Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra review: Peak performance and productivity

The foldable market is officially crowded. In the form factor's early days, Samsung was merely competing with itself. Now, buyers can have their pick of foldables from Samsung, Google, Motorola, and soon, Apple. In other words, Samsung's latest flagship foldable faces its stiffest slate of competition yet. The Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra will have to do more than ever to justify its $2,099 price point, proving it's worth the premium over the Motorola Razr Fold, Google Pixel 11 Pro Fold, and iPhone Duo.

The Galaxy Z Fold 7 represented such a monumental leap over its predecessor that I expected the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra to be an incremental upgrade. In some ways, it is — the dimensions and weight are virtually unchanged — but the phone also impressed me in others. Samsung addressed two of my biggest complaints about the Galaxy Z Fold 7 by boosting battery life and making the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra easier to open. It added a new rear camera and a sharper, brighter folding display.

This makes for an incredible spec sheet, and the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra deserves credit for being the thinnest book-style foldable sold in the U.S. However, the device lacks many quality-of-life features buyers crave from modern foldables, such as a wide aspect ratio, IP68 durability, Qi2 magnets, and pen support.

As a result, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra is best for performance and productivity. For content consumption or creation, there are alternatives that offer a more complete package.

Design: Samsung only made small tweaks to the thinnest foldable in the US

Samsung didn't give the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra a complete design overhaul. The Galaxy Z Fold 7 was already impressive, measuring 8.9mm thick and weighing 215 grams when folded. For reference, the iPhone 18 Pro Max is only slightly slimmer at 8.8mm thick and much heavier at 249 grams, and that phone doesn't fold in half. The Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra keeps the same thickness and weight as the Fold 7, but with a twist.

The Galaxy Z Fold 7's slim aluminum frame made it difficult to pry open. It was a two-hand job, and a tricky one at that. Samsung adjusted the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra's design to make it easier to open, addressing user complaints about the prior model. While the phone is still 8.9mm thick when shut, it's now 4.1mm thick when opened — down from 4.2mm on the Galaxy Z Fold 7. Samsung cheats a bit on the unfolded dimensions, excluding the protective folding display bezel that protrudes from the main chassis in its numbers.

This explains how Samsung was able to fix the opening problem for the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra. It thinned the aluminum side rails, but kept the protective folding display bezels just as thick. This created a bigger external gap between the two sides of the phone, making it easier to open. There's also a subtle chamfer that helps your thumbs get between the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra halves, so you can pry the device open. It's a minuscule change, but it's one that Galaxy Z Fold 7 users like myself will appreciate.

It's hard to complain about the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra's design. This is the thinnest folding phone sold in the US, and the only one lighter is Samsung's own Galaxy Z Fold 8. I can't ignore part of the reason Samsung's flagship foldable is this thin and light is that it doesn't have Qi2 magnets for MagSafe or Pixelsnap compatibility. If you want to use this $2,099 phone with magnetic chargers and accessories, you'll have to buy a separate case - we've rounded up some of the best Samsung Z Fold 8 Ultra cases already.

MagSafe has been standard on iPhones for more than half a decade, and Google added it to both the Pixel 10 Pro Fold and Pixel 11 Pro Fold. Apple's first foldable, the iPhone Duo, also has MagSafe. There's simply no excuse for Samsung to omit a feature that has become standard on iPhones and Pixels. The Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra's slim profile still lets it wear a case while remaining thinner than the competition, but I would've preferred the magnets to be built in from the start.

Another design headache is the rear camera bump. Three individual lenses sit atop an oval-shaped pedestal that protrudes significantly from the back of the device. The main chassis is thin, but the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra's giant camera bump prevents the phone from resting flat on a table. The vertically stacked camera lenses also interfere with certain Qi2 chargers and accessories, nixing compatibility even with the right case.

While I love how thin and light the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra feels in the hand, Samsung's next priorities must be to incorporate Qi2 magnets and to make the camera arrangement play nice with MagSafe accessories. It should also work to match the IP68 durability of the iPhone Duo and Pixel 11 Pro Fold, because the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra's IP48 rating leaves it unprotected against fine dust particles that can damage the delicate folding display - although dust and grit can still make their way into the hinge of the Pixel 11 Pro Fold anyway.

