I'd given up on Samsung's foldables, but the Z Fold 7 and Flip 7 give me faith
I thought Samsung's foldables were dead in the water. Leading up to Unpacked, I had almost nothing to be excited about with the Galaxy Z Flip 7 or Z Fold 7, because I assumed they'd be more of the same. After all, that's mostly what Samsung has done in the last few years — make a few minor updates, add new AI features, and trust you to buy them anyway because there's no other competition. And, if that stayed true, I was all too happy to stick with a Razr Ultra in my pocket or a Pixel 9 Pro Fold when I wanted a book-style setup.
Well, I was wrong. Samsung surprised me by taking a step back to look at where its foldables were flopping and decided to make some changes. I've only spent time with the Galaxy Z Fold 7 so far, but I finally have a little faith that Samsung might have its eyes back on the foldable throne, and here's why.
The Fold 7 shows that not every innovation is a good one
Ryan Haines / Android Authority
Given my usual preference for the flip side of the foldable market, it's been a while since I've had my hands on a Galaxy Z Fold. This year, though, the Fold 7 landed in my lap with more than a few surprises inside of its ever slimmer aluminum chassis. Perhaps the biggest surprise, at least to me, was that Samsung finally seemed ready to move on from features that seemed like bright ideas that haven't played out.
Specifically, I couldn't be happier that the under-display selfie camera is gone. Samsung gave its old 4MP sensor a good run, it really did, but between you and me, it always looked terrible. I always felt like I may as well have been using the selfie camera on a cheap Amazon Fire Tab (sorry, Amazon), which led me to prefer either the punch hole on the cover screen or the primary camera while holding the phone wide open — a move that probably looked as ridiculous as it felt. However, you can't argue with the power of a much larger 50MP (now 200MP thanks to another upgrade) selfie shooter to highlight one of the best Android camera setups.
Samsung is no stranger to big ideas, but sometimes the tried-and-true methods work best.
The other change that has made me feel like Samsung is back on the right track is that the Galaxy Z Fold 7 finally feels like a normal phone. On one hand, I think I can understand why Samsung kept the cover screen aspect ratio on its previous model so narrow — it forced you to use the internal display more often. For me, though, it made the overall experience so uncomfortable that I'd barely touch a Fold at all. I just couldn't make my fingers dance across the razor-thin display gracefully enough.
This time, everything has changed. The Galaxy Z Fold 7 has a much more normal 21:9 aspect ratio, which feels more traditional and gives the keyboard a little more space to breathe. When combined with a thickness when closed of just under 9mm, I don't feel like I have an awkward bar in my pocket so much as just a slightly thicker Galaxy S25 Ultra.
Basically, Samsung has finally given the Galaxy Z Fold 7 a few of the features that I loved most about its closest rivals — the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold and the OnePlus Open. It's taken a few steps sideways to move forward, slimming its flagship in the process. There's one slight hiccup to that imitation, though: The S Pen is a thing of the past. Part of slimming down its supercharged foldable meant stripping out the digitizer layer, which means your beloved stylus is little more than an extra-long way to itch behind your ears now.
The Flip 7 proves that sometimes other brands' innovations are better
Over on the Galaxy Z Flip 7, I'm going to shamelessly praise Samsung's decision to steal the cover screen from Motorola's top-end Razrs. It's about three years late, but the swap from a 3.4-inch 60Hz AMOLED panel to a 4.1-inch 120Hz panel makes the new Flip feel much more worthy of its price tag. It doesn't function differently from the Galaxy Z Flip 6 display, still requiring Good Lock for most apps, but the upgraded appearance goes a long way.
I'm also pleased to see Samsung put its flagship flip phone through a bit of a squish and stretch process, another change that should make it more comfortable. The new model is a smidge taller (about a millimeter) and a touch wider (closer to 5mm), but the expanded chassis now houses a larger 6.9-inch foldable display, once again bringing it just a little bit closer to the Razr Ultra that's otherwise held a permanent place in my pocket. Granted, I'd still probably rather feel the Razr's rounded edges as I reach into my pocket, but I'm glad Samsung is finally looking to its competition.
That said, I have less praise for the Galaxy Z Flip 7. Honestly, there's just a lot more that Samsung could learn from its closest US-based rival. For starters, Motorola's cover screen is still brighter at 3,000 nits, smoother with a 165Hz refresh rate, and much easier to use without the need for Good Lock. I can simply load up an app and open it wherever needed. Mix in a 4,700mAh battery with 68W wired charging, and Samsung's stubborn refusal to move beyond 25W and a 4,300mAh cell feels pretty pedestrian.
But I'm here to celebrate Samsung's wins, so let's move on.
In both cases, I'm just glad Samsung is learning
C. Scott Brown / Android Authority
The biggest and best thing that Samsung has done for its Galaxy Z series is simple: It's changed. Yes, I know Samsung could probably sit on its laurels and say that it has more of a market share than the Pixel 9 Pro Fold, and it could probably point out that it offers more software updates than any Razr that Motorola makes, but it's finally, finally not doing that. It's listening to reviewer after reviewer say, 'This phone feels too narrow and uncomfortable,' or 'I'm not sure why the Flex Window looks like that,' and responding appropriately.
When I take a step back, I realize that Samsung might have teased some of these upgrades ahead of time, at least for the Galaxy Z Fold 7. I'm on record as not liking the Galaxy S25 Edge — not at all, in fact — but the latest Fold picks up mostly where the ultra-thin Edge left off. It nabs a similar, slimmed-down frame, a nearly identical multi-layer camera bump, and buttons that take up almost the entire width of the chassis, but everything seems to combine more cohesively.
