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There’s no denying annual smartphone releases have settled into a routine—flat glass slabs with slightly faster processors and better cameras. Foldable phones buck the trend, but these products come with plenty of drawbacks. They’re big and heavy, and even with all that bulk, the battery life and cameras can be lacking.
Samsung’s new Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Z Flip 7 don’t right all the wrongs, but they mark the most significant year-to-year upgrade since the company began making foldables. The new phones are thinner and lighter, particularly in the case of the Z Fold 7, which is even lighter than the Galaxy S25 Ultra. You will pay handsomely for Samsung’s new foldable flagship, but it’s also releasing a new budget FE version of its flip phone as well.
One big fold
Samsung has been making foldable phones longer than anyone, but the changes from one generation to the next have been minimal. Its seventh-generation foldables make the biggest leap yet, responding to a new spate of thinner foldables from Google, Oppo, and others. That’s really the biggest innovation for the Galaxy Z Fold 7—it’s slimmer and a bit wider.
When closed, Samsung’s larger foldable is 8.9 mm thick, which is only a little more than the Galaxy S25 Ultra and much less than the 12.1 mm of the Galaxy Z Fold 6. When open, it’s just 4.2 mm. That’s even thinner than Google’s Pixel 9 Pro Fold and barely more than the height of the phone’s USB-C port. Despite the thinner profile, Samsung maintained the same 4,400 mAh battery, which it claims is good for “all day” use. That might be true, but using the larger internal screen will drain the battery faster and could leave you looking for a charger in the evening.
The form factor tweak delivers a more common-sense display setup. The cover display is a 6.5-inch, 120 Hz OLED at 1080×2520, which is a 21:9 ratio. This is in the realm of normality for flat, non-folding phones. So, you can use the Z Fold 7 closed without worrying about apps rendering weirdly on a too-narrow screen as with past versions of this phone. Open the phone up, and you get a new, larger 8-inch, 120 Hz OLED at 1968×2184. One unfortunate drawback of the design change is that Samsung has dropped support for the S Pen stylus from the Z Fold 7.
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