It’s the summer, so that means Samsung foldables, wearables and awkward celebrity appearances. This year, the company introduced three new folding smartphones, but that didn’t include the rumored ‘ultra’ trifold — that’s coming later this year .
The Galaxy Fold 7 ( $2,000 ) has a bigger 8-inch unfolded screen and a camera array that matches the S25 Ultra. However, there’s no more support for the S Pen. Removing the digitizer layer for styluses meant Samsung could make the device even thinner. The Z Fold 7 now has a primary 200-megapixel sensor, similar to the one used in the S25 Ultra and S25 Edge. This fixes one of the big complaints we’ve had with foldables: cameras that didn’t match the abilities of more traditional Galaxy phones. Especially when Fold devices always cost more. Talking of costs, Samsung has bumped the price up to $2,000 — that’s $100 more than last year’s Fold 6.
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The Z Flip 7 ( $1,100 ) finally has a full-screen 4.1-inch cover screen, a bigger battery and a normal proportioned (21:9) foldable screen once you’ve opened it. Oh, and that’s bigger too, from 6.4 to 6.9 inches.
While Samsung didn’t notably upgrade the cameras, it managed to add 300mAh of battery while making an even thinner foldable. Unfolded, it’s almost as thin as the S25 Edge, a phone where the whole point of existing was to be thin. There are fractions of a millimeter in it – and if you include the Edge’s chunky camera, the Flip 7 seems technically thinner.
Then there’s the Galaxy Z Flip 7 FE ( $900 ), Samsung’s first fan-edition foldable. Barring a shift to a homemade Exynos chip and Samsung’s 2025 software additions, like the Now Brief, this is… a Z Flip 6 from last year. The hardware looks (is?) identical, which is a bit of a disappointment when FE devices are pitched as more reasonably priced Galaxy devices.
The timing sucked too. Thanks to Prime Day, you could buy last year’s Z Flip 6 this week for $100 less than pre-ordering the Z Flip 7 FE.
— Mat Smith
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