All eyes were on the battery tests for the newly released Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Galaxy Z Flip 7 — at least if you're familiar with the challenges Samsung's foldables have faced when it comes to delivering long battery life. Would the latest models show improvement over their predecessors? And would Samsung finally deliver foldable phones that could challenge more conventional models for a spot on our best phone battery life list.
We've put both phones to the test for our Galaxy Z Fold 7 review as well as our Galaxy Z Flip 7 review. And for those two burning questions, we can only offer that most frustrating of answers — yes and no.
The good news: both the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Z Flip 7 posted better numbers than the previous versions of Samsung's foldables on our battery test, where phones surf the web over cellular until they run out of power. But despite that improvement, neither the Fold nor the Flip delivered the kind of battery life you'd expect from such premium phones. They're not even the longest-lasting foldables we've tested.
Foldable phones face a longevity challenge. They've got larger screens to keep powered up, but only so much space inside for a battery. That limits a phone maker's reliance on battery size to improve staying power, forcing them to rely on other features like the power management capabilities of whatever silicon is powering the phone.
Both the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Galaxy Z Flip 7 have larger screens than their predecessors — both inside and outside the phones. And yet, only the new Flip has a larger battery than its predecessor, sporting a 4,300 mAh power pack to the 4,000 mAh cell inside the Galaxy Z Flip 6. The Galaxy Z Fold 7 has the same 4,400 mAh battery as the Galaxy Z Fold 6.
So how well did these new Samsung phones overcome these limitations to improve on battery life? We're going to run additional tests, but the preliminary results are in.
Galaxy Z Fold 7 battery life results
We ran our battery test on the 8-inch main display of the Galaxy Z Fold 7 with the screen set to its default adaptive refresh rate. That means the refresh rate would adjust dynamic as the phone surfed the web in our testing.
Phone | Battery size (mAh) | Tested battery life (Hrs:Mins) |
Galaxy Z Fold 7 | 4,400 | 10:55 |
Galaxy Z Fold 6 | 4,400 | 10:35 |
OnePlus Open | 4,805 | 11:45 |
Pixel 9 Pro Fold | 4,650 | 11:36 |
The Galaxy Z Fold 7 posted an initial result of 10 hours and 55 minutes. That's a slight improvement on the Galaxy Z Fold 6's time of 10:35.
Considering that both phones have the same 4,400 mAh battery, we figure that the Galaxy Z Fold 7 benefitted from the power efficiency of the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset it uses, particularly since it's got a larger screen than its predecessor.
The modest gain in battery life means the Galaxy Z Fold 7 is only slightly ahead of the average time posted by smartphones we tested. More significantly, the time isn't as long as other book-style foldables that share the Galaxy Z Fold 7's design.
Both the OnePlus Open and Pixel 9 Pro Fold open up to reveal larger interior panels like the Galaxy Z Fold 7 does. And both those phones lasted a little bit longer on a charge, with both posting averages greater than 11:5 hours on our test.
The OnePlus Open's result is particularly noteworthy in that the phone came out two years ago and still lasts longer than Samsung's latest foldables. That's after Samsung has had multiple attempts to try and produce a longer lasting fold.
OnePlus has already said it won't release a OnePlus Open 2 this year, though we're expecting to see a Pixel 10 Pro Fold when Google holds its next hardware event on August 20. Depending on how much longer that phone lasts on a charge, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 could find itself falling further behind the competition.
Galaxy Z Flip 7 battery life results
The news is a little better for the Galaxy Z Flip 7, as it saw a more substantial gain in our battery life test over the previous Samsung flip phone. That said, some of Motorola's foldable flip phones continue to outlast Samsung's offerings.
Phone | Battery size (mAh) | Battery life (Hrs:mins) |
Galaxy Z Flip 7 | 4,300 | 12:24 |
Galaxy Z Flip 6 | 4,000 | 11:01 |
Motorola Razr Ultra (2025) | 4,700 | 15:42 |
Motorola Razr Plus (2025) | 4,000 | 11:08 |
Motorola Razr (2025) | 4,500 | 13:45 |
The Galaxy Z Flip's time of 12 hours and 24 minutes at its adaptive setting is a big improvement over the 11:01 time posted by the Galaxy Z Flip 6. More important, the better battery time — aided by the larger power pack and upgraded Exynos 2500 chipset in the Z Flip 7 — puts more distance between Samsung's smartphone and the average device's time on our test.
Still, this is not the longest lasting flip phone you can buy. That would be the Motorola Razr Ultra (2025), which holds out for 15:42 on our battery test — a very impressive time. While that phone costs more than the $1,099 Galaxy Z Flip 7 at $1,299, it's worth noting that the $699 Razr (2025) also posts a better time at 13:45. Only the $999 Motorola Razr Plus trails the Galaxy Z Flip 7 in terms of battery life.
Samsung foldable phone battery life outlook
Samsung deserves credit for the steps taken to improve battery life on both of its new foldables. But in the case of the Galaxy Z Fold 7, those gains are marginal at best.
And it's not an insignificant issue — long battery life is one of the big factors people consider when looking for a new phone. If Samsung wants shoppers to adopt foldable phones in greater numbers, it's going to have to make bigger gains in future versions.
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