GoKawiilThe big change for the Z Fold 8 is reworked dimensions that result in a shorter but wider handset. Its 5.5-inch AMOLED cover screen features a 10:16 aspect ratio, which feels like a callback to the original Pixel Fold and even older handsets before phonemakers adopted the skinnier displays most phones use today. In hand, this throwback design makes the Z Fold 8 feel more like a passport, giving you tons of room to check maps or respond to texts without ever feeling pressured to open it.
The real payoff for the phone's wider design comes on the inside, where you get a new 7.6-inch AMOLED main display with a 4:3 aspect ratio. Not only does this reduce the amount of letterboxing you get when watching widescreen content, but the base Z Fold 8 actually offers a tiny bit more viewable area when displaying 16:9 shows and movies. And if you prefer older media originally meant for tube TVs, the ZF8's dimensions are perfect. I could watch Looney Tunes all day on this thing, and after recently getting addicted to Pokemon Champions, I found I prefer battling on the Z Fold 8 over the Switch 2 too. Its screen is glorious for landscape gaming, especially when developers put in the effort to support dynamic resolutions.
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Admittedly, if you're heavy into multitasking, the Ultra remains the best choice. Its larger 8-inch panel lets you more easily run two full-size apps at once while maintaining extra screen height, which may come into play for serious doomscrollers. But for almost everything else, the base Z Fold 8 is simply a better content consumption device. My one small gripe about this is that when you turn it to portrait mode, your home screen gets all jumbled up because the numbers of columns for apps don't match what you get in landscape.
As for the panels themselves, they are sharp and saturated. Peak brightness has increased to 3,000 nits on both the Z Fold 8 and the Ultra, so there's no discrepancy there between the two models. Samsung added a new anti-glare coating that cuts down neatly on annoying glare without impacting image quality. This also makes the phone easier to open, which I did not truly appreciate until I went back and compared it to last year's Z Fold 7. The dreaded crease is less obvious too.
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Perhaps the most subtle upgrade is that Samsung finally addressed the previous model's habit of not opening up all the way and stopping short at 179 degrees. The one trade-off to this is that the Z Fold 8 can no longer maintain its position at 90 degrees for tabletop mode. Thankfully, there's a simple alternative: flipping the phone over and using it like a tent, similar to what you'd do with a 2-in-1 laptop.
Elsewhere, the Z Fold 8 features a thoroughly premium build with several titanium layers inside to increase the sturdiness and rigidity of its flexible display. A tough Armor aluminum frame and Gorilla Glass Victus 2 and 3 hold the phone together. There's also a handy side-mounted fingerprint sensor built into its lock button and IP48 dust and water resistance. And while technically at 9.7mm, the Z Fold 8 is a touch thicker than the Ultra (8.9mm) when folded, but anyone who tells you this thing isn't thin enough needs to get their head checked.