Hands-on with Samsung’s new trio of foldables; the Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra, Fold8, and Flip8
Samsung’s new range offers premium devices to suit all tastes, but also at premium prices.
It’s the summer holidays so have you got your passport ready? By that, I mean the new passport-shaped foldable that Samsung unveiled yesterday – alongside its more traditional form factor offerings.
The trio of foldables comprises the Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra, the new Fold8, plus the classic Flip8.
I popped along to the launch afterparty to check out the new devices for myself, and compare the flagship Fold8 Ultra with a Honor Magic V6.
I wasn’t able to properly use the devices, nor did I have time to look at the new smartwatches or glasses, but I did get a feel for all three devices and I have little doubt that, despite the high pricing, are likely to prove popular when they start shipping in early August.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra
The Galaxy Z Fold7 was a pretty impressive release, marking a huge reduction in bulk from previous models. A bit like the Honor Magic V6 over the Magic V5, the changes here are relatively slight – but that’s not down to laziness on the part of either manufacturer, but more a sign of how far both devices had come – and the new models bringing a relatively small bump in spec improvements.
The Fold8 Ultra does have a high pixel density inner display, with reduced glare from an anti-reflective coating, but the battery has not increased by much – and still comes with pretty slow charging speeds by modern standards (Apple being really the only competition still stuck in the stone age in this regard).
Pricing is also high, with few launch promotions that makes it less competitive than it otherwise could be.
| Screens | Main Screen: 8-inch 2,504 x 2,256 pixels Cover Screen: 6.5-inch 1,080 x 2,520 pixels |
| Cameras | – 50 Megapixel Ultra Wide – 200 Megapixel Wide 2x Optical Zoom – 10 Megapixel Telephoto 3x Optical Zoom + 2 x 10 Megapixel selfie cameras (outer and inner screens) |
| SoC | Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy |
| Battery | 5,000mAh with 45W wired charging (20W wireless) |
| Price | 12GB+256GB: £1,899 12GB+512GB: £2,069 16GB+1TB: £2,409 (£100 off when purchasing with PayPal from Samsung direct) |
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8
While Samsung isn’t first with a passport-shaped foldable (Huawei and Google have each dabbled in this arena), the launch of the Fold8 is a strong hint of what Apple has up its sleeve for release in the autumn.
I mean, given Samsung make the screens Apple use, it’s fair to say they know exactly what’s coming and wanted to steal a lead.
Rumours have it that other companies intend to launch their own versions that bridge the gap between the traditional candybar shaped foldable and clamshell flip foldable. The advantage is that the design allows for a much more usable outer screen, and an inner screen that is still large and perhaps more useful for media consumption, photography etc.
The larger size over the Flip8 allows for a larger battery too, although Samsung has still disappointed with just 4,800mAh and slow charging compared to other foldables from the likes of Oppo and Honor.
| Main Screen: 7.6-inch 1,848 x 2,448 pixels Cover Screen: 5.5-inch 1,248 x 1,972 pixels | |
| Cameras | – 50 Megapixel Ultra Wide – 50 Megapixel Wide 2x Optical Zoom + 2 x 10 Megapixel selfie cameras (outer and inner screens) |
| SoC | Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy |
| Battery | 4,800mAh with 45W wired charging (20W wireless) |
| Price | 12GB+256GB: £1,699 12GB+512GB: £1,869 16GB+1TB: £2,209 (£100 off when purchasing with PayPal from Samsung direct) |
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip8
With the introduction of the passport-shaped Fold8, one must now be wondering if the Flip design will be kept in future years. While the Flip8 remains the most pocketable foldable design, it has always been compromised when used in the folded position – despite successive attempts to make apps, and the user interface in general, more accessible in that mode.
The pricing has also been steadily increasing over time, and for a decent amount of storage you’re now paying similar money to the discounted Honor Magic V6. Obviously these are totally different form factors and aimed at different markets, but Samsung really needs to look at its pricing – especially when all of the new devices are far cheaper in its home market.
Finally, despite being the smallest foldable, a 4,300mAh battery is still extremely small for a 2026 release and the charging is slower than both Fold models.
| Screens | Main Screen: 6.9-inch 1,080 x 2,520 pixels Cover Screen: 4.1-inch 948 x 1,048 pixels |
| Cameras | – 50 Megapixel Ultra Wide – 50 Megapixel Wide 2x Optical Zoom + 10 Megapixel selfie camera |
| SoC | Samsung Exynos 2600 |
| Battery | 4,300mAh with 25W wired charging (15W wireless) |
| Price | 12GB+256GB: £1,149 12GB+512GB: £1,319 (£50 off when purchasing with PayPal from Samsung direct) |
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra vs Honor Magic V6
Samsung has definitely pushed up prices with its latest flagship, and it also came as quite a surprise to note that there are no signifcant early adopter promotions mentioned on Samsung’s site (that doesn’t mean individual carriers won’t offer their own bundles and promotions) beyond £50-100 off if you pay with PayPal.
Honor, on the other hand, is offering a simple £400 off without the need to trade anything in – and earlier in the month it offered £600 off (an offer that may well return, especially in the run up to Christmas and, in particular, Black Friday).
The battery is also significantly bigger in the Honor, despite Samsung taking its first steps into the world of silicon carbon battery tech. Charging speeds are higher on the Honor, and the Honor also has a higher IP-rating.
But the Samsung does have a slightly larger screen size and resolution, which does lead to a higher pixel density. The anti-reflective coating also reduces glare.
Honor only offers one configuration with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage, while Samsung does offer three versions so you can bring the pricing closer if you’re able to get by with 256GB of storage. If you pay by PayPal, the 12+256GB Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra will cost £1,799 – versus £1,499.99 for the 16+512GB Honor Magic V6.
In terms of size and feel in the hand, there’s almost nothing to tell them apart as you can see from the photos below. Both are around 4mm thin when opened, and we’re reaching the point where any thinner will impact the ability to include a charging port and also compromise the structural integrity.
I think most customers would prefer future developments to work on increasing battery capacity than getting thinner – but what do I know?
| Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra | Honor Magic V6 | |
|---|---|---|
| Screens | Main Screen: 8-inch 2,504 x 2,256 pixels Cover Screen: 6.5-inch 1,080 x 2,520 pixels | Main Screen: 7.9-inch 2,172 x 2,352 pixels Cover Screen: 6.5-inch 1,080 x 2,420 pixels |
| Cameras | – 50 Megapixel Ultra Wide – 200 Megapixel Wide 2x Optical Zoom – 10 Megapixel Telephoto 3x Optical Zoom + 2 x 10 Megapixel selfie cameras (outer and inner screens) | – 50 Megapixel Ultra Wide – 50 Megapixel Wide – 64 Megapixel Telephoto 3x Optical Zoom + 2 x 20 Megapixel selfie cameras (outer and inner screens) |
| SoC | Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy | Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 |
| Battery | 5,000mAh with 45W wired charging (20W wireless) | 6,660mAh with 80W wired charging (66W wireless) |
| Price | 12GB+256GB: £1,899 12GB+512GB: £2,069 16GB+1TB: £2,409 (£100 off when purchasing with PayPal from Samsung direct) | 16GB+512GB: £1,999.99 (£1,499.99 with voucher + other promotions from Honor direct) |
Mixed Photos
