Samsung Galaxy Z Flip8 Review: A Refined Compact Foldable With Familiar Limits
The Flip8 is lighter, faster and more capable, but its higher price, average battery life and restricted cover screen make upgrades hard to justify.
The Galaxy Z Flip8 makes the case for a folding phone through size, not spectacle. Closed, it’s easy to carry in a pocket or small bag; open, it gives you a full-size 6.9-inch screen. Samsung has refined that compact clamshell again, but the changes are modest, and the price has risen by $100. For owners of last year’s Flip7, there’s little reason to switch. For people choosing their first foldable, the Flip8 remains a practical option.
It earns a 7/10. The strongest points are its compact build, fast performance, capable main camera and useful software extras. The trade-offs are familiar: battery life is middling, there’s no telephoto camera, and the cover display still takes extra work to use with many third-party apps.
A smaller footprint, with the same screens
Compared with the Flip7, the Flip8 is 0.02 inches (0.55 millimeters) thinner and a third of an ounce (8 grams) lighter. That makes it the slimmest and lightest phone in its category, though the difference is small enough that it won’t transform day-to-day use. Its updated hinge makes the display crease less prominent and opening the phone a little easier. One-handed opening still takes practice. Samsung also says the hinge is more durable.
The display specifications haven’t changed. The outer 4.1-inch AMOLED screen runs at 60 or 120 Hz; the inner 6.9-inch AMOLED panel varies its refresh rate from 1 to 120 Hz to help conserve power. Both reach a reported peak brightness of 2,600 nits and remained readable outdoors during testing.
The Flip8 has an IP48 rating, which offers protection against objects larger than 1 millimeter but doesn’t guard against finer dust. It comes in pink, graphite, cream and mint. There’s a physical SIM slot, and the fingerprint sensor is built into the power button.
Flagship speed, with compact-phone limits
Samsung pairs the Flip8 with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy, the same chip used in its larger siblings, along with 12 GB of RAM. The base configuration has 256 GB of storage; moving to 512 GB costs an extra $200. RAM can’t be upgraded.
Apps, camera use and gaming felt quick, with no noticeable stutters in testing. The small body does have a thermal limit: during demanding games played for more than an hour, the phone can get warm, potentially reducing processor speed. That’s a practical constraint for long gaming sessions, even though everyday performance is excellent.
The stereo speakers get loud without obvious distortion, and call quality is solid. Connectivity includes 5G without mmWave, Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4. There’s no ultra-wideband (UWB), which is available on the Fold8 models. You can answer a call by opening the phone, once that option is enabled in the Phone app, or end one by folding it shut.
Battery life is the clearer compromise. The 4,300-mAh silicon-carbon battery is adequate for casual use, but heavy phone use may call for a power bank. Wired charging tops out at 25 watts and wireless charging at 15 watts. The phone also lacks the magnetic alignment feature associated with Qi2 charging.
Good main camera, missing zoom lens
The 50-megapixel main camera takes pleasing photos in many conditions, though low-light shots show some noise. A 12-megapixel ultrawide camera adds room for group shots and broad scenes, but its results are noticeably weaker. There’s no telephoto lens. A crop can produce a useful 2X view without losing detail, while zoom up to 10X is passable in good light.
The 10-megapixel selfie camera is less compelling than using the main camera with a preview on the cover screen. Samsung’s Horizon Lock is a more distinctive feature: it keeps video level as the phone turns or moves. My FanCam can track a selected person in a group video and reframe the shot around them, and it can also be applied to existing footage.
Samsung’s other AI tools include Now Brief, which surfaces calendar events, reminders and local weather, and Now Nudge, which can suggest adding dates from messages, sharing a location or photo, or filling in forms. They’re conveniences rather than a reason on their own to buy the phone.
The cover screen remains a bottleneck
The FlexWindow supports more apps than before, including Samsung Health, Calendar and Browser, as well as YouTube, Netflix, Google Maps and Messages. For other third-party apps, users still need to install Samsung’s Good Lock app and its MultiStar plug-in, then choose which apps to enable. That setup is cumbersome, especially when some apps come ready to use while others require extra steps.
YouTube is a particularly handy fit: the folded phone can prop up a video, with controls to change how it appears on the outer display. That’s useful for watching something in the background at a desk. For most tasks, though, the inner display remains the one you’ll use.
Price and alternatives
The Flip8 costs $1,200, compared with $1,100 for the Flip7 at launch. If the older model is discounted, it may be the better buy for anyone who doesn’t need the small weight and thickness reductions or the newer processor.
Motorola’s Razr range is the main alternative for shoppers set on a clamshell foldable. The Razr starts at $800 but is less powerful. At $1,500, the Razr Ultra offers a better camera, more RAM and storage, and faster charging. The $1,100 Razr+ sits awkwardly between them, with an older processor and a shorter software-support period.
Samsung promises seven years of platform and security updates for the Flip8, which could extend support through 2033. Rumors suggest the company may eventually stop making this style of phone, but that hasn’t been confirmed. For now, the Flip8 is an appealing choice if a smaller folded footprint matters more than camera range, endurance or a more open cover screen. Its refinement makes the format easier to recommend; the higher price makes last year’s model harder to dismiss.
