Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra vs Galaxy Z Fold 7 — are this year's upgrades really worth it?

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra is a fantastic foldable, with a lot of great upgrades that (mostly) stands up to the Ultra moniker. But the Galaxy Z Fold 7 was also a fantastic foldable when it was released last year, with our review declaring it to be the foldable phone we've been waiting for.

Obviously this leaves us with a few questions that need answering. The Z Fold 8 Ultra is the better phone, but is it still good enough to supplant the Z Fold 7 as the foldable you should buy? After all, the Z Fold 8 Ultra is more expensive, and the Z Fold 7 is likely to get some price cuts in the wake of the Ultra's launch.

So how does the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra compare to the Galaxy Z Fold 7, and which of these foldables is right for you?

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra vs Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7: Specs

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra vs Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7: Price & availability

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 has been on sale since last July, with prices starting at $1,999 for a model with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. 512GB is available for $2,199, while a 1TB model with 16GB of RAM can be purchased for $2,499.

Color options include Silver Shadow, Jet Black, Blue Shadow and the Samsung-exclusive Mint. This phone is also likely to be discounted in the wake of the Z 8 series launch, since it's already a year old.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra goes on sale on August 7, with prices starting at $2,199 for a model with 12GB of RAM and 256GB storage. 512GB raises the price to $2,299, while 1TB with 16GB of RAM will set you back $2,699.

Color options include Violet Shadow, Cream, Graphite and the Samsung-exclusive Green Shadow.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra vs Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7: Design and Display

Samsung didn't offer any bold redesigns with the Z Fold 8 Ultra, and the new foldable's shape and size is more or less identical to the Galaxy Z Fold 7. They're not quite the same, since Z Fold 7 cases don't appear to fit on the back of the 8 Ultra, but it's close enough that you'd need precise measuring tools to notice.

The biggest upgrade is that the Z Fold 8 Ultra features a new Flex Titanium display, which offers improved durability and significantly less creasing in the middle. It's not quite crease-free, but it is almost invisible compared to the Z Fold 7.

The Fold 8 Ultra also has a much better screen when it comes to dealing with bright light. Both phones have the same high resolution screens and adaptive 1-120Hz refresh rates, but the Z Fold 7 isn't nearly as bright as the 8 Ultra. In fact, last year's foldable recorded a peak brightness of 2,245 nits, while the Z Fold 8 Ultra hit 2,687 nits.

The anti-reflective coating on the newer foldable also makes it a lot easier to use the Fold 8 Ultra in bright conditions, and it makes a shocking amount of difference in reducing glare. By which I mean you won't see your own silhouette staring back at you nearly as much.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra vs Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7: Performance

The Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra is the first Galaxy foldable to feature the custom "for Galaxy" chipset, which means it shares the same Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy chipset as the Galaxy S26 series. Older foldables utilized Snapdragon's standard flagship chip, so the Z Fold 7 arrived running the same Snapdragon 8 Elite as countless other non-Samsung phones.

While the off-the-shelf chip is no slouch, the upgrade to a For Galaxy chipset means that the Z Fold 8 Ultra gets to enjoy a performance boost compared to its predecessor.

As you can see in the table above, the Z Fold 8 Ultra finished Geekbench 6 with a single-core score of 3,733 and a multi-core score of 11,457. That's compared to the 3,052 and 9,735 scores recorded by the Z Fold 7 during the same benchmarking test. That's quite the jump, especially on the multi-core testing.

Graphics performance is a pretty similar story, with the Z Fold 8 Ultra scoring 12,950 in 3DMark's Solar Bay Unlimited benchmark test, with an average framerate of 49.24 fps. The Z Fold 7 came out with 10,912 and 41.21 fps which, while not terrible performance, seriously lags behind. Geekbench's AI test is more of the same with the Z Fold 8 Ultra coming in with a score of 71,715 to the Z Fold 7's 59,663.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra vs Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7: Cameras

The camera situation on the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra is a little hit and miss, though the same is true of the Z Fold 7. Both phones share the same 200MP main camera lens, 10MP telephoto lens with 3x optical zoom and a pair of 10MP selfie cameras (one for each screen).

