The Galaxy Z Fold 7 is super thin, measuring just 8.9 millimeters when closed and 4.2 millimeters when unfolded.
Ryan Browne | CNBC
Samsung on Wednesday launched three recent folding smartphones — including thinner top-end devices and a less expensive version of its flip phone — because the tech giant looks to entice buyers to make the switch to foldables.
The primary recent additions to Samsung’s foldable phone range are the Galaxy Z Fold 7, which folds like a book, and the Galaxy Z Flip 7, which takes on the shape of the classic clamshell-style flip phones. Samsung also announced a less expensive version of its latest flip phone, the Galaxy Z Flip 7 SE.
The South Korean consumer electronics giant is refreshing its foldable phone lineup at a time when the corporate faces increased competition from Chinese rivals, similar to Honor and Oppo. Last week, Honor — which spun off from Chinese tech giant Huawei in 2020 — launched the brand new ultra-thin Magic V5 folding phone, while Oppo introduced its own slim foldable device, the Find N5, earlier this 12 months.
Samsung’s share of the worldwide foldable phone market slipped to 45% in 2024 from 54% a 12 months earlier, based on Canalys. China also accounts for a big share of the foldables market — although 17.2 million of those devices were sold last 12 months globally, this drops to 9.4 million when excluding mainland China.
Thinner and greater — but there is a catch
The Galaxy Z Fold 7 is super thin at a thickness of 8.9 millimeters (0.35 inches) closed and only 4.2 millimeters open. It is also much lighter than its predecessor, weighing 215 grams (7.62 ounces). These stats put the phone on par with each Honor’s Magic V5 and the Oppo Find N5.
The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7.
Ryan Browne | CNBC
The brand new Fold device has a 6.5-inch cover screen and an 8-inch primary display when opened, making it larger than its predecessor.
It is also decked out with premium recent cameras, featuring a 200-megapixel primary lens, in addition to a 10-megapixel telephoto sensor, 12-megapixel ultra-wide and two 10-megapixel front cameras on each the duvet screen and on the primary display.
The Galaxy Z Fold 7 is super thin, measuring just 8.9 millimeters when closed and 4.2 millimeters when unfolded.
Ryan Browne | CNBC
Samsung’s recent Fold generation is, nevertheless, rather more limited than other devices available in the market with regards to battery capability. The Galaxy Z Fold 7 has a 4,400 milliampere-hour (mAh) battery — far lower than the 6,100 mAh power pack in Honor’s Magic V5’s or the Oppo Find N5’s 5,600 mAh battery.
Samsung says its device is able to 24 hours of video playback.
The Galaxy Z Fold 7 will retail within the U.K. at a starting price of £1,799 ($2,434).
Cheaper flip phone
The Galaxy Z Flip 7 has a 4.1-inch cover screen and a 6.9-inch primary display when opened.
Ryan Browne | CNBC
Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip 7 can be thinner than its predecessor, coming in at 6.5 millimeters when opened flat. Against this, the Galaxy Z Flip 6 has a depth of 6.9 millimeters when unfolded.
The brand new phone has a 4.1-inch cover screen and a 6.9-inch primary display. It comes with a 50-megapixel primary camera and 12-megapixel ultra-wide sensor on the back and a 10-megapixel lens on the primary display.
It also has a much bigger 4,300 mAh battery, which Samsung says supports 31 hours of video playtime on a single charge.
Along with Flip 7, Samsung can be introducing a less expensive version of the phone, called the Galaxy Z Flip 7 FE, which is barely smaller and thicker than its more premium counterpart.
The Galaxy Z Flip 7 will retail from £1,049 within the U.K., while the Galaxy Z Flip 7 FE starts at £849.
AI fashion suggestions
Samsung also talked up the Galaxy Z Fold and Flip 7’s artificial intelligence capabilities. For the last two years, the corporate has used Google’s Gemini language model to power much of its AI features — and this 12 months isn’t any different.
Each devices use Samsung and Qualcomm’s custom-made Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy chip, which is designed to enable more AI processing on-device versus within the cloud.
The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7.
Ryan Browne | CNBC
It also has recent AI-powered camera features, including one which mechanically suggests people and objects to erase from photos — for instance, if you happen to’ve been photobombed by someone — and an audio eraser tool that proactively detects and removes unwanted background noise from videos.
The Galaxy Z Flip 7, meanwhile, allows you to pull up Google’s AI assistant app, Gemini Live, on top of the camera app when taking a live video of yourself. Samsung says one use case this offers is the power to ask the AI for recommendations on the outfit you are wearing.
Sheng Win Chow, senior analyst at Canalys, said that physical design alone won’t be enough to persuade users to convert to foldable phones from the touchscreen slabs we’re all used to.
“Lasting leadership is dependent upon redefining what foldables do, not only how they appear,” he said in an emailed note. “The subsequent wave of competition will come from software — how vendors use the foldable form factor to deliver truly differentiated experiences.”
