Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7 Review

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold series is thinner than ever before. At the same time, it also received several upgrades in terms of performance and software. But all of those upgrades come at a cost. With a starting price of PHP 112,990, the new Galaxy Z Fold7 is by no means cheap, not that the Z Fold series was ever cheap to begin with.

By now, you should have watched or read our hands-on first impression of the phone. To sum it up, we were very much impressed by the new Galaxy Z Fold7.

However, we’ve had a chance to spend a bit more time with the Galaxy Z Fold7. So the question remains: is it worth the upgrade? More importantly, will our first impression last?

Design and Construction

First up, the design. There’s no question that the Galaxy Z Fold7 is a lot thinner than before. It’s so thin, it’s only 8.9mm thick when folded. For reference, that’s nearly as thin as my iPhone 16 Pro, which measures 8.3mm.

In fact, a good chunk of the thickness can also be attributed to the camera island.

It’s so thin, it doesn’t even feel like you’re using a foldable smartphone. Well, that’s until you open up the main display. Not to mention, it’s not that heavy either, weighing only 215 grams.

As mentioned before, this also helps it sit in our pockets a lot better. No big bulge to be seen, especially if you’re wearing tight-fitting pants or shorts.

With the metal frame and glass back panel, it feels very premium too. Despite the slimmer design, there’s no change to the aesthetics of the phone. It looks very much like a Samsung phone, with the triple rear camera located at the upper left corner of the back panel.

One thing I did notice is that the hinges feel very sturdy. So much so that it is a bit harder to open it as compared to the Galaxy Z Fold 6 I tried out before, and even my friend’s Galaxy Z Fold 4. The main screen closes completely, and with the new hinges, it is quite difficult to open with just one hand.

Despite being this thin, the Galaxy Z Fold7 still comes with a USB-C port at the bottom and even a dual-SIM card slot at the top.

It also comes with dual-stereo speakers like before. The power button, which doubles as a fingerprint scanner, is a lot thinner than before. Despite that, it didn’t have a hard time reading my fingerprint even with the phone unfolded.

Overall, we like how thin the Galaxy Z Fold7 is. Since it’s a bit longer and wider than before, the larger cover screen is now a lot more usable as compared to before.

Display and Multimedia

The cover screen of the Galaxy Z Fold7 now measures 6.5 inches. It’s not that big of a jump as compared to the 6.3-inch cover screen on the Galaxy Z Fold 6, but it matters a lot. I no longer find myself opening up the main screen to browse social media or even the internet. I also like the thin even borders all around.

You can do almost everything on the cover screen already. It does have a very wide aspect ratio of 21:9, similar to widescreen videos. As a result, some apps might look a bit off, especially games. The same can be said about watching videos on the cover screen.

But of course, this is a foldable smartphone after all. When watching videos or playing games, it’s best to do so on the larger 8-inch main display. Both the cover screen and the main display feature an LTPO AMOLED panel with a 120Hz refresh rate. This means there’s no visual change when you switch screens apart from the larger size.

Aside from the size increase, one of the biggest improvements Samsung made to the main display is the crease. The crease has always been an issue for almost any foldable device, but on the Galaxy Z Fold7, it’s barely noticeable anymore.

Most of the time you’re using the main display, you won’t even notice that the crease is there. It’s only when you purposely try to look for it, will you notice it. With that, you can very much enjoy binge watching videos on the Galaxy Fold7 for long periods of time.

Similar to older Galaxy Z Fold models, you can set it up folded, wherein half the screen displays the video with the other half as the controller. It works best if you want to lay it down for watching videos with a group.

As for the speakers, the quality isn’t as great as I expected it to be. They are loud, but they lack clarity, and the sound stage isn’t that good. I suspect it has something to do with the body being a lot thinner than before. With that, it’s best to watch videos with your favorite pair of Bluetooth headphones.

Cameras

Moving on to the cameras, the Galaxy Z Fold series didn’t exactly have the best set of cameras available. It’s actually been one complaint I had with the Galaxy Z Fold 6. However, Samsung finally changed that with the launch of the new Galaxy Z Fold. That’s because it now features a new 200 MP main shooter.

The rest of the cameras are unchanged – a 10MP telephoto and a 12MP ultrawide. But at least the main shooter is now similar to that found on the Galaxy S25 Ultra.

