Beebom
Rating8.5
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8 refines last year's formula, making it slimmer, sleeker, and more premium, with an improved hinge. It is easily one of the most comfortable flip phones I have used to date, and this is backed by robust everyday performance, a smooth OS experience, and dependable cameras. While the thermal issues, battery life, and slow charging are some of its low points, they do not detract from the improvements Samsung has made. If you're looking specifically for a clamshell-style foldable phone, this might just be your best bet.
Pros
- Durable build with Armor Aluminium frame
- Minimal crease and better hinge
- Strong cameras in day and night
- Snappy, stutter-free performance
- Feature-rich software experience
Cons
- Battery life needs optimisation
- Display brighntess could be improved
The Galaxy Z Flip 8 continues the legacy of Samsung's clamshell folding phones with some notable improvements this year that almost went unnoticed among all the hype for the Z Fold 8. After using it as my primary phone since last week and testing every new feature it has to offer, I'm now ready to give it the attention it deserves in this Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8 review.
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8 Box Contents
The Galaxy Z Flip 8 box has all the basic items you get on modern flagship phones. Here's what you'll find:
- Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8 smartphone
- A USB Type-C to Type-C cable
- A SIM ejector pin
- Paperwork
Let's take a scan of the key specifications of the Z Flip 8 before we move on to the review itself.
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip8 Key Details
Note: Our testing, opinion, and rating for this review are based on the phone's launch price. We recommend checking the current price before making a purchase decision.
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Design and Build
- 13.1 mm thickness folded and 6.1 mm unfolded, 180 grams weight
- Gorilla Glass Victus 2 front (cover display) and back
- Armor aluminum frame, IP 48 dust and water protection
When I picked up the Galaxy Z Flip 8 for the first time, the improvements over last year's Galaxy Z Flip 7 were obvious immediately. Samsung listened to the complaints and added chamfered edges and shed a bit of thickness from 6.5 mm to 6.1 mm, and it weighs 8 grams less than the previous model.
The back is still glass, but it has a soft, faintly rough texture now that resists fingerprints better and just feels more premium under the thumb.
These are minor tweaks, but combined, the phone feels quite comfortable to carry around every day, from home to the office and back. Despite packing a huge 6.9-inch display, the phone just settles right into my palm, better than the Z Flip 7 managed to.
In fact, after using the Z Flip 8 for a week, going back to the Galaxy Z Flip 7 feels odd, as the latter now seems chunkier in comparison.
Samsung is also using an improved FlexTitanium technology for the hinge, which should reduce the visible crease while offering a tighter folding mechanism. During my initial impressions of the Z Flip 8, I mentioned how the crease is nearly invisible even to the touch.
But after a week of living with the Galaxy Z Flip 8 for this review, the crease is visible again. I can clearly spot it, and you can see it in the shot below. However, the hinge feels sturdier when folding or unfolding the phone, and snapping it shut has that same satisfying thud that makes me want to keep opening and closing it.
I also don't have any complaints about the durability. The IP48 rating prevents it from water and dust, but just to be cautious, I wouldn't plan any trip to the beach with this phone in my pocket. The phone has also survived an accidental drop without any bruises.
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Display and Audio Quality
- 4.1-inch (948 x 1048) 120 Hz Super AMOLED outer display
- 6.9-inch (1080 x 2520) Full HD+ 120 Hz LTPO AMOLED inner screen
- HDR 10+ support, 2600 nits peak brightness
The Galaxy Z Flip 8 comes with a 6.9-inch 1080p LTPO OLED inner display, while the outer screen is a square 4.1-inch panel. Both displays look visibly sharp and clear with typical Samsung vivid colour tones. Since both screens are running at 120 Hz, scrolling through apps and menus felt super smooth.
The outer screen stretches out edge to edge, giving ample area to do more without opening the phone. Last year, I complained about the limited usablity of the Z Flip 7's cover screen. I guess Samsung listened because the Galaxy Z Flip 8 comes with a new FlexWindow interface.
It gives me access to a dozen or so Samsung apps, like Notes, Bixby, Browser and Calculator, that I was able to use on this small square screen without unfolding the phone. I could also use some Google apps, too, like Google Maps, Messages and YouTube.
I used Google Maps for navigation, and being able to do it on the outer screen shows how much potential there is. But Samsung still shies away from complete app support, something I've seen on the Motorola Razr 60. So if you want to scroll reels on the cover screen, you will need to use a GoodLock module before.
