OPINION: Samsung led the charge when it came to the world of foldables, but the company seems to have grown complacent in the years since, so much so that competing foldables from the likes of Oppo, Honor, and Huawei outshine recent entries in the Galaxy Z Fold collection.
While we did see a notable improvement in overall design from the Galaxy Z Fold 5 to the Galaxy Z Fold 6, it’s still chunkier, heavier, and lower-specced than much of the book-style competition. If Samsung wants to retain its foldable crown for much longer, something needs to change with this year’s Galaxy Z Fold 7.
With that in mind, and having used most of the best foldable options around right now, here are five upgrades that I think the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 desperately needs to stay competitive.
1. Slimmer design
The most obvious change I’d like to see from the Galaxy Z Fold 7 is a slimmer, lighter design. Samsung made great progress in this regard with the move from the 13.4mm-thick Galaxy Z Fold 5 to the 12.1mm-thick Galaxy Z Fold 6, but it’s still thicker than a regular candybar smartphone – and the competition has taken things much further.
Just weeks after the Galaxy Z Fold 6 was revealed, Honor revealed the competing Honor Magic V3. It was dubbed the thinnest book-style foldable at the time, measuring 9.2mm thick, a full 2.9mm thinner than the Z Fold 6. It was also lighter, at 226g compared to the Z Fold 6’s 239g, in line with regular smartphones.
While I thought that was already pushing the limits of what foldable tech could achieve at this stage, Oppo said, “Hold my beer,” and gave us the impossibly thin Find N5 in early 2024. Measuring 8.9mm thick folded and 4.2mm unfolded, the next barrier Oppo will have to overcome is the width of the USB-C port. That’s hard to wrap my head around.
Seriously, it’s an incredible feat of engineering that looks and feels years ahead of the Z Fold 6.
It makes it all the more frustrating that Oppo decided against a proper worldwide release, instead selling it in China, Singapore and a few other countries in Southeast Asia – but hey, there’s always the Find N6…
2. Reduction of display crease
Aside from the general heft of Samsung’s book-style foldables, the other big offender is the crease on the inner foldable screen.
Now I’m not expecting Samsung to entirely eradicate the crease – I imagine that’s near-impossible given that, generally speaking, things that are folded get creased – but the dip in the screen is almost cavernous compared to the competition.
Again, Samsung began to address this with the Z Fold 6, offering a shallower crease than its predecessor, but it’s still much more prominent than what you’ll find from foldables like the Honor Magic V3, Oppo Find N5 and even the two-year-old OnePlus Open.
It’s still present on those foldables, of course, but it’s a much shallower crease that’s both less noticeable visually and when running your finger across the screen. I can only hope for a similar experience from this year’s Galaxy Z Fold 7.
3. Better auxiliary cameras
The fact is, regular smartphone cameras are better than those on foldables. It has been that way since foldables were conceived, and I imagine it’ll continue to be the case for quite some time, given that regular phones have way more space inside to accommodate larger, more complex camera systems.
With that in mind, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 actually does a good job where the primary camera is concerned.
It’s not quite as feature-packed as the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, but with a 50MP f/1.8 primary camera backed by a 1/1.57-inch sensor, it’s in line with the competition. For reference, the Find N5 has a 50MP f/1.9 snapper with a 1/1.56-inch sensor, and the Magic V3 has a 50MP f/1.6 lens with a 1/1.56-inch sensor.
However, the gap begins to widen when it comes to the auxiliary zoom and ultrawide lenses, with the competition offering more complex, higher-res alternatives than Samsung’s foldable.
While the Z Fold 6 offers a fairly basic 10MP 3x fixed telephoto lens, much of the competition instead opts for the more advanced periscope lens tech for better zoom performance. Not only that, but they’re higher-res; both the Magic V3 and Find N5 offer 50MP sensors with 3.5x and 3x zoom respectively, though both can be pushed beyond that.
A move to periscope zoom tech would be a great start, though that would ideally be coupled with a higher resolution to allow for better digital zoom performance.
The ultrawide could also use some love. The 12MP fixed-focus ultrawide on the Z Fold 6 looks a little basic compared to the AF-enabled 40MP alternative from Honor’s book-style foldable.
4. A bigger battery
Battery life is another area where the Z Fold 6 needs some TLC. While it can get you through about a full day, the competition is again making strides in this department.
It’s largely due to the adoption of the newer silicon-carbon battery technology, which allows for higher-density batteries in a slimmer form factor. This allows manufacturers to essentially add larger battery capacities without sacrificing space – a crucial factor for foldables in particular.
With that in mind, it should come as no surprise that the silicon-carbon-enabled Find N5 and Magic V3 offer bigger batteries at 5600mAh and 5150mAh, respectively. Both of these are massive increases on the 4400mAh Li-Po battery in the Z Fold 6 despite being thinner and lighter than Samsung’s foldable.
Samsung really needs to jump on this bandwagon if its foldables are to continue to be competitive while still being relatively slim.
5. A different form factor
This one’s way less likely, considering Samsung has seemingly doubled down on the tall-and-thin design of its cover screen, even with a slightly wider Z Fold 6, but I think Samsung needs to go further. It’s still taller and narrower than a regular smartphone screen, making content look cramped on the cover screen – though I do admit it’s nice to use one-handed as a result.
Still, with its slightly awkward design, it stands alone compared to pretty much every other foldable on the market.
I’d much rather Samsung conform to the norm in this aspect, offering a cover screen that more closely resembles a traditional smartphone. It’s the best of both worlds: a regular smartphone experience on the cover and a big-screen experience within. Why Samsung continues with its tall and narrow alternative is beyond me.
