I shot 200+ photos with the Galaxy Z Fold 7 vs. Galaxy S25 Ultra — here's the winner

Tom's Guide

4 days ago

Picking between the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 and the Galaxy S25 Ultra would be a difficult decision for anyone with the option to buy either. And a likely deciding factor could be how these two very expensive phones perform when it comes to taking photos.
While the Galaxy Z Fold 7 has the same number of cameras as the Galaxy S25 Ultra, and shares some of the same sensors, the position and type of cameras used differ significantly. The practical difference here isn't obvious, unlike pricing, battery life and, of course, the foldability of these two devices.
After hundreds of photos and detailed analysis, I've got some interesting comparisons between the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Galaxy S25 Ultra cameras. You wouldn't have expected the two best Samsung phones to be so different, and yet you're about to see just how far these two phones diverge in image quality as well as form factor.
Both of these phones can take up to 200MP photos with their main cameras, but this shot of a tree and a path is set at the default 12MP resolution, the one you'll want to stick with for most of your photos.
It was a bright and sunny day when I headed out to capture these photos, and the Galaxy Z Fold 7 clearly shows that off. It's less obvious from the Galaxy S25 Ultra's image, which has attempted to balance the light level throughout the image. The result is less dramatic shadows, but enhanced detail from Samsung's non-folding flagship.
The impact of the Galaxy Z Fold 7's lower-res 12MP sensor is visible in this photo of a converted stablehouse though it's not evident in terms of detail. Rather, it's a matter of lower light levels.
The pixel-binned 50MP ultrawide camera of the S25 Ultra creates a much brighter image. The S25 Ultra's shot also gives better HDR, which is especially visible in the brighter portions of the clock tower on top of the building.
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In the first of our zoom comparisons, we look across a park at the old mansion house at its center. Both phones have a dedicated 3x 10MP telephoto camera, so that's what we're using here.
The image taken by the Galaxy S25 Ultra is brighter, with better HDR overall. However, I do like the Z Fold 7's higher level of detail on the building itself.
Here, the Galaxy S25 Ultra's second telephoto camera can flex its muscles, while the Z Fold 7 has to rely on digital zoom from its 3x camera.
Understandably, the Z Fold 7's image is on the darker side, and is less detailed to boot. Meanwhile, the Galaxy S25 Ultra deals with this zoom level with no problem at all, and can even shoot at up to 50MP at this level if you want it to.
In our final zoom comparison, we see just how soft the Galaxy Z Fold 7's image has become at its highest magnification level — a 30x zoom. You can still make out the main details of the roof and chimneys of the mansion, and there's still a reasonable amount of color to appreciate too.
But the S25 Ultra's able to handle this zoom level far more competently, thanks to its higher optical magnification and higher resolution sensor.
30x is the highest you can zoom in with the Z Fold 7. But as a bonus, here is the S25 Ultra's 100x zoom maximum for the same shot. It's a bit muddy, but you can still understand what is in the image.
Looking over these formal gardens, we have perhaps the closest comparison between the two phones so far. The Galaxy Z Fold 7 is slightly brighter overall, while the S25 Ultra has given us a darker, shadow-ier look. I like both photos, but they are subtly different.
The microfoam on top of this coffee can help us see the HDR capabilities of these two phones — their ability to balance extreme light and dark in the same image.
The Galaxy Z Fold 7 doesn't do a bad job, showing the dark bubbles in the coffee clearly, but in doing so, it has to sacrifice some detail from the white of the latte art. On the S25 Ultra shot, we can see the glossy sheen of the frothed milk that is present in real life, although perhaps too aggressively for some people's liking.
Approaching subjects, such as this flower, activates both phones' macro modes, uses the ultrawide lens on either phone to allow you to get in close to grab all those details.
In the Galaxy S25 Ultra's image, we can see more of the veins in the petals, but it's also a bit dark in places. It's the opposite on the Z Fold 7's version, which is brighter overall.
Using the front-facing cameras — in the case of the Galaxy Z Fold 7, that's the 10MP camera on the phone's cover — I tried a pair of portrait mode selfies.
Both phones do a fine job with the bokeh effect, but the Galaxy S25 Ultra's image gives me a warmer skin tone, compared to a less exaggerated one on the Z Fold 7.
The last shot in this comparison takes us back to the main cameras, and a shot of a wooden die on a table in a darkened room.
The grain of the wood appears in much sharper relief on the S25 Ultra shot. The Galaxy Z Fold 7 flattens a lot of the detail in the die, even if it gets the color of the image mostly the same.
Now that we've been through all these different scenarios, we can see how differently these two Samsung phones interpret what you put in front of the lens. That said, the only real place the Galaxy Z Fold 7 lags behind compared to the Galaxy S25 Ultra is on telephoto performance above 3x magnification.
Granted, the Galaxy S25 Ultra demonstrates superior HDR and better light control across multiple shot types, which keeps it in the top spot on our best camera phones guide. But I think the Z Fold 7's performance is good enough for someone with a generous budget weighing up Samsung's best foldable phone and best slab phone not to regret picking the Z Fold over the Galaxy S Ultra.