Galaxy Z Fold8 Review

Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold8 has been on my desk for longer than a typical review cycle, and the more I use it, the more the first impressions I published weeks ago hold up. The headline change is the display: a 4:3 aspect ratio on the inner screen instead of the tall, narrow panels of past Folds. That single decision reshapes how the phone works, and paired with the lightest chassis Samsung has ever put on a foldable, it makes the Fold8 the most usable Fold to date.

At a glance

Variant tested: Galaxy Z Fold8, One UI 9 (Android 17), 256GB
Philippine price: ₱109,990 (12GB + 256GB), ₱123,990 (12GB + 512GB), ₱151,990 (16GB + 1TB)
Best for: productivity-first users who live on their cover screen and want a light phone
Skip if: you need telephoto zoom, or sustained GPU output is your priority

Price and positioning

The Fold8 starts at ₱109,990 for the 256GB model, which somewhat undercuts the HONOR Magic V6’s price based on leaks. That pricing matters, because these two are now the default answers when a Filipino buyer asks which foldable to get. The Fold8’s pitch is usability over raw specs: a lighter body, a more practical screen shape, and software that makes both displays earn their keep. Pre-orders closed on August 13, but the phone is now available through Samsung’s official stores, Lazada, and Shopee.

Design and display

At 201g and 4.5mm unfolded, the Fold8 is the lightest and thinnest Fold Samsung has made, and it feels like it. Carried all day, the weight difference versus older Folds is obvious. The new 4:3 inner panel measures 7.6 inches with a 2448 x 1848 resolution, and the 5.5-inch cover display keeps a 120Hz refresh. Both screens use Samsung’s Dynamic AMOLED 2X with an anti-reflective coating, and the Flex Titanium layer sits under the inner display for impact protection.

The cover screen is the quiet star, in my opinion. At a ratio closer to 16:10, it is genuinely comfortable to type on without unfolding, and I cleared emails, captions, and messages entirely on the outer display. Streaming a show on the cover screen also works now, not as a compromise but as a choice. The 4:3 inner panel, meanwhile, is the shape web comics, e-books, and games have been waiting for; content that felt letterboxed on older Folds now fills the screen edge to edge, which is exactly why Samsung is positioning the Fold8 around reading and content consumption. The phone carries an IP48 rating, which covers dust and water splashes but stops short of the immersion ratings on rival foldables, and the Armor Aluminum frame and Gorilla Glass Ceramic 3 cover glass round out the build.

The lack of flex mode is a bummer. I would have wanted this to have this feature, which – right now – is only available on the Fold8 Ultra and the Flip8. Yes, even the Flip8 has it. It would have given the Fold8 more functionalities, and it’s of the missing pieces for me to give this a higher score.

Performance

Under the hood is the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, and the Fold8 translates it into numbers that back up the daily experience.

3D Mark Wild Life Extreme Galaxy Z Fold8

Beyond day-to-day use, I measured the phone with four standard apps: AnTuTu Benchmark for overall system performance, Geekbench 6 for CPU results, 3DMark Wild Life Extreme for sustained GPU load, and PCMark for real-world productivity workloads. The Fold8 scored 2,158,763 on AnTuTu, a top-tier flagship figure. Geekbench 6 returned 2,597 single-core and 6,722 multi-core, and PCMark hit 19,399, the strongest productivity result in the current foldable class. 3DMark Wild Life Extreme came back at 3,757, a more modest figure that reflects how much sustained GPU output costs in a 4.5mm chassis.

For a phone built around work and content, that trade-off is acceptable; for someone who plans to game hard for hours, it is the one number that trails the competition.

Software

One UI 9 on Android 17 is where the Fold8 separates from the field. Samsung commits to seven major OS updates, and the software itself feels built for the 4:3 screen rather than stretched to fit it. My FanCam tracks a subject and reframes video for social aspect ratios automatically, Galaxy AI now understands context instead of isolated commands, and multitasking on the inner display is genuinely fluid. The Galaxy AI adoption numbers we reported earlier, at 96 percent among Fold and Flip users in Southeast Asia, make sense once you spend a day with these tools.

Cameras

The Fold8 carries a dual 50MP setup: a 50MP main at f/1.8 and a 50MP ultrawide at f/1.9, with no telephoto lens. On paper that looks thin for the price, and it is the camera department’s one real compromise. In practice, Samsung’s ProVisual Engine does heavy lifting.

Daylight and indoor shots come out clean and color-accurate, and in low-light side-by-side testing against the Fold8 Ultra, roughly 95 percent of shots looked nearly identical.

Video is where the phone punches above its spec sheet: 10-bit HDR recording, HLG and LOG capture, on-device LUT color grading, and Dual Recording for front-and-rear simultaneous capture. For content creators, this is a foldable that can genuinely produce.

Galaxy Z Fold8 Cameras Showcase Quality Beyond the Megapixel Count

Battery and charging

The 4,800mAh silicon-carbon battery lasts a full day of shooting, messaging, and streaming without the usual evening anxiety, helped by the energy density silicon-carbon cells pack into a thin body.

Wired charging tops out at 45W, reaching 63 percent in 30 minutes, with 20W wireless and 4.5W reverse wireless on the side. The charging speed is slower than the 80W on the Magic V6, but the battery life itself is where the Fold8 wins the comparison.

What could be better

The missing telephoto is the clearest gap, and anyone who shoots a lot of zoom shots should factor it in. Charging at 45W trails the competition, the IP48 rating is not the IP68/IP69 of rivals, and sustained gaming will expose the thin chassis’s thermal limits. The base 256GB storage is also worth questioning at this price, though Samsung’s double-storage promos during launch softened that. And yes, as previously mentioned earlier – the missing piece: the absence of Flex Mode.

Verdict

The Galaxy Z Fold8 is the foldable I would recommend to someone who wants a phone that disappears into a workday rather than a gadget that demands attention. It is lighter, more practical, and cheaper than its closest rival, with software that finally matches the hardware. If zoom photography and marathon gaming sessions are not your priorities, the Fold8 is the most complete foldable value in the Philippines right now.

Galaxy Z Fold8

Gadget Pilipinas

8.6 out of 10

Design10.0

Hardware9.0

Software8.5

Camera (stills)7.5

Camera (video)8.5

Sound8.5

Battery8.0

Value9.0

The verdict: The Galaxy Z Fold8 is the foldable I would recommend to someone who wants a phone that disappears into a workday rather than a gadget that demands attention. It is lighter, more practical, and cheaper than its closest rival, with software that finally matches the hardware. If zoom photography and marathon gaming sessions are not your priorities, the Fold8 is the most complete foldable value in the Philippines right now.

What we like

Incredible display
New form factor is fun!
Surprising good at taking videos
Good for gaming and emulation
Crease is hard to find

Could improve

Can get warm
No flex mode

Giancarlo Viterbo

Founder, Chief Editor, and Sales Lead at Gadget Pilipinas | Website

Giancarlo Viterbo is a Filipino Technology Journalist, blogger and Editor of gadgetpilipinas.net, He is also a Geek, Dad and a Husband. He knows a lot about washing the dishes, doing some errands and following instructions from his boss on his day job. Follow him on twitter: @gianviterbo and @gadgetpilipinas.