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Rumors of Samsung’s “wide” Galaxy Z Fold have been running for many months now, promising a shorter, broader form factor that is easier to use single-handed and opens up to reveal a more tablet-like landscape display instead of a square-ish one.
Ahead of the July 22 announcement, those rumors have multiplied and given us a better idea of what Samsung is planning with the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8, Z Fold 8 Ultra, and Z Flip 8, and I have to say I’m thoroughly disappointed.
What Samsung has done here is take the nice idea of a wide foldable and ruin the best parts of it with the upcoming Z Fold 8.
Sure, it’ll have the promised form factor, but it will lack everything else that would make it an appealing foldable to someone like me.
What I expected from a wider Galaxy Z foldable
This should’ve been a proper flagship with all the bells and whistles
I’ve used the Google Pixel Fold for a few years now, and despite having both the Pixel 9 Pro Fold and 10 Pro Fold, I kept coming back to the original Fold because it just felt… right.
The outer display is easier to reach with one hand, and the inner display is better suited for watching video — not wasting half the screen on unusable black bars is a nicer experience after all.
My colleague Stephen agrees, saying he “wish[es] more companies would manufacture shorter phones with wider aspect ratios.”
So when rumors started floating around of Samsung following those footsteps to revive the wide book-style foldable, I was excited. Finally, we’d be getting a modern, powerful spiritual successor of the Pixel Fold that runs Android!
My expectations were high for this. I thought Samsung would treat it like a flagship device, throwing everything it had to compete with, perhaps even ridicule, the impending iPhone Fold.
I expected a high-end camera setup, the best-in-class processor, great battery life, and all the features that would help Samsung smugly say, “Your iPhone can’t do this.”
The Galaxy Z Fold 8 is anything but that.
Samsung is skipping the most important camera
Skipping the zoom lens on a $2,000 phone is a big mistake
According to the most recent and very believable rumors, Samsung plans to release its wide foldable as the regular Galaxy Z Fold 8, leaving the narrower and taller form factor to the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra.
Those names alone were enough to make my eyebrows raise in question because why is the wider model not an “Ultra,” and what is it missing?
A lot, as it turns out.
The most obvious downgrade is the removal of the zoom lens. The Galaxy Z Fold 8, a $2,000 phone, will sport one main camera lens and one ultrawide lens — no telephoto in sight.
I don’t understand how any flagship in 2026 can skip a zoom camera.
Parents need it to take pics of little Tom or Amy from more than five feet away; pet owners love it because it lets them snap cute shots without getting too close and waking up sleepy Max or Pumpkin; nature lovers use zoom to get better macros; and so on.
If you travel and shoot cityscapes, go to concerts or sports events, or want to take a picture to read the menu behind the counter at a new bar without moving too close through the crowds, a telephoto lens is essential.
When I pay $1,000 for a phone, I expect it to be there. At $2,000, it’s not even a question, and yet, Samsung has decided to skip it with the Galaxy Z Fold 8.
Worse yet, the main camera is limited to a 50MP sensor, which will make any zooming beyond 2x a stretch. You might be able to get a decent shot at 4x with good stabilization, but forget about 8x or anything beyond that.
The Galaxy Z Fold 8 is delivering the bare minimum
No magnets for Qi2 and no IP68 rating
We don’t know the entire spec sheet of the Galaxy Z Fold 8, but it should have Samsung’s new Flex Titanium display for a less visible crease, Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 for Galaxy, and a decent 4,800mAh battery.
No Silicon carbon here — Samsung is sticking with Lithium ion, so we don’t get those large 6,000mAh+ batteries that phones like the Honor Magic v6 sport.
It’s also looking unlikely that Samsung will pack in magnets for Qi2 charging inside the phone (you’ll need to buy a magnetic case) or give it a more resistant IP rating than IP48.
Dust ingress will remain a worry, so you’d better not take it to the beach or put it in a pocket full of lint.
Those two features — Qi2 magnets and an IP68 rating — already exist in last year’s Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold. If Google’s small hardware team can find a way to make these work, I can’t believe how Samsung couldn’t.
And let’s not mention the inner display’s selfie camera still being stuck in the middle of the screen instead of off to the corner.
Android doesn’t deal well with it, so a lot of apps will show content or menu items that will be hidden by that camera.
This is the Galaxy S25 Edge all over again
Samsung has been on a reactionary “try and dump” strategy for the last couple of years.
The Galaxy TriFold was an answer to Huawei’s triple foldables and was discontinued quickly after. The Galaxy S25 Edge saw the same fate, but its story draws more parallels with the upcoming Z Fold 8.
Just like it, it was shoehorned in as an add-on to an existing, successful Galaxy lineup, and clearly a reactionary move to an upcoming Apple product.
Looking back, it was evident that the Galaxy S25 Edge strategy was nothing but “We have a slim phone too, and we did it first!” in answer to the iPhone Air.
It, too, skipped the zoom camera and stuck with a main lens and an ultrawide. It, too, launched at an exorbitant price for the specs. And it, too, had a better “Ultra” alternative that true Samsung fans could choose instead.
Repeating the same mistake and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity, the saying goes, but what do I know?
I don’t have the Samsung execs’ financial projections, so maybe they know this wide Galaxy Z Fold 8 will be successful despite its shortcomings. Or maybe the marketing cred of doing it before Apple is worth all the sacrifices.
What is absolutely certain is that it looks lazy, uninspired, and silly from a Samsung fan’s perspective, and, as someone who had high hopes for the company’s take on a wide foldable, I am thoroughly disappointed. I’ll be skipping this one, Samsung.
