Galaxy Z Fold 7 vs iPhone Fold — Samsung just put Apple on notice

Tom's Guide

10-07-2025

Somewhere deep in Apple's labs they're rumored to be cooking up an iPhone Fold for release next year. But something tells me their engineers came away from the Galaxy Unpacked event yesterday (July 9) feeling a bit nervous.
The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 introduced at Unpacked literally reinvents the foldable for me, and Apple's first foldable could already be in trouble if they're not able to top this device.
For starters, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 is shockingly thin and light. I had a chance to review the original Galaxy Fold back in 2019, and this new foldable is nearly half as thick. We're talking 8.9mm when the Galaxy Z Fold 7 is folded and 4.2mm when it's unfolded.
Rumor has it that Apple is developing the iPhone 17 Air for this fall as a precursor to the iPhone Fold. The company apparently wants to nail the thin form factor ahead of a possible foldable, which makes sense.
According to analyst Ming Chi-Kuo, the iPhone Fold — which could begin production as early as this fall — is expected be 9 to 9.5mm thick when folded and 4.5 to 4.8mm thick when unfolded.
These dimensions would be well behind Samsung's Z Fold 7. So if this rumor is true, it may be time to go back to the drawing board.
How about the displays? Kuo has stated that Apple is looking at a 7.8-inch panel when unfolded, which again would be smaller than the main 8-inch display on the fold 7. (The Galaxy Z Fold 6 released a year ago had a 7.6-inch screen.)
Another leaker, Digital Chat Station, says that the iPhone Fold display is 7.58 inches. And I hope that's not the case.
At least Kuo believes that the iPhone Fold's main display will be crease-free, which would be quite the feat. The Z Fold 7's screen still has a crease, though it's not as prominent as in previous versions of Samsung's phone.
Meanwhile, the cover display of the iPhone Fold is tipped to measure 5.5 inches. That's puny compared to the 6.5-inch front panel on the Galaxy Z Fold 7.
Frankly, I wouldn't want Apple's foldable if the outside display were that small — there's a reason why the iPhone mini went away.
Here's a rumor I hope is definitely wrong. The same leaker Digital Chat Station says that the iPhone Fold will sport only two 48MP rear cameras.
I don't know if that means Apple will forego an ultrawide camera or a telephoto lens in this scenario. But I'd hate to see Apple not go for a big zoom. After all, when you have that large of a viewfinder, you want the freedom to crop.
The Galaxy Z Fold 7 boasts a 200MP main camera. Of course, megapixels aren't everything, but this shooter combined with Samsung's ProVisual engine should be able to go toe-to-toe with whatever Apple brings to the table.
Honestly, I was surprised with the Galaxy S25 Ultra beat the iPhone 16 Pro Max in my photo face-off. So it's certainly possible that Samsung could win the foldable photo war, too.
Apple is so far behind in the AI wars that it is not giving a timetable for the new and improved Siri other than 2026. That's not a good sign when it's already lagging behind its rivals.
And that competition includes Google Gemini, which plays a very big role in the Galaxy Z Fold 7's AI features. You can summon the assistant at any time with a long press of the Z Fold's side button, and it offers a really helpful multimodal.
You can use Gemini to ask questions live with your voice in a conversational style, as well as share your live camera view.
For example, if you point the Galaxy Z Fold 7 at a concert calendar poster, you can then easily turn that into a calendar entry. Or you could use it to figure out what to make for dinner based on what's in your fridge or help you pick out an outfit for the day.
The Z Fold 7 is so smart you can even get in-game help buy simply sharing your screen with Gemini and it will come back with tips — without forcing you to leave the game.
To be fair. Apple's Visual Intelligence feature can do some of the above, but Siri is not yet smart enough to talk with you about what you're seeing in real time.
Apple is reportedly looking at possible partnerships with the likes of Anthropic's Claude and OpenAI for a serious Siri AI boost. And there's even been reports of a possible Perplexity acquisition. But there's nothing concrete right now.
As strong as the Z Fold 7 looks on paper and in person, it has some notable drawbacks — and that's even before I've done my full review.
The biggest con is that $2,000 price Samsung now charges in the U.S. That's a serious chunk of change for a foldable phone and $100 more than the already pricey Z Fold 6.
Bloomberg's Gurman has reported that the iPhone Fold could cost around $2,000 as well, and we've seen another rumor that Apple could charging between $2,100 and $2,300.
There's still a good amount of time before 2026 and none of the rumored iPhone Fold specs I've mentioned are set in stone. So it could certainly turn out to be a much better foldable than expected.
But after taking what seemed like a gap year with the Galaxy Z Fold 6, Samsung has really shook things up with the Galaxy Z Fold 7.
The design is so good I could actually see myself using a foldable phone as my daily driver for the first time. And the AI features are well optimized for the larger display.
Where Apple could potentially surge ahead is the software experience, especially when it comes to multitasking. Borrowing some elements from the windowing system in iPadOS 26 wouldn't be a bad idea.
But given that Apple is reportedly already in the prototyping stage for the iPhone Fold, it really has to hustle to make a foldable that doesn't look like an also-ran.