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Samsung Z Fold/Flip 7 Impressions: Major Upgrades!

11:39 5.4M views 2025-07-09 Watch on YouTube ↗
SamsungZ Fold 7Z Flip 7Galaxy Z Fold 7Galaxy Z Flip 7foldable phonesSamsung UnpackedMKBHDhands onreviewimpressionsSnapdragon 8 EliteExynos 2500silicon carbon battery

Samsung Z Fold/Flip 7 Impressions: Major Upgrades!

Summary

MKBHD provides his first hands-on impressions of Samsung’s new Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Z Flip 7 foldable phones, announced at Samsung Unpacked. The Z Fold 7 receives major upgrades including a significantly thinner design (8.9mm closed), lighter weight (215g), the S25 Ultra’s 200MP main camera, and Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy chip. However, it loses S Pen support and increases in price to $1,999. The Z Flip 7 gets a larger 6.9” internal display, edge-to-edge 4.1” cover display, and bigger battery, but switches from Snapdragon to Exynos 2500 chip - potentially signaling Samsung’s future direction. MKBHD praises the hardware improvements while noting Samsung’s conservative approach to battery technology compared to competitors like Honor with silicon carbon batteries.

Highlights

”Lighter Than an S25 Ultra”

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“Each side unfolded is a little over 4 mm and so the whole thing closed is only 8.9 mm this time… The whole thing weighs 215 grams. That’s actually lighter than an S25 Ultra.” — Marques Brownlee, 1:08

”The Most Diabolical Table Rock Ever”

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“This camera I think now is gonna have to take my trophy for the most I’ve ever seen a phone rock on a table with no case on it. This one is absolutely diabolical.” — Marques Brownlee, 3:36

”The $2,000 Foldable Reality”

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“It was $1,899, now it’s $1,999 base. It was already expensive. Now, it’s even more expensive. The ultra cameras and the thinner design and everything this year, $2,000 bucks to get a foldable.” — Marques Brownlee, 5:49

”Honor’s Silicon Carbon Battery Advantage”

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“This is the Honor Magic V5… this phone is even thinner than Samsung’s. It’s about the same weight and it has a 5,820 mAh battery thanks to it being silicon carbon.” — Marques Brownlee, 6:38

”The Exynos Comeback Concern”

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“They’ve gone back from a Snapdragon chip to an Exynos chip in this phone… this could be a preview of the S26. Allegedly Samsung may be looking to switch fully back to Exynos for everything across the board.” — Marques Brownlee, 8:53

Key Points

  • 0:07 - Introduction to the “tick-tock” upgrade cycle - last year was minimal updates, this year brings meaningful hardware changes
  • 1:11 - Z Fold 7 is significantly thinner (4mm each side, 8.9mm closed) and lighter (215g - lighter than S25 Ultra)
  • 2:00 - Internal display is now 8 inches corner to corner; runs One UI 8 on Android 16
  • 2:56 - Camera upgrade: S25 Ultra’s 200MP main sensor now in the Fold 7
  • 3:38 - Camera bump causes significant “table rock” - worst MKBHD has seen
  • 3:58 - Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy chip with 12GB RAM (16GB on 1TB model)
  • 5:02 - Three downgrades identified: S Pen support removed, price increased $100 to $1,999, battery unchanged at 4,400mAh
  • 6:42 - Honor Magic V5 comparison: thinner, same weight, 5,820mAh silicon carbon battery
  • 7:21 - Z Flip 7: same $1,099 price, larger 6.9” internal display (up from 6.7”)
  • 8:17 - Z Flip 7 cover display is now edge-to-edge at 4.1 inches, 120Hz, like Razer
  • 8:53 - Concerning: Z Flip 7 switches from Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 to Exynos 2500
  • 9:41 - Could preview S26 - rumored Samsung may switch fully back to Exynos
  • 9:50 - Galaxy Watch 8 mentioned with new antioxidant index health feature
  • 10:10 - Z Flip 7 FE (Fan Edition) announced: essentially Flip 6 with Exynos 2400 for $899

