So, how thin would a Chinese foldable go with Samsung's abysmal battery?

The Galaxy Z Fold 7 is finally official, and Samsung is proudly calling it the thinnest Galaxy foldable to date.

How thin are we talking? Well, very thin.

Folded, the Z Fold 7 comes in at just 8.9 mm, which is impressive considering where we started years ago with the chunky OG Fold. The pioneer was 17.1 mm thick when folded. Yeah, in six years, Sammy slashed it almost in two.

Back to 2025 and the Galaxy Z Fold 7's rivals. For comparison, the Honor Magic V5 measures 8.8 mm, and the Oppo Find N5 sits at 8.93 mm. In other words, Samsung didn't reinvent physics here, but it's in the same league as the leanest competitors. Something we shouldn't applaud Samsung so loudly for, since it's not the first the enter the sub-9 mm category.

Now, in tech land, every millimeter counts, and weight savings are treated like holy scripture. But let's be real – it's not the difference between a leather wallet, full of Benjamins and a credit card. To put it mildly, the Z Fold 7 isn't rewriting the rulebook on slimness. Still, a certain tipster out there is really impressed with what Samsung did:

• Chinese foldables have nothing on Galaxy Z Fold 7 where it matters

Apparently, Ice Universe – Samsung's most passionate critic-slash-fan – ran his own tests on the Fold 7, and according to him, this phone isn't just Samsung's thinnest foldable yet, it's the thinnest and lightest book-style foldable you can actually buy right now.

How did this result come up?

Well, first, by doing the kind of thing only Ice would do: placing all the big foldables side by side and rolling a tiny ball across them to see which way it tilts. (I wish I were joking.) Then, he busted out the calipers to double-check, because science. His verdict? The Fold 7 beats out the Honor Magic V5, Oppo Find N5, and vivo X Fold 5 in both thickness and weight.


And just to spice things up, he also put them on a scale and found the Fold 7 is even lighter than official specs suggest – about 218 grams, compared to 224 g for Honor and a chunky 236 g for Oppo and vivo. So yes, Samsung shaved every possible gram.

But here's where things get interesting: how did Samsung achieve this feat? Spoiler alert – it came at a cost. The Galaxy Z Fold 7 does not support Samsung's beloved S Pen, which feels almost criminal considering the Fold series was pitched as the productivity king.

And then there's the battery: a downright abysmal 4,272 mAh. That's tiny by today's standards, especially for a device powering two displays. Could that be the magic trick behind its newfound diet plan? Probably. Samsung clearly decided thinness was the hill to die on, even if it meant sacrificing battery longevity and pen support.

Imagine this…

And that got me thinking: if this is what Samsung can do by slapping in a battery smaller than what we see in Galaxy A-series phones, what happens if the Chinese rivals played the same game?

Imagine the Honor Magic V5 or Oppo Find N5 rocking a measly ~4,000 mAh cell instead of their current, more generous packs (6,100 mAh and 5,600 mAh, respectively). These phones could end up so thin they'd practically disappear when you turn them sideways. Throw in some cutting-edge silicon-carbon batteries – which are all the rage in China right now – and we're talking even better space efficiency plus blazing charging speeds.

Those batteries can be smaller, hold the same charge, and top up ridiculously fast. It's like black magic, but with ions.

No more ports?

Of course, there's a catch. You can't keep shaving down frames forever without running into problems. If the Chinese brands start trimming even further to chase Samsung's thinness crown, something's gotta give. My money says the next step would be going portless, because where the heck do you put a USB-C connector when the frame is as thin as paper? We're already hearing whispers about wireless-only concepts, and this obsession with slimness might just push things in that direction faster than we expect.

Meanwhile, here's the kicker: Chinese foldables already tend to outshine Samsung in some key areas. Take cameras, for example. Honor and Oppo often throw in secondary shooters that make Samsung's inner display cam look like an afterthought. The Honor Magic V5 and Oppo Find N5 are prime examples – they pack more versatile camera setups while still keeping things reasonably slim. So while Samsung's out here flexing its caliper-friendly waistline, the rivals are saying, "Cool story, bro", while taking better pictures.

Stop the wasp waist mania

At the end of the day, though, all this obsession over a millimeter here and a gram there feels a little… redundant. I'd rather have a foldable with a reliable, beefy battery, powerful cameras, and frames that can survive more than two accidental drops than some fragile, wafer-thin fashion bijoux.

Don't get me wrong – Samsung deserves credit for engineering wizardry. They've built a foldable that's slimmer and lighter than ever, and for a lot of people, that's going to be the headline feature.

What really tips the scales in Samsung's favor isn't the micrometer race – it's availability. You can actually buy the Galaxy Z Fold 7 without importing it through some sketchy reseller who only accepts crypto and good vibes. It's backed by Samsung's global support network, and that matters.

So while I'll keep daydreaming about some mythical Chinese foldable that's thinner than air and charges from zero to 100 in the time it takes to microwave popcorn, the reality is simple: most people will end up with Samsung's latest.

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