Samsung’s just revealed its no-secret-to-anybody Galaxy Z Fold7 and Flip7 updates, as well as a new generation of Galaxy Watch models. Here’s my early thoughts, plus some hands-on video impressions.
Ahead of Galaxy Unpacked, Samsung briefed selected journalists (including me) around its new generation of foldable phones and wearable devices coming to Australia.
To draw back the curtain just a little into the temple, this kind of thing happens all the time; it’s an easy way to ensure that there’s mass coverage of new devices while giving media creators time to, well, create media.
A couple of caveats to throw into the mix here, however.
At the time of writing this originally, Samsung hasn’t sent me full specification or complete pricing details for the new devices, and the hands-on sections weren’t of the type where I could do much in the way of full-on testing; they’re more about allowing folks to get slightly different pictures and video of the new gear that aren’t just the same endless recycled images for their own stories.
Update: I do now have full pricing, which is in a table at the end of each device section for your handy reading convenience!
It is what it is, but as always, I’d rather be as transparent as possible with my audience. Others may differ on this.
Also, Samsung Australia was only ever going to show me products it’s launching in Australia.
If the Galaxy Unpacked event included teases or reveals of tri-fold screens, Galaxy Rings with perfume dispensers or fully transforming Samsung EVs… then they certainly didn’t reveal those to me, or they’re not coming to Australia at this time, so I’m not going to mention them here.
On with my early thoughts…
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7: Early Pros and Cons
Pros
- Nice colour choices: While I’m unabashedly more of a fan of the fold style than the flip, preferring functionality over style plays, I still want phones to look nice. The new Blue Shadow colour is really nice, though I am very much a long-term fan of blue coloured phones. For what it’s worth, in Australia you’ll also be able to get the Galaxy Z Fold7 in Jet Black, Silver Shadow or Mint finishes, with the latter being an online exclusive only officially available down under through Samsung itself.
- Quality Engineering… erm… Thin-gineering?: The existence of the Galaxy S25 Edge made this all but inevitable, but I will tip my hat to Samsung’s engineers for making the Galaxy Z Fold7 thinner and lighter than its predecessors were, at just 215g and 8.9mm folded/4.2mm unfolded. The S25 Edge still retains its crown as Samsung’s thinnest phone, but I do feel like engineering for thinner screens makes more sense in a foldable phone, because you end up with a more pocketable unit when you’re only using the cover display.
- Camera upgrades: Again, a touch on the predictable side; anyone who didn’t see the 200MP sensor found in the Galaxy S25 Ultra and Galaxy S25 Edge making its way into the Galaxy Z Fold7 just wasn’t paying attention, and while I didn’t get much of an opportunity for full-on camera testing, my own experiences with that sensor suggest that it should allow the Galaxy Z Fold7 to up its camera game. Also interesting to see Samsung abandon the in-display camera sensor on the internal display in favour of a direct holepunch sensor with a higher megapixel count. Honestly that in-display sensor, while neat technology to allow for proper “full screen” use of the phone as a tablet was always quite poor as an actual photographic device.
- Side by side photo editing looks neat: One of the challenges for larger Android foldables has been making the right use of the space you get when you open up the phone, and that’s ever more true given the Galaxy Z Fold7’s 8 inch internal display, up from 7.6 inches on the Galaxy Z Fold6. While there’s the predictable focus on Galaxy AI features – more on that shortly – the one that stood out to me as potentially actually useful is side by side photo editing, letting you focus in more clearly on AI-driven changes to your photos and what that does to their overall compositions. Neat!
Cons
- Battery is no better: In one sense, packing in a 4,400mAh battery into a frame that’s thinner than its predecessor – which also featured the same battery capacity – is a very clever engineering feat. However, it’s still just a 4,400mAh battery, and it would have been nice to see an uptick in battery capacity given the power of the Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy running the whole show.
- It costs HOW much?: Samsung didn’t tell me the full scope of pricing for the Galaxy Z Fold7 early on, simply noting that pricing will start from $2,899. While these larger foldables have never been what you could call “cheap” by any non-laughable definition, that’s $150 up from the launch price of the Galaxy Z Fold6, which is not a particularly welcome step.
- Galaxy AI is still going to cost… something: Samsung’s big play for just about everything it does revolves around its Galaxy AI services bundled in with its phones. While I’m still waiting for that “must-have” AI moment – multiple industry sources insist that I’ll find it someday, maybe AI will help me find it? – the sting in the tail here is that Samsung’s only offering Galaxy AI as a fully free service until the end of 2025. After that, it’ll cost… something. Or maybe nothing. Samsung’s not saying, but if you are using Galaxy AI on an ongoing basis, you’ve got to factor that into the value equation.
- Still no bundled S-Pen: I do get that the thinner style of the Galaxy Z Fold7 would have made including an S-Pen a tricky proposition for in-body inclusion as it is with the Galaxy S25 Ultra, we’re paying $2,899 and upwards for this phone, Samsung. You really couldn’t have included an S-Pen case in the box for that price?
