Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Malaysia review: Making smartphones fun again
Smartphones, for the most part, have gone a little stale in the last couple of years. Every new model more or less brings with it minor, iterative upgrades, and ‘launch fatigue’ really does start to kick in.
That’s exactly why the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 is such a breath of fresh air. This new foldable from the Korean giant bucks the trend of a standard cover screen aspect ratio unfolding into a square-ish main display, instead pushing the focus towards getting a wider form factor when unfolded, leading to a short and stout body when folded.
Now technically speaking, Huawei was the first to do such a thing with the Pura X Max, but that was ultimately a China-only device. The Galaxy Z Fold 8 is garnering so many headlines because it’s a global release, meaning everyone can now try this new wide body form—including us.
Unrivalled content consumption experience
We’re not gonna lie, first impressions was that this looks a little awkward to use when folded, which you know, is basically how you’d use a foldable smartphone 80% of the time. Maybe it’s the 10+ years of smartphones looking the same, but it’s actually very easy to adapt to the new shape and size, and unless your hands are as small as a child’s, one-handed use works just fine too.
The 5.5-inch cover display offers a 1248 x 1972 resolution with a 120Hz refresh rate, which is more or less a 16:10 aspect ratio. That actually offers a pretty good experience for day to day use, especially when doomscrolling TikToks or Reels with the full screen mode on.
As for the main 7.6-inch display, it comes in a 2448 x 1848 resolution in a mostly 4:3 aspect ratio. Immediately, I could tell that this would be great for watching content, be it binging YouTube videos or a movie on Netflix. It won’t make use of all of the screen as most content is in 16:9, but it’s actually a much better experience compared to regular book-type foldables such as the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra. The crease is also one of the better ones around, never really becoming noticeable when actually using it.
Reading is especially nice (except when ads take up most of the space) on both the cover screen and the main display. The main display in particular is great for reading eBooks, comics or manga, and I quickly found myself absorbed into my Kobo app shortly after using it, ditching my usual 7-inch black-and-white eReader at home. Gaming is also decent enough, if you can get it to resize correctly.
It also helps that it’s pretty thin and light for a foldable; at only 201g, it’s even lighter than the Galaxy S26 Ultra. Another boon that the Galaxy Z Fold 8 has going for it is that, with its new passport-like form factor when closed, it’s actually very pocketable. If you’re one of the dozens who carry an iPhone Mini with an iPad Mini, you can basically swap out those two devices for one of these things.
There is a slight trade off here though, which is that with its more squat form factor, you lose out on the extra screen real estate that actually helps a lot with productivity. When in multitasking mode for instance with one half my emails and another my word doc that I’m working on, the shorter screen means that once the keyboard pops up, you actually don’t have much left to look at. That’s not an issue on taller, square-ish foldables like the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra or Google Pixel 11 Pro Fold of course.
That being said, until someone else comes along with this wide-body foldable design, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 is undoubtedly the current best option for watching content and doomscrolling on the go.
As for the actual hardware under the hood, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 comes with a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy system-on-chip, which is basically just a tuned up version of the regular flagship mobile platform. You’ll also get 12GB of RAM on the 256GB and 512GB models, while the top spec configuration comes with 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage.
If we’re being honest, flagship devices have come to a point where performance is not an issue anymore. Day to day performance is exactly as you’d expect from such a device, and the only thing I can say is that during longer sustained loads such as in game or when taking videos, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 will warm up a fair bit, though never to the point where it’s uncomfortable.
Software wise, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 comes with Android 17, skinned with One UI 9 over it. I’ve never been the biggest fan of Samsung’s take on Android, and One UI 9 doesn’t do much to win me over. It’s not bad but rather just not my cup of tea; I’ve always been more a fan of Xiaomi’s MIUI HyperOS as well as Google’s Pixel UI.
Nevertheless, for most users One UI will be a solid enough and easy to use, with relatively intuitive multitasking as well as more AI features than ever before; Now Brief is perhaps still the best of the bunch. Losing Flex Mode though was a huge shock, and having since pivoted to the Google Pixel 11 Pro Fold, I have to say I do miss it. The one thing I love to see though is the up to seven years of major OS updates Samsung has guaranteed for it.
As for its battery life, the 4800mAh battery with 45W fast charging and 20W wireless charging isn’t particularly impressive on paper, but in real life it holds up well enough. The Galaxy Z Fold 8 comfortably holds up to a fair day’s use, with most of it on the cover screen of course with a little bit of the main display used as well. Unless you’ve been gaming or watching YouTube at max brightness on the main screen for hours on end, you should have no issue having at least 20% left by the time you hit the bed.
Samsung giveth, Samsung taketh away
For all the benefits you get with the wider form factor, compared to their previous book-type foldables—and the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra for that matter—the Galaxy Z Fold 8 is severely lacking when it comes to the camera department. The TL;DR is that you’re down to just a dual camera setup, with what is effectively the Galaxy S26’s main camera and the Galaxy S26 Ultra’s ultrawide on the back.
Specifically, you’re looking at a 50MP, f/1.8 main camera using a Samsung ISOCELL GN3 1/1.56″ image sensor flanked by a 50MP, f/1.9 ultrawide using the Sony IMX858 1/2.51″ sensor. Its pair of front cameras meanwhile are 10MP, f/2.2 selfie shooters, each in a punch hole cutout on each display.
Right off the bat, there’s already some idiosyncrasies with the new form factor and how it interacts with the camera. The camera controls and buttons are actually now all over the image preview when taking pictures while closed, likely because the stout body means there’s no blank space to put the shutter button on. Your preview is actually now slightly blocked off due to it, though overall it’s a minor nitpick.
As for the actual shooting experience, photos are pretty decent. It’s pretty much as you’d expect from a Samsung flagship smartphone, with vibrant shots, great dynamic range and never pushing it too much to the point it’s overprocessed. Don’t pixel peep too much though if you want to retain the illusion of fine detail.
The ultrawide meanwhile is fine enough, though dynamic range isn’t as good as the main camera of course. If anything, it’s the zoomed in shots that leave much to be desired; the lack of telephoto means you’re basically getting a digital zoom on the main camera.
In any case, I don’t think anyone would or should get the Galaxy Z Fold 8 for its camera chops, or lack thereof. You should be getting this because the form factor appeals to you; if you want the best smartphone cameras Samsung has to offer, you’re better off looking at their Galaxy S26 Ultra instead.
Worth the price?
Starting at RM7,299 for the 256GB model, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 isn’t cheap. If you want to get 512GB of storage meanwhile, that pushes the price up to RM8,099, while the 1TB model is perhaps the most overkill at RM9,699.
For what it’s worth, this is actually slightly cheaper than book-type foldables from other manufacturers. The Oppo Find N6 for example is priced at RM8,699 for 512GB of storage, while the Huawei Mate X7, also with 512GB of storage, is priced at RM8,688. The Google Pixel 11 Pro Fold meanwhile is its closest rival for now, starting at RM7,999 for its 256GB base model, rising to RM8,599 for the 512GB configuration.
Of course, all those foldables are perhaps better considered as rivals to the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra. Which puts the wide-body Z Fold 8 in a rather unique position as the best foldable device for content consumption. You do give up a couple of things though, such as the lack of a telephoto or a slightly less productivity-focused layout.
That being said, if you want to get in on this form factor, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 remains your only option for now (until the likes of Apple, Xiaomi and Huawei bring their own to Malaysia). It’s a hefty price to pay for being a first adopter, and while I don’t know if I can bring myself to pull the trigger, Samsung has at least definitely done something great here: it’s made smartphones fun again.
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