With a new Samsung foldable and Apple’s foldable on the horizon, along with the Motorola Razr Fold, foldable fans are eating well this year.
I wanted to get in on the action, and I did so by buying the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8. But because it was extremely expensive, I needed a way to sugar the bitter financial pill. So I traded in the first foldable I’d ever bought, the Z Fold 5.
Before I packed it away into its trade-in box, I took some time to compare the old and the new, and digest where the differences lay.
And what I found surprised me.
The Z Fold 8 is perfectly shaped
The new shape is a triumph
If you bought or are buying the Galaxy Z Fold 8, you chose it for one reason: the shape.
The stablemate alternative, the Z Fold 8 Ultra, is tall and thin, like previous versions of the Z Fold. The Z Fold has largely been this shape since the first Galaxy Fold. Not so the Z Fold 8.
The Z Fold 8 is short and squat. Wider than a regular phone, it’s also shorter. It is the same size and shape as a British passport, and it’s unlike most other phones.
I’ve been using the Z Fold 8 for a few weeks, and I really like it. I love how thin it is when unfolded, and adjusting to the new shape hasn’t been anywhere near as hard as I thought it would be.
It hasn’t all been positive. It’s more of a hassle to use one-handed than my Google Pixel 10 Pro, and getting my hand to the sides can be as difficult as reaching the top of a taller phone.
I’m also not keen on how thin the bezels are around the inner display. There’s just nowhere to easily hold the screen if you’re holding it with one hand, and that makes it a bit tricky to juggle.
But I’d be lying if I didn’t say it wasn’t a massive improvement over the Z Fold 5.
I’m now a year removed from my last stint with the Z Fold 5, but I still remember its many problems.
It was too slim and too tall, and it impacted the outer display’s usability.
Back in the day, I’d try to use Twitter (RIP), and the Z Fold 5’s display was so small I couldn’t hit the Like button consistently. Half the time, I’d miss and open a tweet, and that got old quickly. And don’t even try to watch a video on the outer display’s weird 2316 x 904 resolution.
The inner display was fine, but I didn’t have enough reason to open it. I’d use it for videos and reading e-books, but for most of my everyday use, I used the extremely narrow outer display.
The Z Fold 8 tells a similar story, of course — but because it has a much better outer display, my everyday use feels a lot better.
The Z Fold 5 is less different than you think
The truth unfolds before your eyes
So the Z Fold 8 is better, and that’s largely because it’s so different, right?
Well, they are. But they also aren’t at the same time.
I realize that doesn’t make much sense. After all, the Z Fold 5 is tall and skinny, and the 8 is squat and wide. They’re the Laurel and Hardy of foldable smartphones.
Yet, when I unfolded them together, I realized something shocking.
They’re the same size.
The Z Fold 8 is thinner and lighter, but when unfolded, the Z Fold 5 is basically the same size.
Alright, the Z Fold 8 is still better. But that’s because of just one small detail.
Watching a YouTube video, you’d be hard-pressed to tell the difference between them. But opening a YouTube video? You’ll notice immediately.
Start a video on the Z Fold 5, open the phone, and you’ll need to rotate the phone to get the video lying along the longest edge. Do the same on the Z Fold 8, and you don’t need to rotate the phone. It’s already in the perfect orientation.
The same is true for reading e-books, and most anything where you’d want to use the larger screen.
I did warn you the difference is in the small details, but this sort of thing adds up. I notice every time, and it never fails to make me happy.
Small details like this add up in a device you use a lot. It genuinely makes the Z Fold 8’s inner display better than the Z Fold 5’s, even though they’re basically the same.
Samsung is getting closer to perfection
But the Z Fold 5 proves it wasn’t far off already
It’s too soon to say the Z Fold 8 is the perfect form for a foldable smartphone. But wow, it feels as if it might be.
Using it has been a breath of fresh air, especially when I think back to using the Z Fold 5. The Z Fold 8 has highlighted the flaws in the older Z Fold models.
But it’s also helped me forgive them. Because they weren’t all that far off from the Z Fold 8. They were just … wrongly proportioned.
The Z Fold changed shape after the Z Fold 5, so perhaps I’m a bad person to judge. But comparing the latest Z Fold with one of the older ones has shown me that Samsung has been on the right track for a while. It just needed to go wide.
9/10
- SoC
-
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy
- Display type
-
Dynamic AMOLED 2x 120Hz
- Display dimensions
-
7.6-inch open / 5.5-inch closed
- Display resolution
-
2448 x 1848 open / 1972 x 1248 closed
