The new Galaxy Fold is emerging as Samsung's most successful foldable device
Samsung has launched its new Fold smartphone, featuring a compact design and high-end performance. The device includes a 7.6-inch main display and is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite processor.
It is not every day that a smartphone arrives that looks different from everything else on the market, and these days such a device is arriving from Samsung — the new Fold from the company's series of foldable devices. We need to take a moment to sort things out: in recent years, Samsung has launched two foldable devices every summer — the Flip, which folds like a clamshell, and the Fold, which opens into a small tablet. This year, the Fold became the Fold Ultra and a completely new device was added, which received the name Fold. We took the new model for a test to see what it has to offer.
Structure and design: light and compact
The new device is very different from a standard smartphone. Until now, the Fold (which became the Fold Ultra) looked like a regular smartphone when folded, with a 6.5-inch screen, and opened into a small square-shaped tablet with an 8-inch screen. The new Fold is smaller: when folded, it presents a shorter and wider 5.5-inch screen. When you open the Fold, it turns into a small, rectangular tablet that is more suitable for wide display, with a 7.6-inch screen.
The Fold 8 is about the size of a passport, fits easily in the palm of your hand, and weighs 200 grams. When open in tablet mode, it is very thin — only 4.5 mm. The screen is protected by Gorilla Glass Victus Ceramic 3, and the device meets the IP48 standard, allowing for immersion in water up to 1.5 meters for 30 minutes.
Hardware: no compromises
Despite the small dimensions, the Fold 8 offers specifications almost identical to its big brother, the Fold Ultra — a Snapdragon 8 Elite 5th generation processor, 12 GB of memory, and storage starting at 256 GB up to 1 TB. Performance is fast, handling daily tasks and heavy games with ease. However, I encountered minor issues with touch registration on the external screen during gaming, which will hopefully be resolved in a software update. In tablet mode, the display is excellent, though the device heats up slightly during heavy gaming.
Samsung integrates a silicon-based 4,800 mAh battery, which lasts for a day to a day and a half. It supports 45W fast charging, filling the battery from 15% to 50% in about 15 minutes, with a full charge taking an hour.
Software and interface: smart use of screen space
The Fold comes with Android 17 and Samsung's One UI 9 interface. Samsung has integrated a super-stable video shooting mode and a new AI-powered feature called My FanCam, which allows you to focus on a specific subject in a video. The interface adapts intelligently to the screen state; for example, WhatsApp displays a chat list on the side when the tablet is held horizontally.
Cameras: a prominent disadvantage
Here lies the biggest compromise of the device. The Fold 8 is equipped with only two 50-megapixel cameras (wide and ultra-wide) without a telephoto lens. The lack of optical zoom is a disadvantage for a device in this prestigious series. While the cameras perform well in good lighting, the resulting photos are less high-quality than those of some competitors and other Samsung models.
Summary
This is not a perfect device, but it is definitely fun. It is light, the external screen is sufficient for most actions, and the ability to open a larger screen is a great advantage. Priced between 6,000 and 7,500 shekels, it is a premium product. For those who can afford it, I recommend it.
