Samsung is chasing the "world's thinnest foldable" with the Z Fold 8 Ultra because it has no other choice

Many of the world's most popular foldable phones have been chugging Ozempic lately:

• Honor Magic V6 – 4.1 mm
• Galaxy Z Fold 7 – 4.2 mm
• Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra (rumored) – approximately 4.1 mm
• Oppo Find N6 – 4.2 mm
• Huawei Mate X7 – 4.5 mm
• Huawei Pura X Max – 5.2 mm

For years, foldable phones were thick. When folded shut, they felt bulky and when opened they were thicker than what we were used to. That has changed dramatically in recent years and Samsung has played a major role in that transformation.

As you can see above, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 measures just 4.2 mm when unfolded, while the Galaxy Z Fold 8 is rumored to slim down even further to around 4.1 mm. That would put it on par with Honor's Magic V6, which also measures 4.1 mm. Huawei's Mate X7 comes in at 4.5 mm, while the Pura X Max is thicker at 5.2 mm.

These are true wasp waists… but the question is whether any of this really matters.

Can you feel the difference?

For most people, the difference between 4.2 mm and 4.1 mm is impossible to notice without a ruler. Even 4.5 mm isn't exactly bulky. Yet every launch event highlights thickness. In reality, the improvements have become increasingly difficult to appreciate in day-to-day use. That's because foldables have matured.

Up until five minutes ago, foldable makers were solving real, obvious problems. Hinges left massive gaps, devices were heavy, inner screens came with awful creases. Oh, yes, battery life lagged behind slab phones and cameras simply couldn't compete with their non-folding flagship siblings.

Current foldables are lighter, stronger, brighter and much more refined than the first Galaxy Fold from 2019. As the biggest pain points disappear, companies need a new headline feature every year. Thickness has become one of the easiest specifications to market (because it's simple to measure and easy to compare on paper).

Samsung's game

Good ol' Sammy pioneered mainstream foldables and spent years convincing consumers they were more than an experiment. I appreciate that and I'm not being ironic about it, as I'm a big believer in foldables, too.

But despite introducing the category to millions of people, Samsung is no longer the dominant force in foldables. Huawei currently leads the global market by a wide margin, helped enormously by China's appetite for book-style foldables.

It's worth noting that Honor continues to gain momentum with stylish, ultra-thin devices like the Magic V6, while other Chinese brands keep pushing aggressive hardware improvements.

Samsung can't easily change its position in China, where its smartphone market share remains tiny. It also can't rely on being the only polished foldable experience anymore, because rivals have largely caught up. That leaves hardware refinement as one of the few remaining ways to stand out.

In other words, Samsung probably isn't making its foldables thinner because people are asking for another 0.1 mm. It's doing it because there aren't many other ways left to stand out from the competition.

Apple will join the party soon

Apple is widely expected to enter the foldable market with the long-rumored iPhone Ultra, and analysts already believe it could become the world's best-selling foldable brand in 2027.

That prediction says less about Apple's hardware than about its ecosystem and customer loyalty. Millions of iPhone users who have ignored foldables for years may finally consider buying one simply because Apple makes it.

Samsung, Huawei and Honor have spent years refining hinges, reducing thickness and proving that foldables are practical everyday devices. Apple could arrive after much of that work has already been done and immediately reshape the market.

If that happens, the race to build the world's thinnest foldable may quickly become secondary. The next battle may not be about who has the slimmest device, but about whose ecosystem gives people the strongest reason to choose a foldable phone in the first place.

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