GoKawiilis a technology reporter who has been covering the industry since 2007. He co-hosts the Waveform podcast with MKBHD. A former engineer, he now specializes in topics like computational photography and social media protocols.
Samsung’s new Galaxy Z Flip 8 feels more like a regular phone than ever. It’s thinner, lighter, and has a front screen you can do just about anything on. Whether that’s a good or bad thing, I’m not quite sure yet.
I spent three hours with Samsung’s newest flip phone last week, and it doesn’t look too different from last year’s Z Flip 7. It’s still got a 6.9-inch FHD+ AMOLED display on the inside. It’s still got a 4.1-inch Super AMOLED cover screen on the outside. It still starts at 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, and it still has a 4,300mAh battery. But this year Samsung has added even more features that make this thing a full-on phone while it’s closed.
Photo: Dominic Preston / The Verge
For starters, Samsung has added three new gestures to the outer display. If you swipe down from the top left of the screen, you’ll see your notification tray. Swipe down from the top right, and you’ll get quick settings. Swipe up from the bottom, and you’ll get near a full-blown app drawer. If you wanted to use your closed phone for practically everything, that’s what Samsung is offering here.
Previously, you had to use Samsung’s Good Lock to launch apps on the cover screen, and while it worked, it was basically a workaround. Now this is a native feature. On first impression, it’s nice to have the option, but part of the magic of a flip phone, for me at least, has always been the limitations. If the Flip 8 is simply a phone, but in a small, square aspect ratio, will I still feel less motivated to doomscroll?
Samsung has also shaved a few fractions of a millimeter off this thing to make what it says is the thinnest and lightest flip phone on the market. The Z Flip 8 is just 13.1mm thick folded and 6.1mm thick unfolded, and weighs 180g. This is still thicker than Samsung’s own Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, which comes in at just 4.1mm unfolded, and it’s certainly still thicker than a regular phone while closed, but as far as flip phones go, it’s currently the one to beat.
Image: Samsung
This year’s phone has also been made thinner using Samsung’s new Flex Titanium display technology, which is also in its new Z Fold 8 and Z Fold 8 Ultra. Samsung says Flex Titanium shaves off thickness by using a thinner titanium film under the OLED, as well as a tighter bonding between the base plate and display module. In practice, I’m not sure you’re going to notice a fraction of a millimeter, but Samsung says this display is 20x more durable, which is sorely needed considering the amount of Z Flips with cracked inner displays I’ve seen while riding the subway.
New battery technology also had a part in enabling a thinner and lighter phone. Samsung has finally made the transition to silicon carbon — which allows for denser batteries than standard lithium ion — though it says it’s using less silicon than competitors for safety and longevity reasons. In the Flip 8, the capacity and charging speed are the same as the Flip 7, but it was able to make the cell physically smaller.
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