The Galaxy Z Fold 8 series is it: the best foldables money can buy, and my next obsession

The numerous leaks, rumors, and reports over the last few months didn’t do the Galaxy Z Fold 8 and the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra justice, in my opinion. Being told how good the display crease and the hinge are is one thing, but seeing it in action? Nothing beats that.

Last year, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 blew my mind, as I had been disconnected from the foldable smartphone market for a while. With the Fold 7, I believed that foldable flagships had finally reached a point where they were a very viable alternative to traditional candy bar smartphones.

Now, with the Fold 8 series, I think that foldables not only match your normal flagship smartphones, but actually surpass them. In my opinion, there is now an incentive to seriously consider Samsung’s newest foldables as your next phone purchase over the Galaxy S27, the iPhone 18, or the Google Pixel 11, even if foldable phones have previously never appealed to you.

The biggest problem has been resolved

For me, the biggest problem that foldable smartphones had was the display crease. As someone who despises the punch-hole camera cutouts, the display notch, and the Dynamic Island — even though I believe that it is the best way to approach this problem — I also heavily dislike display creases.

I don’t want to watch a movie or a YouTube video with a giant crevice running through the center. With the Fold 7, foldables finally reached a point where the crease was easy to ignore during normal use.

Other foldables, like the Oppo Find N6, also featured spectacularly shallow display creases. However, the problem with all of these foldables remained that the crease would gradually get deeper with more folds and unfolds over time.



The Galaxy Z Fold 8 models, with their excellent and innovative displays and hinges, don’t seem to have this problem according to the people who got review units in advance from Samsung. Even if the crease gets more noticeable, it slowly returns to its original flat shape.

Couple that with the fact that the Fold 8 displays have a crease that is even shallower and less visible than the Fold 7 — in fact, I’d argue it’s invisible now — makes these foldables the best ones on the market in my opinion.

It only helps their case that the displays are now tougher as well. The Galaxy Z Fold 8 displays feel better and more like normal smartphone displays than the flimsy foldable displays of yesteryear.

And then there’s every other Fold 8 upgrade

For me, personally, the improvements to the displays seal the deal. If I have the budget, then I don’t see much reason to still opt for a traditional smartphone. Unless, of course, you just really dislike the concept of foldable smartphones. However, everything else that Samsung has added or improved upon only sweetens the pot.

For starters, Samsung has finally started experimenting with silicon-carbon batteries. No, the company’s implementation isn’t even close to how the Chinese flagships do it — it’s a much safer approach — but it’s a very welcome step in the right direction at long last.

Also, just the overall improvements to the displays, from the higher resolutions, the increased peak brightness levels, the anti-reflective coating, and the aforementioned toughness, are all very welcome. The choice between the different layouts with the two models has made the foldable market more exciting as well.

Of course, there are the expected upgrades like the processor and the AI features, but there are also the little things. Like the slight change to the edges of the phones so that they are now easier to unfold, which is legitimately a problem that some Galaxy Z Fold 7 users face.

As mentioned before, if you have the budget, why wouldn’t you go for a smartphone that can present you with a larger display whenever you desire? In my opinion, this is where foldable smartphones have peaked, even if a future foldable truly does eliminate the display crease completely.

Now all that’s left is to return to under-display cameras.

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