I've been testing the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 for a week — 7 things I like and 4 things I don't

Tom's Guide

2 days ago

I've been carrying the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 around in my pocket ever since it launched. Not just because it's my job to try out new devices like this, but because Samsung's biggest foldable phone upgrade yet is genuinely a fantastic product to use.
While we wait for our full Galaxy Z Fold 7 review to arrive, I've distilled what I love about the Galaxy Z Fold 7 into, conveniently enough, seven specific points. I still have a few nits to pick, but we'll get into those later.
On balance, it still feels likely that the Galaxy Z Fold 7 is going to make it onto our best foldable phones list. Here's what I like — and what I don't like — about the Z Fold 7 so far.
Samsung made the Galaxy Z Fold 7 thinner, lighter and tougher than previous Z Folds — the holy trinity of improvements for a smartphone body.
The 26% reduction in the Z Fold 7's thickness compared to the Galaxy Z Fold 6's is an incredible leap to make in a single generation. The 10% weight reduction is welcome too, especially considering the overall increase in screen size (which we'll look at more in a moment) and the new tougher materials.
There's Gorilla Glass Victus 2 on the back, Gorilla Glass Ceramic 2 on the outer screen and new, thicker ultra-thin glass on the inside, along with a returning IP48 rating for dust/water resistance, should all help to keep this valuable phone intact and functional for as long as you use it.
Galaxy Z Fold 7 preorder: up to $1,150 off w/ trade-in @ SamsungFree storage upgrade! Samsung is knocking up to $1,150 off Galaxy Z Fold 7 preorders when you trade-in an older phone. Additionally, you'll get a free storage upgrade with your preorder. The phone features an 8-inch AMOLED (2184 x 1968) 120Hz main display, 6.5-inch AMOLED (2520 x 1080) 120Hz cover display, Snapdragon 8 Elite CPU, 12GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage. On the rear you get a 200MP f/1.7 main wide-angle lens, 12MP f/2.2 ultra-wide lens, and 10MP f/2.4 telephoto lens. Selfie cams include a 10MP f/2.2 main display and cover camera. In our Galaxy Z Fold 7 hands-on, we called it the first foldable we'd want to carry and use all day.
Samsung used to be a bit stingy with the cameras on its foldables, but that's changing with the Galaxy Z Fold 7. Its 200MP main camera means you're now on par with the Galaxy S25 Ultra, and likewise with the upgraded ultrawide camera that now features autofocus and support for macro shots.
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Samsung could still have bumped up the Z Fold 7's ultrawide camera to 50MP, plus its 3x 10MP telephoto is starting to show its age. But the overall loadout is now worthy of a two-grand foldable, with the benefits clear to see in comparisons such as my Galaxy Z Fold 7 vs Galaxy Z Fold 6 camera shoot-out.
The enlarged 8-inch inner display of the Galaxy Z Fold 7 means you now basically have a pocketable iPad mini, similar to rival devices from China. You do lose a little bit of space to the new camera punch-hole, but like on a regular phone, the cutout virtually disappears as soon as you start focusing on your game, video or feed.
This increased size didn't come at the expense of the crease down the center of the panel. These are present on all foldable phones to one extent or another, but Samsung revised its hinge technology to make the Z Fold 7's crease look and feel less obvious.
Samsung also made the smaller cover screen of the Galaxy Z Fold 7 wider and larger at 6.5 inches (up from 6.3 inches). That makes the new Z Fold much more comfortable to use closed up.
Previous Z Folds only worked at their best when open, as their outer screens were awkwardly narrow for typing. With the Galaxy Z Fold 7, it's now up to you which configuration of the phone works best for what you're doing at the moment.
A Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset is as good as it gets for an Android phone, and the "For Galaxy" edition is even better. Only Apple's A18 chipsets do better, and even then only on select benchmarks.
This makes playing games like Wuthering Waves immersive on the Galaxy Z Fold 7, although you'll have to get used to playing your games in a square window if you want the big screen open.
Opening up multiple apps for productivity works brilliantly, too, and all without taking a major toll on battery life.
Samsung's under-display camera on the inside display of the previous Z Folds helped make the display look cleaner (minus a few odd-looking pixels), but it severely impacted the camera's performance. Even companies dedicated to perfecting the UDC, such as ZTE, have yet to get it right.
Samsung's decision to go back to a more typical punch-hole camera is overall better for the phone, even if a few users won't like the new hole in their screen. You can see the difference it makes to photography in my selfie comparison with the Galaxy Z Fold 6.
I'm not huge on AI features, but Samsung, with the help of Google in some cases, has thought carefully about ways to make these features work better on a foldable's big inner screen.
My favorite is how you now get a before/after view when editing photos, a really simple idea but one with a lot of potential value. You can also move Gemini and other AI prompt windows freely around the display, letting you get answers or images without obscuring your other apps, and copy the output into those apps more conveniently.
A $100 increase to $2,000 for the Fold 7 really stings. And this comes after a $100 price increase last year as well.
Granted, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 still costs the same as last year here in the U.K. at £1,800, so while Samsung gets a point for not increasing the price here, you can't deny it's an expensive phone, even compared to other foldables.
Considering how excellent the Galaxy S25 series is, while costing up to half as much, it can be hard to justify spending so much more for a foldable. You'll have to be certain you want to go the foldable route before you commit to spending this much money.
I've been able to get a day's use from the Galaxy Z Fold 7 without an issue. But that doesn't detract from the fact that Samsung could have done even better.
While the batteries in the Z Fold 7 take up less space than previous generations, it still has the same 4,400 mAh battery capacity that the Galaxy Z Fold 3 introduced four years ago.
Considering that rival foldables like the Honor Magic V5 and Oppo Find N5 are fitting close to 6,000 mAh of capacity — thanks to new silicon carbon technology — there's a lot of space for Samsung to grow into.
Samsung lets you open up to three apps, plus one slide-over app, at the same time on the Galaxy Z Fold 7. This works decently, but it's not as good as OnePlus' Open Canvas system for its OnePlus Open.
Although that foldable's coming up to two years old, the ability to open apps in larger windows and slide between them as needed is a much smarter use of screen space than the cramped look of the Galaxy Z Fold 7's interface with all possible apps open.
The Z Fold 7 does offer a DeX desktop mode too, but that's designed for use with a dedicated monitor rather than just the device.
Samsung gave up S Pen support with the Z Fold 7 in favor of thinning out the design. And while I'm full of praise for how far Samsung's engineering has come, I wish this was one caveat it didn't come with.
I admit I never used the S Pen much, but I still liked the availability being there, as it rounded out the Z Fold's versatility and identity as a pocketable tablet. Especially considering that rival foldables are just as thin and still offer stylus support.
I'm not just talking about the iinner display, but on the outer display too, which is something Samsung somehow never managed to offer.