GoKawiilSamsung’s Galaxy Z Flip 8, announced Wednesday during the company’s Unpacked event, launches with the price hike we expected, along with a few welcome tweaks to its design and software that could make the phone easier to use.
I got to demo the $1,200 Z Flip 8, and even though that’s a $100 spike from the starting price of last year’s Z Flip 7 for the same 256GB of storage, the phone is noticeably lighter and thinner than prior iterations. Samsung says that at launch, the 180-gram Flip 8 will be the lightest flip-style foldable phone on the market. When unfolded, the phone is 6.1mm thick, which is noticeably thinner than the Z Flip 7 (6.8mm) and Motorola Razr Ultra (7.2mm).
Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip 8 now lets you add apps with a simple function in the app drawer on the cover screen. Joseph Maldonado/CNET
But I was more impressed by a number of software tweaks coming to the Z Flip 8 that make it easier to use while closed. For starters, you can now add apps to the cover screen by scrolling up on the app drawer and tapping “Add apps” to access any app installed on your phone. Previously, you had to dig through various settings menus to do the same thing. This is also much closer to how the latest Motorola Razr phones let you use any app you want on their cover screens.
The Z Flip 8’s cover screen is also getting the “Recent apps” shortcut button for the first time — which is wild, since quickly switching tasks is such a basic function on the rest of Android. When I test flip-style phones, I’m most likely on the cover screen using Maps for transit directions while playing music and texting friends — that simple button means I can now swap between these directly without having to kick back to the lock screen. That’s also a feature already available on the Razr.
You can now easily switch apps on the cover screen. Joseph Maldonado/CNET
The Z Flip 8 carries over several features that debuted on Samsung’s Galaxy S26 phone line — for instance, the foldable’s video camera includes Super Steady with horizontal lock to smooth out movement while filming. And I had a lot of fun playing with a new camera feature called My Fan Cam, which uses Galaxy AI to identify subjects in a video and create a crop that only follows that person throughout the recording, as if the camera is exclusively focused on them.
Samsung’s My FamCam lets you make videos focusing on individuals within a clip. The center example is the original, while the other two focus on me and my colleague Tara Brown. Mike Sorrentino/CNET
The Flip 8 is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy — which is the same custom version of the processor used for the Galaxy S26 phones as well as the foldable’s pricier siblings, the Z Fold 8 and Z Fold 8 Ultra, which were also announced at Unpacked.
The Galaxy Z Fold 8 has a 6.9-inch display when unfolded. Joseph Maldonado/CNET
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