Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 just announced — and it’s a massive all-around upgrade

Galaxy Z Fold 7 shown during Samsung hands on event
(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

We've just seen the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 debut at Galaxy Unpacked, revealing that the rumors were true: this is the biggest design upgrade to Samsung's phone in the past five years.

Galaxy Z Fold 7 Hands-On! Thinner, Lighter… and $2,000?! - YouTube Galaxy Z Fold 7 Hands-On! Thinner, Lighter… and $2,000?! - YouTube
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Retailing at $1,999/£1,799/AU$2,899 — unfortunately an increased price for the U.S. market — Samsung's promoting its latest book-style foldable as its thinnest and lightest yet. And the numbers back that up - at 8.9mm thick folded and 4.2mm unfolded, it's 3.2mm and 1.6mm thinner than the last-gen Galaxy Z Fold 6.

Galaxy Z Fold 7 shown during Samsung hands on event

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

Weighing in at 215 grams (7.58 ounces), The Z Fold 7 is also 24 grams lighter than its 2024 counterpart, while being larger overall, with an 8-inch inner screen and a wider 6.5-inch cover display, rather than a 7.6-inch and 6.3-inch combo.

Galaxy Z Fold 7 shown during Samsung hands on event

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

Design and S Pen support

Samsung's been working on durability too. A revised Armor Flex Hinge keeps the two halves of the phone together, featuring a gentler waterdrop curve to reduce the crease in the inner screen. That main display is protected by a new, lighter lattice structure made of titanium, and 50% thicker ultra-thin glass on top. Samsung has also used Gorilla Glass Victus 2 on back, Gorilla Glass Ceramic 2 on the front display and an Advanced Armor Aluminum body everywhere else to make sure this two-grand foldable is as tough as it can be.

Galaxy Z Fold 7 shown during Samsung hands on event

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

Sadly, Samsung has decided to drop S Pen support from the inner display, making this the first Z Fold since the Galaxy Z Fold 3 to lack stylus support. If you want that, you'll now have to go to the non-foldable Galaxy S25 Ultra.

Galaxy Z Fold 7 shown during Samsung hands on event

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

You can pick up the Galaxy Z Fold 7 in Blue Shadow, Jet Black or Silver Shadow colorways. Mint is also available exclusively from the Samsung Store if you like your phones to look fresh.

Cameras

As you may have gathered from Samsung's teasers for the Z Fold 7, it's received an Ultra-style camera upgrade. It now uses a 200MP main camera, the same as the Galaxy S25 Ultra, except with a slimmer profile to fit within the Fold's body. This joins the familiar 10MP 3x telephoto camera and a 12MP ultrawide, although the latter camera now comes with autofocus and macro mode capabilities.

Galaxy Z Fold 7 shown during Samsung hands on event

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

For selfies there are now 10MP sensors inside and out. But now the inner camera uses a punch-hole notch instead of the under-display camera of previous generations. This is a great change that should hopefully make the inner selfie camera much more useful, capable of taking sharper images.

Processor and battery

The Galaxy Z Fold 7 runs the Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy, the latest and greatest chipset for flagship Android devices, but with a Galaxy-specific tune-up. By default, the phone features 12GB RAM and 256GB storage, but you can upgrade to 12GB RAM and 512GB storage if you prefer, or a massive 16GB and 1TB if you've got money to burn.

Samsung has not upgraded the Galaxy Z Fold 7's charging or battery specs. The battery has a capacity of 4,400 mAh, like previous Z Folds, and still has 25W for wired charging and 15W for wireless charging.

Galaxy Z Fold 7 shown during Samsung hands on event

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

One UI upgrades

One UI 8, Samsung's Android 16-based operating system, debuts with the Galaxy Z Fold 7, bringing new abilities like a moveable Gemini response window for more flexible AI use, split-screen mode for generative image edits, Suggest Erases mode to help clear up your photos and the expansion of Audio Eraser to automatically clear up sounds in videos, voice recordings and calls.

Now Brief and the Now Bar return from the Galaxy S25 series, while the now-familiar Circle to Search mode can help provide tips in-game. And Samsung has kept its promise of seven full years of OS and security updates intact to make sure these features will only be joined by more in future.

You can read our thoughts on this new foldable in our Galaxy Z Fold 7 hands-on. But there's more to check out from today's announcements, like the Galaxy Z Flip 7 and Galaxy Z Flip 7 FE foldables, and the Galaxy Watch 8. And for the very latest from Samsung's showcase, check our Galaxy Unpacked live blog.

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Richard Priday
Assistant Phones Editor

Richard is based in London, covering news, reviews and how-tos for phones, tablets, gaming, and whatever else people need advice on. Following on from his MA in Magazine Journalism at the University of Sheffield, he's also written for WIRED U.K., The Register and Creative Bloq. When not at work, he's likely thinking about how to brew the perfect cup of specialty coffee.

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