Mentions

Companies

  • Samsung - Primary focus, manufacturer of the Z Fold 7 and Z Flip 7
  • Qualcomm/Snapdragon - Chip manufacturer (Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy in Fold 7)
  • Honor - Competitor with Magic V5 foldable featuring silicon carbon battery
  • Razer - Mentioned as having edge-to-edge cover display design Z Flip 7 now matches
  • Ridge - Sponsor

Products

People

  • Marques Brownlee (MKBHD) - Video creator and reviewer

Surprising Quotes

“The whole thing weighs 215 grams. That’s actually lighter than an S25 Ultra.” — 1:31

“This camera I think now is gonna have to take my trophy for the most I’ve ever seen a phone rock on a table with no case on it. This one is absolutely diabolical.” — 3:38

“The Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy, the special version of their chip, sells so much volume that I think it actually outsells all of the standard Snapdragon 8 Elites, which kind of makes the Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy the standard chip because there’s more of them.” — 4:06

“It was $1,899, now it’s $1,999 base. It was already expensive. Now, it’s even more expensive. The ultra cameras and the thinner design and everything this year, $2,000 bucks to get a foldable.” — 5:51

“This is the Honor Magic V5… this phone is even thinner than Samsung’s. It’s about the same weight and it has a 5,820 mAh battery thanks to it being silicon carbon.” — 6:42

Full Transcript

0:07 So, tick tock. The tick tock upgrade cycle is a classic. Last year, it felt like Samsung barely updated the Fold 6 and the Flip 6. They got new chipsets, sure, but other than that, almost changed nothing. Tick. But now this year, we have a new Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Z Flip 7, and there are actual meaningful hardware updates this time. So, talk, I guess.

0:30 So, welcome to your hands-on and first look at the latest generation of foldables from Samsung. Now, most of my thoughts here are going to be on the Fold, the big one, because Samsung has made some actually noticeable changes to a lot of this phone, and it’s kind of going to hit one of either two ways.

0:45 One, if you’re not really in the phone world very much, in which case, hi, welcome to a phone video. Uh, this is going to be amazing because it’s a brand new super thin ultra light foldable phone. Super cool. If you are in the phone world though and you’ve seen a lot of these videos before and you see what the other companies overseas are doing with their ultra thin foldables, then it’s going to feel like hm Samsung’s catching up.

1:08 Either way you slice it, it is a big difference with the Fold 7. They’ve made it way thinner and way lighter. Each side unfolded is a little over 4 mm and so the whole thing closed is only 8.9 mm this time. And they’ve worked on simplifying and strengthening and thinning up the components on the inside. So, the hinge, the chassis, etc. So, the whole thing weighs 215 grams. That’s actually lighter than an S25 Ultra.

1:35 And all of this is in the spirit of being a much more usable slab phone when it’s closed. So, the difference versus last year of just holding the phone and using it closed is very noticeable. It’s barely thicker than a USB type-C port on each side. The buttons and the fingerprint reader are literally thinner to fit on the rail.

1:51 I’ve talked about other foldables in the past being more usable while they’re closed because of different aspect ratios and different size choices. But I am loving this new fold’s form factor because when it does unfold, it still unfolds into one of the biggest tablets you can fit in your pocket. 8 inches now corner to corner. So they’ve made everything about it folded better. And they’ve also improved the full-size open usage as well.

2:15 Plus, it’s running One UI 8 on Android 16 out the box. So, all the improvements that the latest version of Android has to make big screen multitasking and multi-window better will all be here.

2:24 In the wide world of foldables, there’s different reasons why you might choose different foldables. Some are shorter and squatter, so they’re more reachable and better closed, but not as good open. Some are taller and thinner, so not as good closed, but when you open it, the screen’s way bigger. This update from Samsung made it better at both closed and open usage. That’s sick.

2:45 So then on the theme of hardware improvements, one of the challenges for these foldables because they’re so thin on each side is they never quite have room for flagship cameras.

