Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8 review: A compact foldable phone with wider appeal

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8's wider displays make everyday tasks more natural, while strong performance and battery life offset compromises in multimedia viewing and camera versatility

Seven years after introducing the foldable smartphone category, Samsung has expanded its foldable lineup with a third model, the Galaxy Z Fold8. While foldables have evolved considerably over the years, I have always felt there was one recurring compromise: they often prioritised size and thickness over usability.

 

Samsung's pitch for the Galaxy Z Fold8 is different. Instead of focusing solely on making the phone thinner or lighter, it has reworked the form factor around usability. The company says the wider cover and inner displays are designed to feel more natural in everyday use than the tall, narrow foldables we have become accustomed to, including Samsung's own Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra.

 

 

The biggest change is the display. The Galaxy Z Fold8 has a 5.5-inch cover display with a 10:16 aspect ratio and a 7.6-inch foldable inner display with a 4:3 aspect ratio. This essentially means the cover screen is better suited to everyday smartphone tasks. Messaging, social media, YouTube videos and most applications work naturally without feeling cramped.

 

Opening the device reveals a much more practical canvas in portrait orientation for reading long-form articles, browsing Reddit or X, reviewing documents, multitasking or interacting with artificial intelligence (AI) services.

 

Samsung also allows the two displays to be managed independently. Separate wallpapers and different sets of applications can be assigned to each screen, making the transition between phone and tablet modes feel more personalised.

The experience is not perfect, though.

 

The outer display feels slightly too compact for immersive content consumption, while the inner display's 4:3 aspect ratio results in thick black bars when watching YouTube videos, over-the-top (OTT) content and much of the material found on social media.

 

I also found application layouts becoming inconsistent when switching between portrait and landscape orientations on the inner display. A more responsive interface that dynamically adapted aspect ratios and layouts could have made the experience feel more cohesive.

Despite these gripes, the more I used the Fold8, the more I appreciated how refined the hardware felt. Everything sits where it should. The side-mounted fingerprint scanner is intuitive, the wider chassis is comfortable to hold and, despite its larger footprint, the phone slips into a pocket more comfortably than expected.

 

The only design element I never quite warmed to was the vertical rear camera bar.

 

The wider form factor also presents opportunities that Samsung has not fully explored. Holding the device horizontally while taking photographs can occasionally feel awkward. I found myself wishing for a programmable hardware button that could double as a dedicated camera shutter, making photography more comfortable.

 

Speaking of camera, the two 50-megapixel rear cameras, comprising wide and ultra-wide sensors, consistently produce pleasing images. Samsung continues to favour slightly stronger contrast, but the results rarely appear artificial. The dual-camera arrangement omits the dedicated telephoto lens offered on the Fold8 Ultra.

 

Portrait photography also surprised me. Subject separation was cleaner than expected, producing natural-looking background blur. Low-light portraits remained less convincing, however, with the bokeh occasionally overlapping the subject or being affected by distant light sources.

 

The omission of a dedicated telephoto camera is harder to overlook. For a device positioned in the ultra-premium segment, optical zoom feels like a missing piece.

 

That said, Samsung has brought several imaging features from its Galaxy S Ultra. The rear cameras support up to 8K video recording, Horizon Lock is available for stabilised videos and the phone supports portrait videos. The new My FanCam editing feature provides additional flexibility by allowing users to reframe videos in different aspect ratios after recording.

 

Performance was exactly what I expected from a flagship smartphone. Whether it was something as simple as replying to emails or more demanding tasks such as gaming, editing videos or multitasking across several applications, the Galaxy Z Fold8 handled everything effortlessly.

 

The phone became noticeably warm under sustained workloads, but I did not experience any performance slowdowns during everyday use.

 

Battery life proved equally impressive. The phone consistently delivered more than 10 hours of screen-on time while retaining over 10 per cent charge by the end of my testing.

 

Charging is also quicker than on previous Samsung foldables. The Fold8 supports 45-watt wired charging, although users will need to purchase a compatible charger separately because one is not included in the box.

 

What I would tell anyone considering it

 

The Galaxy Z Fold8 comes closer than most foldables to delivering the experience I have always expected from this category. Its wider design makes both displays genuinely useful rather than forcing compromises depending on how the phone is being used.

 

Combined with dependable performance, excellent battery life and thoughtful software additions, it feels as though Samsung has prioritised practicality over chasing specifications.

There is still room for improvement though. Multimedia content does not fully use the inner display, the absence of a telephoto camera is difficult to justify at this price, and Samsung has missed an opportunity to make better use of the wider form factor through dedicated hardware controls.

 

Even so, the Galaxy Z Fold8 shows that foldables are gradually becoming less about novelty and more about everyday usability. That, perhaps, is its biggest achievement.

 

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8: Pricing

 

256GB storage + 12GB RAM: Rs 179,999

512GB storage + 12GB RAM: Rs 199,999

1TB storage + 16GB RAM: Rs 239,999

 

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8: Unboxing

 

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A post shared by BSTech (@bstechofficial)