I’ve been using Samsung’s foldable flagship smartphone, the sleek Galaxy Z Fold 7, for a few weeks now, and it’s undeniably good—and for a device that starts at $2,000, it damn well should be.
My Blue Shadow review unit is the lower-end 256 GB model, which retails for $1,999.99, but the 512 GB version is priced at $2,119.99, and if you want 1 TB of storage, you’ll have to fork over $2,419.99. The online exclusive Mint color might ease the sticker shock a bit… or not.
It’s been a few years since I’ve dabbled with the Fold lineup of phones, and it’s obvious how the design and performance have come a long way, because the Fold 7 is probably the best argument for a phablet I’ve yet come across. It’s ultra-thin; gone is the awkward chunkiness of past iterations, which makes finding a similarly thin case—one that won’t re-bulk the phone, as it were—an ongoing challenge. That said, I do have one big complaint in regard to the Fold 7, and it’s not the glaring lack of an S Pen, because even on the S25 Ultra, I barely use the thing.
Let’s talk positives first, though, because there are so, so many. The massive, 8-inch inner display is downright huge and wildly vibrant and incredibly useful for multitasking and gaming. As I mentioned, I’ve used Samsung’s Fold phones in the past, but never has a Fold been more appealing to open, and to use several apps at once. The Fold 7 can run up to three separate windows simultaneously.
This means you can have, say, a YouTube video playing alongside a game, plus maybe a Chrome tab displaying said game’s walkthrough on IGN. That’s just one possible configuration among countless, and once you start digging into the Fold 7’s inherent multitasking capabilities, you’ll likely never want to return to a slab phone. It’s especially useful if you need to copy text or images from one app to another in real-time, as you can have them open side by side.
The profile of the phone is minimalist engineering perfection, minus a very prominent camera bump on the backside that can make things wobbly if you don’t use a proper case. When closed, the Fold 7 (shockingly) feels like any normal phone, and the outer display isn’t strangely narrow like past Samsung Fold devices. It’s perfectly functional and I found myself not relying so much on the inner screen for a lot of tasks, although because I have large hands, I do still prefer inner to outer for texting.
Then, of course, you open the Fold 7 and you’re presented with this stunning micro-tablet display. Admittedly, it can be a bit challenging to open the two halves, simply due to the fact that they’re so flush together, but adding a case can give you more grip and alleviate the difficulty. Similarly, the recessed power button is completely flat, and it can also be difficult to operate and press. The button recession can be compounded by whatever case you choose to install, especially if it adds more depth, and scanning your fingerprint on the button can sometimes be a pain.
But back to that 8-inch inner display: The crease is present but barely noticeable, and all that screen real estate is truly excellent for reading articles, books, and most importantly, indulging in gaming. Paired with the Fold 7’s Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite processor and 12 GB of memory (16 GB on the 1 TB variant), native games run and play beautifully.
The Fold 7 does look sort of ridiculous when slapped into a Backbone Pro controller, but I was absolutely cleaning up on Call of Duty: Mobile recently, and it was running on max graphical settings without a single hitch. Take that, touchscreen players.
Speaking of, a lot of native Android titles will utilize the entire inner display (including Call of Duty), ignoring the lost pixels via the inner selfie camera punch-hole of course. But do note that if you’re planning on streaming games from the Xbox cloud or from your PS5 console via the official Remote Play app, you will get letterbox black bars on the top and bottom of the Fold 7’s screen.
You can always turn the phone on its side and take advantage of more space and display ratio for console stuff, which is what I typically do. The same could be said of general YouTube videos, which show noticeably larger than on a typical phone when you do this. I actually played through most of Gears of War 2 on the Fold 7 last week, and I’ve also been remotely dabbling in the Gex Trilogy. Having such a large phablet for game streaming has been a real boon, for sure.
This phone also takes great photos, by the way, thanks to its solid 200MP outer camera, which rivals the S25 Ultra’s 200MP offering. And if you take photos while the Fold 7 is open, you can look like your out-of-touch, iPad-wielding uncle at your sister’s high school graduation. Sure, Uncle Tim, you look totally cool and not embarrassing at all using a whole tablet to take a photo of the commencement.
So the Fold 7 is snappy, sleek, a multitasking beast, can take beautiful photos and has proves to be a serious gaming asset. What don’t I like? Well, it’s the battery, and the arguably slow charging speed.
The Fold 7 ships with a 4,400 MaH battery, which when compared to the S25 Ultra’s 5,000 MaH battery, rather pales in comparison. Add that to the Fold 7’s snail-paced 25W wired/15W wireless charging speeds (45W wired/15W wireless for the S25 Ultra, in contrast) and you’ve got a phone charge that doesn’t last long enough and doesn’t top up nearly as fast as the competition, even against Samsung’s own flagship slab phone.
I realize Samsung had to make battery size compromises due to the thinness of the Fold 7, and they’re probably trying to play it safe when it comes to charging speeds, but I would have loved at least a 5,000 MaH battery and 45W charging. Your mileage may vary depending on use patterns, and Samsung has done some decent software optimization to make up for it, but I tend to have the inner screen open for much of my day, and that drains the battery like crazy. Hopefully the Fold 8 will bring some improvements in the battery/power delivery department.
Overall, the Fold 7 is currently my favorite smartphone of all time. It’s become an indispensable part of my working and entertainment life, and while I lament the subpar battery and charging capabilities, I still think it’s an incredible piece of tech. Is it worth $2,000? You’ll have to make that judgement for yourself, but for my money, there isn’t a better phone on the market.
Disclosure: Samsung provided review product for coverage purposes.
