Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7 review

Competition

This year's Galaxy Z Fold7 appears to be much more competitive than its predecessors, even in more diverse foldable landscapes like China and India, despite its modest price hike. Now, the Galaxy Z Fold7 asks $2,000 in the US and €2.100 in Europe - a $100/€100 increase.

Some of Samsung's direct competitors in this segment do not ship to Europe and the US. In fact, Samsung feels most comfortable in the US where its only rival is last year's Pixel 9 Pro Fold.

Google's foldable offering is hard to recommend over the Samsung, not just because One UI is somewhat better tailored toward foldables, but also because the upgrades to the camera and design this year are worth the extra few bucks. Still, if you are not in a hurry, you can wait until the next foldable Pixel comes around this fall and then decide whether the Z Fold7 is worth it.

Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold • Oppo Find N5 • vivo X Fold5 5G • Honor Magic V5

Moving on with the European market, we see a few more competitors worth your attention. The Oppo Find N5 and the recently announced Honor Magic V5 are both excellent alternatives. This time around, the Galaxy Z Fold is not far behind when it comes to portability. Quite the opposite - the Z Fold7 is lighter and just as thin. Arguably, it has a better main camera as well, but it falls short in the telephoto department.

Get the Magic V5 for its faster charging and more durable design with higher ingress protection, or the Oppo Find N5 again for the faster charging, longer battery life and if you are planning on using a stylus. Remember, the Z Fold7 ditched the S Pen this year.

In addition to all the competitors mentioned above, India also has the vivo X Fold5 as an option, which outperforms the Samsung when it comes to charging, battery life and offers a slightly better camera system overall. The Z Fold7 hits back with a more powerful chipset.

Verdict

Samsung is back in the game with this year's foldable. Sure, there are still some missteps, such as the battery life, charging rate, the omission of the S Pen, the lackluster telephoto camera, and the absence of Dolby Vision support, if anyone cares.

However, the Z Fold7 excels in other areas, providing a much better main camera, nice ultrawide, better internal selfie cam, larger displays with better aspect ratios and offers one of the thinnest and lightest designs in the segment. These upgrades alone make the Z Fold7 much easier to recommend than its predecessors. Moreover, the handset is entitled to 7 major OS upgrades while launching with Android 16 out of the box.

It looks like Samsung has performed better under pressure from the rising competition in the last few years. The Galaxy Z Fold7 proves that the Korean tech giant still has it.

Pros

• Much improved, thin and lightweight design.
• Bigger screens with better aspect ratios.
• Excellent main camera performance, improved selfie game.
• Feature-rich software with great multi-tasking functionality with Galaxy AI at its core.
• Launches with Android 16/OneUI 8, entitled to 7 major OS upgrades.

Cons

• Battery life could be better.
• Charging speed is slow.
• The telephoto camera leaves more to be desired.
• Speakers are slightly downgraded.
• No longer has S Pen support.

Pricing

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