Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip 8, announced Wednesday during the company’s Unpacked event, introduced the price hike we expected, as well as a few welcome tweaks to its design and software that make the phone easier to use.
I got to demo the $1,200 Z Flip 8, and while that’s a $100 spike from the starting price of last year’s Z Flip 7 for the same 256GB storage, the phone is noticeably lighter and thinner than before. Samsung says that at launch, the 180-gram Flip 8 will be the lightest foldable phone on the market. When unfolded, the phone is 6.1mm thick, which is significantly thinner than the Z Flip 7 (6.8mm) and Motorola Razr Ultra (7.2mm).
But I’m more impressed with the many software tweaks coming to the Z Flip 8 that make it easier to use while it’s closed. First, you can now add apps to the cover screen by scrolling up to the app drawer and tapping “Add apps” to access any app installed on your phone. Previously, you had to dig into the settings menus to do the same thing. This is also very close to how the latest Motorola Razr phones let you run any app you want on their cover screens.
The Z Flip 8’s cover screen also gets a “Recent apps” shortcut button for the first time – unusual, since quickly switching between tasks is a basic function in every Android. When I’m testing flip-style phones, I’m on the cover screen using Maps to get directions while playing music and texting friends — that simple button means I can now switch between these directly without having to go back to the lock screen. That’s also a feature already available on the Razr.
The IZ Flip 8 carries several features that appeared in the Samsung Galaxy S26 line of phones – for example, the foldable video camera includes Super Steady with a horizontal key to smooth movements while recording. I also had a lot of fun playing with a new camera feature called My Fan Cam, which uses Galaxy AI to identify subjects in the video and create a crop that follows that person throughout the recording, as if the camera was focused only on them.
The Flip 8 is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for the Galaxy – which is a custom version of the same processor used in the Galaxy S26 phones and the foldables, the Z Fold 8 and Z Fold 8 Ultra, were also announced at Unpacked.
Other specifications carry over from last year’s Z Flip 7, including a 6.9-inch internal display and a 4.1-inch cover screen. The same goes for the cameras, which are a 50-megapixel wide-angle camera, a 12-megapixel ultrawide and a 10-megapixel selfie camera. The phone’s 4,300-mAh battery, 25-watt wired charging speed and 15-watt max wireless charging are also the same. We’ll have to see when we test the phone if the new processor is efficient enough to improve overall battery life.
The Galaxy Flip 8 comes in four colors: pink, graphite and cream, and mint as an online exclusive offer. The phone will go on pre-order today and will go on sale on August 7.
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