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Intro
This summer, Samsung’s got not one but two flagship-tier phones vying for your attention and wallet. On one end, we’ve got the futuristic, folding, productivity-obsessed Galaxy Z Fold 7. On the other, the classic, camera-beast, S Pen-wielding Galaxy S25 Ultra.
Oh, wait a second! The Z Fold 7 is actually snatching the main camera from the Galaxy S25 Ultra. Would that not make it... the ultimate Samsung phone? For the ultimate price of $2,000 it had better be. But, somewhat stealthily, it's shunning the S Pen support.
Meanwhile, the S25 Ultra is built on multiple refinements and reiterations of the same tech. Super Zoom, S Pen, big beautiful screen. If you follow it back to its roots — it's a Galaxy Note. Just made 47 times better with modern tech!
Two flagships. Two philosophies. Only one pocket. Let’s see who fits best.
Galaxy Z Fold 7: save $520 at Samsung
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The Galaxy Z Fold 7 is now available with a smashingly good $520 discount, no trade-in required. It includes a $120 free storage upgrade and a $400 extra discount with Samsung Instant Savings. Alternatively, you can save up to $1,120 off with a free storage upgrade and $1,000 off with trade-ins.
Get the mighty Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra for up to $700 off with the official Samsung Store. To get the discount, you must provide an eligible trade-in in good condition. Besides the trade-in discount, you can now get a $120 price cut with a free storage upgrade.
Right off the bat: these are both big phones. But how they get there is totally different.
The Galaxy S25 Ultra is your familiar heavyweight champion — an angular slab of glass and titanium, weighing in at 218 g, with that signature boxy silhouette. A 6.9-inch flat AMOLED up front and an S Pen tucked inside. Familiar yet fresh thanks to the boxy redesign from this year.
The Z Fold 7, though? That’s Samsung’s ultimate flex (literally). It has slimmed down to a crazy-thin 8.9 mm when folded, and shed a few grams down to 215 g. To make it clear, the Galaxy S25 Ultra is 8.2 mm right now — a bit thick by choco bar phone standards, but all forgiven because it's packed with high-tier tech. The Z Fold 7, when folded, barely feels any different to the Galaxy S25 Ultra.
It also helps that the new Fold's outer screen is wider, finally moving away from the “TV remote” dimensions of previous generations. It's a 21:9 now, again – like "normal" smartphones of this day and age. And inside? An 8-inch foldable AMOLED screen, slightly wider than before, and ready to morph into your mini tablet.
Galaxy Z Fold 7
Galaxy S25 Ultra
Thickness 4.2 mm unfolded 8.9 mm folded
Thickness 8.2 mm
Weight 215 gr
Weight 218 gr
The Galaxy S25 Ultra is protected by Gorilla Armor on the front — a mix between Gorilla Glass Victus 2 and Samsung's proprietary anti-reflecting coating on top. It's very durable and resistant to those pesky micro-scratches that have a tendency to appear out of nowhere. No such luck on the Galaxy Z Fold 7 — it has Gorilla Glass Ceramic 2 on its cover screen (we'll see how this one does with reflections), and Gorilla Glass Victus 2 on its back.
For ingress protection, don't expect the Galaxy Z Fold 7 to match the IP68 rating of the Galaxy S25 Ultra. It sticks with IP48 — Samsung has achieved water protection by way of ancient black magic, we suppose. But particle resistance is limited to larger chunks of sand — the hinge will let super-fine dust in, so don't bring it along for that camping trip.
Display Differences
Flat or flexible — take your pick
This one’s easy: both phones have jaw-dropping Dynamic AMOLED x2 displays. You just need to decide if you want one huge screen, or two very different ones.
S25 Ultra: One large 6.9-inch QHD+ AMOLED, flat this time (no curves towards the edge), running 1-120 Hz adaptive refresh with 2,600 nits of peak brightness. Samsung’s finest display, for sure.
Fold 7: A much-improved 6.5-inch outer AMOLED, now actually usable, and a massive 8.0-inch internal screen that unfolds into tablet territory. Both at 120 Hz, for smooth animations and the same peak brightness.
Galaxy Z Fold 7
Galaxy S25 Ultra
Cover screen 6.5 inches
Main screen 6.9 inches
Main screen 8.0 inches
-
Where the Fold wins: multitasking, immersive media, and productivity. Where the Ultra wins: simplicity, S Pen integration, and fewer moving parts. Well, and camera, somewhat, we'll get to that in a bit.
