Samsung’s new foldables have major battery health downgrade

Samsung officially launched the Galaxy Z Flip 8, Z Fold 8, and Z Fold 8 Ultra earlier this week, and one of the most notable upgrades is the switch to silicon-carbon batteries. This tech usually degrades faster than conventional batteries, and the EU has now officially revealed charging cycle info for the new phones.

The European Union’s EPREL database has published energy labels for the new Samsung foldable phones, and all three phones are rated for 1,200 charging cycles before effectively losing 20% capacity. Check out the labels below.

That’s a significant downgrade compared to last year’s flagship Galaxy foldables. The Galaxy Z Flip 7 and Z Fold 7 are rated for 2,000 charging cycles before hitting 80% capacity. In saying so, this is still superior to recent Pixels and iPhones, which are only rated for 1,000 cycles.

This downgrade isn’t a surprise, though, as silicon-carbon batteries usually degrade faster than the best lithium-ion batteries. However, this new battery tech enables increased capacity for the same physical battery size. So one way to address the degradation problem is simply to offer a larger battery. That’s what Samsung did with the Z Fold 8 Ultra, in particular.

Unfortunately, the Galaxy Z Flip 8 didn’t actually see a battery capacity upgrade compared to the Z Flip 7. That means the new Flip will effectively have a 3,440mAh battery after 1,200 charging cycles, or roughly three years. By contrast, the old Flip will reach this capacity after 2,000 cycles or just over five years.

These figures also mean that the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra will essentially go from a 5,000mAh battery to a 4,000mAh battery, while the Fold 8 will effectively drop from a 4,800mAh battery to a 3,840mAh battery.

This news also comes after it emerged that the Galaxy S26 phones only offer 1,200 charging cycles rather than the 2,000 cycles seen on Galaxy S25 devices. It’s unclear why Samsung downgraded the S26 series, as these phones still use conventional batteries. In other words, the S26 phones offer the same charging cycles as the new foldables.