Moving on to the inner display, its large screen makes it great for enjoying movies and TV shows, and the stereo speaker setup further elevates the experience with loud and full sound and a 50:50 audio split. I spent my Saturday afternoon watching Spider-Man on the inner screen, and the colours pop with rich black tones in darker scenes.
The bezels have slimmed down a little, and it is only noticeable when you put it right next to the Z Flip 7 or the Z Flip 6. However, I do wish that this were a higher-resolution panel like the Motorola Razr 60 Ultra.
Brightness is another area where the Galaxy Z Flip 8 stumbles. While the Z Fold 8 and the Z Fold 8 Ultra got a bump to 3,000 nits this year, the Z Flip 8 still only offers 2,600 nits peak brightness. As a result, I had to often squint my eyes or shade the screen with my hand when using it outdoors, commuting to the office or taking camera samples on a Sunday afternoon.
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Performance Tested
- Samsung Exynos 2600 processor (India)
- Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy processor (US/CA/CN)
- Up to 12 GB LPDDR5X RAM + 512 GB UFS 4.0 storage
This year, the Galaxy Z Flip 8 comes with the new Exynos 2600 processor, also seen on the Samsung Galaxy S26. It provides a noticeable jump in performance over the Exynos 2500 chipset used on the Z Flip 7, but enough of me talking; here's how the Galaxy Z Flip 8 performs in different benchmarking apps.
The benchmark results are clearly not as good as the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 processor, but in everyday use, I could barely tell a difference in performance.
Throughout my Galaxy Z Flip 8 review period, the phone handled my mixed usage of multitasking, gaming, general browsing and basic social media apps really well. Even on the cover screen, apps ran quite smoothly, and I did not notice any performance hiccups.
However, this is a hot-headed phone, as it gets warm when using the camera app or playing demanding games. During such intense tasks, the phone was hot to the touch near the cameras, and as a result, it gets uncomfortable to use the cover screen to shoot photos or record videos for a long duration.
Gaming is also a mixed bag. BGMI and CoD Mobile are both capped at 60 FPS, even on the lowest settings. It's unclear whether this is the phone's limitation or the developers not optimising the games for this particular device yet.
Heavier titles like Genshin Impact, Honkai: Star Rail, and Wuthering Waves can actually hit 60 FPS on the highest settings. But in intense action sequences, frame rates dipped to 50 FPS and sometimes 45 FPS, and that is also exactly when the heating issue reared its head again.
| Games | Settings |
|---|---|
| Wuthering Waves | High Settings + 60 FPS |
| Genshin Impact | High Settings + 60FPS |
| CoD Mobile | Max Graphics = Max + Max (60FPS) | No high FPS option available |
| BGMI | Max Graphics = Ultra HDR + Ultra | No high FPS option available |
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Software and Updates
- One UI 9 based on Android 17
- 7 years of Android updates and security patches
The software is the one thing you will interact with the most, and with the Galaxy Z Flip 8, you are getting the best one out there. This is one of the first phones to come with One UI 9 out of the box, and the experience is smooth, polished, and packed with features, something I also said in my Galaxy S26 Ultra review.
One UI 9 brings some minor improvements like the ability to resize the brightness and audio bars in quick settings and the new wavy progress bar in media notifications. I also tried the smarter Now Nudge, which should pop up automatically when discussing a date or a location in a text chat. It only popped up once for me, that too in the Google Messages app.
I also want to highlight two notable One UI 9 features. First is FlexWindow, which expands the capabilities of the cover screen, which I have already talked about in the display section. It also allows me to resize apps directly on the cover screen through a small button to change aspect ratio.
Then there is a new Galaxy AI feature called My FanCam. It lets you focus on a single subject when recording a video with multiple people in frame. My FanCam is great for K-pop lovers, and the edits it spits out in seconds are cleaner than most I have seen on Instagram.
One advantage of using a Flip phone like this one is that whatever app you are using on the outer screen also opens in its current state when you unfold the device. However, the opposite is not possible since not all apps support the square cover display.
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Cameras Reviewed
- 50 MP main camera, f/1.8, 1/1.57", 4K recording @ 60 FPS
- 12 MP ultra-wide camera, f/2.2, 123°
- 10 MP selfie camera, f/2.2, 4K recording @ 60 FPS
Samsung upgraded the ultrawide cameras of the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra this year, but the Z Flip 8's camera setup remains untouched. It still houses a 50 MP main, a 12 MP ultrawide and a 10 MP front-facing shooter, and here is how the photos hold up.
