Galaxy Z Fold 8 Review: Honeymoon's Over

Sometimes, to find something truly new, it has to come from something that we already know.

This review brought to you by the Poetry Society of America.Just kidding.The Galaxy Z Fold 8 hit the streets this past week, and I've been daily driving it ever since, and I pretty immediately started to love this thing.You can actually hear me practically falling in love with it during that first impressions video.But now it's past a week later, I've taken a lot of pictures, I've killed the battery a few times, I've gotten to know what it's really good at and what it's also worse at, and I've run up against its limits, its quirks.The honeymoon period's over.

I still really like it.And you know what's crazy about calling it the honeymoon phase?It's actually kind of perfect, because once the honeymoon is over, you're still married, and then you understand better all of your partner, all of the flaws and all of the downsides that come with them, but you embrace that stuff because of all of the positives and upsides that come with it.And at the end of the day, you're closer together because of it.And, sorry, maybe that's a bit too poetic.This one's pretty sick, mostly.

Like you can tell right away, it's a genuinely new form factor.Even though we've seen this general shape, this more squat aspect ratio before, it's also thinner, and it's more squared off, and it's just a different execution than those past phones.So, as a result, this thing is way better than a normal smartphone at a bunch of stuff, but it turns out that comes with being definitely worse than a normal smartphone at some other stuff.So which do you want first?You want the good news or the bad news?I feel like both.

Probably most people will want to start with the good news because, you know, at first impression, that's when you get all the positive vibes.And I think a lot of people will have the same thoughts as me, which is just, look at this thing.Look at how neat this thing looks.It's not quite a square, but this is a 5 .5 inch diagonal, slightly rectangular AMOLED display.And it is bright, it's sharp, it's a Samsung display.They do all this stuff well.

There's relatively even bezels all the way around, and then it's squared off.So it's easy to open and close like a notebook.Like this thing is just awesome.The way you normally hold it, your finger perfectly lines up with the power button, which is also a fingerprint reader.And I know I have big hands, but I find almost the entire display reachable by hand.with one hand, which is something you don't say about most phones these days.

And you know, there's really almost no reason you'd ever actually need to reach all four corners, but it's pretty amazing how much you can do without the hand gymnastics.Like look at this camera UI.

Notice that they've moved all of the buttons you ever need to press.over here to the right hand side.Every single function is reachable with one hand on the screen.

And it's funny, the viewfinder, it almost kind of looks like it's cut off at first until you realize that's just what a normal photo aspect ratio looks like without all the normal blank space all the way around it.Like this is just straight up better than a regular phone.This aspect ratio is also slightly worse for vertical scrolling with the little black bars, which technically makes it better because we all want to be doom scrolling a little less, right?But then when you open it up, It's a perfectly four by three aspect ratio and still feels like this little small notebook thing.The screen itself is great.It's another high refresh rate AMOLED with this new anti -reflective coating in there.

It also has Samsung's new titanium flex hinge, which does like a B plus job at minimizing the crease.And this all makes an awesome canvas for kind of everything.It's wide enough for two side -by -side apps, so I can legitimately do the occasional productivity stuff I've done with other folds, but it's also really nice for a single vertical app when you turn it sideways, which is really good for reading.

I just find it just such a nice, thin piece of hardware to hold.

a long period of time.And I know you wouldn't think 4x3 displays are great for watching videos, but fun fact, this plays back widescreen videos bigger than the Ultra does.Turns out 4x3 is, I mean, it's more widescreen than a square, so it's slightly bigger for media.And then of course you have the occasional older or newer 4x3 videos that you also find online from time to time, and those look amazing.something, something, the Odyssey.But look, you can see how the honeymoon phase would be awesome with this thing, right?

You take it out the box, the screens look amazing, it's lightweight, it's easy to open and close, it's just fun to use.And then it's great on paper too, like it's got the new Snapdragon 8 Gen Elite for Galaxy.And Samsung is also finally starting to put some silicon in their batteries, not as aggressively as the Oppo's and Vivo's and Xiaomi's of the world, but enough to get a 4 ,800 milliamp hour battery in this phone, which has proven to be all day, even with a lot of big screen use.

And it recharges at a respectable 45 watts, which is actually faster than any other previous folding Samsung phone ever.They might've just nailed it, but then you keep using it.You know, you install all your apps, you get into your routines and you go through a few battery cycles.

