Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra First Impressions – Refined Flagship Foldable

At the latest Galaxy Unpacked 2026 event that took place in London and live streamed to the world, Samsung unveiled their newest passport-sized foldable form factor designated as the Galaxy Z Fold8, a refreshed Galaxy Z Flip8 and their most powerful offering that has the best specifications of the bunch – the Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra. Alongside their foldables, Samsung also revealed their Galaxy Watch 9 and Galaxy Watch Ultra 2.

We managed to get a closer look at examples of their latest line-up and managed to get a quick hands-on. Here’s our Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra first impressions of their latest flagship phone!

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra First Impressions – What’s changed?

While Samsung’s latest generation flagship foldables for 2026 have somewhat confusing nomenclature, with the new wide form factor designed as the Galaxy Z Fold8, the true successor to last year’s Galaxy Z Fold7 is the Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra in form and specifications.

At a top level, the Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra isn’t a radical departure from the prior model but has upgrades in the ways that matter, chief among them the introduction of their Flex Titanium technology that ensures the main folding display is slimmer without compromising durability while ensuring a flatter crease.

From a visual standpoint, the Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra has the same dimensions along with similar cover and main folding display sizes as its predecessor. You get a 6.5-inch FHD+ Dynamic AMOLED 2X cover display and an 8-inch QXGA+ Dynamic AMOLED 2X main folding display with a vertically aligned camera array and a flat backplate. 

What is impressive here is that Samsung has managed to cram in a much larger battery with 600mAh more capacity over its predecessor while retaining a similar 215g weight and surprisingly shaving down thickness by 0.1mm, making it just 4.1mm thin when unfolded and 8.9mm when folded down even with a much larger battery.

At the Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra first impressions session, the new foldable felt easier to open – this is on account of the fact that the magnet strength that keeps the phone shut has been tweaked to make it easier to open.  The sides also have a slight bit of bevelling to make it easier for fingers to gain purchase. 

When opened, close inspection didn’t reveal so much as a crease across the entire length of the panel; this is on account of the aforementioned Titanium Flex tech that adds in an ultrathin layer of titanium alloy beneath the panel as well as a titanium plate to reinforce and make the main folding display more durable and flatter in the bargain.

Samsung is also using new Corning Gorilla Glass Ceramic 3 to protect the front cover display while the backplate itself uses Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2. While no details were mentioned in the preview, it’s likely the main folding display still uses their Ultra-Thin Glass (UTG).

At the preview, Samsung showcased all of their retail colours which were Graphite, Cream and Violet Shadow along with what they refer to as Green Shadow as an online exclusive colourway. 

Featuring a satin finish, all of the new colourways for the Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra look and feel exceptionally premium, befitting its status as the most powerful in their foldable line-up for 2026. All of their retail colours looked suitably posh though they’re still playing it safe this time around rather than exploring more avant garde colours like in previous years. 

If you’re transitioning over from the last couple of generations of Galaxy Z Fold foldables, you’ll find the Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra a smooth transition with similar sizes, button placement and ergonomics. 

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra First Impressions – Specifications

Aesthetics aside, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra has a 6.5-inch cover display that offers 1,080 x 2,520 pixels reoslution with a 1-120Hz refresh rate and a main foldable 8.0-inch display that also has a 1-120Hz refresh rate, 2,504 x 2,256 pixels resolution and up to 3,000 nits peak brightness. Unfortunately, the Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra and, by extension, the Galaxy Z Fold8 do not support or feature an S Pen stylus this time around nor do they support the S Pen Pro.

Powering the phone is the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy that is clocked faster than the stock chipset seen in competing devices. Running Android 17 and the latest OneUI 9.0, the Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra features 12GB RAM and either 512GB or 256GB storage.

A top-tier configuration is also available with 16GB RAM and 1TB of storage. Samsung is also committed to 7 years of OS and security updates. The smaller and wider Galaxy Z Fold8 also features the same processor and RAM/storage variants.

The biggest upgrade here is the inclusion of a 5,000mAh battery which is quite a bit larger than the 4,400mAh battery in the Galaxy Z Fold7. The Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra also offers faster charging with 45W wired charging and 20W wireless charging which is a step up from its predecessor. On paper, the Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra with a compatible charger is able to charge to 57% in just 30 minutes. The shorter and wider Galaxy Z Fold8 has a smaller 4,800mAh battery and similar 45W wired and 20W wireless charging speeds.

On top of a faster chipset and significantly improved battery life, the Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra also has a modestly improved rear camera array. The front cover display and folding display camera both stick with 10MP sensors and are otherwise unaltered from the Galaxy Z Fold7,  with the biggest upgrade being an ultrawide angle camera up to a 50MP sensor from the 12MP sensor used in the Galaxy Z Fold7. 

The rest of the triple camera setup retains a similar 200MP main camera and a 10MP telephoto camera with 3x optical zoom. The front selfie and main folding selfie camera are still the same as the ones used in the Fold7 with the same 10MP sensors. On the other hand, the Galaxy Z Fold8, has a different camera setup with a 50MP main camera and 50MP ultra wide angle camera.

While it is too early to tell from the preview, the Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra looks set for greatness as it improves on the shortcomings of its predecessor while keeping the popular aspects of the Z Fold series’ design. In terms of pricing, Samsung is offering the 12GB RAM/256GB model at RM8,099, the 12GB RAM/512GB model for RM8,899 and the 16GB RAM/1TB model for RM10,499.

Stay tuned for a full review when we get our hands on a test sample! To preorder the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra, swing by Samsung Malaysia’s official page at Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra: https://www.samsung.com/my/smartphones/galaxy-z-fold8-ultra/buy