The most impressive piece of tech hardware I’ve tested in 2025

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ZDNET’s key takeaways

• Samsung’s Fold 7 has reached the purpose that it is now the identical dimension as flagship telephones when closed.
• The software program upgrades in One UI 8 and Android 16 lastly make the most of the productiveness potential of foldables.
• There are multiples modes within the Fold 7 that make it even higher than only a cellphone that transforms right into a pill.

It did not take lengthy for Samsung’s Z Fold 7 to alter my thoughts about folding telephones. After testing it for lower than every week, I am not solely satisfied that I might use this as my each day work cellphone, however I’ve additionally realized that there are options I would significantly miss if I went again to a traditional cellphone. 

That is a great distance from the earlier experiences with foldables, together with extended time with the Z Fold 5 simply two years in the past. I’ve merely by no means liked folding telephones, and after testing them, I’ve by no means felt tempted to show one into my new work cellphone — which has been an extended string of assorted Android fashions because the Nexus One in 2010. 

However the Fold 7 is completely different.

The {hardware} on the Fold 7 is gentle years forward of final 12 months’s Galaxy Fold 6 — it is 25% thinner, each when folded and unfolded. In actual fact, the Fold 7 is essentially the most spectacular piece of tech {hardware} that I’ve put my fingers on all 12 months. If you choose it up, it has a direct wow issue, particularly while you maintain it subsequent to different flagship telephones. 

Additionally: Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 vs. Z Fold 6: I tried both phones, and the difference is dramatic

However essentially the most spectacular a part of the Fold 7 is not only the way it seems to be and feels – it is the way it works. Greater than ever, it has a UX that takes full benefit of all the chances of the foldable kind issue. 

So let’s break it down. Listed below are my three the reason why the Fold 7 has modified my opinion of foldable telephones.

1. Seems like carrying an everyday cellphone

The most important distinction with the Fold 7 is how a lot it seems to be and looks like an everyday cellphone when it is folded closed and also you’re merely wanting on the cowl display screen or the again of the cellphone. When you noticed it sitting on a desk or a desk subsequent to another person’s cellphone, you may simply mistake it for simply one other normal smartphone. 

In actual fact, subsequent to my iPhone 16 Professional Max or my Samsung S24 Extremely — the 2 telephones I carry each day — the Fold 7 is barely smaller. In actual fact, a closed Fold 7 seems to be much like Sony Xperia smartphones and makes use of the identical 21:9 side ratio that’s barely thinner than most of at this time’s smartphones. Nonetheless, it is nearly 10% wider than earlier fashions of the Fold, and that additional width is sufficient to make it really feel like a traditional cellphone.

On the similar time, it is also lighter (215 grams) than my iPhone 16 Professional Max (227g) and Samsung S25 Extremely (233g) — in addition to final 12 months’s Fold 6 (239g). It is outstanding to understand this folding cellphone is now each thinner and lighter than the best-selling flagship telephones.

Additionally: I spent a week in New York City with the Samsung Z Fold 7 – and it spoiled me the entire time

One profit I did not count on from the width of the Fold 7 when it is closed and utilizing the duvet display screen is that it is simpler to make use of one-handed than the big flagship telephones I normally carry. After which after I’m prepared to make use of it two-handed, I can merely flip it open, and that is when the actual magic occurs on the 8-inch essential display screen.

2. Software program now performs to its strengths

Samsung has lengthy been a builder of a number of the world’s most spectacular, cutting-edge {hardware} gadgets. So it is no shock that the Fold 7 has lastly caught as much as the imaginative and prescient of the foldable cellphone as a small pill disguised as a cellphone that may rework at a second’s discover. 

Now that Samsung has formally pulled off the {hardware} for that imaginative and prescient within the Fold 7, it might have simply taken a pair extra generations to get the software program proper. However fortunately, that is not the case. With an help from Google and Android 16, the software program on the Fold 7 now does much more to make the most of the complete productiveness potential of the {hardware}. 

Additionally: Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold vs. Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7: Here’s the clear winner after testing both

My first and favourite instance of that is the brand new 90:10 split-screen view, a function Google constructed into Android 16 with collaboration from Samsung and its One UI 8 software program. With this, you may take two apps which are side-by-side on the 8-inch essential display screen, put your finger on the middle line between them, after which drag it nearly all the way in which to 1 facet or the opposite and let go. 

It can then snap into 90:10 view the place you solely see a sliver of the one app whereas viewing a lot of the different app. Nonetheless, now you may faucet that sliver to open it in 90% of the display screen and transfer the opposite app to 10%. This allows you to rapidly change backwards and forwards between two apps which are useful to make use of subsequent to one another, corresponding to Slack and electronic mail or a phrase processor and an online browser. 

