Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7 Review – One of the Best Smartphones Ever, With A Thinner and Lighter Frame 

With the never-ending onslaught of annual smartphone iterations, we often tend to skip one or two of these before having the need to upgrade. Whether you’re locked into a contract, avoiding the itch, or just not impressed by this year’s upgrade, there’s a growing trend towards waiting for that next major purchase. However, there are points within the standard renewal period that make it much harder to avoid. With its latest iteration, Samsung aims to recapture the imagination of its loyal base for its flagship foldable. The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7 brings with it a host of improvements, nearly guaranteeing you’d want one in your hands for Christmas. 

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7 Build, Design and Durability (Thinner, Lighter, More Premium)

The most notable and obvious change for this year’s Galaxy Z Fold iteration has to be its size difference. Unboxing it in its open frame, you’ll immediately notice how thin it is. On paper, that’s 4.2mm unfolded compared to last year’s Galaxy Z Fold6, which measured 5.6mm. That’s quite the reduction when unfolded, but it really makes the most difference in hand once it’s folded. With the Fold6 measuring 12.1mm here, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7 measures an impressive 8.9mm. That’s comparable to my much more conventional phone, which measures 7.8mm. 

While the Galaxy Z Fold range has been at the pinnacle of the foldable smartphone market, it has had reasonable competition in the way of the Huawei Mate X series. That said, it wasn’t until the release of the Honor Magic V2 that Samsung stood up and took notice. At the time of its launch in late 2023 – available in early 2024 in South Africa – there wasn’t as great a push towards a thinner frame. The Magic V2 came in at an impressive 4.8mm unfolded and 10.1mm specifications, which was marketed as the thinnest foldable smartphone at the time. With the release of the Galaxy Z Fold7, Samsung has delivered an improved design over the Honor’s foldable, while keeping its beautifully crafted premium aesthetic, compared to the more plastic frame of the Magic V2. 

In addition to the thickness, it’s shaved off an impressive 24g in 2025. To put that into perspective, the Galaxy Z Fold7 is 26% thinner and 10% lighter than its predecessor. This emphasises the importance of strong competition in the market in any sector, with brands pushing themselves to deliver performances over their rivals. It’s not merely a bragging rights dynamic, but it delivers improved products to the consumer, which we greatly benefit from. 

The overall build is a mix of glass, metal and plastic, delivering a product that both looks amazing, as well as feels amazing in hand. The Gorilla Glass front screen (Gorilla Glass Victus Ceramic 2) and folded screen (Gorilla Glass Victus 2) are paired with an aluminium frame with bits of plastic that’s almost unnoticeable. 

There are still a few caveats to having a foldable smartphone compared to the more conventional models. This includes the fingerprint reader not being built into the front screen, which is instead found on the power button. Additionally, it only offers an IP48 dust and water resistance, compared to IP68 for most modern phones. However, with the thinner overall frame of the Galaxy Z Fold7, the most annoying aspect of the design is the protrusion of the camera configuration on the rear. It’s quite huge, accounting for the larger lens it fitted to its foldable range for the first time. The question is whether you prefer a flusher design with a weaker camera or have the giant camera island making your phone wobble around on every flat surface you place it on – assuming most people aren’t placing their phones on the screen side. 

One of the most obvious fears for most prospective buyers of foldable devices is their durability. Samsung has spent significant research on this aspect, ensuring more folding and improved ruggedness of its foldable devices. Although it wasn’t in the testing plan, I accidentally dropped the Fold7 onto cement during the review period, much to my horror. However, upon further inspection, there was no noticeable damage or scratches to note. This doesn’t happen often, so it’s been a few years since I’ve dropped a review unit during testing. Don’t tell anyone. 

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7 Display Review: 8-Inch Inner Screen and 6.5-Inch Cover Screen

The one main advantage that Samsung has always had over its competitors has been the screen. It may not have the title as the first commercially available foldable smartphone, but since its launch, it has been the undisputed winner when it comes to outright sales, hype, specifications and all other marketing factors. 

Already delivering great visuals on the 2024, I expected even more from the 2025 variant. However, it’s a bit of a mixed bag here. The key metric here is that Samsung has increased the size of the screen from 7.6” to an 8” panel for the foldable screen. The screen resolution has also improved, although only slightly, meaning that it sees a fractional dip in screen-to-body ratio and pixel density. 

The outer screen also sees a small bump from 6.3” to 6.5”, delivering more real estate for conventional use. Again, it sees an improvement in the screen’s resolution, but in this case, an improved pixel density as well. 

Although I can’t use the term “negative” in this instance, given that it’s still two brilliant panels, Samsung has featured the same technology for both the outer and inner screens. That’s the Dynamic LTPO AMOLED 2X and Foldable Dynamic LTPO AMOLED 2X screens, respectively. Both of these screens deliver a 120Hz refresh rate and 2,600 peak brightness, the same as on the predecessor. 

Despite the much smaller incremental changes to the screen specifications compared to those of the build and design, Samsung still delivers great quality. It’s also worth pointing out that despite the thinner and lighter build, the brand has increased the size of both screens bolted to the Galaxy Z Fold7, which makes the feat even better. 

