The Galaxy Z Fold7 announcement, which took place in the center of a city renowned for its inventiveness, was not your typical product introduction. "The foldable is ready for prime time," it said.
In his opening remarks, TM Roh, president and head of Samsung's mobile eXperience (MX) unit, anchored the company's goals in its long-standing customer-driven objective. "We push the boundaries and rethink what technology can do — and most crucially, what you can accomplish with that technology — because of your changing demands," he stated.
The foldable has long been seen by Samsung as their frontier. That ambition might finally be realized with the Fold7.
Meet the Fold7: Smarter, Slimmer, and Thinner
The design of the Galaxy Z Fold7 is the most obvious improvement. When folded, the Fold7 is now as thin as a conventional candy bar smartphone. This achievement is a significant step forward. Historically, foldables have had trouble with bulk; when closed, they frequently double in thickness. When folded, the Fold7 is no bigger than an Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max, which challenges that notion.
"Every gram and every millimeter matters," Samsung stressed at the event. Samsung redesigned their iconic Armor Flex hinge to achieve this extreme slimness, shrinking each module and adding a dual-rail system for strength.
The wing plates were also revised by Samsung, which produced a "droplet-shaped" curve that maximizes durability and permits a thinner fold. The display layers have been rebalanced, with titanium and new adhesives strengthening some and making others lighter.
As a result, the gadget does not feel like two phones piled on top of one another when folded. This is a really important remark. "If you think about it, when you have a folding phone, you are physically folding it in half, which then doubles the thickness," stated social media star Parker Burton. So, what if we could reduce its thickness by half? That way, when you fold it, it feels just like the standard phone you are used to.
From a design perspective, the Fold7 removes the main ergonomic obstacle that prevents foldable gadgets from becoming widely used. To put it another way, it is about being a part of a user's everyday life without sacrificing anything.
Multimodal Usage: Untouchable Candy Bar Experiences
But the Fold7 is not only a tablet that is thinner. It provides access to experiences that a single-slab phone just cannot provide. During the launch, Samsung focused a lot of attention on this topic, claiming that foldables are especially well-suited to the mobile AI era. This statement has a lot of validity.
When it comes to performance, the Fold7 is no slacker: With up to 38% quicker CPU speed, 26% stronger GPU, and 41% enhanced AI over previous chips, Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy drives the Galaxy Z Fold7. Its ultra-thin design allows for fluid multitasking, real-time AI capabilities, high-end image, and long battery life.
The Fold7 becomes a canvas for what Samsung refers to as "ambient AI" with One UI 8 and Android 16. Multimodal capabilities are firmly incorporated into the program, allowing it to process and react to text, image, speech, and screen context combinations all at once. For example, users can keep numerous applications open while summarizing an article, writing comments with AI help, or dropping AI-generated graphics straight into a document.
A standard smartphone cannot support this kind of workflow. Even tablets are not as portable as smartphones due to their larger size and lack of phone capabilities. Here, the Fold7's distinct value—being small when necessary and roomy when not—is demonstrated.
“With Gemini, Galaxy users can create, play, share, and obtain information in ways that were impossible only a few short months ago,” said Google SVP Rick Osterloh, who took the stage. These features are more useful on Samsung’s flexible hardware.
Samsung's AI features are likewise purposefully inconspicuous in order to maximize their effectiveness. One notable innovation is the new assistant from Galaxy AI, which anticipates context rather than waiting for human input. For instance, the assistant may advise adding a relevant document when viewing a calendar event or alert the user to download an interpretation package before a trip. It transforms the gadget from a reactive tool into a proactive partner.
Foldables Get Power from Flagship Cameras
Compromises were always present in previous foldables, particularly with regard to camera quality. That is no longer the case with the Fold7. Along with ultra-wide and telephoto cameras, it has the same 200MP primary sensor as the Galaxy S24 Ultra.
Samsung made it clear that this was no easy task. Without sacrificing functionality, the entire camera module was redesigned to match the Fold7's thinner frame. The team declared, "We are introducing a 200-megapixel wide-angle camera to the Z series for the first time ever."
Prior to Apple's arrival, Samsung leads the foldable market.
A single, lingering issue dominates the strategic backdrop of this launch: When will Apple enter the foldable market?
Although Samsung did not specifically identify Apple, the implication was obvious. By releasing its seventh-generation foldable, Samsung is wagering that its head start will pay off once Apple legitimizes the category for the masses. Although that day might not be far off, if the rumors are to be accepted, Apple will not get into the foldable smartphone market until 2026.
It is anticipated that Apple will introduce refined software concepts and use cases when it eventually releases a foldable, which could lead to the eventual mainstreaming of foldables. Apple has been pondering how to create novel ways to use a foldable smartphone for a number of years, which could work to its benefit in the long run.
However, since Samsung has already tackled the most difficult elements of a foldable design—hardware engineering, hinge durability and dependability, and ecosystem integration—it deserves recognition for its efforts.
The Ecosystem Strategy of Samsung, Flip7, and Watch8
Samsung also introduced the Galaxy Z Flip7, a smaller, more fun tablet with a larger 4.1-inch FlexWindow, a stronger hinge, and closer connectivity with Galaxy AI, while the Fold7 grabbed center stage. It appeals to the lifestyle and fashion-forward market and is more about self-expression and use than productivity.
Next is the Galaxy Watch8 series, which further integrated with Gemini and added new health measures like antioxidant levels and vascular load.
Together with Samsung Health and the recently purchased Xealth health platform, the watch's real-time coaching suggests a bigger goal: to firmly establish users in an ecosystem that spans from the phone to the wrist and beyond.
