Latest news with #SamsungElectronics
Gizmodo
5 hours ago
- Gizmodo
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 Review: Foldable Perfection That's Tempting Me to Leave My iPhone
Disregard the fact that there's a whole world of Chinese-made book-style foldables as thin and light as the Galaxy Z Fold 7 that Americans can't buy, and Samsung's latest phone-to-tablet foldable is what we've been waiting for. It only took Samsung six years to make its flagship foldable as svelte as a regular bar smartphone, but the Z Fold 7 delivers in all aspects. The only thing that holds it back is the $2,000 price tag, a $100 increase over last year's Z Fold 6. See Galaxy Z Fold 7 at Amazon See Galaxy Z Fold 7 at It's often difficult to see the march of progress year-over-year. It's only over multiple generations of small improvements that you see how far along things have really come. The road to the Z Fold 7 has been in the making since 2019, when Samsung released the first-gen Fold and disaster struck immediately when people started peeling its pre-installed protective film and literally destroying the folding display. The original Fold was also too skinny to use as a regular phone when closed, the cover screen was too tiny, and the whole thing was too thick and heavy. The Z Fold 7 is a miracle in engineering compared to that first Fold—delivering everything that Samsung wanted to achieve with that pioneering foldable. Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold 7 delivers on the dream of a book-style foldable that's feels no different from a bar phone when closed, but it's not cheap. Pros Cons Year-over-year, the Z Fold 7 sheds some major weight, adds a flagship-level main camera, and increases performance while sprinkling just enough new Galaxy AI and Gemini features to not feel like Samsung went overboard. The Z Fold 7 also ships in what might be the nicest shade of blue that I've seen on any phone. (Yes, even prettier than the Pacific Blue iPhone 12 Pro and Ultramarine OnePlus 8 Pro.) In six years of reviewing Samsung Z Folds, I've not once felt compelled to leave my iPhone for one just to get an extra tablet-sized screen. Not even for better-made book-style foldables like the Pixel 9 Pro Fold or OnePlus Open, both of which I gave high marks. But the Z Fold 7 captivated me from the second I laid my fingers on it. The last time an Android phone truly made me want to leave Apple's walled garden was the Galaxy Note 7, which took breaths away with its sleek, dual-curved display and had such a tightly packed design that faulty batteries literally killed it. Leaving Apple's walled garden would be uncomfortable for my friends and family who choose to live in Apple's ecosystem, but features like RCS for improved messaging interoperability and AirDrop-replacement apps like LocalSend for sending files to and from Apple devices make switching easier than before. You really have to hold the Z Fold 7 in your hand to believe that it's virtually the same thickness (8.9mm) and weight (215g) as a regular flagship bar-style phone. Even having used the foldable for a week, I still marvel at it every time I unlock the 6.3-inch cover screen with my fingerprint or face and use it like a regular phone, or unfold it to get the 8-inch screen. Both displays are really bright, really sharp, and support 120Hz refresh rates. The folding screen still has a visible crease—one that I expect to deepen with folds over time—and you'll still feel the hinge underneath it every time your finger runs over it, but I rarely noticed it while reading, watching videos, or playing games. The crease is an engineering compromise that I don't think foldables will ever solve (though Apple will reportedly try). You just learn to ignore it over time, the same way you stop noticing a notch or a hole-punch camera on non-folding phones. I agreed to not do any drop or bend tests on the Z Fold 7 in order for Samsung to provide me with a loaner unit to evaluate, so I'll have to leave the durability tests to attention-seeking YouTubers and TikTokers. But I did try lightly flexing the device when it's open, and at its thinnest, and I didn't feel it had much give with normal use. I'm not saying accidentally sitting on the Z Fold 7 won't mean instantly destroying your $2,000 foldable, but Samsung at least beefed up the hinge and the 'Armor aluminum' frame, toughened the glass backside, and doubled the thickness of the folding screen. The IP