Main Camera
The main camera is doing the heavy lifting on this phone. The daylight shots I have taken carry a natural look with strong detail, clarity, and texture, and I took most of these under gloomy, rainy Delhi weather with a cloudy overcast.
That actually worked in the camera's favour, as flat, overcast light doesn't throw hard shadows or blown-out highlights the way direct sun does, and the Flip 8 renders that evenly. Colours are consistent across images, as you can compare in different shots I have taken below, and even in challenging lighting situations, it manages to hold its own very well, as you can tell in the image with the showpieces.
My favourite is the shot of the sleeping dog where the camera held onto the fine fur texture cleanly.
Zooming into 2x and 4x zoom, the quality drop is not massive. But 10x pushes the phone a little too much. At that point, AI gets active and takes over the image, fixing anything irregular and adding absurd details that don't look pleasing.
Night shots are where shadow handling actually gets tested, and the results are good if you don't zoom in too close. There's still a good level of detail in the image, including in the darker parts of a frame.
In a shot of the Jagran building, I could still make out the railing details despite the building being fairly far away; the small spots under the HDFC signage stayed visible, and the flower patterns nearby were distinguishable, if not quite as crisp as what the Galaxy S26 Ultra would produce.
Up close, the images get a little smudgy. It does not hold up to the quality of the best camera phones like the Oppo Find X9 Pro or the Vivo X300 Pro, available at the same price. I think the Z Flip series needs an evolution with a telephoto camera, even if it compromises a portion of the cover screen.
Ultrawide Camera
The ultrawide camera holds its own too, especially at night, where it handles exposure just as well as the main camera, and the colour parity is consistent between the main and the ultrawide lens.
The images turn out equally well with a balanced frame and clean look in daylight. But at night, the shots look noticeably softer in comparison.
It also does double duty for macro shots, and the results look good, though it takes a bit of time to lock focus on subjects up close. I was still able to capture some up-close images of the shrubbery, and the shots come off pretty sharp.
Front-Facing Camera
On the other hand, the selfie camera on the inner display is a bright spot, as it carries natural skin tones without oversharpening or smoothening the subject's face as some other devices tend to do by default. It has the typical Samsung look with slightly boosted colours that are ideal for sharing on WhatsApp or Instagram stories, but challenging lighting situations definitely push its limits.
In the image with the blue lights, you can see how the processing is not able to manage the skin tones, and the subject (which is me in both photos) comes off underexposed.
Portrait mode is clean, and the cutout is accurate as well. But with more than one person in frame, the processing consistently blurs one person while keeping the other in focus. I tested this on the inner selfie camera and the main camera on the outer screen, and both delivered the same results. This could be a limitation if you constantly click group selfies.
Video Recording
Videos look really good and are stable even when I am recording at 4K @ 60 FPS from either the front or the back cameras. You can also record footage in LOG format, which is a neat addition for anyone interested in editing their videos in post.
Battery Life and Charging
- 4,300 mAh Battery Capacity
- 25W wired charging, 15W wireless charging
For the battery, Samsung is using a silicon-carbon battery for the first time in the Z Flip 8. However, Samsung did not increase the battery capacity, and I averaged around 6 hours of screen-on time during my Galaxy Z Flip 8 review period. This included a mixed usage of browsing, social media, gaming, and the camera testing above, and I would typically have to look for a charger by the end of the day.
This is identical screen time to what I got during my Galaxy Z Flip 7 review last year, which is a little disappointing as I expected that the use of Silicon Carbon would translate to better results.
The charging speed is still stuck at 25W in comparison to the Z Flip 7. So it took me about 1 hour and 40 minutes to go from 5–100%. It is not bad enough to be a dealbreaker, but if you were hoping for the best battery-backup phone, then the Flip 8 does not really deliver it.
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8 Review Verdict: Should You Buy It?
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8 is not a major leap but rather a justified hop over the last year's Z Flip 7. The thinner and lighter design, sturdier hinge, better in-hand feel, improved performance, and the FlexWindow are definitely welcome changes that do refine everyday user experience.
However, I would've liked to see better battery life, faster charging, and improved thermals. Not to forget that Samsung has also bumped it up by Rs 20,000 from last year's Z Flip 7. This puts it head-to-head with Samsung's own flagship, the Galaxy S26 Ultra, which is an absolute value-for-money option if you don't care about the foldable form factor.
But if it's the clamshell foldable experience you're after, the Galaxy Z Flip 8 delivers it with confidence. It's stylish, practical, and, after 8 generations, refined enough that once you start living with it, it's hard not to appreciate just how far Samsung's flip phones have come.
