Samsung Galaxy Unpacked has come and gone, and with it Samsung has raised the temperature in the room considerably with all new designs and refreshes of its foldable lineup.
Unveiling the Galaxy Z Fold 7, Z Flip 7, and the new budget-friendly Z Flip 7 FE, Samsung implemented a lot of needed changes to its lineup, spurred on by its competitors Motorola and Google. Samsung is once again pushing at the boundaries of what's possible with these form factors. Significant changes signal a major shift in philosophy moving forward — "playing it safe" is no longer on the menu.
That's huge because there's one company who may yet enter the foldables space — Apple, and it's going to have a lot to contend with once it finally does. In the meantime, here's what Samsung just launched, how it compares to last year's models, and what it means for the industry as a whole.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7: Size, colors, price, preorder details
Samsung's latest Z Fold 7 is a huge leap forward in design. The company shaved off almost a third of the Z Fold 6's thickness, slimming down the Z Fold 7 to just 8.9mm. For context, that's only .7 mm thicker than the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, which by the way doesn't fold at all. That's also .65 mm thicker than the iPhone 16 Pro Max. On top of that, at 215 grams, the Z Fold 7 weighs less than the iPhone 16 Pro Max's 227 grams.
When you open the phone, the chassis is just a hair's breadth thicker than the USB-C port it needs for charging and data transfer. Inside, the phone sports an eight-inch Dynamic AMOLED screen, which is the largest available today, and really takes advantage of Samsung's multi-tasking chops. You can have side-by-side windows, floating windows, and use Gemini Live on the inside screen to give it more context to what you're discussing.
The phone has five cameras throughout. The main camera is the same 200-megapixel sensor as the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge — in fact the entire backplate is evocative of the S25 Edge. It's joined by the same 12-megapixel ultrawide camera with autofocus and a 10-megapixel 3x telephoto lens. The selfie cameras are both 10-megapixel shooters, but the one on the inside has a 100-degree field of view which will make it easier to keep a subject in the frame. That is certainly something I can see Apple doing as well, considering it already has its Center Stage feature to do just that.
Samsung also packs its foldable with the same 4,400 mAh battery pack as last year, which sounds disappointing until you remember how crazy-thin this phone is. All the same, the Snapdragon 8 Elite processor on the inside should make the phone efficient enough to stay alive longer.
The Samsung Galaxy Fold 7 will be available for preorder today and launch for general availability on July 25. It will come in Blue Shadow, Silver Shadow, Jet Black, and Mint colorways (the latter exclusive to Samsung.com orders) and start at 1,999.99.
Samsung Galaxy Flip 7 and Flip 7 FE: Size, colors, price, preorder details
The other half of this equation is the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7. The halo feature of this new foldable is the Flex screen, which is what Samsung calls the cover screen. Now the screen takes up the entire front of the phone, interrupted by its two cameras (which we will discuss in a moment). The cover screen is 4.1 inches in size; that's 0.1 inches larger than the Moto Razr Ultra's cover screen.
Samsung is still curating the experience on that cover screen, limiting interactions to widgets and the five apps it has deemed will work well on it. Those include Netflix, Youtube, Google Maps, Google Messages, and Samsung Messages. Previously, you had to download and install two apps and go through about 20 steps to get other apps to work on the cover screen. Samsung also streamlined that process, which is good.
The cameras on the flip include a 50-megapixel main camera along with a 12-megapixel ultrawide camera. You can zoom in and out and even access filters from the cover screen without opening the phone.
New to the Flip series is Gemini Live on the cover screen, allowing us to have a conversation with our phone, and Samsung Dex. Samsung's Windows-style interface is a great way to work with the content on your phone in a familiar windowed environment.
Powering the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 will be Samsung's Exynos 2500 processor which is not ideal. Exynos processors have typically powered overseas models of the Flip, with Qualcomm's flagship processor residing in U.S. models. That is no longer the case, and that's not amazing since Exynos processors often don't compare favorably to Snapdragon processors. Time will tell on this.
Also coming to the Flip series is the first flip to bear the "FE" moniker. This is meant to be a more accessible foldable for those who are interested in the category but balk at four-digit price tags. The Flip 7 FE will have the same cover screen as the Flip5 and Flip6 and an Exynos 2400 processor inside. It will have the same 50-megapixel camera which is a nice bonus.
The Flip 7 will be available for preorder today and ship on July 25. It will come in Blue Shadow, Jet Black, Coral Red and Mint (the latter available as an exclusive Samsung.com colorway). It will start at 1099.99. The Flip 7 FE will preorder and ship on the same dates and start at 899.99. It will be available in black or white.
Overall, this is a very positive step forward for the Samsung foldable lineup. Both of these phones are significant improvements over the previous generation. It moves the entire conversation forward which is bad news for a company like Apple that hasn't even entered the space yet.
Typically, Apple waits until a concept is a proven commodity and then it improves it and makes it a superior feature to what's out there. In this case, I'm not sure how Apple can plus up it's own offerings to make it a clearly superior product. It's already pretty amazing, and Samsung is setting a very high bar with this release.
