Lanh Nguyen / Android Authority
I thought Samsung’s foldables were dead in the water. Leading up to Unpacked, I had almost nothing to be excited about with the Galaxy Z Flip 7 or Z Fold 7, because I assumed they’d be more of the same. After all, that’s mostly what Samsung has done in the last few years — make a few minor updates, add new AI features, and trust you to buy them anyway because there’s no other competition. And, if that stayed true, I was all too happy to stick with a Razr Ultra in my pocket or a Pixel 9 Pro Fold when I wanted a book-style setup.
Well, I was wrong. Samsung surprised me by taking a step back to look at where its foldables were flopping and decided to make some changes. I’ve only spent time with the Galaxy Z Fold 7 so far, but I finally have a little faith that Samsung might have its eyes back on the foldable throne, and here’s why.
The Fold 7 shows that not every innovation is a good one
Ryan Haines / Android Authority
Given my usual preference for the flip side of the foldable market, it’s been a while since I’ve had my hands on a Galaxy Z Fold. This year, though, the Fold 7 landed in my lap with more than a few surprises inside of its ever slimmer aluminum chassis. Perhaps the biggest surprise, at least to me, was that Samsung finally seemed ready to move on from features that seemed like bright ideas that haven’t played out.
Specifically, I couldn’t be happier that the under-display selfie camera is gone. Samsung gave its old 4MP sensor a good run, it really did, but between you and me, it always looked terrible. I always felt like I may as well have been using the selfie camera on a cheap Amazon Fire Tab (sorry, Amazon), which led me to prefer either the punch hole on the cover screen or the primary camera while holding the phone wide open — a move that probably looked as ridiculous as it felt. However, you can’t argue with the power of a much larger 50MP (now 200MP thanks to another upgrade) selfie shooter to highlight one of the best Android camera setups.
Samsung is no stranger to big ideas, but sometimes the tried-and-true methods work best.
The other change that has made me feel like Samsung is back on the right track is that the Galaxy Z Fold 7 finally feels like a normal phone. On one hand, I think I can understand why Samsung kept the cover screen aspect ratio on its previous model so narrow — it forced you to use the internal display more often. For me, though, it made the overall experience so uncomfortable that I’d barely touch a Fold at all. I just couldn’t make my fingers dance across the razor-thin display gracefully enough.
This time, everything has changed. The Galaxy Z Fold 7 has a much more normal 21:9 aspect ratio, which feels more traditional and gives the keyboard a little more space to breathe. When combined with a thickness when closed of just under 9mm, I don’t feel like I have an awkward bar in my pocket so much as just a slightly thicker Galaxy S25 Ultra.
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