First Look: 48 Hours With the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7
My Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 arrived on Wednesday, two days before it was originally scheduled to show up at my door. Needless to say, I was ecstatic for the chance to try it out alongside everyone else who was also lucky enough to get a visit from their courier. Now, after my first 48 hours with the phone, here are my thoughts.
Just in case you didn’t see my initial take on the Galaxy Z Fold 7, this is my first foldable phone. It’s not a review unit. It wasn’t lent to me by anybody. I bought it and paid for it with my own money.
Truth be told, I dragged my feet on buying my first foldable. Why? Because, up until very recently, the foldable market has been a little iffy. Even for a tech behemoth like Samsung, it took them 6 years of attempts to build a foldable that finally feels fully baked.
The Z Fold 7’s front display is just barely big enough to use comfortably on its own, the thinness in its folded and unfolded modes is staggeringly slim, the interior glass is more durable, and the inner crease is shrinking. I could’ve waited another year to try out a folding phone, but given the leaps and bounds Samsung covered with this year’s model, now just seemed like the right time.
Now that I have one in-hand and I’ve been using it for a bit, I have quite a few early takeaways to cover:
The first thing that came to mind when I pulled the Z Fold 7 out of the box was that it’s thin. It’s impossibly thin. Even as I typed this very sentence on the Z Fold 7, the phone didn’t feel real. I’m still not sure how Samsung crammed so much power and performance into such a svelte chassis.
The second thought in my head was that the build quality and materials are first-class. The colors this year are gorgeous, and even though most reviewers are sporting the Blue Shadow variant, Jetblack was too good to pass up. The frame is solid with no gaps or creaks, and the body is light but substantial, giving off an air of premium luxury that fits its hefty price tag. In short, the Z Fold 7 feels like a piece of art. This may be the prettiest phone Samsung's ever made.
The Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy screams in the best way possible. Coming from a Pixel 9 Pro XL, the UI feels faster and more responsive, and the gaming performance is in its own league. I can easily see this phone keeping up with the competition for years to come.
Thermals have also been quite impressive for a device this thin. Even when playing graphically intensive games like Genshin Impact for a couple hours straight, overheating and throttling are a non-issue. That said, I won’t say it doesn’t get warm; it certainly heats up a bit when put under pressure, but it never felt uncomfortable. Pro Tip: If things get too spicy, you can unfold the phone and turn it upside down so that you’re holding the cool top screen instead of the warm main body where the chip lives.
The aspect ratios took a bit of time to get used to. The outer display is still slightly more narrow than a typical slab phone, even though it’s been bumped out practically every year since the first Fold landed in 2019. The inner display is also very square, but it's a delight for browsing the web, reading books on Kindle, and playing games. I haven’t done much multitasking yet, but I’ve already seen other reviewers run 3 or more apps at a time.
I’ve had a mixed experience with battery life. The first full day was pretty great, while the second full day came with some mysterious battery drain. I’ve heard the same thing from a few other reviewers as well, so maybe the battery just needs to get settled in. Luckily, charging has been pretty quick on 2/3 of my top-offs so far, with the third outlier going pretty slow for reasons unknown. Again, maybe the software just needs to acclimate. This is something I’ll keep an eye on going forward.
Despite the Z Fold 7’s physical footprint, the device feels closer to a small phone than a big one when folded. The outer display typefaces are tiny. The keyboard is cramped. Playing games in a wide 21:9 aspect ratio feels too narrow. As a big phone fan, these drawbacks make me want a larger, wider Ultra upgrade really bad. Maybe next year.
At the end of the first 48 hours with my Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7, a few questions remain: Is it good enough to keep? Will the buyer’s remorse over that hefty price tag kick in? Can it pull me away from my trusty Pixel 9 Pro XL for good? Am I falling in love with my first foldable, or is it just an early-test fling?
Check back in a week to find out.
I'm enjoying mine. I replaced the Fold 5.