The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 just made its debut at Samsung Galaxy Unpacked, but as someone who has been in a year-long love affair with the Galaxy Z Fold 7 there’s a different phone turning my head: the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra.
This new entry in the Z Fold lineup is in effect the true sequel to last year’s Z Fold 7, because the new Z Fold 8 adopts a passport-like design that’s squatter than we’ve seen before. Meanwhile, the Z Fold 8 Ultra has identically sized 8-inch inner and 6.5-inch cover displays to the Z Fold 7.
However — and as you’d hope for from a new entry in the series — the Fold 8 Ultra isn’t the same in every way. Here are five key differences you’ll want to know about if you’re thinking of upgrading, or buying your first foldable.
1. Get ready for a (small) price hike
The elephant in the room I need to address before we get into the exciting stuff is the price: the Z Fold 8 Ultra does cost more than the Z Fold 7.
Admittedly this was entirely expected — thanks to the RAM crisis we’ve been hit by price hike after price hike, even for older gadgets which would normally see price drops over time. But the news here isn’t as bad as many expected.
The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 launched at $1,999 / £1,799 / AU$2,899, and the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 will set you back $TBC / £1,899 / AU$TBC.
Any price increase is unwelcome, but considering that I and many others were bracing for something much worse, I’m not too frustrated by this, especially factoring in the upgrades on offer here.
2. A bigger battery
Ahead of its reveal I shared the changes I most wanted to see from the Z Fold 8, and the most important entry on that list was a bigger battery.
Despite, on paper, boasting a longer battery life than the Z Fold 6, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 never kept going as long as my previous foldable, and many other Z Fold 7 owners have shared their battery-life frustrations with me over the past year.
That’s why I’m excited to see the Z Fold 8 Ultra boast a 5,000mAh battery capacity thanks to its silicon carbide cell.
Admittedly, this isn’t the wild 7,000mAh capacity some recent handsets from brands such as Oppo have delivered, but compared to the Fold 7’s 4,400mAh battery I’m hoping to see a major improvement in stamina with the Z Fold 8 Ultra.
3. Closer to Ultra cameras
Last year Samsung made some serious improvements to the main camera on the Galaxy Z Fold 7 by giving it a 200MP lens that more closely matches the capabilities of the Ultra models in its flagship S series. Admittedly, the Z Fold 7 still fell a little behind the S25 Ultra in this area (and behind the newer S26 Ultra), but certainly not as far behind as the Z Fold 6 was behind the S24 Ultra.
This year it’s the turn of the ultra-wide camera on the Z Fold 7’s successor to get an upgrade, with the 12MP snapper getting upgraded to 50MP on the Z Fold 8 Ultra — and the 200MP main camera is also getting the S26 Ultra’s HDR capabilities for more vibrant-looking shots.
The 12MP 3x telephoto camera is still the same, which is a shame — I’ve been loving the 50MP 5x telephoto on my Galaxy S26 Ultra — but this latest upgrade brings us one big step closer to the Galaxy Z Fold series boasting the same camera bonafides as the the Galaxy S Ultra lineup, and I can’t complain about that.
Besides the hardware, the Z Fold 8 Ultra is also getting the S26 Ultra’s impressive Horizontal Lock stabilization tech, which keeps you shots looking steady even with some absurd levels of camera tilt.
4. Display enhancements
(Image credit: Future)
While not the flashiest or most obvious change, especially because it’s the same size and shape as before, the Z Fold 8 Ultra’s display has received two notable improvements.
First, peak brightness is increased from 2,600 nits on the Z Fold 7 to 3,000 nits, which should make your screen easier to see in bright sunlight, and enable better HDR performance.
Second, Samsung has added a matte coating to the inner display to reduce glare. Coupled with a new hinge design which lets the screen open more fully flat than before, this does seem to have resulted in a less noticeable crease than we’ve seen on previous Z Fold phones.
In fairness, I would say the crease on the Z Fold 7 is close to nonexistent, but, especially when light reflects off the inner display in a particular way it can become annoyingly apparent. Thanks to this flatter design and reduced glare, my initial assessment is that the screen looks much less noticeably ‘unfolded’ when you open up the Z Fold 8 Ultra — though it’s worth noting this is comparing a new Z Fold 8 Ultra with a Z Fold 7 that’s seen close to a year of constant use.
5. A Gen 5 chipset
Rounding things off, all three of Samsung’s new foldables — the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Galaxy Z Flip 8 — get a chipset upgrade over last year’s models, in the shape of the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy — the same processor you’ll find in the Samsung Galaxy S26 lineup.
Compared with the chipset in the Z Fold 7 you can expect a 19% faster CPU, 24% better GPU performance, and an NPU that’s 39% more powerful than before — leading to better onboard AI processing.
I personally haven’t found that the Galaxy Z Fold 7 left me wanting for more power. It’s quick and responsive in use, gaming on the foldable has been a delight, and its AI abilities are fine for my needs. That said, I won’t say no to better performance, even if it is the upgrade I’m least excited about compared to the bigger upgrades coming to the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra.
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hamish.hector@futurenet.com (Hamish Hector)