rating, unfortunately, is the same IP48; it would have been great to see a bump up in water- and dust-resistance, but I guess Samsung needs to save upgrades for the Z Fold 8 and beyond. As you'd expect, $2,000 gets you the very best of what Samsung has to offer. Well, almost everything. I've got no complaints about the main specs: Qualcomm's latest and most powerful Snapdragon 8 Elite with Galaxy chip, up to 16GB of RAM, and up to 512GB of storage. Unsurprisingly, the Snapdragon chipset is a beast on benchmarks, but I'd be lying if I told you I could feel a 38% CPU boost or a 26% increase in GPU performance for regular phone tasks like browsing the web, scrolling on social media, or sending emails. The 41% faster neural processing unit, or NPU, however, does seem to make on-device AI processing speedier. For example, generating summaries and wallpapers, or using AI writing and AI photo and audio editing tools, did seem speedier than I remembered last year. The battery is the same 4,400mAh capacity in the Z Fold 6, but I had no problems getting through a full day with power to spare, even when I was pushing the foldable hard with lots of apps, photography, and AI usage through Gemini and Perplexity. I was more surprised that Samsung didn't remove wireless charging or reverse wireless charging—either feature is usually the first to go when phones are put on the Atkins diet. Hell, there's even a SIM card tray; Samsung could have easily switched to eSIM and used the extra space for something else like a larger battery. The one feature from previous Z Folds that didn't make it into the Z Fold 7 is the S Pen. I'm not mourning the loss of support for the stylus that was sold separately, but I know S Pen loyalists will, since it makes sense to want a larger screen to write notes or draw on. I wouldn't hold my breath for Samsung bringing it back or building it into the frame since it says usage was low, especially now that the profile, when unfolded, is the thinnest (4.2mm) it's ever been. See Galaxy Z Fold 7 at The cameras on Samsung's Z Folds have always been a few steps behind the ones in the Galaxy S series. That's not the case anymore—the Z Fold 7 has the same 200-megapixel main camera as the S25 Ultra. There's also a 13-megapixel ultra-wide and 10-megapixel 3x telephoto lens. The cameras punched into the cover and folding display are 10 megapixels each. Photos from the main camera look great with sharp details, vibrant dynamic range, and tons of resolution to get optical-quality 2x and 3x shots (crop-ins using the 200-megapixel sensor). The rest of the Z Fold 7's cameras are fine. The ultra-wide lens now has autofocus and can take close-up macro photos, and the 3x telephoto is good enough (the 10x, 20x, and 30x digital zooms take fuzzy photos with low-res details). The camera on the inside of the folding screen has a slightly wider 100-degree field of view that's handy for fitting more in a selfie or group shot. Videos look better than before with improved quality in low-light situations and less noise. And you can record in 10-bit HDR, which just means your videos will display more colors and content will appear brighter. I was delighted to see smoother video stabilization with less jerky movements when panning the Z Fold 7 or walking and recording. Samsung's One UI 8 is one of, if not the, best customizations of Android I've seen. It's fast and smooth and has extra levels of personalization that I wish Pixel phones had. About the only thing I don't like is how much Samsung is starting to borrow from iOS. Sure, Apple's moving on to Liquid Glass (or perhaps more like frosted glass if the latest iOS 26 developer beta 3 is anything to go by), but there are some areas of One UI 8, like the Lock Screen clock and widget customization, that look too similar to iOS. Gander at the sliders and tell me they're not the same. It's a small thing, but I suppose Samsung's tweak of Android 16 is nowhere near as blatant as the shameless copying you'll find from Xiaomi or Huawei phones. It's 2025, and that means you can't buy a new phone—foldable or not—without being bombarded with how AI is going to change how you use it. Samsung's usual plate of Galaxy AI features, including generative photo editing, translations, and summaries, returns on the Z Fold 7, with some new ones that can only be described as minor. With its larger screen, you can compare original and edited photos side by side or use the Audio Eraser tool to remove