Innovative

Review: Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 - Generational Shift

It is the most innovative foldable phone from Samsung since the first one came out. That is immediately clear.

Erik Mörner

Published 25 August 2025 - 11:43 Modified 25 August 2025 - 11:45

Now, for the first time, it's for real. When I compare the Galaxy Z Fold 7 with its predecessor from a year ago, the differences are striking. Previous foldable phones from Samsung have been quite thick in the folded state. Now, the Fold 7 is more or less as thick folded as the S25 Ultra. This makes a clear difference.

We've had to wait for this generational shift. During the launch of the Fold 7, we saw the entire development of the Fold series over the past years, and I'm not sure it speaks to Samsung's advantage. Other manufacturers have made significantly more radical progress year by year, while Samsung has only now renewed itself after several years of stagnation. Now, at least, Samsung is on par with its main competitor, Honor Magic V3, in this area. In other areas, Samsung already has an advantage.

More productivity, thinner format

The foundation of this type of foldable mobile is to maximise productivity. You have a fully functional phone in the closed state, this is true for the first time now, and then a significantly larger screen if you unfold the phone. The main use for the larger screen is to use multiple apps side by side. The foundation is to split the screen in two, with one app on each side, but you can also add more apps in floating windows on top. However, this can easily become cluttered. Samsung has, with the help of Google and Android, improved this feature year by year, and the menu bar at the bottom with icons makes it easy to manage multiple apps.

While the outer screen is in a similar format to a regular phone, the large screen is almost square, which means it doesn't fit well for all apps. Instagram, Tiktok, and Snapchat, as well as other apps designed to be consumed in portrait mode, are poorly adapted, and the same goes for movie apps. YouTube, Netflix, and similar apps clearly show large black borders above and below video clips. You can, of course, compensate for this by scaling up the film in the apps that support it, thereby cropping content on the right and left of the image. Not optimal, but sometimes preferable to use the screen area as best as possible.

The same applies to other apps and websites, that despite the larger screen area, it's not always certain that you actually get more content. Since foldable phones and this screen size are still a clear minority, very few websites and apps are adapted to take advantage of the space. Often you just get more empty space, and in the worst case, you might even fit less content because everything is adapted for narrower screens.

No support for pen

When we talk about productivity, we should also mention that the Fold 7 lacks support for Samsung's S-Pen. You could buy a pen as an accessory for the predecessor, and Samsung made a big deal of it in connection with last year's news in Galaxy AI. You could draw on objects in photos with the help of the pen and have these generated in the form of realistic photorealistic additions to your images. That function still exists, but you have to settle for drawing with your finger, with significantly less precision, thus.

Samsung has generally made a big deal out of its Galaxy AI, and even though the talk was more extensive last year, the Fold 7 is also filled with various AI features. Since Galaxy AI made its debut at the beginning of 2024, in the S24 series, with direct translation, Google's Circle to Search, and AI-supported image manipulation, the service has received Swedish language support. You can make calls and get direct translation to and from Swedish directly on the phone, but also when you meet someone face to face, get summaries of web pages, transcribed meetings, and writing assistance. The help I get is not perfect. It often happens that the AI misunderstands or mishears, but often it at least provides a little help along the way.

Poor information gathering

Now Bar made its debut in the S25 series earlier this year and is also available in the Fold 7. It is supposed to provide quick concise information directly on the home screen, and with Now Brief, you get a longer summary of a lot of important things. At least that's the idea. In practice, it is much more limited than that. Directly on the lock screen, Now Bar can show timers, music playback, or audio recording. It doesn't always show up, but it should appear there when it has something relevant to contribute. In that regard, the function is a disappointment. In the information displayed, there is very rarely anything more than a current weather forecast. Now Bar greets me on the lock screen with meaningless phrases like Morning Summary, Up and At 'Em, Evening is Here, or Nice Trip when I come home from a journey. Regardless of the greeting, the information is the same, just a simple weather forecast. In Now Brief, I can see my calendar entries for the day, get tips on a YouTube clip or a Spotify playlist, but it's never anything that feels tailored or useful. Despite having a long line of Samsung products and apps active, such as the Watch 8 I'm testing, it's only on a single occasion that Now Brief includes any conclusion drawn from my activity there. Despite activating all information sources in Now Brief, the page is noticeably empty and void. And if Now Bar is supposed to be on the lock screen and call for attention, it should only do so when it has something more than a weather forecast to talk about.

Powerful Thinness

I've mentioned that the Galaxy Z Fold 7 is thin, and while it doesn't change the fundamental usage, it is a clear advantage in handling. It's very difficult to imagine switching back to a thicker phone from last year's model. Despite the thinness, Samsung has managed to fill the phone with power, both in terms of battery and performance. The Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy system chip is the fastest on the market and the same as in the S25 series. That chip is sufficient for the phone to feel fast no matter what we let it do. The screens also have a fast refresh rate, and the interface flows flawlessly.

If performance is at a top level, the cameras are clearly upgraded without placing themselves at the top. The three cameras on the back go a long way, as you have 3x optical zoom, wide-angle, and a main camera with 200 megapixels. What is missing is more extreme zoom and the natural depth and detail that a larger camera sensor would provide. My pictures during the test period show fine and natural colour reproduction with good dynamic range. Additionally, the selfie camera, which in the previous model was hidden in the screen and gave terrible pictures, has been replaced with one that shows a clear hole in the screen and is actually worthy of its name, unlike the previous one. Besides that, you can also use the triple camera on the back as the selfie camera since the outer screen can then be used as a viewfinder, provided you have unfolded the phone.

To summarise, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 represents a generational shift for foldable phones and is a device that offers more in a sleeker, thinner format. It has few compromises, but at the same time, it's not always clear what extra value the foldable form factor provides compared to a regular phone. Naturally, a foldable phone like this comes with a hefty price tag. It costs from 25,000 kronor and upwards, compared to, for example, the S25 Ultra with better cameras that costs 18,000. To see how the Z Fold 7 can be worth its price, you almost have to view it as both a phone and a tablet, and in terms of usage, the unfolded screen measuring 14 x 15 centimetres is far from the productivity or entertainment and screen area even the smallest tablet offers you.

Questions and answers:

How useful is the large screen?

Limited. Despite many years with foldables, few apps utilise the space effectively.

Heavy and bulky?

No, I actually don't think so. It fits in the pocket without making a fuss. That's more than you could say about the previous models.

Pen?

No, with this model Samsung removes support for the S-Pen so it is not even available to purchase as an accessory. Perhaps the S26 Ultra is the next phone to miss out on a pen, marking the definitive end of the Note series.

An alternative

The most obvious competitor is the Honor Magic V3 or V5.

Camera example

The camera provides good images with fine colour reproduction and detail, but not at the level of the best camera phones when it comes to zoom and sensor size.