Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip 8: I almost forgot it was a foldable

Samsung’s new Galaxy Z Flip 8 feels more like a regular phone than ever. It’s thinner, lighter, and has a front screen you can do just about anything on. Whether that’s a good or bad thing, I’m not quite sure yet.

I spent three hours with Samsung’s newest flip phone last week, and it doesn’t look too different from last year’s Z Flip 7. It’s still got a 6.9-inch FHD+ AMOLED display on the inside. It’s still got a 4.1-inch Super AMOLED cover screen on the outside. It still starts at 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, and it still has a 4,300mAh battery. But this year Samsung has added even more features that make this thing a full-on phone while it’s closed.

For starters, Samsung has added three new gestures to the outer display. If you swipe down from the top left of the screen, you’ll see your notification tray. Swipe down from the top right, and you’ll get quick settings. Swipe up from the bottom, and you’ll get near a full-blown app drawer. If you wanted to use your closed phone for practically everything, that’s what Samsung is offering here.

Previously, you had to use Samsung’s Good Lock to launch apps on the cover screen, and while it worked, it was basically a workaround. Now this is a native feature. On first impression, it’s nice to have the option, but part of the magic of a flip phone, for me at least, has always been the limitations. If the Flip 8 is simply a phone, but in a small, square aspect ratio, will I still feel less motivated to doomscroll?

Samsung has also shaved a few fractions of a millimeter off this thing to make what it says is the thinnest and lightest flip phone on the market. The Z Flip 8 is just 13.1mm thick folded and 6.1mm thick unfolded, and weighs 180g. This is still thicker than Samsung’s own Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, which comes in at just 4.1mm unfolded, and it’s certainly still thicker than a regular phone while closed, but as far as flip phones go, it’s currently the one to beat.

This year’s phone has also been made thinner using Samsung’s new Flex Titanium display technology, which is also in its new Z Fold 8 and Z Fold 8 Ultra. Samsung says Flex Titanium shaves off thickness by using a thinner titanium film under the OLED, as well as a tighter bonding between the base plate and display module. In practice, I’m not sure you’re going to notice a fraction of a millimeter, but Samsung says this display is 20x more durable, which is sorely needed considering the amount of Z Flips with cracked inner displays I’ve seen while riding the subway.

New battery technology also had a part in enabling a thinner and lighter phone. Samsung has finally made the transition to silicon carbon — which allows for denser batteries than standard lithium ion — though it says it’s using less silicon than competitors for safety and longevity reasons. In the Flip 8, the capacity and charging speed are the same as the Flip 7, but it was able to make the cell physically smaller.

If you were hoping for a massive camera upgrade this year, you’re going to be disappointed, as the Flip 8 is sticking with the same camera hardware we saw in last year’s Flip 7. You’re still getting a 50MP main and 12MP ultrawide, which are fine enough, but don’t expect the 200MP main camera from the Z Fold 8 Ultra or even the 50MP ultrawide from the Z Fold 8. That said, Samsung has brought its impressive Super Steady Horizontal Lock feature to the phone.

Probably the coolest feature I tried during my three hours with the device was the new “Now Brief” widget generator, which can create Now Brief widgets to proactively show you information about your day. During my time with the device, Samsung demo’d asking the phone to show the pollen levels every morning, and the Flip 8 generated a custom UI showing the day’s pollen level. I’m eager to get my hands on the phone for a longer period to pressure-test this feature, as Samsung made it seem like you could ask for a huge variety of widgets. This feels very similar to Google’s recently announced Android 17 feature, but optimized for the front display of the Flip.

The Flip 8 is more expensive than last year. This year, it’s starting at $1,199.99, up from the Flip 7’s $1,099.99 starting price, for the same storage and RAM configurations. Just about everything is subject to the RAM apocalypse these days, but if you want a flip phone that’s more phone than ever in its closed state, the Flip 8 might be the one to get.