Galaxy Z Fold 8 hands-on: The crease no longer cramps the style with this passport-sized phone

Samsung Electronics has been pitching the Galaxy Z Fold 8 as a phone the size of a passport to promote its wider-than-usual footprint. Put a passport next to the handset and the comparison holds up — the two are nearly identical in size.

Unfold it, and the phone becomes a miniature tablet. Ever since the Trifold, Samsung has been experimenting with its foldable form factor in search of the perfect balance between phone and tablet — and with the new wider Fold, it looks like it may have finally struck gold.

Samsung showcased the Z Fold 8, the Fold 8 Ultra and the Flip 8 at Galaxy Unpacked in London on Wednesday. The Fold 8's design was the clear highlight of the event, and a hands-on first look during a domestic press briefing on Thursday proved why.

Unfolded, the phone feels even more tablet-like — and notably, the crease was nearly invisible to the naked eye, a marked improvement over prior Fold handsets that showed visible creasing even straight out of the box. Samsung has gone to considerable lengths to address the crease problem that has dogged its foldable lineup from the start. The solution is what the company calls Flex Titanium: an ultrathin titanium film applied across the display layers of both the Fold 8 and Fold 8 Ultra in place of plastic, resulting in less creasing and a sturdier fold overall.

That said, crease complaints on past Folds tended to surface with prolonged use, so whether Samsung has fully resolved the problem remains to be seen.

Samsung bills the Z Fold 8 as its lightest foldable yet at 201 grams (7 ounces). Held next to an iPhone 16, the difference was barely noticeable — only slightly heavier, and there was something distinctly new about holding it, owing entirely to the wider frame. Even folded at a 10:16 ratio with a 5.5-inch cover display, the phone felt less like a phone and more like a portable device; unfolded at a 4:3 ratio spanning 7.6 inches, that impression only deepened.

"The aspect ratio you see here is the result of seven generations of studying foldable users — what they do on the cover screen, when they unfold the device and what they do once it's open," a Samsung employee said. "This is the optimal ratio we arrived at after considering all that."

Samsung clearly understands that foldable users want a content device, and the wider Fold delivers on that front — whether for video, e-books, web browsing, or gaming. The one recurring disappointment: The Fold series again ships without S Pen support, despite persistent demand.

Being a brand-new unit, the hinge was stiffer than expected — opening and closing it one-handed took a bit of effort.

The Fold 8 also packs a video feature aimed at younger users and K-pop fans: Dubbed My FanCam, it automatically tracks a selected subject and centers the shot around them. Users can set their preferred aspect ratio, making it easy to produce polished content without any complicated editing steps.

The Flip 8, meanwhile, received a significant cover screen upgrade. Any app can now run fully on the cover screen — as functional as the main display — with the phone folded shut. On the Flip 7, something similar was technically possible, but required a notoriously complicated installation and customization process that frustrated many users. The Flip 8 streamlines all of that, and watching a YouTube video play on the folded Flip — like a pocket-size tablet — was a genuinely cool moment.

Samsung is said to have set a shipment target of 5 to 6 million units for its three new foldables this year, a conservative figure relative to the roughly 6 million units it shipped last year.

The cautious outlook is largely attributed to rising component costs, including memory chips, which have pushed prices up and could dampen demand. The Fold 8 starts at 2.28 million won ($1,550), while the base models for the Fold 8 Ultra and Flip 8 each jumped 200,000 won from their predecessors to 2.58 million won and 1.68 million won, respectively.

Even so, Samsung Electronics' President and CEO Roh Tae-moon told reporters after Unpacked that the company is targeting record foldable sales this year, counting on the Fold 8 to bring in a new wave of demand. He said the foldable market has matured both technologically and commercially, adding that the growing number of competitors entering the space is itself proof that foldables have gone mainstream. Apple will also be releasing its first-ever foldable iPhone this September.

"The seven years of technology and customer insight we have accumulated since introducing the first foldable cannot be replicated overnight," Roh said. "The fiercer the competition, the more we will push to set new standards and lead the global foldable market."

Global availability begins Aug. 7. All three models ship in Graphite and Cream. The Ultra adds Violet Shadow and Green Shadow as exclusives, the Fold 8 comes in Lavender and Pistachio and the Flip 8 gets Pink and Mint.

BY LEE JAE-LIM [[email protected]]