erases can detect and recommend removal of photobombers, while Generative Edit lets users move subjects, fill backgrounds, or reimagine photos entirely — all on-device.

The Fold7 also doubles down on video, with support for 4K at 60fps on all lenses (front and back), HDR10+ recording, 8K at 30fps, and even 4K at 120fps slow motion. Smooth zoom transitions and real-time lens switching make for a more cinematic feel, while log video recording on the front camera, something even the S25 Ultra lacks, gives it an edge. The Fold7’s ability to stand up in Flex Mode, use the cover screen as a live preview, and record hands-free makes it a good camera phone to carry around.

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Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7 Review: Battery & Charging

Samsung officially claims the Z Fold7 can deliver a full 24 hours of battery life under typical use, thanks to tighter One UI integration and silicon-level power management. In testing, the device does well considering its 4400mAh battery size.

During our test that involved recording 4K video, doomsrolling social media, YouTube streaming, and performing our daily activities, the Fold7 held its ground well. We managed to achieve 6 hours, 16 minutes of screen-on time, outperforming both the Fold6 and Fold5 by noticeable margins.

Thermals also play a critical role here. Despite its thinner chassis, the Z Fold7 remained impressively cool during extended use.

Where the Fold7 stumbles, though, is in its charging speeds, which feel increasingly out of step with the competition. Sticking with 25W wired charging, 15W wireless, and 4.5W reverse wireless, the phone charges from 0 to 50% in roughly 30 minutes, and to full in just under 80 minutes.