One other good productiveness function is the “Proceed apps on cowl display screen” possibility. That is particularly efficient now that the duvet display screen is the dimensions of a traditional cellphone display screen. I favor to set this up by going to Settings > Show > “Proceed apps on cowl display screen” after which choosing “Swipe as much as proceed app.” 

Then, if you find yourself engaged on an app corresponding to your calendar on the principle display screen and you should shut your cellphone, a round-up arrow pops up on the underside of your cowl display screen that claims “Swipe to proceed”. You merely swipe up and proceed working in your app on the duvet display screen. Beforehand, your Fold would have turned off the display screen, and you’ll have needed to unlock it and reopen the identical app on the duvet display screen to proceed working.

There are much more software program choices like this. Search for a future article the place I present a listing of productiveness hacks from the expanded UX on the Fold 7. 

3. A number of modes to drive productiveness

Among the finest issues concerning the Fold 7 is that it isn’t merely like having each a cellphone and an 8-inch pill in your pocket. Due to the folding kind issue, it could possibly additionally do some issues that a typical 8-inch pill cannot. However earlier than I get forward of myself, let’s discuss the usual modes first. Then we’ll get to the artistic stuff.

If all of the Fold 7 did was flip your flagship cellphone right into a pill while you had each fingers free and had been able to multitask, then it might be a win. As talked about above, the enhancements within the software program now make multitasking loads higher, extra environment friendly, and extra productive. 

With the ability to run two, three, and even 4 apps on the principle display screen of the Fold 7 looks like rushing in a sports activities automotive in comparison with the conventional methods of flipping between apps on a cellphone, which feels pedestrian by comparability. There are additionally some instances the place merely having a a lot bigger display screen to view issues like spreadsheets, restaurant menus, the desktop model of net pages, and even video calls on Zoom and Google Meet generally is a big enchancment. 

Additionally: 24 hours later with Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7: Why I’m leaving the S25 Ultra behind

I usually wish to take 1:1s and conferences whereas strolling exterior to get some recent air and train at numerous instances all through the day. One of many greatest challenges on these walks is when one thing comes up the place I have to entry or view a doc or a message that is not simple to have a look at from my cellphone. The Fold 7 is a champ in these situations as a result of I can flip it open and use that 8-inch display screen to view issues in a way more usable method. 

Now let’s discuss Flex Mode — certainly one of my favourite hidden gems on the Fold 7. To enter this mode, you flip the Fold 7 sideways while you’re on the principle display screen (be certain that “Auto rotate” is turned on within the Fast Settings Panel), and you then fold the cellphone to 90 levels in order that it seems to be like an open laptop computer and set it down. 

You are able to do this whilst you’re in YouTube and the video will go on the highest display screen and controls will go on the underside display screen. You are able to do it in a typing app like Slack, Gmail, or ChatGPT whereas the keyboard is open and the app display screen will go on prime and the keyboard will go on the underside. You are able to do it with a video name app like Google Meet and the video tiles will go on the highest display screen and the assembly controls will go on the underside — you may as well alter the display screen like a laptop computer to heart your self within the body for the video name. 

Not solely can the Fold 7 act like a mini laptop computer, it could possibly additionally act like a desktop laptop, utilizing Samsung DeX and new upgrades in Android 16. You possibly can join your Fold 7 to a pc monitor or a TV by way of a cable (corresponding to HDMI to USB-C) or wirelessly, and you’ll connect a keyboard and mouse by way of Bluetooth. DeX has progressively gotten extra usable through the years, however Google did Samsung a strong in Android 16 by integrating some new options corresponding to “desktop windowing” that now permits you open, transfer, and resize a number of home windows inside DeX mode in order that the surroundings seems to be and feels much more like Home windows or a Mac. 

I’ve some ideas for optimizing this sort of setup that I will put in a future article, however the backside line is that this cellphone can operate like a full laptop and because the Fold 7 is prone to have already got your entire most used apps and information, it may be a purposeful work laptop in a pinch. It is most likely not going to interchange your full-time PC nevertheless it may really be extra productive than a Chromebook or a pill. 

Last thought

These are my first impressions of the Samsung Fold 7. I’ve bought much more to say about it and extra issues I need to take a look at. However there isn’t any doubt that the Fold 7 is a breakthrough system that brings the promise of a real 2-in-1 cellphone into actuality. The Chinese language phonemakers have been constructing gadgets like this for a pair years and Apple will reportedly release its first foldable iPhone in 2026. However for now, the Samsung Fold 7 is the most effective foldable accessible within the US — and it could even give us a peek at what the way forward for all flagship telephones might appear to be.