Samsung used its July 22 Galaxy Unpacked event in London — an unusual choice of city for the brand — to reveal the biggest shake-up to its foldable lineup in years. Instead of a single “Fold 8,” Samsung split the range in two: the Galaxy Z Fold 8, a new wide-format foldable, and the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, the true successor to last year’s Z Fold 7.
Two Foldables, One Family
The standard Z Fold 8 opens into a 7.6-inch inner display and closes to a 5.5-inch bezel-less cover screen, both using LTPO OLED panels that scale from 1Hz to 120Hz and reach up to 3,000 nits of peak brightness. Inside is Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, paired with up to 16GB of RAM and a 4,800mAh battery, with photography handled by a 50MP main sensor alongside a 50MP ultrawide. The phone ships with Android 17 and One UI 9, backed by a seven-year update commitment.
The Z Fold 8 Ultra takes the opposite approach, leaning into thinness rather than width. Samsung says it measures just 4.1mm unfolded and weighs 215 grams — the slimmest Z Fold yet — with an 8-inch main display aimed at multitasking-heavy users.
AI Task Automation, Not Just a Bigger Screen
Both phones lean hard into on-device AI. Samsung is introducing a Task Automation feature that works across more than 40 apps at launch, letting the phone handle multi-step actions — like booking a table and messaging the details to friends — without the user stepping through each app manually.
Pricing starts at $1,900 for the 256GB Z Fold 8, in line with previous Fold pricing. Pre-orders opened the day of the announcement, with retail availability from August 5 in most markets. For anyone watching the foldable space, the real story isn’t the spec bump — it’s Samsung offering two distinct foldable experiences under one family name, leaving buyers to choose between a bigger screen and a slimmer, lighter phone.