You really start getting to know it and use it and durability test it.And then you start to notice some things that you didn't notice.didn't initially pay as much attention to.

Like not every app plays nicely with these aspect ratios, which sometimes is fine.It's just kind of inconvenient or makes like some awkward black bars on the sides or a bunch of blank space.But also sometimes it means apps are critically broken.

Like when I try to play cross play, don't judge me, the play button is completely unavailable to me on this phone.Like the front screen is too short, but then also the inside screen is the wrong shape too.I cannot get that button to show up.That makes this game literally unplayable on this phone.And depending on what other apps you use, you may encounter way more of these than I did.There is also no flex mode.

So you may have noticed that awesomely,upgraded spring loaded hinge that makes it more satisfying to open and snap shut.Also means there is no like halfway open position like there is on the Ultra.

I mean, you can kind of prop it halfway open, but there is no software mode to take advantage of that.There's also the slightly awkward speaker situation.So you'll notice when it's closed, things sound fine and it's stereo because the speakers are at the top and the bottom of the front side.But when you open it, Both those speakers are now on the left -hand side.So you'll notice like watching full screen videos, the sound is kind of lopsided.Not gonna lie, it's just all coming out of the left side of the phone and you notice that.

Lining up on certain wireless chargers is also tough on this phone, especially the ones where the phone's like supposed to sit up and use its height to align.Like a lot of in -car chargers just don't work.And there's no built -in magnets in the phone.So it makes a lot of chargers I used to rely on, sadly not usable without a magnetic case.And it's also a big time rocker on a table with no case on.And then probably the most obvious shortcoming of them all, less cameras.

I mean, it's a thinner, lighter, smaller phone.So in pursuit of having enough battery, there's less room in here for cameras.So you have a 50 megapixel primary, and then a 50 megapixel ultra wide, no telephoto at all.And these aren't bad.Bad cameras, they're just not as good as flagship cameras, like the stuff you would ordinarily get in a slab phone.Unfortunately, most photos are just fine.

They're not super sharp.They're not incredible colors or great low light performance.They're just fine, which kind of sounds like nitpicking, but on a $1 ,900 phone, which this is, just kind of hits a little harder not having some of the best cameras.Most great expensive phones should have the best cameras.And so that's what happens.That's what you start noticing as you really start to get to use this phone.

Obviously you learn it really, really well, and it's not perfect.

There's even some stuff about this phone that goes underappreciated.because it takes a backseat to the novelty of the new shape, like a lot of the software stuff.This is the first phone I'm getting to test with One UI 9 on Android 17, so that's why it has this fancy new responsive clock on my lock screen that like moves according to my wallpaper.

It's super sick.And the thicker volume and brightness sliders in quick settings.And just a bunch of other subtle tweaks that, you know, they're nothing game -changing, worth a nod.

I also like that you can turn off the mirroring of a home screen and inside home screen.Like you can have them be totally separate layouts.

But I think what I'm thinking about most now, now that this is out and exists and we're used to it, is what is Apple gonna do with their folding iPhone that we're expecting probably in like two months?We're gonna see that.

What can we learn from this in that phone?And I think there's three main things.One, app support.is gonna be key, and that's gonna have to come straight from developers.Luckily, that is one of Apple's strengths, and they've been priming app developers for different aspect ratios and responsive apps for the past couple months and years now.

So ideally, we don't see too many hiccups like I've seen on this phone, but then two, thin to win.

Like it really does matter that we're coming back to this shape when batteries are better, hinges are better, displays, vapor chambers, and cameras are all smaller because the thin and light feel on the hand turns out makes a really big difference to make me look forward to taking this phone out of my pocket and using it.Apple, unfortunately, is probably going to do that phone dirty like they did with the iPhone Air by not having silicon carbon batteries.And I am already like pre -mad about that before they even announce it.But then three, It's gonna be expensive.This, this is a $1 ,900 phone already.Is it worth it?

Objectively on paper, it's actually kind of not that convincing, right?It's a smaller outside screen, smaller inside screen, smaller battery, less worse camera.and the same chip as all the other flagships.And what's crazy is this is marketed as the more casual version, where the Ultra starts over 2Gs.We start taking bets over at the Waveform podcast on that new iPhone's gonna be like $2 ,500 or something.

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