Performance: The Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra is the fastest foldable money can buy

I used the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra in my hometown of Phoenix, during an international trip to Germany, and while covering an event in California. I took the Galaxy Z Fold 7 on near-identical trips last year, and the phone's performance was mixed. Long flights, intercontinental travel, and busy work events are where foldables earn their keep, but the more I used the Galaxy Z Fold 7's folding display to its fullest potential, the quicker the battery drained. The small 4,400mAh battery simply couldn't keep up, and slow 25W wired charging didn't provide the extra juice I needed in a pinch.

I was curious whether the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra would fare any better, and sure enough, the phone delivered all-day battery life during the most taxing of travel days. The upgraded 5,000mAh silicon-carbon battery is to thank for that. These batteries are a denser variant of lithium-ion batteries that replace graphite anodes with a silicon-carbon composite, offering high capacities in surprisingly small form factors. This technology is how Samsung managed to fit the same battery capacity as the Galaxy S26 Ultra in the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra without making the phone any larger than the Fold 7.

During my heaviest use, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra used 100% of its battery and provided 7 hours and 18 minutes of screen-on time. That included social media scrolling, use of Chrome and Slack for remote work, and Uber and Google Wallet for transportation. That's a lot of screen-on time, and the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra handled it with ease, only needing a short recharge. The faster 45W wired charging speeds and 20W wireless charging speeds really came in handy.

Apart from the battery, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra has a new Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy chip with 12GB of memory. I tested the base model with 256GB of storage, but the 1TB configuration has 16GB of RAM. The fresh processor is an upgrade over the regular Snapdragon 8 Elite in the Fold 7, but that device was already plenty fast. Samsung also added an expanded graphite cooling structure to the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, which should keep thermals in check — I didn't notice any overheating during my review period.

I took a few games for a spin using the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, and was blown away by the phone's performance. I loaded up Fortnite, enabled 120 FPS, and set the graphics settings to 'High.' To my surprise, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra consistently averaged 120 FPS during battle royale gameplay. The performance was so impressive that after my first match, I had to back out and turn the settings up to push this phone to its limits. With the graphics set to 'Epic' and super resolution set to 'Ultra Quality,' the device still had no problem touching 120 FPS, but hovered around 90 FPS as I moved and panned the in-game camera.

I won my first two matches on the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, which is a bit out of the ordinary for me. I'll chalk at least some of the success up to the phone's performance and snappy WiFi 7 connectivity. Switching to Call of Duty: Mobile resulted in a similar experience: no lag or stutters, and incredible responsiveness. Using the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra with a mobile gaming controller like the Razer Kishi Ultra can truly rival dedicated gaming handhelds, as long as Android supports your favorite titles.

I don't yet know how the Apple A20 Pro chip in the iPhone Duo will perform, but I can confidently say the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra is the fastest Android foldable on the market. It runs laps around the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 inside the Razr Fold, and the Tensor G6 in the Pixel 11 Pro Fold isn't even on the same playing field.

Display: The folding screen is sharper, brighter, and anti-reflective

Samsung has spent years refining the foldable hinge and display, and we see the fruits of its labor in the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra. I can't see the display crease while looking at the folding display head-on, and it's not very noticeable when my fingers glide across it. You can definitely spot it when you're looking for it by angling the phone, and feel it when you're trying to. It's most noticeable when viewing the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra off-angle, but as a longtime foldable user, I can all but guarantee you'll stop noticing it after a few minutes of use.

The Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra features an anti-reflective film on its folding display, an important upgrade over the Galaxy Z Fold 7. Samsung foldables use 'ultra-thin glass' for the folding display, but a plastic top layer and a built-in screen protector cover it. This material is shinier than typical smartphone glass, and it's prone to reflections, glare, and fingerprints. The Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra's folding display is still a fingerprint magnet, but I noticed the anti-reflective film significantly reduced reflections.

It's not the only Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra display upgrade. The folding screen is still an 8-inch AMOLED panel, but it now has a pixel density of 422 pixels per inch (ppi), up from 368 ppi on the Galaxy Z Fold 7. Although the new screen is sharper, I'd be lying if I said I could tell the difference between the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra and Galaxy Z Fold 7 screens from typical viewing distances. Instead, the more noticeable improvement is the higher peak brightness of 3,000 nits. I could easily see the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra's folding display both indoors and outdoors.

The Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra's 6.5-inch cover screen has the same resolution as last year's model, but also sports a higher peak brightness of 3,000 nits. While the cover screen does use newer Gorilla Glass Ceramic 3, it doesn't have any anti-reflective properties. This is unfortunate, because it would've been nice to enjoy a consistent viewing experience across the two Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra screens. Nevertheless, both displays support variable refresh rates ranging from 1Hz to 120Hz.

AI features: The Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra's best tricks come courtesy of Google

The Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra is surprisingly light on new AI features. Samsung phones have a mix of both Galaxy AI and Google AI features, and this foldable is no exception. Notably, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra supports Now Nudge, an AI tool that tries to anticipate your next action and provide shortcuts for it. For example, if Galaxy AI notices you're planning a date with someone in Google Messages, it might prompt you to check your calendar with Now Nudge.

This isn't a groundbreaking feature, though. It's the Samsung version of Google's Magic Cue and Proactive Assistance, both of which are available on Pixel phones. In fact, Now Nudge debuted with the Galaxy S26 series and will land on the Galaxy Z Fold 7 with the One UI 9 update. It's hardly a Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra exclusive, and yet, it's the phone's most notable Galaxy AI tool. I didn't see Now Nudge appear organically at any point during my Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra review period.

The classic range of Galaxy AI features is still here, including Call Assist, Writing Assist, and Interpreter. Handy tools like Audio Eraser allow you to amplify voices and suppress background noise in videos. Object Eraser is a helpful AI photo editing feature. There's a lot you can do with AI on the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, but you need to seek these features out if you'd like to use them. It was easy to use the foldable without ever accidentally stumbling into a Galaxy AI feature, for better or worse.

The best Galaxy AI feature on the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra might be the 'Process data only on device' toggle. This mode requires AI features to use local processing and disables those that rely on the cloud (unless you're using third-party apps like ChatGPT and Gemini, of course). This option is far more upfront and clear than on devices from Apple, Google, or Motorola, where the option to choose between on-device and cloud processing manually is buried in the settings or nonexistent. If you're concerned about privacy, this mode keeps your Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra's data on your device and leverages the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy chip's upgraded NPU power. In fairness, Apple's modern iPhone AI requests that need to go off-device go through Private Cloud Compute, which anonymizes the data.

Another perk of the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra is that you don't have to rely on a single company for all your phone's AI features. This phone also supports Gemini Intelligence, a new Google AI feature suite in Android 17, limited to specific flagship models. I tried using app automation with Gemini Intelligence to have Gemini control my smartphone for me. The feature's scope is incredibly narrow, as it only works with 40 apps, including Uber and Ticketmaster. It did successfully book me an Uber to the airport, but it wasn't quick or useful enough to be worth my while.

Samsung's multitasking software has nothing to do with AI, but it's a key reason to buy the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra. You can open up to eight apps at once in One UI 9, including five pop-up views and three split-screen views. I found myself using Android's 90:10 split-screen view, which lets you quickly switch between two apps on the same screen, more often than not. Still, Samsung's robust support for floating windows outperforms app bubbles on Pixel foldables.

I wish the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra's multitasking suite was more proactive. If I'm scrolling through my inbox with the main display unfolded and decide to tap a link, it opens in full screen. Google and Motorola foldables will automatically open the link in a split-screen view in the same situation, which is much more intuitive. Motorola's MyUX software goes one step further, prompting me to open pairs of apps in split-screen views if it notices I'm frequently switching between them. I always have to manually manage multitasking on the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, whereas other phones have figured out how to automate the process.

Cameras: Samsung upgraded the camera, but not the one I wanted

Samsung opted to keep the same 200MP main camera on the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra. While the sensor size and megapixel count of this camera look identical to the Galaxy S26 Ultra's primary shooter, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra gets the older f/1.7 lens instead of the newer f/1.4 version. It's also important to remember that Samsung's 200MP cameras use smaller pixels. So, the 48MP camera on the Pixel 11 Pro Fold or the 50MP one on the Razr Fold may perform better than their megapixel counts would lead you to believe.

