The Galaxy Z Fold 7 has solved the wrong problem

Android Authority

05-08-2025

Ever since foldable phones first appeared, I've had a complicated relationship with them. I wanted to love the concept from the very beginning, and I truly tried, but I could never get past how unwieldy they were. If you'll remember, early foldables were comically thick, essentially feeling like two regular phones stacked on top of each other.
Over the years, manufacturers have been on a mission to slim them down. Now, with the launch of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7, we've reached a significant milestone. It's the thinnest foldable Samsung has ever produced and the thinnest you can buy in the United States right now. The long-standing goal of making a foldable as thin as a normal smartphone has finally been achieved.
And yet, I still don't want one.
What's the deal? If thickness was my main complaint, why haven't I jumped on the foldable bandwagon? As it turns out, after spending some time with the Galaxy Z Fold 7, I've realized that while Samsung has engineered a brilliant solution to the thickness problem, that isn't the problem I've needed it to solve.
The best-feeling Fold ever made
C. Scott Brown / Android Authority
Before I get into what's holding me back from the Galaxy Z Fold 7, let me be clear: this phone is a marvel of engineering. The company made huge gains this year, making the phone 36% thinner than the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and a whopping 43% thinner than the Galaxy Z Fold 5. The moment I held it, I could feel the difference. It's still a hefty device, don't get me wrong, but it is undoubtedly the best-feeling foldable Samsung ever made.
To put it in perspective, when closed, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 is basically the same thickness as my daily driver, the Google Pixel 9 Pro. When you unfold it, the thinness is even more apparent. Each half is so slim that the USB-C port on the bottom barely fits. Despite this, the device doesn't feel flimsy; it feels just as sturdy as its thicker predecessors.
Samsung has created the best foldable it has ever made — possibly the best that any company has made yet.
Samsung has also continued to refine its hinge technology. The action is smoother, and the crease on the inner display is less of an eyesore than ever. The internal screen is also bigger, now measuring eight inches, and the cover display sports a new 21:9 aspect ratio that makes it feel much more like a normal phone.
The upgrades aren't just skin-deep, either. The main camera now features the same 200MP sensor found in the Galaxy S25 Ultra, a considerable step up for a Samsung foldable, which has traditionally lagged behind the Galaxy S series in camera prowess. Samsung also made the smart decision to ditch the under-display selfie camera on the inner screen in favor of a standard punch-hole cutout, which drastically improves image quality.
Even with the thinner and lighter design, Samsung still crammed in a lot of Galaxy S25 Ultra-caliber features.
Of course, not everything is an upgrade. The battery size is unchanged, and it still charges at a painfully slow 25W. The ultrawide and telephoto lenses are iterative improvements at best, and in a move that's sure to anger many fans, S Pen support has been removed entirely.
Still, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 is tangibly better than any foldable Samsung has launched before. It's as thin as a regular phone and nearly as powerful as a Galaxy S25 Ultra. This is what I've been waiting for, right? Time to ditch my Pixel?
Not so fast.
A $2,000 solution in search of a problem
C. Scott Brown / Android Authority
Yes, Samsung has made its best foldable ever. But that just brings a more fundamental question into focus: Why should I — or anyone, really — buy a foldable phone over a standard slab phone? This question becomes even more pointed when you see the price tag. The Galaxy Z Fold 7 starts at a staggering $1,999, a $100 increase over last year's model. What exactly does this phone do that makes it worth $1,000 more than my Pixel 9 Pro ($999 at Amazon)?
This is the real hurdle for foldables and the thing preventing me from adopting one. To help prove my point, I scoured the web looking into the most popular reasons people give for loving the unfolded, tablet-like experience foldable phones like the Z Fold 7 offer. Three use cases came up repeatedly: productivity, media consumption, and gaming.
People who love foldables seem to always tout how much better they are at productivity, media consumption, and gaming. But are they?
First, let's talk about productivity. Proponents say the larger screen is a game-changer for working with spreadsheets, allowing them to see and edit data more easily. Others advocate for pairing it with a Bluetooth keyboard to create a pseudo-laptop replacement for travel. While these are certainly valid points, they don't apply to my personal workflow. I rarely look at spreadsheets, and if I'm already carrying a separate keyboard in my bag, I'd much rather just bring my actual laptop, which offers a more powerful and comfortable experience.
Next up is media consumption. The Fold is often praised as an excellent device for reading e-books, as its form factor can feel like a real book when opened. But for me, that can't compete with my Kindle Paperwhite ($159.99 at Amazon), which has a paper-like display that's easier on the eyes and a battery that lasts for months. Watching videos is another popular use case, and I'll admit it's fantastic for YouTube, where you can watch a video up top while scrolling through comments below or scrubbing to specific sections of the content. For movies and TV shows, however, the benefit disappears. Due to the screen's squarish aspect ratio, most TV shows and films will be letterboxed so severely that the image will frequently end up being smaller than it would be on a large slab phone like the Galaxy S25 Ultra, which kind of defeats the whole purpose of having that big unfolded display.
Despite how much I want it not to be the case, an unfolded foldable just doesn't fit anywhere in my life.
Finally, there's gaming. The large inner display is a clear advantage for mobile games that rely on on-screen controls, as your fingers cover less of the action world. This is a definite perk, but it's a moot point for someone like me who doesn't really play mobile games. If I'm going to game, it will be on my laptop, which can play pretty much anything from mobile titles to AAA PC games to emulated retro classics, and do so on a screen much larger than eight inches.
The trend here is that for every touted advantage of a book-style foldable, it either doesn't matter for me, personally, or it is bested by a dedicated device that simply does the job better.
You'll also notice that none of the things I've talked about can't be replicated on my Pixel 9 Pro. And that is the real problem Samsung needs to solve.
The real problem isn't thickness — it's purpose
C. Scott Brown / Android Authority
The issue keeping me from adopting the Galaxy Z Fold 7 — or any other foldable — is that everything a foldable can do can also be done on a regular smartphone. Even today, in 2025, there is no killer feature, no 'a-ha!' moment that makes a foldable a must-have device for the average person.
Foldables can continue to get thinner, more powerful, and have better cameras, but until they offer a unique feature that a slab phone can't replicate, they will remain a niche product. Most people will look at a $2,000 foldable and a $1,000 flagship — and even a $500 mid-range phone — and conclude that they can do everything they need on all three devices, so why spend two grand on a foldable?
A slab-style phone can still adequately replicate everything a foldable can do — so why spend $2,000 on one?
There's a common sentiment in the tech world that Apple will be the one to legitimize foldables. The theory goes that once a foldable iPhone exists, mainstream consumers will flock to it, validating the entire category. This might be true, but it won't be just because it's a phone from Apple. If a foldable iPhone succeeds, it will be because Apple figured out that essential 'a-ha!' moment. I am far from an Apple fanboy, but that's what the company excels at: taking an existing idea and refining it to the point where it feels indispensable. However, even Apple might miss the mark here. Let's not forget that the company thought it had the 'a-ha!' moment for XR with the Vision Pro, and that went absolutely nowhere.
Regardless, so far, Samsung, Google, OnePlus, and others haven't found that magic bullet. They've focused on solving the hardware problems — like thickness and the crease — which they've done admirably. But they haven't solved the software and user experience problem. They haven't given us a compelling why.
The Galaxy Z Fold 7 is an incredible piece of technology and a triumph of industrial design. It's the pinnacle of Samsung's foldable journey so far. But it proves that the biggest challenge for foldables was never their thickness. It's their reason for being. And that's a problem that a thinner design, no matter how impressive, just can't solve.
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