Samsung announced three new folding phones at its July 2026 Unpacked event, with sales scheduled to begin August 7. The lineup now has a clamshell Galaxy Z Flip 8, a smaller book-style Galaxy Z Fold 8, and a larger Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, because phone naming apparently still had some fog left in it.
Samsung’s published specifications make the buying problem fairly plain. The Flip 8 starts at $1,199.99 and is the cheapest way into the new foldables. The Fold 8 starts at $1,899.99 and is the more compact book-style model. The Fold 8 Ultra starts at $2,099.99 and keeps the larger screen format associated with last year’s Fold line, while adding the strongest camera stack of the three.
The Fold 8 is the smaller book-style option
The Galaxy Z Fold 8 has a 7.6-inch Dynamic OLED inner display and a 5.5-inch Dynamic OLED cover screen. Samsung lists the main display at 2184 x 1968 and the cover display at 2520 x 1080, both with refresh rates up to 120Hz. It weighs 201 grams and measures 9.7mm thick when folded.
The Ultra is bigger across the board. Samsung gives it an 8.0-inch inner display and a 6.5-inch cover display, with the same listed resolutions as the Fold 8. It is thinner when folded at 8.9mm, but heavier at 215 grams. Samsung’s specs say the Ultra’s screen sizes and resolutions match the previous Fold model.
The camera split is more obvious than the screen split. The Fold 8 has a 50-megapixel wide camera and a 50-megapixel ultrawide. The Fold 8 Ultra adds a 200-megapixel wide camera, a 50-megapixel ultrawide, and a 10-megapixel telephoto with 3X optical zoom. Both Fold models have 10-megapixel cameras for the inner and cover displays, and both can record main-camera video at up to 8K at 30 frames per second.
The Flip 8 changes less on paper
The Galaxy Z Flip 8 has a 6.9-inch Dynamic OLED main display at 2520 x 1080 and a 4.1-inch Super OLED cover display at 948 x 1048. Samsung lists a 4,300mAh battery, 25W wired charging, 15W wireless charging, 12GB of RAM, and 256GB or 512GB of storage.
Its rear cameras are a 50-megapixel wide and a 12-megapixel ultrawide, with a 10-megapixel selfie camera. The Verge reported that the Flip 8 keeps the same battery capacity and camera specs as the Flip 7, but moves from the Exynos 2500 to the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy. Performance claims can wait for reviews; The Verge’s Flip 7 review did not call out the Exynos chip as a problem.
The shared platform still has tiers
- All three phones run Android 17 and use Samsung’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy.
- All three carry IP48 water and dust protection, which is still a compromise rating for expensive folding hardware.
- The Fold 8 and Fold 8 Ultra support sub-6 and mmWave 5G, Wi-Fi 7, ultra wideband, and Bluetooth 6.0. The Flip 8 lists sub-6 5G, Wi-Fi 7, and Bluetooth 5.4.
- The Fold models charge faster, with 45W wired and 20W wireless charging. The Flip 8 tops out at 25W wired and 15W wireless.
- The Fold 8 and Fold 8 Ultra offer 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB storage. Their 1TB versions get 16GB of RAM, while the lower storage tiers have 12GB.
Samsung’s color list is also model-specific: the Flip 8 comes in Pink, Graphite, Cream, and online-only Mint; the Fold 8 in Lavender, Graphite, Cream, and online-only Pistachio; and the Fold 8 Ultra in Violet Shadow, Graphite, Cream, and online-only Green Shadow.
This story draws on original reporting from The Verge.