background noise such as wind or traffic. They all work as advertised and better than the same or similar AI features on other phones (especially iPhone's embarrassing suite of Apple Intelligence features), but they're not exactly $2,000 selling points. Nor is multimodal Gemini Live, which lets you type, talk, or 'see' what's on screen or through the camera and then respond. There's little that having Gemini pre-loaded into the Z Fold 7 can do that you can't do just by installing the Gemini app on another phone. Sure, it's nice to load up Gemini on the Z Fold's larger screen in fullscreen, as a split-view app, or as a floating window and not have the keyboard take up the whole bottom half, but I wouldn't say it's game-changing by any means. Gemini is still just a chatbot in a window that you can summon on command. If I've saved any time using Gemini on the Z Fold 7, I haven't felt it much. I'm still spending a stupid amount of time looking at social media. I cannot stop gushing over the Z Fold 7 every single time I pick it up. There are some minor observations that I've noticed in my week of using it, like the fact it can get hot in the summer heat faster than I've experienced on any other bar-style phones. (It's so thin, there's just less room for a vapor chamber or cooling.) The pill-shaped camera bump, while not as massive as on other foldables, causes the phone to wobble like crazy on a table. But none of these small compromises bother me when I can slip the Z Fold 7 in my pocket and my pants don't sag. I also love that I can read manga without having to pinch to zoom all the time to see the text or watch a movie without needing to squint (though the 'Flex mode' where you turn the Z Fold 7 into a little laptop is still silly). I've always believed in the benefits of a phone that unfolds into a tablet. It's just the thickness and weight, and other concerns like durability and unavailability in the U.S., that have always stopped me from putting my money where my mouth is. The Z Fold 7 is more expensive than before, and $2,000 is a lot of money for a phone (the cost for repairs isn't cheap either), but I'm obsessed with it, and thank god there are installment plans that break up the cost into monthly payments. I know my iPad mini, with iPadOS 26's Liquid Glass developer beta installed, is missing me, but I just don't care. The Z Fold 7 is my new gadget love, and I guarantee, it'll be yours too if you can stomach the price. See Galaxy Z Fold 7 at Amazon See Galaxy Z Fold 7 at
Business Recorder
13 hours ago
- Business
- Business Recorder
South Korean shares end nearly 1% lower on US inflation data
SEOUL: Round-up of South Korean financial markets: South Korean shares fell nearly 1% on Wednesday, tracking Wall Street's overnight losses on signs of a tariff impact in U.S. inflation data. The benchmark KOSPI closed down 28.90 points, or 0.90%, at 3,186.38. U.S. consumer prices increased by the most in five months in June amid higher costs for some goods, suggesting tariffs were starting to have an impact on inflation and potentially keeping the Federal Reserve on the sidelines until September. 'If effective tariff rates continue to rise, that will add to inflation pressure and weigh on corporate earnings,' said Seo Sang-young, an analyst at Mirae Asset Securities. South Korea's finance minister nominee said he would bring regulatory improvements to the foreign exchange market, according to a media report. South Korean shares close at near four-year high as Samsung Electronics jumps Among index heavyweights, chipmaker Samsung Electronics rose 1.57%, but peer SK Hynix lost 0.84%. Battery maker LG Energy Solution slid 1.74%. Hyundai Motor and sister automaker Kia Corp were down 1.66% and 0.50%, respectively. Steelmaker POSCO Holdings shed 4.83%, while drugmaker Samsung BioLogics rose 0.19%. Securities firms dropped 5.21%, while financial groups fell 2.68%, on profit-taking pressure. Of the total 934 traded issues, 191 shares advanced, while 706 declined. Foreigners were net buyers of shares worth 26.8 billion won ($19.34 million). The won was quoted at 1,385.7 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform, 0.18% higher than its previous close at 1,388.2. In money and debt markets, September futures on three-year treasury bonds were unchanged at 107.18. The most liquid three-year Korean treasury bond yield was flat at 2.463%, while the benchmark 10-year yield rose by 0.9 basis point to 2.884%.