Yes, no S Pen support on the Z Fold 7. Doesn't make sense when you have such a large canvas? Well... Apparently Samsung doesn't agree. Well, the company did test a Galaxy Z Fold Special Edition in South Korea a few months ago. It was a much thinner phone, like the current Z Fold 7, but lacked S Pen support because the stylus digitizer just had to go. Apparently, users prefer the thinner foldable without S Pen than the opposite. So... it is what it is.
The CIE 1931 xy color gamut chart represents the set(area)of colors that a display can reproduce,with the sRGB colorspace(the highlighted triangle)serving as reference.The chart also provides a visual representation of a display's color accuracy. The small squares across the boundaries of the triangle are the reference points for the various colors, while the small dots are the actual measurements. Ideally, each dot should be positioned on top of its respective square. The 'x:CIE31' and 'y:CIE31' values in the table below the chart indicate the position of each measurement on the chart. 'Y' shows the luminance (in nits) of each measured color, while 'Target Y' is the desired luminance level for that color. Finally, 'ΔE 2000' is the Delta E value of the measured color. Delta E values of below 2 are ideal.
The Color accuracy chart gives an idea of how close a display's measured colors are to their referential values. The first line holds the measured (actual) colors, while the second line holds the reference (target) colors. The closer the actual colors are to the target ones, the better.
The Grayscale accuracy chart shows whether a display has a correct white balance(balance between red,green and blue)across different levels of grey(from dark to bright).The closer the Actual colors are to the Target ones,the better.
While the Galaxy Z Fold 6 had the tendency to drop in max brightness, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 hangs in there. In fact, it hangs with the S25 Ultra in all measurements — from brightness to color reproduction. The new screens do what they say on the tin and that's certainly appreciated!
In some other good news — the crease on the new Z Fold 7 is now even shallower and less visible. In fact, it's harder to feel, too! Samsung did redesign the hinge yet again, and applied a slightly thicker flexible glass to get that effect.
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Performance and Software
Same brains, different bodies
Under the hood, both the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and S25 Ultra rock the new Snapdragon 8 Elite "for Galaxy", built on a shiny 3 nm TSMC process. It comes with better thermal efficiency, boosted AI capabilities, and benchmark-shattering performance. It seems to be the very same spec on both phones:
Galaxy Z Fold 7
Galaxy S25 Ultra
Chip Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy
Chip Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy
Process 3nm
Process 3nm
RAM, Storage 12GB/256GB 12GB/512GB 16GB/1TB
LPDDR5X RAM UFS 4.0 storage
RAM, Storage 12GB/256GB 12GB/512GB 12GB/1TB
LPDDR5X RAM UFS 4.0 storage
Both phones come with 12 GB of RAM, though the Z Fold 7 does offer a 16 GB option if you go all the way up to 1 TB storage upgrade.
While they have the same chips, you can see the Z Fold 7 falling slightly behind in raw benchmark scores. We could attribute that to the Z Fold 7 having a much, much thinner chassis to work with. Therefore, thermal management is... different.
We can see the same in the hardcore GFX test from 3DMark. The Z Fold 7 just needs to throttle down a bit more, as it probably doesn't have a lot of room for cooling components.
Software-wise, we get Android 16 with One UI 8 right out of the box, along with the full Galaxy AI suite: real-time translation, Circle to Search, live call summaries — the usual “AI but make it useful” features. And yes, both will enjoy Samsung’s 7 years of updates, which means both should last you well until 2032, so long as their batteries survive the trip.
Now, the question is — how long until Galaxy S25 Ultra gets that One UI 8 update? The phone is less than half a year old and we are now anticipating that large OS update, and hoping it won't take months for it to arrive (*ahem* large update for Galaxy S24 Ultra that took some months *ahem*).
Camera
The Fold finally catches up — almost
Here’s where the S25 Ultra still asserts its dominance. A 200MP main sensor, 12MP ultra-wide, 10MP 3x telephoto, and 50MP 5x periscope. It's packed with framing options and fun tools to play with and it deservedly tops the ladder on our expansive camera benchmark test.
Wait a second, though, what's that on the Z Fold 7? The 200MP main camera from the Ultra! And that is a huge upgrade over the Fold 6. But the rest of the setup is still pretty modest: a 12 MP ultra-wide and 10 MP 3x zoom. It will do perfectly fine, and will deliver the high quality photography you deserve after paying $2k for a phone. But the Ultra still has that extra Super Zoom oomph.
