Can the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra really replace your S26 Ultra? I finally have an answer

Samsung recently unveiled the Z Fold 8 Ultra, and it comes with some crazy capabilities like a brighter screen and also uses the new Flex Titanium technology. If you daily drive the Galaxy S26 Ultra, a question might arise in your mind about whether you should replace it with the company's latest foldable or if the bar phone still has too many benefits to give up. Well, I've tried to make the decision easier in this story.

The display comparison

The S26 Ultra features a 6.9-inch screen that offers a peak brightness of 2600 nits, whereas the Z Fold 8 Ultra comes with an 8-inch internal screen whose brightness level can reach up to 3000 nits. Both phones also come with an anti-glare coating to improve readability in outdoor conditions, though it's only present on the inner screen in the foldable.

All three displays of both devices support a 120Hz refresh rate. So, neither of these two smartphones seems to have a drastic advantage over the other, aside from the Ultra foldable being slightly brighter than the slab phone. The difference is also just 400 nits, so you likely won't feel that you are missing much.

Performance

The chipset is the first thing I check on any smartphone, and both the flashiest phones from Samsung feature one of the best Qualcomm processors: the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5. There's no difference between these smartphones even in the memory department, as both are available in three storage options: 12 GB + 256 GB / 512 GB and 16 GB + 1 TB.

On paper, both the Samsung flagships look almost identical, but it's worth noting that the same was the case with last year's S25 Ultra and the Z Fold 7, though in our in-house testing we found the foldable to slightly lag behind the Ultra phone in both Geekbench 6 and 3DMark Extreme results. The thermal management of both devices is most likely the reason behind the difference.

I can't deny the possibility that a similar story could play out with this year's model as well, which we would definitely make clear in our review. However, the difference will most likely be very small, if there is any. So, I would say that it is safe to assume that both the handsets would deliver almost the same performance.

Camera and battery

The bar phone seems to have an advantage in the camera department as it features an extra 5x periscope zoom lens, which you can use for 100x magnification. In the foldable, you get a 10 MP front camera, whereas in the S26 Ultra you get a 12 MP selfie shooter.

Well, you definitely have the benefit of using the rear cameras for taking selfies, but let's be practical – how often are you going to unfold your device just to take a selfie? We'll surely put the foldable through our camera benchmark test, but based on raw numbers, the S26 Ultra seems to win the camera battle.

Samsung has been offering a 5000 mAh battery in its Ultra phones for many years now, but the Z Fold 8 Ultra is the first foldable to feature a battery of this capacity. However, because the foldable has to power a big 8-inch screen, the chances are that the S26 Ultra would win the battery battle as well. The difference might not be as drastic as it was with last year's model, as this time both phones have similar battery capacities, whereas last year the slab phone had an advantage of 600 mAh.

The S26 Ultra is winning in the charging department as well, as it is compatible with 60 W wired and 15 W wireless charging, whereas the Ultra foldable supports only 45 W wired and 20 W wireless charging.

Major differences between the S26 Ultra and Z Fold 8

While both the devices have almost identical specifications in the above-mentioned areas, there are some noticeable differences between the two as well. The slab phone from Samsung features the Privacy Display, which is a very important privacy-related feature that you don't get in a foldable. It also isn't compatible with the S Pen, which is one of the most missed features ever since the company ditched its support for foldables last year.

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