When taking photos, you now have the option to shoot in 12MP, 50MP, or even 200MP modes. At 50MP and 200MP, you don’t have access to zoom, but at least it maximizes the camera to its full potential.

As for the results? Well I’ll let the photos speak for themselves. They’re amazing in almost all kinds of lighting conditions, even in low light. There’s no blown out highlights or grainy parts. Best of all, you have great sharpness and contrast all around. It’s very much similar to the images we were able to capture on the Galaxy S25 Ultra.

Even at 2x zoom, the image quality is retained. It’s not until you go beyond 3x zoom that a noticeable drop in quality occurs. The same goes for the ultrawide. It’s not a big drop, and it’s definitely useable, but if you pixel peep you can notice it. With that, I highly recommend staying in 1x zoom or 2x zoom at most when using the camera of the S25 Ultra.

For selfies there are two front facing cameras – a 10MP camera on the main screen and another 10MP on the cover screen. But honestly, you can just use the 200MP main rear shooter instead. Just turn on the cover screen while taking photos to show the subject what they look like or to take the perfect selfie.

When it comes to video, it’s a similar story. The rear cameras are capable of shooting at a maximum of 8K@30FPS. There is an ultra steady mode but it only works at 4K@60FPS max. But even without ultra steady turned on, you can get some smooth shots already as long as you have somewhat steady hands.

Check out the gallery below to see the images and videos we were able to take using the Galaxy Z Fold7.

Overall, the upgrade in the main shooter has definitely made the Galaxy Z Fold7 a lot more capable for photos. I just wish Samsung also included the more capable telephoto and ultrawide lenses on the S25 Ultra.

Performance and Benchmarks

Under the hood, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7 now packs a Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset. Our review unit is the entry level variant with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. The storage is a bit lacking for our use case. With that, I would recommend getting the 512GB version at the very least.

Given how capable the Snapdragon 8 Elite is, we had no doubt it would perform really well. It ran almost all the apps we could think of both for productivity and gaming. When it comes to games, it ran Genshin Impact and Zenless Zone Zero on max graphics without any issues. The same could be said for lighter titles like Blue Archive and Mobile Legends.

However, there is the issue of heat. The Galaxy Z Fold7 easily heats up when playing games. Even when we were just installing the games, the phone already heated up.

Fortunately, the heat didn’t affect our gameplay. But still, it can get really hot, especially when playing the graphics-intensive titles like Genshin and ZZZ, which is a bit concerning.

As you can see from the benchmark scores below, the Galaxy Z Fold7 scored top really high on Antutu and pretty much everything else. But again, that’s to be expected after seeing how well it performed on the S25 Ultra.

Antutu – 1853640
3DMark Wild Life – Maxed Out! 
PCMark Work 3.0 Performance – 16082

Geekbench 6
CPU Single – 2725
CPU Multi – 8857
GPU OpenCL – 16966
GPU VUlkan – 22730

OS, Apps, UI

Out of the box, the Galaxy Z Fold7 now runs on One UI 8 based on Android 16. It’s essentially an upgraded version of One UI 7, featuring new and improved AI features. The UI feels very much the same as before with some life improvements. So if you’re a Samsung user, you will feel right at home with the new One UI 8.

When it comes to AI, Google Gemini’s presence can be felt more, and runs on both displays without issue. There’s better integration too, making it a lot more practical to use. But mind you, some of these are specific to the Fold7.

Of course, you still have AI Eraser in the gallery, and even Audio Eraser. The Audio Eraser can detect voices and noises, and you can delete them from your video.

This being a foldable, there are a lot of cool things you can do too. For example, the camera can be shot from various angles. You can even have the phone half camera, and half a preview of what the shots look like. This way, you can adjust your angles a lot easier. It’s also great for split-screen since you can work more efficiently.

Other new upgrades include better security features and an improved quick share. But other than those, it very much carries over everything we’ve already liked with One UI 7. Best of all, no bloatware, too.

There’s a lot more to talk about One UI 8, and we’ll do that in a separate feature article.

Battery and Connectivity

One thing Samsung didn’t change on the Galaxy Z Fold7 is the battery. It still features the same 4,400 mAh battery as before. With that, we didn’t really expect any improvements in battery life.

