Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7

What actually changed from the Galaxy Z Fold6

The headline number is thickness. Fold6 measured 12.1mm folded; Fold7 is 8.9mm, and unfolded it is 4.2mm per half. That is the difference between a phone that visibly bulges in a front pocket and one that does not, and it is the single change most likely to convert someone who has spent six generations saying foldables are too chunky.

The second change is the camera. Samsung moved the 200MP ISOCELL HP2-class sensor from the Galaxy S25 Ultra into the Fold, replacing the 50MP unit. On a device where every previous generation asked you to accept mid-range imaging for flagship money, this matters more than the spec sheet suggests — the Fold7 is the first one you can carry as your only camera without regret.

The third is the cover display, now 6.5 inches at 1080 x 2520 with a conventional aspect ratio. Earlier Folds had tall, narrow outer screens that made one-handed typing awkward enough that people opened the phone for tasks that should not require it. The Fold7's cover screen is simply a normal phone.

What did not change: the battery is 4,400mAh, charging is still 25W, and the 10MP 3x telephoto is the same module Samsung has shipped since the Fold4. Those are the three places the thinness was paid for.

Battery life and the 25W problem

GSMArena measured 11 hours 44 minutes of active use, which lands the Fold7 in comfortable one-day territory for mixed use but well short of the 15-hour figures that big-battery bar phones now post. Drive the 8-inch inner panel at full brightness for video or gaming and the drop is steep, because you are lighting nearly twice the area of a normal phone from a battery that is smaller than a Galaxy S25 Plus's.

Charging is the harder complaint. 25W QC2.0 gets you 50% in 30 minutes and a full charge in roughly an hour and a half. Competing Chinese foldables charge two to three times faster. Samsung's stated reason is longevity and heat management inside a 4.2mm chassis, and that argument is not unreasonable — but at $1,999.99 it reads as a limitation the buyer absorbs rather than a decision made for them.

Wireless charging is 15W and reverse wireless is 4.5W, both unchanged. If you routinely need a fast mid-day top-up, budget for a power bank rather than expecting the phone to solve it.

Durability: what IP48 does and does not cover

IP48 is not IP68. The '4' means protection against solid objects larger than 1mm — it explicitly does not certify the phone against dust, sand, or fine grit, which are precisely the particles that damage a folding hinge. The '8' means it survives immersion to 1.5m for 30 minutes, so rain and accidental dunks are genuinely covered.

In practice: beach and construction-site use remain the risk cases for every foldable on the market, Fold7 included. Samsung has strengthened the hinge and added a titanium plate under the inner panel, and the inner display now measures Mohs level 1 hardness rather than being trivially dented, but it is still a polymer surface that a fingernail can mark. Do not use a glass screen protector on the inner panel; use the factory-applied film and let a service centre replace it.

The outer surfaces use Gorilla Glass Victus Ceramic 2 on the cover and Victus 2 on the back, both of which are conventional flagship glass and behave accordingly.

Who should buy it — and who should not

Buy the Fold7 if you actually use the big screen: split-screen multitasking, Samsung DeX, long documents, spreadsheets, comics, or reading. Seven years of OS updates makes the $1,999.99 easier to amortise than it looks, and this is the first generation where you do not trade pocketability for that screen.

Do not buy it if your priority is battery life, fast charging, zoom photography, or S Pen input. The Galaxy S25 Ultra beats it on all four for $700 less, and if you want a foldable specifically for its form factor rather than its screen area, the Galaxy Z Flip7 does that for $900 less.