For the first time, the renders or the leaks don’t do enough justice because during our Samsung Galaxy Z Fold Hands-On session, this phone has ascended to a whole other level and you need to see it to believe it. In this content, we are going to address all the changes and share my thoughts. To make it more interesting, let us know your thoughts and whether you think it’s good or bad as well. More reasons for me to convince Samsung for the Fold for review.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 Hands-On

It is Genuinely Stupid Thin

I don’t particularly hate thin devices, but the added bulk gives me a little bit of a clunky experience. One big reason why I didn’t fancy the Z Fold 6 but that changes with the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and f*ck me, it’s good. The phone is 8.9mm thick and for comparison, the S25 Ultra is 8.2mm thick. When it’s unfolded, holy mother of all that’s good and pure, it is truly thinner than my will to live – it is 4.2mm, unfolded. This was the dash of Ultra Experience they promised with the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7, which in all honesty is really good.

I really did have a moment of My heart skipped a beat. It finally has the proportions I love to see in a foldable smartphone. But it does raise a bit of a concern on the hinge and if it would snap like a biscuit – because, let’s face it, some genius out there is going to hold the title for First Galaxy Z Fold 7 broken on Reddit – this is something I am definitely not going to test and I will leave it in the hands of tech abusers, sorry I mean, Durability testers who do the extreme and unnecessary test.

We know very little about their new hinge – which is the Armor FlexHinge with Water Droplet Design and a Multi-Rail Structure which houses Grade 3 Titanium Lattice. This is all they shared and we have to look more closely into it when we have the device in for review. Oh, the number for how many folding/unfolding it can handle was not disclosed either. That’s a concern too.

Goodbye S Pen Support

I really don’t know about you, but this is a deal breaker for me personally. We thought the S Pen getting dumbed down with the S25 Ultra was a concern, until I heard this sentence leave the product specialist’s mouth at the Samsung briefing. The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 does NOT support S Pen at all. As a productivity-centric person, I do not like this at all. But, from an engineering standpoint, they cannot fit the S Pen support too.

With just 4.2mm thickness when it’s unfolded, you have very little room to pack anything at all – you can see how thick the camera bump is. This means the digitiser required to capture the S Pen input has no space at all, which creates this hardware limitation. Ergo, there’s no S Pen support. But based on some internal survey Samsung refuses to disclose, the S Pen wasn’t popular with Fold apparently and users weren’t using it.

Samsung, I’d like to see this Survey. Z Fold 6 users, stick with your current fold and S Pen lovers, get the Z Fold 6. Or wait for the Z Fold 8?

Bigger and Wider Display

For people who have been asking for a wider cover display and a much bigger display inside, the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 is going to satisfy so many users, including myself. Starting with the display on the inside of the phone, you are looking at an 8” edge-to-edge Dynamic AMOLED 2X Display (vs 7.6” Z Fold 6), which looks pretty good.

If you notice, the camera on the inside is visible, unlike the older Z Fold 6 which has the camera hidden to have a more uninterrupted display. It gets a 50% thicker UTG compared to Z Fold 6 – which means we are finally getting a proper display than some plasticky finish? Only time will tell.

On the outside, the cover display is a 6.49” display and its now a lot wider, compared to the Z Fold 6 which was narrow and felt like a remote. While it was great for one handed usage, the narrow aspect ratio made content consumption on the cover display a bit of a hit-and-miss experience. So, now, consuming content on the cover display feels like it appears in the right proportion.

As for the rest of the phone, it features the Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2 and Corning Gorilla Glass Ceramic 2 as well for better resistance from scratches.

200MP Camera on the Z Fold 7 and all the Pro Grade Goodness

The S25 Ultra camera setup has finally made it on to the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7. You are getting the 200MP main camera, which is the same as the S25 Ultra, a 12MP Ultra wide and a 10MP Telephoto which limits to 3x Optical Zoom.

On the cover and the main screen, you have a 10MP camera for video calling and houses an improved FOV at 100-degrees. Because you are looking at a more professional camera setup on the Fold – the phone will receive all the accoutrements as the S25 Ultra – like ProVisual Engine, 10-bit HDR and all of that.

As for the Rest

Now, addressing the rest of the improvements, we are going to list them in pointers because these are expected, and it’s supposed to be the generational upgrade we see from year to year.

  • The phone uses a new adhesive, which means a better seal from dust and water and improved durability. But we aren’t too sure how it would affect after repairs.
  • Powered by the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy and a 4400mAh battery, which is exactly the same as the Z Fold 6.
  • And then there’s the whole AI features, which we will see here again.

Here’s what I really feel about the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7: Samsung is really on this bizarre road with their smartphones as they have pushed all their envelopes in every way possible. While this is a step side ways than forward, the Z Fold 7 is setting up the ground for the Z Fold 8, which I hope, will be the foldable phone to change things drastically for the better. In the meantime, lets see if the changes done with the Z Fold 7 is good enough for 2025.

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