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7 Specs and Features: Snapdragon 8 Elite, Android 16 and One UI 8

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7 includes Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset. It features the Octa-core CPU, which includes x2 4.47GHz Oryon V2 Phoenix L CPUs and x6 3.53GHz Oryon V2 Phoenix M CPUs. The testing for the chipset shows an increase in performance across the board, with a 38% faster CPU, 26% improved GPU and 41% faster NPU. This is paired with 16GB RAM on the 1TB variant and 12GB on all the other storage variants. 

The device features the same capacity battery at 4,400mAh for the Li-Po configuration. It also supports 25W wired charging and 15W wireless charging. This isn’t the most impressive when it comes to fast-charging, with some brands now offering 40-50W super-fast-charging options. 

As mentioned previously, the camera bolted to the rear of the device has seen a marked improvement. And it’s not only in size. Samsung has included a 200MP main camera, which features x2 optical zoom, a 10MP telephoto lens with x3 optical zoom, and an ultra-wide 12MP lens. The front-facing camera is a 10MP lens ideal for all your selfie requirements. But, with the features of Samsung’s foldable range, you’ll note that there’s more than one way to skin a cat when it comes to taking selfies. Additionally, Samsung also includes plenty of AI features from its native software to deliver an additional experience for those who love taking photos and videos. 

Speaking of software, the device features Android 16 out of the box, jumping two generations from the Android 14 out-of-the-box software. Samsung’s own OneUI 8 sits atop the firmware, delivering excellent experiences for its users. This also comes with a guaranteed seven generations of OS upgrades, as well as seven years of security updates. 

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7 Performance and Battery Life: Real-World Speed, 4,400mAh and Charging

Almost all modern mid-range and flagship smartphones are fully capable of handling all tasks thrown at them. With the improvements in CPU performance, including both power and efficiency, along with software advancements, I would suggest that any smartphone released in the past two to three years is still more than sufficient to meet modern user behaviour, from social media consumption, content creation and editing while still mining crypto in the background. As such, I’ve not completed many benchmark tests of late, as it doesn’t mean much anymore when even your mid-tier smartphones provide excellent performance. 

With that said, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7 is more than ideal to manage your daily workload. It features the same chipset as the Galaxy S25 Ultra, which delivered excellent performance. While the results to vary slightly, you’re getting the same basic, yet great experience. 

Even with the improved performance, Samsung has eked out additional performance from the battery as well. Thanks to the software improvements and efficiency of the chipset, you’re almost guaranteed a full day’s worth of battery life. The one thing I always love about testing new smartphones is how much better the battery gets with each iteration, especially when compared to my nearly three-year-old smartphone battery. Charge the device in the morning, perform all the tasks you’d like during the day, including all your photos and videos along the way, and you’re still left with a charge at the night’s end. 

I took the device with me on vacation, recording and snapping almost everything in sight, including plenty of panoramic timelapse videos throughout the day. The battery was a champ. Even amongst all the filming, I still used the device for browsing, making bookings via the hotel app, as well as all my payments using Samsung Pay. Everything I needed was right there on the phone, including the four-hour flight, watching some anime episodes. 

You’re not going to get the most super-charged performance when it comes to recharging the Galaxy Z Fold7, but Samsung still caters for decent gains with 50% battery capacity in about 40 minutes. Full charge took slightly longer than double that, but still under the two-hour mark. 

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7 Camera and AI Features: 200MP Main Sensor, Zoom and Galaxy AI Tools

While most foldable smartphones are geared towards those who consume videos, read plenty of books, or manage some work while on the move, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7 is a completely rounded smartphone. With its improved camera, nearly matching that of the Galaxy S25 Ultra, you’re looking at a device capable of snapping the best content, while also having sufficient real estate to do some professional-grade editing. 

The performance of the camera was excellent. Having taken many more photos with the test device than I usually would, accounting for the trip in between, the Fold7 was the perfect companion. The images were bright and bold, with the Samsung software doing some post-snap processing after pressing the capture button. In many cases, you could see the filters and optimisations being applied, delivering very good quality images. And, if the auto-editing isn’t for you, you could also use the Pro mode to keep images in raw format without the touch-ups. 

With the camera already taking good-quality content, it wasn’t always necessary to do any additional editing. However, having done a few impromptu photoshoots on a few evenings, the AI editing tools came in handy. This includes Photo Assist Enhanced, which features AI editing, generative erasing and more. For videos, you also have audio AI enhancements, including Audio Erasure, which allows you to remove background noises of your choosing. Chamber. 

Even when you’re not editing content, there are additional AI features for the ‘Ultra AI Experience’ with Google’s Gemini integration, allowing for in-depth searches and more. 

Is the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 Worth Buying?

I’ve always enjoyed getting my hands on the latest foldable smartphones, noting the improvements year-on-year and new features to explore. However, with the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7, the brand took things to a new level. I spent most of the time utilising the phone in the conventional mode, as you would with a normal smartphone. The larger screen and thinner build made the form-factor much better to operate in this native mode. However, I still found great use for the inner foldable screen, from watching content, editing images and more. The additional features, like the primary camera selfie, were also great while travelling. 

Having an almost complete smartphone in your hand does come at a price. The Fold7 ranges in pricing from around R40,000 for the 256GB variant to around R50,000 for the 1TB option (around $2,000 USD). That’s not pocket change. A three-year contract does make this more palatable, but it’s still not enough to get over the initial shock from the listed price. Thankfully, there are plenty of good deals from Samsung and its partners to make the purchase more worthwhile.

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