Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 sold me on foldables before the foldable iPhone could

I’ve never really been a fan of foldable smartphones. Don’t get me wrong, the tech behind them is fascinating, but they’ve never been good enough for me to give them a real try. Especially when they cost so much more than traditional phones.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7, coming out next month on the 9th, has changed that.

My issue with foldables

So, why don’t I like foldable phones? Simple: the crease. I’ve always said that a display should be free of any distractions, and I will never forgive Apple for popularizing the notch. Yes, yes, I know they didn’t do it first, but you bet everyone rushed to copy them when the iPhone added it.

So, despite the increased real estate, foldables just never appealed to me. I just didn’t want a massive trench running down the display when rewatching a favorite movie from my childhood.

Why the Fold 7 convinced me

After hearing that Apple was trying to create a crease-free foldable iPhone, I sort of gave up on other brands and began to wait for this perfect foldable phone. That, I admit now, was a mistake on my part. I took one look at the Fold 6’s crease, which many find more than bearable, and thought I’d have to wait on Apple to deliver.

And then we learned about the Fold 7. When you put the Fold 7 next to the Fold 6, you begin to realize that Samsung has done more than just release the yearly successor. Samsung has, at long last, innovated to the point where it’s basically caught up with the rest of the industry.

This progress made me check out the other foldables on the market, like the excellent Oppo Find N5 and the new Honor Magic V5 and Xiaomi Mix Flip 2. Not only do those phones have much less visible creases, they’re also packing some serious hardware. I will happily admit that you people in the comments were right: the foldable market has come a long way.

The thing that really sold me, however, is when I found out that the Fold 7 is only 8.9 mm when folded. Honor’s Magic V5, currently the slimmest foldable in the world, is 8.8 mm when folded. Yeah, there’s barely a difference of 0.1 mm here.

If Samsung has improved that much over the 12.1 mm of the Galaxy Z Fold 6, then I think that it’s finally time to give the company’s foldable flagships a try. Because now it really feels like Samsung has pulled all the stops and made a phone worth considering.

Sammy beat Apple to the punch

I’d completely abandoned hope of Samsung making a worthy foldable smartphone. All bets were now on Apple, who, despite their many recent goofs, might just deliver a crease-free foldable iPhone.

But now we know the screen specs of the foldable iPhone — well, a prototype that’s in the testing phase — and it falls behind the Fold 7, crease or not. This phone is expected to come out next year, after the Fold 8. It’s all but confirmed now that the foldable iPhone likely won’t hold a candle to its Galaxy rivals.

Apple may be late in classic Apple fashion, but that means that I’ve fallen for a different foldable instead.

The Fold 7 is good enough for me

Samsung’s new foldable may not be perfect, and it’ll most definitely still have a visible crease, but it’s finally good enough. It’s slim, it’s powerful, it’s got a massive display, and it looks stunning. The only thing lacking is the battery and the speeds at which it charges, something I hope Samsung improves by next year.

But for all intents and purposes, the Fold 7 is worth it for me. It’s finally good enough for me to give foldable phones a genuine try, and not just sniff at them from afar. And if you’ve been considering foldables too but can’t stomach the steep price tags, the new budget Galaxy Z Flip 7 FE would be perfect to get you started.