Business Recorder
15 hours ago
- Business
- Business Recorder
South Korean shares track Wall Street lower after US inflation data
SEOUL: Round-up of South Korean financial markets: South Korean shares fell on Wednesday, tracking Wall Street's losses on U.S. inflation data. The won strengthened, while the benchmark bond yield rose. The benchmark KOSPI was down 18.13 points, or 0.56%, at 3,197.15 as of 0147 GMT, after hitting a near four-year high on Tuesday. U.S. consumer prices increased by the most in five months in June amid higher costs for some goods, suggesting tariffs were starting to have an impact on inflation and potentially keeping the Federal Reserve on the sidelines until September. South Korea's finance minister nominee said he would bring regulatory improvements to the foreign exchange market, according to a media report. Among index heavyweights, chipmaker Samsung Electronics rose 0.63%, but peer SK Hynix lost 1.51%. Battery maker LG Energy Solution slid 1.18%. Hyundai Motor and sister automaker Kia Corp were down 0.83% and 0.60%, respectively. Steelmaker POSCO Holdings shed 2.73%, while drugmaker Samsung BioLogics fell 0.19%. South Korean shares close at near four-year high as Samsung Electronics jumps Of the total 932 traded issues, 224 shares advanced, while 664 declined. Foreigners were net sellers of shares worth 280.0 billion won ($201.95 million). The won was quoted at 1,386.3 per dollar on the onshore settlement platform, 0.14% higher than its previous close at 1,388.2. In money and debt markets, September futures on three-year treasury bonds lost 0.03 point to 107.15. The most liquid three-year Korean treasury bond yield rose 0.9 basis point to 2.472%, while the benchmark 10-year yield rose 2.0 bps to 2.895%.
Korea Herald
20 hours ago
- Business
- Korea Herald
Seoul shares open lower amid tame inflation data in US
Seoul shares opened lower Wednesday after weaker-than-expected inflation data in the United States. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index fell 29.17 points, or 0.91 percent, to 3,186.11 in the first 15 minutes of trading. US consumer prices rose 2.7 percent in June, below market expectations, even as companies began passing some tariff-related costs on to consumers, analysts said. Overnight, US stocks ended mixed, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling 0.98 percent to 44,023.29 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite rising 0.18 percent to 20,677.80. In Seoul, most large-cap stocks declined. Market bellwether Samsung Electronics fell 0.16 percent, chip giant SK hynix declined 1.76 percent, and top carmaker Hyundai Motor shed 0.95 percent. Leading steelmaker POSCO Holdings dropped 1.4 percent, and leading shipbuilder HD Hyundai was down 1.51 percent. Among gainers, state-run utility Korea Electric Power Corp. rose 3.76 percent and top wireless carrier SK Telecom edged up 0.36 percent. The local currency was trading at 1,387.40 won against the US dollar at 9:15 a.m., down 7.2 won from the previous session. (Yonhap)
IOL News
a day ago
- IOL News
Introducing the Galaxy Z Flip7 and Fold7: Samsung's most advanced foldables yet
Samsung Electronics has officially launched its most advanced Galaxy Z Series to date — the Galaxy Z Flip7 and Galaxy Z Fold7 — ushering in a new era of foldable smartphones that combine ultra-slim design with groundbreaking AI innovation. Designed for life on the move, these devices are as intelligent as they are sleek, packing powerful tools into palm-sized formats that push the boundaries of performance and portability. "Galaxy Z Fold7 combines Galaxy AI with powerful hardware to deliver our most advanced smartphone experience yet," said TM Roh, President and Acting Head of the Device eXperience (DX) Division at Samsung Electronics. 'This next chapter of foldables brings together design and engineering, with AI built specifically for the foldable form. It gives people the ultra experience they want — powerful, immersive, intelligent, and portable all in one.' With a new edge-to-edge 4.1-inch FlexWindow and upgraded Galaxy AI, the Galaxy Z Flip7 delivers top-tier camera functionality, 120Hz refresh rate on both screens, and a new Gemini Live voice assistant – all while fitting snugly in your pocket. Whether snapping high-res selfies, checking messages, or setting travel reminders with your voice, the Flip7 is a compact companion ready for anything.