From our experience, the battery life of the Galaxy Z Fold7 isn’t the best. After just 30 minutes of playing Genshin Impact, the battery already dropped from 100 to 87 percent. For reference, this was done on the main display.

Even when I’m out and about and not really using the phone that often, there is still a constant battery drain. The benchmarks also showed similar results.

Using our proprietary video loop test, which we ran twice, you do have longer battery life when you use the cover screen only.  But of course, this is a foldable, which means you will be using the main display.

Conclusion

Overall, we really like the changes Samsung made to the Galaxy Z Fold7. It addresses most of the issues we had with the past models, such as the lackluster cameras and the thickness of the phone.

On the Galaxy Z Fold7, the camera is a lot more capable now. Its slimmer size and bigger cover screen mean you don’t have to open up the main display that often, either. Not to mention, you also have the new features available with One UI 8.

It’s still far from perfect with its lackluster battery life and audio quality. But we think it’s a step in the right direction. However, all of that comes with a high price, which is not to say the previous Galaxy Z Fold series were affordable.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7 starts at PHP 112,990 for the 12GB + 256GB variant we’re using. If you want the 12GB + 512GB variant, that retails for PHP 120,990. As for the 16GB + 1TB variant, that will set you back PHP 141,990.

That’s a lot of money for a smartphone no doubt. For the same price as the entry level Z Fold7, you could get the S25 Ultra with a better camera and a longer battery life. But where’s the fun in that right?

If you want a capable foldable smartphone, you can’t go wrong with the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7. But what do you think of it? Will it be your pick or would you rather go for a different foldable?
Whatever the case, share your thoughts in the comments below.

What we liked:
* Beautiful slim design
* Barely noticeable crease on main display
* Larger cover display allowing you to do more

What we didn’t like:
* Heating issues
* Short battery life
* Expensive

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7 specs:
8.0-inch Foldable Dynamic LTPO AMOLED 2X @ 2224×2488 pixels, 120Hz, HDR10+, 2600 nits peak brightness
6.5-inch Dynamic LTPO AMOLED 2X @ 968×2376 pixels, 120Hz, Corning Gorilla Glass Ceramic 2
Qualcomm SM8750-AB Snapdragon 8 Elite (3 nm)
2×4.32 GHz Oryon V2 Phoenix L + 6x 3.53GHz Oryon V2 Phoenix M
Adreno 830 GPU
12GB, 16GB LPDDR5X RAM
256GB, 512GB, 1TB UFS 4.0 internal storage
No microSD card expansion slot
200MP, f/1.7, 24mm (wide), multi-directional PDAF, OIS (main camera)
10MP, f/2.4, 67mm, PDAF, OIS, 3x optical zoom (telephoto camera)
12MP, f/2.2, 123˚, 12mm (ultrawide camera)
8K@30fps, 4K@60fps, 1080p@60/120/240fps (gyro-EIS), 720p@960fps (gyro-EIS)
HDR10+, LED flash, HDR, panorama
4MP, f/1.8, 26mm wide, under display (main selfie camera)
10MP, f/2.2, 24mm wide (cover camera)
4K@30/60fps, 1080p@30/60fps, gyro-EIS, HDR
Dual Nano-SIM + eSIM, eSIM + eSIM, or Nano-SIM + Nano-SIM
5G SA/NSA/Sub6 (International), SA/NSA/Sub6/mmWave (USA)
Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/6e/7, tri-band, Wi-Fi Direct
Bluetooth 5.4, A2DP, LE, aptX HD
NFC
GPS, GALILEO, GLONASS, BDS, QZSS
IP48 Rating
Stereo speakers, tuned by AKG, 32-bit/384kHz audio
Side-mounted fingerprint sensor
USB Type-C 3.2, OTG
Stylus support
Li-Po 4,400 mAh battery
25W wired (QC2.0, 50% in 30 min), 15W wireless, 4.5W reverse wireless
Samsung One UI 8 (based on Android 16, up to 7 major Android upgrades)
4.2 mm (unfolded), 8.9mm (folded)
215 grams (weight)
Black, Silver Shadow, Pink, Navy, Crafted Black, White (varies by market)