2:56 And with this Fold 7, that’s still kind of true, but the gap is way closer because they have put in the S25 Ultra’s main 200 megapixel camera in the new Fold. The glass and optics around it are slightly thinner to make it fit, but that is essentially a true flagship camera and all the pixel peeping benefits that come with it on a fold. I’ve loved this camera for months now.

3:18 Now, the 12 megapixel ultrawide and the 10 megapixel 3x telephoto are also still smaller than flagship size. So, it’s not fully on the level of a slab phone camera system, but to be fair, those are lesser used cameras and the majority of your photos are going to come from the primary camera. So, all of those are going to look better.

3:36 The only downside really being that this camera I think now is gonna have to take my trophy for the most I’ve ever seen a phone rock on a table with no case on it. This one is absolutely diabolical.

3:48 There’s also an improved slightly wider angle 10 megapixel selfie camera in the inside screen as well. It’s good news in the camera department.

3:55 But speaking of the inside of this phone, there’s also now the Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy chip inside. And uh fun fact, and I don’t know if this is true, but I think it is. The Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy, the special version of their chip, sells so much volume that I think it actually outsells all of the standard Snapdragon 8 Elites, which kind of makes the Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy the standard chip because there’s more of them. Probably means nothing, but it was entertaining to me.

4:28 But performance-wise, as you’d expect with the limited time I’ve gotten to play with this thing, it’s pretty great. Very smooth. 12 gigs of RAM alongside that chip, too, since this is a phone you expect to multitask on. And the 1 TB version actually gets 16 gigs of RAM.

4:42 So, all the Galaxy AI tools, whether you use them a tiny bit once in a while or use them all the time, they’re all fast and they’re all ideally improving over time. Samsung’s actually talked big game about their image editor getting even better with background object removal, which is kind of crazy considering how much better they already are than some of the competition.

5:02 But it isn’t all perfect, though. I’ve clocked three downgrades with this new generation, and I’ll do them in order of how big of a deal I think they are.

5:12 So, first of all, the smallest deal, they removed S Pen support. So, the last one actually supported the S Pen. This one doesn’t. You know, I guess they kind of had a fork in the road where they could either double down on it and, you know, even give a slot in the phone to keep the S Pen and hopefully that would be the thing that people loved about it or they could see that people really weren’t using the feature very much and so they took away the digitizer and made that part of the screen, the UTG actually a little thicker and just done away with it. I think that’s gonna anger some people on YouTube because we’re the ones that like that feature, but in general, most people didn’t use it, so it’s gone.

5:49 But then the second, the medium deal is the price went up by 100 bucks for the base price. So, it was $1,899, now it’s $1,999 base. It was already expensive. Now, it’s even more expensive. The ultra cameras and the thinner design and everything this year, $2,000 bucks to get a foldable.

6:06 Now, it’s not a downgrade. It’s actually the same exact size as last year. It’s a 4,400 mAh battery. And again, for those of you just in Samsung world, that feels about right. Like, it can’t possibly have the same size battery as the flagship since it has to split it in half and put a hinge in the middle. So, okay, 4,400 feels about right.

6:25 But with a $2,000 phone, I just feel the need to at least point out that silicon carbon batteries do exist, and Samsung has been notoriously safe over the past few years about improving their batteries. So, it feels like they’re leaving something on the table here by not doing silicon carbon.

6:38 Just for some context, just so you know, this is the Honor Magic V5. It’s coming out not even in the US. This is a phone you might not have heard of if you’re not in this world, but this phone is even thinner than Samsung’s. It’s about the same weight and it has a 5,820 mAh battery thanks to it being silicon carbon and fast charging and everything. It’s a big difference versus 4,400.

7:02 So, if you are the type to use a phone, like a power user, which if you’re spending this much money on a phone, let’s face it, you probably are. Or if you use the phone a lot open with this big 8 inch display, you’re probably thinking a lot about battery life. So, it is kind of a bummer to see Samsung still playing it so safe in that department. Maybe they’ll get on the train soon. Who knows?

