Galaxy Z Fold 8 Review: Honeymoon's Over
In a Nutshell
The Galaxy Z Fold 8 delivers a genuinely new form factor that's thinner and more usable one-handed than predecessors, but sacrifices camera quality with no telephoto lens and creates awkward speaker placement and charging limitations. Battery life is solid at 4,800 mAh with all-day endurance, though software compatibility issues persist with some apps becoming unusable due to aspect ratio constraints. At $1,900, the device appeals to those seeking novelty over objective specs, but the reviewer notes it lacks the polish and features of traditional flagship phones.
These notes were generated by AI and may contain inaccuracies.
The Galaxy Z Fold 8 launched this past week and the reviewer has been daily driving it since release. Initial impressions were extremely positive, with the reviewer practically falling in love with the device during the first impressions video. After a week of use, the honeymoon period is over, but the reviewer still really likes the phone. The honeymoon analogy is described as perfect because after the initial phase, you understand the flaws and downsides but embrace them because of the positives.
The phone represents a genuinely new form factor despite the familiar general shape with a more squat aspect ratio. It's thinner and more squared off than previous iterations. This new execution makes the device significantly better than a normal smartphone at certain tasks, but worse at others.
The front display is a 5.5-inch diagonal slightly rectangular AMOLED screen that's bright, sharp, and features relatively even bezels all around. The squared-off design makes it easy to open and close like a notebook. The power button, which doubles as a fingerprint reader, aligns perfectly with the user's finger when holding the phone normally. Despite having big hands, the reviewer finds almost the entire display reachable with one hand.
The camera UI has been optimized for one-handed use with all buttons moved to the right-hand side, making every function reachable with one hand. The viewfinder appears cut off at first but actually shows the normal photo aspect ratio without the usual blank space. This aspect ratio is slightly worse for vertical scrolling due to little black bars, which the reviewer considers technically better for reducing doom scrolling.
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