Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 First Look and Unboxing – The First 72 Hours With Samsung’s New Passport-Sized Flagship

Arguably the poster boy for Samsung’s latest generation of flagship foldables, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 integrates a veritable wishlist of everything foldable users have been asking for, all shoehorned into a svelte, passport-shaped chassis. 

After getting our hands on a review sample, here’s our Galaxy Z Fold 8 first look and unboxing of their most unique foldable design for 2026 and overall impressions in the first 72 hours of using it as a primary phone.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 First Look and Unboxing – Build and Design

Out of the box, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 features the usual accessories with the box containing a USB C-to-C cable, a SIM eject pin and a sheaf of quick start paperwork along with the phone itself packed flat with a protective sticker covering both displays.

@hitechcentury Here’s a firsthand look and unboxing of the new Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 in its signature Lavender colourway. The passport-sized flagship foldable looks and feels exquisite indeed – stay tuned for a full review! @Samsung Malaysia #galaxyzfold8 #GalaxyAI #WithMyFold  #withgalaxy ♬ Vibes – ZHRMusic

Samsung has factored in all the feedback over the years when it came to designing a more appealing foldable flagship. Rather than simply going for a pure spec bump, Samsung has set out for a different design that caters to a different set of users. 

Where the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra is intended for power users and a more business oriented demographic, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 is instead designed for the everyman seeking a premium flagship experience for enjoying all manner of content be it doomscrolling on social media, watching movies and even gaming too. 

At a glance,  the Galaxy Z Fold 8 has the dimensions of a passport but the differences extend beyond mere aesthetics and goes into its design down to its hinges.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 First Look – Wider front and main displays 

Up front, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 hosts a 5.5-inch LTPO Dynamic AMOLED 2X WUXGA+ display with 1,248 x 1,982 pixels resolution, a 1-120Hz refresh rate and 100% DCI-P3 colour gamut support.

Of greater importance is its unique 10:16  aspect ratio that makes the screen immensely useful for day to day tasks like reading emails, web browsing and social gaming. Up top, the phone has a single 10MP f/2.2 camera for selfies. Keeping it protected is the new Gorilla Glass Ceramic 3 that offers better scratch and drop resistance compared to its predecessors.

The main 7.6-inch QXGA+ Dynamic AMOLED 2X folding display is where Samsung has introduced the most changes. The display itself features QXGA+ resolution (1,848 x 2,448 pixels), a 1-120Hz refresh rate and also 100% DCI-P3 colour gamut.

Rather than the squarish aspect ratio of the Fold 8 Ultra, the Fold 8 instead has a more traditional 4:3 aspect ratio for its main foldable display, making it ideal for watching movies in landscape mode and scrolling through social media when held in portrait mode. Perched in the corner is a single punchhole that houses a 10MP f/2.2 selfie camera, functionally similar to the one mounted on the front cover display. 

It took a bit of getting used to with the wider dimensions of the front cover display but the added screen real estate meant that there was reduced need to open the main display except when I needed to actually go through a spreadsheet in detail or seriously sit down to watch a movie.

Where my previous user experience with the Fold 7, Fold 6, Fold 5 and older Fold series devices required me flip open to the main display regularly to watch videos or handle critical tasks that needed more screen real estate, I rarely had to do so with the Galaxy Z Fold 8 and most day to day tasks were adequately handled on the main cover screen.

One unusual feature in the Galaxy Z Fold 8 is a redesigned hinge that is only able to stay up to a 90-degree angle before it springs down completely flat. This is a mixed blessing if you aim to use the main foldable display – it opens faster but you technically can’t use it in Flex mode anymore to watch content beyond a 90-degree angle. Fortunately, the Ultra model still retains this feature.

As a workaround, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 works surprisingly well in tent mode for watching videos without having to physically prop it up.

With some careful tweaking, you’re also still able to adjust it to a straight 90-degrees up to capture hyperlapse shots and for hands-free shots from the rear camera array. 

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 First Look – Hardware

Beyond the revamped display dimensions, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 is a full-fledged flagship phone in every way. It features the same hardware as the higher end Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra with a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy processor running the show and similar RAM/storage options with a top of the line 16GB RAM and 1TB storage variant as well as 12GB RAM and either 256GB and 512GB of storage options.

Running under the hood is Android 16 overlaid with Samsung’s own OneUI 9.0 overlay which also features a number of improvements including Now Nudge for better multitasking and context-based recommendations. It also features better security too with the phone  requiring a factory reset if you put in the wrong password after 13 wrong attempts to prevent tampering.

Samsung’s traditional guarantee of 7 years of OS and security updates remains present on the Galaxy Z Fold 8, which adds to its longevity significantly.

For the first time ever, Samsung is implementing silicon carbon batteries in their phones and the Galaxy Z Fold 8 is one of the first in their line-up to leverage this technology.

The 4,800mAh silicon carbon battery in the Gold 8 also has 45W wired fast charging and 20W wireless charging which is a welcome improvement given Samsung’s traditionally conservative approach to battery technology.

In initial field tests, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 was able to last a full day’s worth of heavy use with a combination of the cover and main folding display but further testing is needed to fully ascertain its endurance.

For imaging duties, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 has a dual 50MP setup with a 50MP f/1.8 primary camera with OIS and a 50MP F/1.9 ultrawide angle camera with Quad Pixel autofocus.

There’s no telephoto camera and you can only get up to 4K@60fps video though you do have the option to use the Galaxy S26 series’ unique Horizontal Lock stabilisation for steadier video. Another unique addition that adds an extra feature to the Galaxy Z Fold 8’s creative toolkit is its new My Fancam feature that uses AI to track a selected human subject in post with professional looking results. 

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 First Look – Handling and Feel

Getting it up and running was a simple matter of firing up the Samsung Smart Switch app and selecting what needed to be transferred. After using the Galaxy Z Fold 8 as a primary phone for the past three days, it performs remarkably well as a conventional phone with the majority of the tasks expected of a phone able to be accomplished on the cover screen alone.

The foldable screen this time around only came into use when a spreadsheet needed to be viewed in detail, a broader view of Google Maps was needed and also to watch a few shows on Netflix. There was some letterboxing but it’s still a more immersive experience than traditional 16:9 aspect ratio designs.

The hinge mechanism felt smoother than previous Fold series phones and proved to be easier to open though the redesigned hinge and its nature to flop down beyond a 90-degree angle was a bit of a disappointment.

The cameras thus far are able to handle most tasks including the usual food shots, scenery and the like. When it came to overall performance, the phone handled almost every task asked of it and proved to be rather useful for gaming too.

Stay tuned for the full review! For more details on the Galaxy Z Fold8 and on the ongoing preorder programme that’s available till 13 August 2026, check out Samsung Malaysia’s official page at https://www.samsung.com/my/smartphones/galaxy-z-fold8/buy/