With those caveats out of the way, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra's main camera captures photos as good as any foldable I've tested. The 200MP camera has a 1/1.3-inch image sensor, which is bigger than the Pixel 11 Pro Fold's main camera and slightly smaller than the Razr Fold's main camera. The larger the sensor, the more light it can capture. More light equals better colors and extra detail, and it's no surprise the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra's wide 200MP lens shines in the dark.

Give the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra a few extra seconds to process, and the long exposure will take in enough light to produce gorgeous photos, even at night. I took the foldable to a local lake that's particularly challenging for phone cameras. The water itself is pitch black at night, but it's surrounded by artificial lighting. Phones that falter in the dark overexpose the lighted path and turn the sky into a grainy mess. By comparison, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra preserved the detail of the lake, path, and night sky.

During the day, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra gives colors just enough pop while keeping them true to life. Excessive lighting can trip up the phone's camera, though. While snapping a photo of my hotel's pool under the midday California sun, the main camera introduced a bit of haze in the center of the image.

The Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra's camera also struggled with Chase Field's outfield lights, creating a bloom effect in the photo. These issues certainly aren't exclusive to the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, however.

Since the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra uses the same primary shooter as the Galaxy S26 Ultra, it's no longer a downgrade compared to traditional flagships. The telephoto lens is a different story. It's still a 10MP, f/2.4 lens with a tiny 1/3.94-inch sensor size that tops out at 3x optical zoom. The quality is decent within the camera's optical zoom range, and the extra detail can make the telephoto more fun to shoot with than the sharper main camera. Once you get into digital zoom beyond 3x, the quality quickly drops off.

Compared to the Galaxy Z Fold 7, the newer model adds a 50MP, f/1.9 ultrawide camera with a 120-degree field of view. This is a nice upgrade over the outgoing 12MP ultrawide lens, and it's neat for people who enjoy the look of wider 0.6x shots.

Still, I would've rather Samsung upgraded the telephoto camera than the ultrawide, perhaps with the 5x optical zoom lens from the Galaxy S26 Ultra. It's tricky to cram larger telephoto cameras into foldables that are already tight on space, so I understand why the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra uses older zoom hardware. Regardless, the lack of a telephoto upgrade makes the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra's camera system a minor upgrade over the Fold 7 for everyone but the ultrawide fanatics.

The 10MP, f/2.2 cover cameras are unchanged, too. These selfie lenses are fine, and you can use the rear cameras to take selfies with the cover screen as your viewfinder. My biggest gripe with the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra's front-facing camera is that the one on the folding display isn't nested in the corner. Instead, the hole-punch camera cutout is right in the middle of the top-right section of the display. This can get in the way of your content, especially if the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra is rotated. I would've preferred an under-display selfie camera like the Galaxy Z Fold 6, accepting the lower quality for better immersiveness.

Should you buy the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra?

With the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, Samsung made the most technically impressive foldable in the US even better. Of all the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra competitors, none match the foldable's thickness or weight. For those who want a folding phone that feels most akin to a traditional flagship, this is the one.

If you're sensing a 'but' here, your instincts are sound. For many of the same reasons, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra is the foldable I keep closed the most. The Motorola Razr Fold, Google Pixel 11 Pro Fold, and even Samsung's own smaller Galaxy Z Fold 8 all have hardware and software that push me to make the most of their gorgeous inner screens. The Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra doesn't. Its square aspect ratio is ideal for documents and spreadsheets, not videos, social media doomscrolling, or reading.

The wide form factor of the Galaxy Z Fold 8 is a better fit for how I use my phone, and I'm excited to switch back to it now that I'm done testing the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra. I can use the regular Fold 8 unfolded in landscape mode for video and in portrait mode for reading articles, as it's about the size and shape of an iPad mini. That's not to say everyone should grab the Fold 8 instead of the Ultra model, but rather to highlight how there's more to a foldable than a svelte chassis and powerful hardware.

I'd strongly consider the alternatives before buying a Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra. The Razr Fold offers better multitasking and pen support; the Google Pixel 11 Pro Fold offers IP68 durability and Qi2 magnets; and the Galaxy Z Fold 8 and the iPhone Duo both have wide screens. They're also all cheaper than the $2,099 Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra.

That said, no other foldable can challenge the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra in build quality or performance. As someone who has used Samsung foldables for years, I find there's something magical about how this one feels in the hand and how few compromises come with the folding display.

The post Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra review: Peak performance and productivity appeared first on Business Insider