PhoneArena Camera Score:
Photo
Video
Phone
Camera Score
Photo Score
Main (wide)
Ultra Wide
Selfie
Zoom
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7
142
149
80
22
24
23
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra
158
165
87
23
27
28
Phone
Camera Score
Video Score
Main (wide)
Ultra Wide
Selfie
Zoom
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7
142
134
72
20
24
19
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra
158
150
75
21
28
26
Find out more details about photo and video scores for all phones we have tested on our PhoneArena Camera Score page
Despite having the same main 200MP sensor, the Z Fold 7 did score a couple points less in our standardized test. The differences are minor — its exposure dances around a little bit more from one shot to the next, its details are a little bit worse than the S25 Ultra. Again, just a couple of points.
Galaxy Z Fold 7
Galaxy S25 Ultra
Main camera 200MP
Main camera 200MP
Ultrawide 12MP
Ultrawide 50MP
Telephoto 10MP 3X
Telephoto 10MP 3X
-
Periscope 50MP 5X
Cover selfie 10MP
Selfie 12MP
Internal selfie 10MP
-
Main Camera
< Z Fold 7S25 Ultra >
And, as expected, the main camera doesn't give us huge differences between both. The Galaxy Z Fold 7 does appear to have slightly more contrast, with more blooming highlights and deeper shadows, whereas the S25 Ultra produces slightly flatter images. But that's nitpicking. Details, colors, and exposure are pretty much the same.
< Z Fold 7S25 Ultra >
Even in low light, spotting differences between the two main cameras is a hard task.
Zoom Quality
< Z Fold 7 10xS25 Ultra 10x >
Interesting result from the zoom test. We do like the colors and contrast from the Z Fold 7 shot, but the Galaxy S25 Ultra definitely shows that it's the zooming king with much, much better detail where the Z Fold 7 melts into oversharpening.
Ultra-wide Camera
< Z Fold 7 ultra-wideS25 Ultra ultra-wide >
Both ultra-wide cameras are equally vivid, kind of HDR-y, kind of oversharpened. But extremely similar in output.
Selfies
< Z Fold7S25 Ultra >
While both selfie cameras give us about the same sharpness, details, and exposure, the colors from the S25 Ultra selfie camera are a bit closer to reality, while skintone from the Z Fold 7 has a bit of a yellow-ish pale look in comparison.
More Camera Samples
Video Quality
With the same sensor, video performance from both is also extremely similar. The Z Fold 7 footage did come out with a bit less contrast and a bit more pink-ish hue in the well-lit scene at the beginning. But from then, stabilization, shadows, and details — pretty much the same.
So if photography is your game, the Ultra is your racket, but the Fold 7 will hardly be considered a compromise.
Battery Life and Charging
Same story, different stamina
The Galaxy Z Fold 7 gets the very same 4,400 mAh cell we've seen in its predecessor. However, this is a pretty astounding achievement, considering how much of the body it slimmed down. The Galaxy S25 Ultra does have a 5,000 mAh cell and a smaller main display to feed with it. So... how does that all reflect on battery life?
And yeah, as expected — the Galaxy S25 Ultra is just able to outlast the Z Fold 7 by quite a bit. But, again, we did run the test with the Z Fold 7 unfolded, so that's the performance when it has to feed that 8" screen!
With charging, there is no change — 25 W on the wire, 15 W wirelessly to top up that Galaxy Z Fold 7. The Galaxy S25 Ultra is at least a bit faster, with a 45 W power draw to charge its 5,000 mAh battery. Wirelessly, it also supports 15 W "almost" Qi2 charging (no magnets, thus the "almost").
The Galaxy S25 Ultra is the most refined slab phone Samsung’s ever made. It has the best camera system, longer battery life, built-in S Pen, and no moving parts. It’s the safe bet—but also the best bet for most users.
The Galaxy Z Fold 7? That’s for the multitaskers, the early adopters, the power users who want their phone to be a tablet and their tablet to be their phone. It is now thin enough to not feel like a brick in your pocket. And has a main camera that won't feel like a compromise. The price is definitely up there and maybe not worth it unless you are going to make the most of these two screens,
So, which one’s right for you?
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Preslav, a member of the PhoneArena team since 2014, is a mobile technology enthusiast with a penchant for integrating tech into his hobbies and work. Whether it's writing articles on an iPad Pro, recording band rehearsals with multiple phones, or exploring the potential of mobile gaming through services like GeForce Now and Steam Link, Preslav's approach is hands-on and innovative. His balanced perspective allows him to appreciate both Android and iOS ecosystems, focusing on performance, camera quality, and user experience over brand loyalty.
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