ZDNET’s key takeaways
- The Galaxy Z Fold 7 is an excellent upgrade over its predecessor, thanks to its slim and light design, a strong hinge and a wider coverscreen.
- It’s very expensive at $2,000 for the starting configuration.
- But you’ll dig the improved hardware, especially if you’re familiar with foldable phones from the global market.
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jul / 2025
For a limited time, you can buy the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and receive a free $200 gift card.
The Galaxy Z Fold 7 is Samsung’s biggest design overhaul since the Z Fold 2 in 2020, and it’s back with a bang. Over the last three years, the Korean tech giant made slight refinements to each generation, resulting in a stale design. But the new Galaxy Z Fold 7 finally catches up to its Chinese rivals, even beating them in multiple ways.
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I’ve been using the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 for the past week and am happy to report that Samsung has made some damn near-perfect hardware. You get an easy-to-hold form factor, virtually no crease, a cover screen that’s close to a regular phone in itself, a solid hinge, and the same main camera as the Galaxy S25 Ultra.
These upgrades come with a cost, though. The Fold 7 will set you back at two grand, but if you have that money, this is the phone I recommend most.
An (almost) perfect physical form
The Galaxy Z Fold 7 measures just 4.2mm thin when unfolded and 8.9mm folded. For context, that’s a few millimeters more than the 8.25mm iPhone 16 Pro Max and 8.5mm Pixel 9 Pro. Samsung’s own Galaxy S25 Ultra measures 8.2mm, while the foldable Oppo Find N5 is 8.93mm thick.
All in all, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 is just 0.1mm thicker than the thinnest book-style foldable, the Honor Magic V5. Paired with a body that’s lighter than all of them at 215 grams, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 the lightest book-style foldable on the market right now.
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This thin and light design makes it the most comfortable to hold Galaxy Z Fold phone yet — if you hold it in the right hand. If you’re left-handed, the hinge corners might dig into your palm, which was also an issue on the predecessor. That said, I’m a right-hander, and I find it more comfortable to use than the Galaxy S25 Ultra and iPhone 16 Pro Max.
Prakhar Khanna/ZDNET
The Galaxy Z Fold 7 is also more durable than before. It features a stronger Gorilla Glass Victus Ceramic 2 on the cover screen, Gorilla Glass Victus 2 on the back, and a Titanium plate layer instead of a carbon fiber sheet under the screen for added display durability. Plus, you get dust and water resistance with an IP48 rating.
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Samsung improved the cover screen, too. It’s no longer fixated on the narrow form factor, enabling the 6.5-inch AMOLED screen with a 21:9 aspect ratio so apps interact better and play along well with the whole slab phone-like feel. It’s bright enough to see outdoors and has the same 120Hz dynamic refresh rate and HDR10+ support as the inner display. Texting, scrolling through social media, and browsing the web on a Samsung cover screen feels refreshing.
Full-screen trade-offs, but the crease is gone
The Galaxy Z Fold 7 has a wider folding screen than its predecessor. I’ve loved my experience on this sharp and vivid panel, but it isn’t as immersive as before.
Samsung stuck to an under-display camera (UDC) for years, which made the reading, browsing, and gaming experience better than any other foldable. Utility-wise, its quality was worse than the new punch-hole 10MP camera — and I’d prefer the new setup for video calls any day — but I miss the under-display camera, too. I hope it returns in the future with better quality.
Kerry Wan/ZDNET
Once you accept that the camera isn’t going anywhere, you can appreciate the Galaxy Z Fold 7’s eight-inch LTPO AMOLED 2X panel, which supports HDR10+ and has a 120Hz dynamic refresh rate. I love its vivid colors and high-contrast look. But like before, the inner display attracts more smudges than the cover screen.
Also: Why I’m patiently waiting for the Samsung Z Fold 8 next year (even though the foldable is already great)
Coming to the best part of the folding screen, there’s virtually no crease. Samsung’s new butterfly hinge mechanism has successfully negated it. In fact, Galaxy Z Fold 7 has the least amount of crease on any book-style folding phone that I’ve used. The Oppo Find N5 comes close, but the Vivo X Fold 5 and Honor Magic V3 both have slightly deeper creases running through the middle of the screen.
Not that it matters when interacting with the big display, but less crease means a comfortable viewing experience in more lighting conditions and angles.
Jason Howell/ZDNET
The hinge, too, feels more premium than other foldables. If you’re coming from one of the previous Z Folds, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 won’t prop up at 150 degrees right out of the box, but it gets better as you use it. After a week of use, my unit no longer unfolds flat till up to roughly 135 degrees. I had a similar experience with the Honor Magic V3, which also has a butterfly hinge.
If I had to choose between a subjectively more immersive Fold 6 screen with UDC and deep crease or Fold 7’s punch-hole-clad screen with lesser crease, I’d pick the latter.
