Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 Review: Superb, Bendy and Spensy

I have been using the Galaxy Z Fold 7 for a week, and I lacked ways to say “that’s how Good. “It is not essential or that changes life; Good.

It is an understatement, however. Samsung joins Honor and Oppo in the manufacture of a folding phone almost as thin as an ordinary phone, and it is a trend with real advantages. Compared to the six previous generations of Samsung folding phones, the interior screen of the Z Fold 7 looks like a bonus – the one that does not require the sacrifice to transport a larger and larger device. He is thin. It’s luxurious. Also: it is Two thousand dollars.

It’s so nice. It’s two thousand dollars. Somewhere between these two declarations, you will know if the Galaxy Z Fold 7 is for you. If the size and most of the previous foldables have dissuaded you, then this is the phone you expected. As long as you have, you know, a couple of large streaks.

Writing a criticism of the fold 7 resembles the writing of a criticism of two devices: the one you use with the closed phone and the one available with the open phone. The first obtained a major upgrade this year: it uses a normal appearance ratio of 21: 9. The previous versions of the outdoor screen were longer and thinner than your average phone, and I never really used to typing them. I sometimes forget that I use a folding phone when the fold Z 7 is closed.

It works as an ordinary plate style phone apart from certain extreme use cases. What about a folding phone? This is the mission accomplished.

Here is the zilem of Z Fold 7: This outdoor screen is a 6.5 inch 1080p screen which is not as clear or as pleasant to use in a bright light as the exceptional screen on the Galaxy S25 Ultra much cheaper. This is a point that I continued to revisit because I used the Z Fold 7. As a total package, there is almost nothing like it, but many individual characteristics are not below the best slab style phones.

Non -folding phones offer better battery life, but the margin is not as wide as I feared. How much you use the interior screen will considerably affect the battery life; I managed a day of moderate use and occasional interior screen use with around 50%. With more time on the interior screen and about an hour of use of the Hotspot, the battery was around 30% at bedtime. No one buys a folding phone for its electric efficiency, and I think these results are quite good.

As soon as I open the interior screen, the slight gaps are out of mind. I continued to forget that the interior screen even existed, but I quickly got into the habit of opening it. Do you know how nice it is to use Chrome on your phone with normal tabs at the top of the screen? Do you know how faithful a game is Diablo Immortel is on the big screen? Do you know how useful it is to keep the Uber application open on one side of the screen so that you can keep track of the arrival of your driver while you finish a sudoku on the other half? I do. Once you start using the interior screen, you continue to find new ways to use it.

None of these elements is new or exclusive to fold 7, but I cannot emphasize enough: all this feels like you get it with something, because the experience of using this phone during its closure is normal. More thick brick in the side pocket of my yoga pants. A nitpick: I don’t like how stiff he feels when I open the phone. The grip of a case would help here. Overall, a thinner, lighter and well proportioned foldable is really a brand new ball game.

There are bad news. I’m not the type to get started on the appearance of any camera bump, but it is protruding a lot. The phone is twisted on surfaces and oscillations when you press the screen, which encourages you to put it on one side of the table screen. Less distractions of notifications? GOOD! The screen is slippery and the phone slides from the edge of the bathtub? Bad! There was no water in the bathtub when it happened, but still.

The oscillation is boring; I have to support him on a few drinks if I use it on the dining room table. Samsung silicone handle box seems to mitigate itBut the support cases do not repair it. A case looks like a requirement here (and I say that as a hate case!), But they are quite thin, they do not collapse all the advantages of a thin foldable.

The fold 7 uses an Elite Snapdragon 8 elite chipset set for Samsung, as well as 12 GB of RAM in the model of 256 GB of model I. It continues very well, and I had no problem running Diablo Immortel to the highest display settings. The phone was not even very hot. The fold z 7 did Be powerful grilled in a torture test: use it as hotspot on a coffee patio an afternoon of the 80s. I put it under the direct sun, that you shouldn’t doAnd of course, it started to close the applications after about 10 minutes to try to cool. Extreme, yes, but good to know if you live in a place at high temperatures.

Another environmental consideration: dust resistance. The Z Fold 7 still has no formal resistance to dust; Its IP48 means that it is entirely water -resistant, but sheltered from very small particles, no dust stains. Be very careful and plan to add the prolonged warranty of Samsung to cover costly interior screen repairs.

The 200 -megapixel camera from Z Fold 7 is suitable for S25 Ultra, and it is an excellent camera here, just like in the Ultra. Low light photos are detailed, provided that your subject does not move too much, and the preference of Samsung for the reds and the vibrant blues is in full display. There is also a 3x telephoto lens of 10 megapixels and an ultrairs of 12 megapixels – the two solid artists if you do not ask them too much. The digital zoom after 5x of the telephoto lens seems to be quite watercolor. But the portrait mode of Samsung with the 3X camera remains the best of the game, as for years. The segmentation is so good that it is strange – insulating a subject to the eyelashes on my son’s eyes.

If you compare the Z Fold 7 to a higher level slab phone like the Ultra Spec By Spec’s S25, the folding phone is often short. It is less lasting, the battery life is not as good and the camera system is not as versatile. But that lacks the point of the Z Fold 7. This phone is a luxury and an engineering marvel. If you have deep pockets and an open mind to the advantages of the big screen, then I think you agree with me: that’s right Good.

Photography by Allison Johnson / The Verge