I'm still not sure anyone should buy the Edge, but maybe it's a sign to start looking towards other Samsung launches for clues of what might come next. The next Ultra could pull from the Fold, or the next Edge could pull from the Flip, or I could be wrong on all counts. No matter what it turns out to be, I'm glad that Samsung has made me care again.
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Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 FE Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 Motorola Razr (2025) Chipset Exynos 2400 Exynos 2500 Dimensity 7400X Geekbench 6 score (single-core / multi-core) 2044 / 6761 2286 / 8079 1089 / 3075 3DMark Wild Life Extreme Unlimited (score / fps) 3042 / 18.2 4325 / 25.9 1021 / 6.1 Adobe Premiere Rush time to transcode (mins:secs) 1:15 1:04 1:21 The Exynos 2400 does outperform the Motorola Razr's Dimensity 7400X chip on all key fronts, but lags behind the newer Exynos 2500, especially on the GPU front. But outside the lab, the Z Flip 7 FE runs into a problem — heat and performance throttling. There is a massive gap between the Z Flip 7 FE's full potential and what you get after a few minutes of activity. Playing Ex Astris at max graphics settings, the Z Fold 7 FE struggles to keep up at maximum graphics settings. This is a game that runs perfectly on a Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, but the Exynos 2400 struggles to keep a high, consistent frame rate. 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It means the inner display is still where you'll spend the vast majority of your time, even if you can check notifications or appointments, alter quick settings or even take photos with the phone folded (at least without additional modifying apps downloaded). The whole Z Flip 7 FE feels unfortunately dated, even if it's a brand new phone based on a one-year-old design. Such is the leap Samsung made with the Galaxy Z Flip 7. I didn't notice how the inner screen of the Z Flip 7 FE is a smaller 6.7-inch panel rather than 6.9 inches as you get on the Z Flip 7, but I did notice the bezels being way thicker and more obtrusive on the FE. There is definitely a difference in the depth of the crease in the display too, but not one that spoils the experience on the FE. The most noticeable physical difference is the hinge. The Z Flip 7 FE's mechanism is way stiffer than the Z Flip 7, despite both phones having smooth folding actions, and being capable of holding their position at any point between open and closed. Samsung wasn't kidding about the advancements it made to the Z Fold 7's mechanism, but it's hard to understand without comparing it directly to what the old hinge feels like. On the brighter side, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 FE is actually a touch lighter than the Z Flip 7. The FE also has the same water and dust resistance rating (IP) as the Z Flip 7, the same Gorilla Glass Victus 2 protecting the back and cover display and the same Armor Aluminum frame. None of these will hopefully ever matter to you, but if there's ever an accidental drop or immersion, you'll be grateful for the durability. It's slightly disappointing that you only have black and white colors to choose from on the Galaxy Z Flip 7 FE. The Z Flip 7 comes in black, blue and red (plus an online-exclusive mint green), which give users the option of a more exciting color if they want. Our lab testing of the Galaxy Z Flip 7 FE's display revealed it has one advantage over its rivals — a higher peak brightness. It's behind on color gamut coverage though, although at least it has similar color accuracy to the regular Z Flip 7. Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 FE Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 Motorola Razr (2025) Peak brightness (nits) 2105 1989 1916 sRGB color gamut volume (%) 141.3 151.7 207.3 DCI-P3 color gamut volume (%) 100.1 107.4 146.8 Color accuracy (∆E, lower is better) 0.24 0.23 0.34 The Galaxy Z Flip 7 FE features the same battery capacity as previous Z Flip models: 4,000 mAh. Meanwhile, you get an upgraded 4,300 mAh cell in the standard Z Flip 7. Between that capacity difference and the power efficiency of the two different chips, it's no surprise that we found a big battery life gap in our testing. In our test, which sets phones to constantly open different sites on a web browser over cellular data until the battery gives out, it took 9 hours and 12 minutes at regular adaptive refresh rate mode for the Z Flip 7 FE to give up, below the average phone's result by more than an hour. The Z Flip 7 managed 12 hours and 24 minutes. And the Razr 2025 does even better, lasting 13 hours and 36 minutes. Charging is again a choice of 25W wired or 15W wireless, something that the regular Galaxy Z Flip 7 doesn't change either. A drained Z Flip 7 FE fills reaches 56% capacity after 30 minutes, at least making it a bit faster to power up than its rivals. The Razr 2025 makes it to 42% on the same charger, and the Z Flip 7 to 55% I fully swapped to the Galaxy Z Flip 7 after I finished testing the FE, and it's confusing to think that both of these phones came out at the same time. The regular Z Flip 7 is a brilliant device, and deservedly sits at the top of our best foldable phones guide. But whether the Z Flip 7 FE deserves similar praise is not so clear. If the Z Flip 7 FE was cheaper, or shared more of the Z Flip 7's upgrades, this would be an easy phone to recommend for foldable-curious users wanting to eke the most out of their phone-buying budget. But the phone we have is lower-powered, a lot less power efficient and uses outdated design elements, while dropping the cost by less than a fifth — not much of a discount considering what you lose out on. The ideal user for the Galaxy Z Flip 7 FE is someone craving the futuristic and convenient form-factor of a flip foldable, but also, counterintuitively, doesn't mind getting lesser and older hardware in its place. The software and camera experience is on par with the full-fat Galaxy Z Flip 7, so you don't have to worry about missing out on updates or image quality compared to the more expensive Samsung flip phone. But you'll have to accept you could have get more camera, performance and battery life potential for your money by settling for a non-folding flagship phone.
