Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 review: stunning, bendy, and spendy

I’ve been using the Galaxy Z Fold 7 for a week, and I’ve run out of ways to say “It’s so nice.” It’s not essential, or life-changing; it’s nice.

It’s an understatement, though. Samsung joins the likes of Honor and Oppo in making a folding phone that’s almost as thin as a regular phone, and it’s a trend with real benefits. Compared to the previous six generations of Samsung folding phones, the Z Fold 7’s inner screen feels like a bonus — one that doesn’t require the sacrifice of carrying a bigger, bulkier device to get. It is thin. It is luxurious. Also: it is two thousand dollars.

It’s so nice. It’s two thousand dollars. Somewhere in between those two statements, you’ll know whether the Galaxy Z Fold 7 is for you. If the size and bulk of previous foldables deterred you, then this is the phone you’ve been waiting for. Provided you have, you know, a couple grand lying around.

Writing a review of the Fold 7 feels like writing a review of two devices: the one you use with the phone closed, and the one that’s available with the phone open. The former got a major upgrade this year: it uses a normal 21:9 aspect ratio. Previous versions of the outer screen were longer and skinnier than your average phone, and I never quite got used to typing on them. I sometimes forget I’m using a folding phone when the Z Fold 7 is closed.

It works just like a regular slab-style phone outside of some extreme use cases. And for a folding phone? That’s mission accomplished.

Here’s the Z Fold 7’s dilemma: that outer screen is a 6.5-inch 1080p display that’s not as sharp or as pleasant to use in bright light as the outstanding screen on the far cheaper Galaxy S25 Ultra. That’s a point I kept revisiting as I used the Z Fold 7. As a total package there’s almost nothing like it, but plenty of its individual features fall short of the best slab-style phones.

Non-foldy phones offer better battery life, but the margin isn’t as wide as I feared. How much you use the inner screen will dramatically affect battery life; I got through a day of moderate use and occasional inner screen use with around 50 percent left. With more time on the inner screen and about an hour of hotspot use, the battery was down to around 30 percent by bedtime. Nobody’s buying a folding phone for its power efficiency, and I think these results are pretty good.

As soon as I open the inner screen, the slight shortcomings are out of mind. I kept forgetting that the inner screen even existed, but I quickly got into the habit of opening it. Do you know how nice it is to use Chrome on your phone with normal-ass tabs at the top of the screen? Do you know how much less fiddly a game like Diablo Immortal is on a big screen? Do you know how useful it is to keep the Uber app open on one side of the display so you can keep track of your driver’s arrival while you finish a sudoku on the other half? I do. Once you start using the inner screen, you keep finding new ways to use it.

None of the above is new or exclusive to the Fold 7, but I can’t emphasize this enough: this all feels like you’re getting away with something, because the experience of using this phone while it’s closed feels normal. No more chunky brick in the side pocket of my yoga pants. One nitpick: I don’t love how stiff it feels when I’m opening the phone. The grip from a case would help here. Overall, a slimmer, lighter, well-proportioned foldable really is a whole new ballgame.

There’s some bad news. I’m not one to get worked up about the way any camera bump looks, but this one protrudes a lot. The phone sits crooked on surfaces and wobbles when you tap the screen, which encourages you to put it on a table screen-side-down. Fewer distractions from notifications? Good! The screen is slippery and the phone slides off the edge of the bathtub? Bad! There wasn’t any water in the tub when that happened, but still.

The wobble is annoying; I have to prop it up on a couple of drink coasters if I’m using it on the dining room table. Samsung’s silicone grip case seems to mitigate it, but stand cases don’t fix it. A case feels like a requirement here (and I say that as a case hater!), but they’re thin enough they don’t erase all the benefits of a slim foldable.

The Fold 7 uses a Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset tuned for Samsung, along with 12GB of RAM in the 256GB model I tested. It keeps up just fine, and I had no problems running Diablo Immortal at the highest display settings. The phone didn’t even get very warm. The Z Fold 7 did get mighty toasty in a bit of a torture test: using it as a hotspot on a coffee shop patio on a high-80s afternoon. I put it in the direct sun, which you should not do, and sure enough, it started closing apps after about 10 minutes to try and cool itself down. Extreme, yes, but good to know if you live in a place with high temperatures.

Another environmental consideration: dust resistance. The Z Fold 7 still doesn’t have a formal dust resistance rating; its IP48 means it’s fully water-resistant but only immune to very small particles, not specks of dust. Take extra care and consider adding Samsung’s extended warranty plan to cover pricey inner screen repairs.

The Z Fold 7’s 200-megapixel camera is adapted from the S25 Ultra’s, and it’s a great camera here, just as it is in the Ultra. Low-light photos are detailed, provided your subject isn’t moving too much, and Samsung’s preference for vibrant reds and blues is on full display. There’s also a 10-megapixel 3x telephoto and a 12-megapixel ultrawide — both solid performers if you don’t ask too much from them. Digital zoom past 5x from the telephoto lens looks pretty watercolor-y. But Samsung’s portrait mode with the 3x camera remains the best in the game, as it has been for years. Segmentation is so good it’s uncanny — isolating a subject down to the eyelashes on my son’s eyes.

If you compare the Z Fold 7 to a top-tier slab phone like the S25 Ultra spec by spec, the folding phone often comes up short. It’s less durable, battery life isn’t quite as good, and the camera system isn’t as versatile. But that misses the point of the Z Fold 7. This phone is a luxury and an engineering marvel. If you have the deep pockets and a mind open to the benefits of the big screen, then I think you’ll agree with me: it’s just so nice.

Photography by Allison Johnson / The Verge