Samsung revealed three new foldables at a launch event in the United Kingdom on July 22: the Galaxy Z Fold8, the Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra and the Galaxy Z Flip8. Instead of trying to sell them as three variants of the same phone, the company positioned each one to address a different job: productivity, immersion, or self-expression.
Samsung is calling this “the all-new Galaxy Z series” and “its most complete lineup yet” under the banner “Foldables, perfected for every way of living.” That’s only good marketing if you accept the premise that foldables require three different audiences rather than a broad pitch to pull the category toward buyers who’ve never owned a fold before. Fold8 Ultra is the king of productivity. Fold8 takes care of immersion. Flip8 is all about fast, on-the-go interaction and self-expression.
Fair enough.
Let’s take them one at a time.
Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra
The “Ultra” badge is a big deal here: an 8.0-inch main display, a 6.5-inch cover display and a body only 4.1mm thick when unfolded. It weighs 215g and has a typical 5,000 mAh battery, rated at 4,854 mAh, the largest of the three. The camera system backs Samsung’s “content creation” pitch for this model: a 200MP main sensor, a 50MP ultra-wide and a 10MP telephoto with 3x optical zoom. That’s a real gulf between this and the standard Fold8, and it’s clearly the spec sheet Samsung wants reviewers screenshotting first.
Galaxy Z Fold 8
This is the one that is supposed to be lugged around, not just admired on a shelf. This is the lightest Galaxy Z Fold Samsung has made so far, weighing in at 201 grams, it says. The cover screen is 5.5 inches at about 10:16, the main screen 7.6 inches at 4:3, for the jump from quick look to proper reading and watching. Samsung refers to the whole thing as a “fresh and exciting form factor.” The camera setup is less complex than the Ultra’s, though – dual 50 MP wide and ultra-wide, no telephoto in sight. Battery: 4,800 mAh typical and 4,660 mAh rated.
Less flash, more wearable. That is the compromise Samsung wants Fold8 buyers to accept.
Galaxy Z Flip 8
Samsung claims the Flip8 to be its slimmest and lightest flip phone ever at 6.1mm folded, weighing 180 grams, with a 6.9-inch main screen and 4.1-inch FlexWindow cover display. The camera combines a 50 MP main sensor with Samsung’s ProVisual Engine and a 12 MP ultra-wide, and the battery is a standard 4,174 mAh. Samsung calls the FlexWindow AI-native, and that choice of words tells you where the real pitch of this launch actually sits.
It’s software, not hinges.
All three phones are powered by the same brain: a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 Mobile Platform for Galaxy, which Samsung says is what makes the AI features and multitasking actually run. They also get a new “Flex Titanium” build, which is a titanium-alloy film combined with a reinforced titanium plate meant to thin out the hinge, make the crease less visible, and improve how the fold feels in hand. Displays can reach up to 3,000 nits of brightness, with Vision Booster and a low-reflection finish for outdoor visibility.
Good hardware. This year the real pitch is somewhere else.
TM Roh’s Actual Sales Pitch
Samsung’s TM Roh connected the entire launch to agentic AI, explaining that phones are becoming “the most personal entry point to experiences that understand and adapt to each user.” That thesis carries over to the feature list for Gemini Intelligence: it controls app automation, along with two new additions, Now Brief for personalised briefing cards and Now Nudge for contextual suggestions that pop up when the phone thinks you need them. Gemini Notebook completes the package as a shared space for jotting down notes, dropping in images and files, and pulling together AI-written summaries.
All three phones feature One UI 9, which includes a new AI Assistant Activity dashboard so you can actually see what the automations are doing in your name, plus Privacy Alerts that catch apps quietly reaching for permissions in the background. Knox, Knox Matrix, Personal Data Engine, Knox Enhanced Encrypted Protection, Knox Vault: on-device AI and secure storage.
Per Google’s own terms, buyers also receive six months of free Google AI Pro, which provides 5TB of cloud storage that would normally cost $19.99 a month.
Mark your calendar for month seven.
Colours, pre-orders and the August 7 question
The announcement also came with the opening of preorders, in select markets. All three phones are Graphite and Cream, and then Samsung breaks the rest down by model: Violet Shadow only on Fold8 Ultra, Lavender only on Fold8, Pink only on Flip8. Samsung.com has colours exclusive to online: Green Shadow for the Ultra, Pistachio for the Fold8 and Mint for the Flip8.
Small detail but also Samsung nudging buyers toward a certain model before anyone’s even cracked the spec sheet.
Samsung has not confirmed pricing or a firm ship date for the material covered here. External reports have the Fold8 in the $1,899 to $1,900 range, or about £1,699, with general availability indicated for August 7. That’s third-party reporting, not Samsung’s own figures, so it can still fluctuate by region and carrier.
The ecosystem push is larger than the phones themselves. The same Galaxy AI wellness, lifestyle and automation features are found in the Galaxy Watch Ultra2, Galaxy Watch9 and Samsung’s upcoming “intelligent eyewear.” Quick Share now also works with Apple’s AirDrop on supported models, the kind of interoperability that nobody would have bet on a few years ago.
Three phones, three pitches and one shared bet: AI is the differentiator now, not the hinge. The crease, Samsung says, is finally under control. Whether the AI pitch is worth the upgrade is something someone still has to look at.
