Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8: Rumors, specs, and everything we want to see

Samsung delivered plenty of upgrades with the Galaxy Z Fold 7; the foldable has a thinner, lighter design than its predecessor and holds its own against its Chinese rivals in this regard. That's no small feat considering brands like Vivo and Honor have pushed the boundaries in this area in recent years.

That said, Samsung continues to lag behind in battery life and cameras, and it misses out on other extras that are standard on devices like the Vivo X Fold 5. Even after a few months with the Galaxy Z Fold 7, there are a few things that I want to see in next year's Galaxy Z Fold 8.

We're expecting Samsung to unveil the Galaxy Z Fold 8 at Samsung Unpacked, rumored to take place on July 22 in London.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8: Design

Coming in at just 4.2mm when unfolded, the Z Fold 7 is one of the thinnest foldables around. Comparing it to even the Galaxy Z Fold 6 is borderline hilarious, as the leap in thinness with the Z Fold 7 was nothing short of monumental.

With that being said, Samsung is supposedly working on two different-sized Galaxy Z Fold 8 models this year. The first will almost certainly look nearly identical to the Galaxy Z Fold 7 in every way, including similar thinness, screen sizes, and aspect ratios.

But several leaks purport that Samsung is also working on a Galaxy Z Fold 8 Wide. This new Wide model would adopt a proper book-sized aspect ratio. This would closely match the original Pixel Fold's size, which I still think is the best size and shape foldable ever released. Rumors say the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Wide would have a 5.4-inch cover display and a 7.6-inch inner screen.

As you can see from the image above (which is NOT to scale), the Z Fold 8 Wide would be substantially wider than the current Z Fold design. That would make it better for reading, watching videos, and even running tablet apps.

The apparent downside of this design is that it'll be shorter, leaving less room for cameras. As such, the Z Fold 8 Wide is expected to only have two rear cameras, likely an ultrawide and a main camera.

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Thankfully, a Samsung exec was heard saying that they'd like to bring the S Pen back to the Z Fold series, a feature that was unfortunately removed on the Z Fold 7 to make the device thinner.

We're also expecting Samsung to use its new creaseless foldable display tech on the Galaxy Z Fold 8. This was unveiled at CES and looks to rival the Oppo Find N6's creaseless display. Despite the new top material, though, Samsung is said to still be using the same M13 materials as the Galaxy Z Fold 7, which means no improvement to the brightness or quality, and likely no improvement to problems like PWM dimming.

While Samsung pioneered water resistance on foldables, the Z Fold 8 is limited to IP48 ingress protection, with the Magic V5 and X Fold 5 featuring IP58 and IP59 dust and water resistance as standard. With Google delivering IP68 on the Pixel 10 Pro Fold, Samsung needs to deliver better durability next year if it wants to maintain its position in this area.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8: Battery

As much as I like that the Z Fold 7 is considerably thinner, the foldable has the smallest battery of any device I've used in 2025. The 4,400mAh battery is just pitiful when even smaller phones like the Vivo X200 FE have a 5,300mAh cell, and I don't really know what Samsung was thinking by putting such a small battery in its latest foldable.

Clearly, that needs to change in 2026. The Z Fold 8 needs to have at least a 5,000mAh battery, something rumors suggest is coming, given this year's Magic V6 has a 6,660mAh battery (and 7,150mAh in China), and the Vivo X Fold 6 will likely also push the battery to 7,000mAh. Switching from the Z Fold 7 to basically any other foldable delivers a clear difference in battery longevity, and not one in Samsung's favor.

On that note, 25W charging just isn't enough anymore for a device that's pushing $2,000. All other foldables I used this year at least have 66W charging, and Samsung is lagging quite a bit in this area. Thankfully, the same rumor about battery size increases says that the Z Fold 8 will get 45W charging, which still won't be the fastest, but at least will deliver substantial speed upgrades.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8: Cameras

Samsung did the right thing by upgrading the main camera on the Galaxy Z Fold 7 to a 200MP unit. This allows the foldable to hold its own against Honor and Vivo, and while it is undoubtedly a positive move, Samsung didn't lavish the same level of attention on the auxiliary cameras.

The 12MP wide-angle lens is decent enough, but the 10MP telephoto lens leaves much to be desired, and it just isn't as good as what you get on the X Fold 5 and Magic V5. Rumors suggest Samsung will give this telephoto sensor a slight upgrade to 12MP, which may not be enough to compete with phones like the Honor Magic V6.

Since its release, we've been able to pit the Z Fold 7 against a variety of other phones, such as the Galaxy S25 Ultra and Pixel 10 Pro Fold. However, no matter how you slice it, there are scenarios where Samsung's foldable manages to impress, such as holding its own against the S25 Ultra and the iPhone. At the same time, other comparisons make it clear that there's still work to be done, especially with the telephoto and ultrawide sensors.

Now that the Galaxy Z Fold 7 has been available for a while, rumors are slowly starting to arrive. However, we'll have to wait until July 2026 to see what the Z Fold 8 has in store. Thankfully, we should get plenty of details of Samsung's 2026 foldable before that time, and I'll update this post as and when new information becomes available.