I can’t pinpoint why the Galaxy Z Fold 7 feels more premium than other foldables on the market, but it is probably a combination of multiple factors: a thinner and lighter design, the least crease, and flat sides that aren’t unergonomic (in the right hand) to hold. It is slightly harder to unfold, but you’ll get used to it within the first 48 hours.
Samsung removed another feature on the Galaxy Z Fold 7: the S Pen, and I don’t miss it. I never used it on my Fold 5 or Fold 6, and if it helps the phone make it thinner, I don’t mind missing out on a stylus that has to be stored in an external case.
Useful AI and finally: a camera upgrade
Prakhar Khanna/ZDNET
Samsung’s new Fold runs Android 16-based One UI 8, with Samsung’s Galaxy AI having the most complete suite of artificial intelligence features. The phone runs smoothly, thanks to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite SoC, paired with either 12GB or 16GB of RAM.
I actually found some of the phone’s AI features useful. For example, the AI Select feature lets you click anything on your screen to take actions. From transcribing interview recordings to removing unwanted objects in my photos, there are plenty of useful AI tools that actually work.
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Coming from a OnePlus phone recently, I think Samsung could benefit from displaying similar pop-ups for on-call features like transcribe and translate. As of now, you need to swipe down and tap on the Live Translate tile from the quick panel to use the feature, which isn’t as easy.
Prakhar Khanna/ZDNET
Samsung also finally gave its foldable the same primary camera as its flagship S-series phone. The Galaxy Z Fold 7 sports a 200MP main camera, borrowed straight from the Galaxy S25 Ultra. It is accompanied by a modest 3x 10MP telephoto camera and a 12MP ultrawide-angle lens.
Galaxy Z Fold 7 camera samples
Prakhar Khanna/ZDNET
This camera system produces vibrant-looking shots in most scenarios. I recommend shooting most photos in 200MP mode, so you can crop them later and yet retain the details, as the 3x tele lens isn’t the best.
I wish Samsung would let users switch between lenses in the 200MP mode. As of now, you get options for 1x, 4x, and 5x (you can zoom at any level from 1x to 5x), but to change to ultrawide, you need to switch to 12MP mode and then tap 0.6x. It’s a slight inconvenience that I’ve regularly faced in the past week.
Portrait photos shot on Galaxy Z Fold 7
Prakhar Khanna/ZDNET
Samsung has also improved the shutter speed, so moving subjects are captured better than before. The dynamic range remains great, while the Portrait mode still struggles with edge detection. Galaxy AI comes into play again and gives you the most polished photobomber-removal tool.
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Another cool feature for videographers: Audio Eraser can now automatically detect what to tune out and has a designated button in your gallery. It made my voice a little robotic, but it did well to suppress background noise.
Let’s talk battery life
Kerry Wan/ZDNET
Unfortunately, Samsung didn’t upgrade the battery capacity on its new foldable. In fact, it hasn’t increased the battery size in five generations; the Galaxy Z Fold 7 has the same battery as the Galaxy Z Fold 3. This means you get a 4,400mAh cell with support for a modest 25W wired charging and 15W wireless charging.
When I first saw this number on paper, I was worried that amazing hardware would be compromised by a questionable decision, especially when competing devices have 5,500mAh+ silicon-carbon batteries.
Also: I replaced my Galaxy S25 Plus with the S25 Edge (and Samsung may do the same)
As it turns out, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 is a full one-day device for moderate phone users (with about 5-6 hours of daily screen time). I’m not impressed by the charging speed, though.
I usually average about nine hours on my phone daily and have to charge my Z Fold 7 every evening around 6 PM for my evening social media scrolling. If you’re a heavy phone user, expect to plug in your Z Fold 7 after the work day, or earlier if your usage involves a lot of navigation on 5G.
ZDNET’s buying advice
Samsung improved the weakest links of its book-style foldable with the Galaxy Z Fold 7, and the result is a near-perfect phone. I’d love for it to have a bigger battery and a better zoom camera — the Vivo X Fold 5 has both — but Samsung’s foldable has U.S availability, longer software support, and a better user interface. In short, this is the most polished folding phone experience, in my opinion.
However, it doesn’t come cheap. After a $100 price bump, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 is Samsung’s most expensive Fold yet, starting at $2,000. If you can spend that amount on a smartphone, you can’t go wrong with this phone. It’s a generational leap over its predecessor, and if you can find a good exchange offer, I recommend upgrading from last year’s Z Fold 6, too. If you’re a business professional or need a phone for productivity, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 should be on your radar.
We awarded the Galaxy Z Fold 7 an Editors’ Choice because Samsung finally redesigned its foldable to compete with Chinese rivals and even bettered them in multiple ways. It is the lightest book-style foldable, which translates to a regular phone-like in-hand feel, and has an intuitive user interface. It is one of the best phones for productivity.
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