7:21 Now, the Z Flip 7 also did make some interesting changes. Potentially two steps forward, one step back. Depends on how this goes.

7:27 So, this is a smaller, cheaper hamburger style flipping phone. It is the same $1,099 starting price as last year. But you’ll notice everything is bigger, which at first was a little concerning because the Z Flip is like one of the last small phones, but I think you open it and it’s a big phone, so maybe it doesn’t matter.

7:45 But I’ll start on the inside because it’s pretty simple. It’s gone from 6.7 to 6.9 inches diagonally. So now it feels like a proper large flagship slab phone when you’re using it unfolded. Obviously, everything benefits from it being bigger, watching videos, taking pictures, and of course, they fit a bigger battery in there, too. Up to 4,300 from 4,000. No surprise here.

8:07 But then they also took advantage of the larger frame to make the cover display closed way more usable as well. And this has been a trend with the past few years with this flip. But this year, they finally did the thing. They just went full corner to corner just like the Razer. So those camera rings are just cutouts through the screen now.

8:25 Now, it’s a 4.1 inch edge-to-edge cover display, and it’s even brighter and 120 hertz now, too. So, this phone is more usable than ever while it’s closed. Maybe you want to triage those notifications or flip through some widgets or even take selfies with the main camera, as many people do. It’s all better than ever before.

8:45 Once again, a pretty impressive hardware win-win. It’s better closed and better open with the same update, and it doesn’t feel too big or unwieldy.

8:53 But then the slightly possibly concerning update is they’ve gone back from a Snapdragon chip to an Exynos chip in this phone. So last Flip was a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. This one is the Exynos 2500 in the Flip 7.

9:10 Now I don’t think it’s a bad chip. I just don’t think that it’s as good as the Snapdragon 8 Elite is right now with the combination of peak performance and power efficiency.

9:21 But apparently this is something to keep an eye on because this could be a preview of the S26. Allegedly Samsung may be looking to switch fully back to Exynos for everything across the board. That’s a rumor that’s been floating that it may be a 2nm processor and possibly leveling up performance for that. But we’ll see.

9:40 But as of right now, that’s the story for the Fold 7 and Flip 7.

9:44 Now I’m publishing this the day of Samsung’s Unpacked. So their event is going to have some other stuff announced as well. The Watch 8 is one of them. And I’m loving the circular design, but it also actually has a new feature to measure toxins in your body through your skin in the form of an antioxidant index. So, you actually have to take the watch off and measure it through your thumb and then it can tell you if you’ve been drinking enough or if your diet has been trash, I guess.

10:05 There’s also a Flip 7 FE fan edition, which is essentially a Flip 6 with an Exynos 2400 for $899. But let me know if you want anything else from that event covered. I’ll be watching it just the same as you guys.

10:21 And also shout out to Ridge partner and channel sponsor who is running a huge summer sale right now. So if you flip over to ridge.com/mkbhd or even on Amazon actually, you’ll see a bunch of stuff, various rings and luggage and wallets on sale up to 49% off until this Friday. So, just a little call out for you guys to get a great deal at prices you probably won’t see again for gear that you’ll actually use.

10:46 Sneaky good deal. The matte black everything wallet. This is one of the first things I helped to design once I joined as a chief creative partner. All matte black, but then oil filled lettering engravings at the bottom. Pretty fire. $69. Nice.

11:03 And Ridge does, whether there’s a sale or not, they do a 99-day risk-free trial period. That’s a pretty big deal. Basically, for 99 days, you use this and if at any point you realize you don’t like it, you can send it back and get your money back. That’s hard for companies like Ridge to offer, but they do anyway because they stand by the quality of this stuff.

11:18 And then the same durability and lifetime warranty that you already trust. It’s all good stuff over there. So, head over there quick, get something that you like before it’s over this Friday. It’s one of the best sales I’ve seen them run.

11:29 Okay. Thanks to Ridge for sponsoring this portion of the video. Thanks for watching.