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip7: Early Pros and Cons
Pros
- Even more thin-gineering: Like its bigger sibling, the Galaxy Z Flip7 benefits from all that R&D work that Samsung’s South Korean boffins have put into phone design, leading to a device that does feel that bit nicer in the hand, and would no doubt fit even better into my pockets on an ongoing basis. I suspect if I’d tried to pocket one at Samsung’s briefing, they might have gotten cranky with me, so I didn’t try.
- There’s a cheaper one straight away: Typically, Samsung lets its Fans wait a while if they want a cheaper version of an existing phone, releasing its “FE” (Fan Edition) versions of devices (like the excellent Galaxy S24 FE)some months after their bigger siblings go on sale. That’s not what Samsung’s done here, because alongside the Galaxy Z Flip7, they’re also releasing the Galaxy Z Flip7 FE, which is (more or less, as per what Samsung told me) the Galaxy Z Flip6 in specifications terms at a lower price than the Z Flip7. As a reminder, I’m writing this before Samsung’s sent me the full specifications details, and I’ll update when I’ve got them.
- Larger displays: It’s not likely to unseat the Galaxy Z Fold7 in terms of my favourite pecking order, but it is nice to see that the Galaxy Z Flip7 has a larger internal display without bulking out its overall size at 6.9 inches. The external display also bumps up to 4.1 inches, and Samsung will let you run direct Android apps on it, as long as you enable that as a Samsung Labs feature in the settings.
Cons
- Exynos, not Qualcomm: Last year’s Galaxy Z Flip6 and Z Fold6 had the same underlying chipset, running on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy Platform. While the Z Fold7 gets the Snapdragon 8 Elite For Galaxy to push its pixels, the Z Flip7 instead gets the Samsung Exynos 2500 to run the show. While I couldn’t benchmark the Z Flip7 while I was there – again, questions and strong words would have been uttered had I tried – my general observation of the balance between Snapdragons and Exynos processors in similar phones has been that the Exynos “equivalents” haven’t typically been as powerful, though that’s sometimes balanced against better battery life. We’ll have to wait and see, but on the surface, it’s disappointing to see Samsung shifting power this way.
- The cheap one costs how much?: The Galaxy Z Flip7 will sell in Australia with pricing starting from $1,799, and that’s exactly on par with what the Galaxy Z Flip6 sold for when it launched. Not inexpensive for sure, but at least the price here has held steady. The Galaxy Z Flip7 FE, however, is – as per what Samsung’s told me – more or less a Galaxy Z Flip6 with a few possible internal differences (but likely not many), and it will retail in Australia from $1,499. That’s not a huge difference to start with, because I do figure if you can run to $1,499 for a phone, the jump up to $1,799 probably won’t mean as much to you, but the bigger problem here is that if it does skew close to the specs of the Galaxy Z Flip6, it might make more sense to buy that phone at a discount price than the FE version. Honestly, I was kind of expecting Samsung to pitch the FE version of its Flip phone into the $999 AUD space or similar…
- No 200MP camera for you!: The Galaxy Z Flip6 featured a 50MP primary wide camera, 12MP ultra-wide camera and 10MP front camera. The Galaxy Z Flip7 features… a 50MP primary wide camera, 12MP ultra-wide camera and 10MP front camera, seemingly exactly the same recipe. Maybe it’ll benefit from Samsung’s improved AI-led processing to deliver better images than its predecessor… or maybe Samsung is resting on its laurels here.
Samsung Galaxy Watch 8/Watch 8 Classic: Early Pros and Cons
Pros
- The rotating bezel is back: I will never waver from my position that Samsung should put its rotating bezel on every watch it makes, because it’s both its most unique selling point, but also its best selling point. Instead, it adopts a “tick-tock” style release schedule, only putting out a “Classic” watch with the rotating bezel every second year. Thankfully, that’s this year, so the Galaxy Watch 8 Classic has the proper hardware in place.
- New measurement metrics: Selling a new smartwatch every year isn’t just about style, but also features, and the two top line features for this year are for sleep apnea detection and antioxidant measurements. While I couldn’t test out sleep apnea measurement – though I’m told by Samsung Australia representatives that it should have passed TGA certification and be live in Australia at the point the new watches go on sale – I could test my antioxidant levels by leaving my thumb on the rear sensor of the Galaxy Watch 8 Classic for about 30 seconds. To the shock of nobody, I need to eat more vegetables, but having my watch know this might actually get me to do something about it.
Cons
- No smaller Watch 8 Classic sizes: I got into a discussion with another journalist (I won’t name names) at Samsung’s event around who had the thinner wrists out of the two of us, but the context here was the size of the Watch 8 Classic. This is a bigger timepiece with a 46mm display, and that’s your only option. It’d be great if Samsung opted to make a smaller variant of the Classic design for folks who want the rotating bezel (which should be everybody) but who don’t favour chunky time pieces.
- New features are software-centric, but only for the new models: The Galaxy Watch 8/Watch 8 Classic include a number of new tracking and health measurement modes, including running coaches and advanced sleep tracking, but at least at first glance, much of this work feels like it’s software-driven, not hardware-dependent. Still, they’ll apparently be exclusive to the new devices, not offered on older Galaxy Watch models. I get that Samsung wants to sell new watches and make money and all that, but it’s not great news for older Watch owners – and something, I feel that’s a bit of a disincentive to invest in the Samsung take on a wearables platform!
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[kofi]
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