However, the 8 Ultra's ultrawide camera has been given a much-needed update, increasing the resolution to 50MP — among smaller changes. But saying the phones both have similar camera hardware doesn't really tell us how different the photos actually are — especially now that software plays such a huge part in the process.

You'd think that the quality of the 200MP main lens would be identical across both phones, but that actually isn't the case. They seem alike at first glance, but the Z Fold 8 Ultra is actually picking up a lot more detail compared to its predecessor.

The text on this mail box is a lot more legible, and the finer details in the brickwork stand out a lot more. Overall, the Fold 8 Ultra delivers a much clearer and crisper image.

Despite the big bump in resolution, the difference in the ultrawide shots are pretty subtle — just as they were when I tested the cameras for the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra review. The Z Fold 8 Ultra offers crisper image quality and a slightly brighter photo overall. At a glance, most won't be able to pick up the subtleties of how the two cameras are different.

Macro shots aren't that dissimilar either, and both phones are able to capture the smaller details from close-up shots. However, the Z Fold 7's shot is noticeably more washed out, and doesn't feature the same deeper coloring of the Z Fold 8 Ultra.

The selfie camera quality is more or less identical on both phones. Some areas are clearer than others, depending on which side you're looking at, but that seems to be due to the variations on focus rather than the actual quality of the final shot. The Z Fold 8 Ultra is a little bit brighter, though.

Portrait mode is exactly the same, with the exact same focus variations and brightness difference as the regular selfie mode. Neither photo has any particular characteristics that make it superior to the other, and the bokeh effect looks exactly the same across both devices.

Speaking of identical, the same is true of the telephoto lens at 3x optical zoom. The quality of the shot on both phones is pretty poor, and it's an upgrade Samsung desperately needs to make ahead of the Z Fold 9 launch next year.

Pushing the magnification up to 10x doesn't make any difference either. While the details are being picked up by the camera, the actual quality of the final shot is atrocious compared to other flagship phones that cost considerably less money — including Samsung's own Galaxy S26 Ultra.

Samsung made a point of emphasizing how much it was improving low light capabilities with the Z Fold 8 Ultra, and it definitely looks like it's succeeded. Compared to the Z Fold 7, the night-time shots are brighter, crisper and pick up a lot more detail from the mail box. In fact, the Z Fold 7 shot blurs out the letters V and R around the crown at the top

Samsung has clearly made some improvements to the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, especially where low light photography is concerned. But a lot of the daytime upgrades seem to be a lot more subtle, and less noticeable to the casual observer. Whether that minor boost is worth it for you all depends on which phone you have, and whether the Z Fold 8 Ultra's other upgrades matter to you or not.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra vs Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7: Battery & charging

One of the biggest upgrades on the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra is the fact that the battery life is so much better now. This is thanks to a higher capacity silicon carbon battery with 5,000 mAh capacity, compared to 4,400 mAh for the Fold 7. Our custom battery test, which involves web-surfing over a 5G connection until the power runs out, clocked the Z Fold 8 Ultra's battery life at 14 hours and 33 minutes.

While this isn't as good as the Galaxy S26 Ultra, it is almost four hours longer than the Galaxy Z Fold 7's 10 hours and 44 minutes of battery life. Under 11 hours is pretty disappointing, but hitting 14+ hours means the Z Fold 8 Ultra is far more likely to make it through a single day without recharging.

The Z Fold 8 Ultra offers 45W wired charging compared to the Z Fold 7's 25W. That faster charging allows the phone to reclaim 76% of its battery life in just 30 minutes, compared to 54% on the Z Fold 7. Wireless charging has also increased by 5W, with up to 20W Qi2 speeds on the Z Fold 8 Ultra — though the embedded magnets are still missing from the phone.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra vs Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7: Verdict

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra has a lot of upgrades compared to last year, and the majority of them are available in areas that actually matter to your everyday use of the phone. Battery life is significantly improved, performance has taken a pretty big jump and the bright, anti-reflective display makes it significantly nicer to use this phone in a variety of conditions.

Those are all notable quality of life improvements that could make the Z Fold 8 Ultra the foldable of choice for most people. The camera changes are subtle, with the biggest difference being low-light performance.

Overall. the Fold 7 is still a very good foldable, especially when you can find it for a sizable discount. But if you're in the market for a new foldable phone, the Fold 8 Ultra is hands-down the better option.

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