Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra review: Bigger, thinner and more practical than ever

Samsung has made its first 'ultra' Galaxy Fold. It is called the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra. As you would expect, it comes fully loaded. The price, too, is ultra starting at Rs 1.99 lakh in India. India Today Tech reviews.I have been using foldable phones for over four years now, and one thing that has become clear to me during that time is that they are not nearly as fragile as they look from afar. The technology has matured, and so has the way these phones fit into everyday use. Now, why am I saying this? Well, many people have this perception that it is not safe to buy a foldable either due to durability concerns or their generally high asking price.Yes, foldables can be pricey. The new Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra is priced at Rs 1.99 lakh, which is a lot of money. But several conventional flagship phones like the iPhone 17 Pro Max as well as the Vivo X300 Ultra now cost between Rs 1.4 lakh and Rs 1.7 lakh. When you factor in the foldable’s extra screen real estate and other things, the gap becomes even smaller.The Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra is Samsung’s slimmest foldable yet, but the thinner design is only part of the story. Despite packing an 8-inch inner display, it feels less cumbersome than previous generations and more practical as an everyday phone. That doesn't mean it is perfect, but Samsung has got more right than wrong this year. Here is my detailed review of the latest Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra.Design and BuildThe Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra doesn't completely reinvent Samsung's foldable design, and that is probably a good thing. Instead, the company has concentrated on making the existing formula thinner, lighter and more refined. At just 4.1mm when unfolded, the Fold 8 Ultra is 0.1mm thinner than the Fold 7. That may sound like a tiny change on paper, but it contributes to a noticeably sleeker feel in the hand. The boxier shape also gives it a modern, premium appearance. Despite the slim body, Samsung has retained an IP48 rating while the hinge uses flex titanium underneath the inner display. The protection isn't quite at the IP68 level found on some conventional flagships, but it still provides some reassurance against dust particles and water exposure. I have to say that the satin matte rear panel does make the phone look lavish, but it also makes the back panel feel quite slippery. If you are trying to maintain the phone's slim profile, a skin may be a more appealing option than putting it in a thick case.One design element that is a little annoying is the rear camera bump. It is quite prominent and using the phone on a table makes it wobble a lot. It is good to see Samsung offering a side-mounted fingerprint sensor over here as it helps quickly unlock the phone, unlike the in-display one. Samsung's pursuit of a thinner design has also meant leaving out S Pen support. There is no built-in stylus slot, and the phone does not offer proper case-based S Pen support either. That is understandable given the focus on reducing thickness, but the omission is more noticeable here because the Fold 8 Ultra's 8-inch inner display is particularly well suited to writing, drawing and precise input. The lack of Samsung's Privacy Display is another omission, though it does get an anti-reflecting coating to minimise glare.Overall, the Fold 8 Ultra feels like a careful evolution rather than a dramatic redesign.DisplayThe Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra’s displays are among its strongest selling points, although they are more or less the same as the previous generation. The 6.5-inch full HD+ cover screen uses a tall 21:9 aspect ratio, which can feel noticeably narrower if you are coming from a conventional smartphone. I often found myself unfolding the phone instead, where the 8-inch inner display feels far more comfortable for watching YouTube videos and scrolling content on Instagram.The 120Hz inner panel, of course, has support for higher 2504 x 2256p resolution, while both screens can reach 3,000nits in peak brightness. In everyday use, however, the 1,500nit high-brightness mode is more relevant, and it proved bright enough even under direct sunlight. HDR10+ content on streaming apps like Netflix looks particularly good, with strong contrast and impressive highlights.Samsung has also made the crease almost non-intrusive. It is still visible from certain angles, but is harder to notice head-on and feels considerably smoother under the finger. The anti-reflective coating on the inner display is another welcome addition, cutting glare noticeably outdoors. Unfortunately, the cover screen lacks the same treatment, making reflections more distracting. This was also why I used the inner screen even more, especially while watching the dark themed content on Netflix. The good thing is that I didn't experience any jitters while watching fast paced movies, something which I have noticed on a few mid-range phones in the recent past.The lack of a Privacy Display is another missed opportunity. Still, with thin bezels, excellent brightness, smoother crease handling, punch colours, and a superb anti-reflective inner panel, the Fold 8 Ultra delivered a genuinely fun viewing experience.SoftwareThe real advantage of the Fold 8 Ultra becomes apparent once you stop treating it like a phone and start using it like a small tablet.Samsung's Flex Mode is a good example. Fold the device halfway and supported apps reorganise their controls around the two halves of the display. With YouTube, for instance, the video can occupy the upper section while controls sit below it. The camera also takes advantage of the half-folded design, while certain experiences turn the lower portion into a touchpad or dedicated control panel.Multitasking is perhaps even more useful. You can have YouTube running on the top half and WhatsApp on the bottom, for example, without either app feeling particularly cramped. For people who regularly switch between messaging, browsing, video and other tasks, the additional screen real estate can make a noticeable difference.The wider, almost mini-tablet-like aspect ratio is also well suited to media consumption. Videos have more space, documents are easier to read and apps that properly support large displays can feel significantly more comfortable than they do on a conventional phone. There are still a few quirks. Some social media apps like Instagram don't make particularly good use of the wider landscape layout, so their interfaces can look less natural than they would on a standard smartphone.Gaming is another interesting case. The 10:9 aspect ratio works particularly well for RPGs like Genshin Impact and simulation titles, where the additional screen area can give you more room for the game world, menus and controls. Games designed primarily for the tall 19.5:9 proportions of regular smartphones, particularly shooters and racing games, don't always make the most of the Fold 8 Ultra's wider 10:9 inner display. Depending on the title, you may encounter black bars or touch controls positioned in ways that aren't as comfortable on the wider display.That is not necessarily a problem with the Fold 8 Ultra itself. Rather, it is the reality of using an unusual screen format because some games and apps designed around conventional phone displays may not take full advantage of the extra space.For everyday productivity and media consumption, however, the larger screen is genuinely useful. And that, more than the novelty of having a phone that folds, is what makes the Fold 8 Ultra interesting.General, gaming and battery performanceThe Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra gets Qualcomm's most powerful Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip, built around the company's third-generation Oryon CPU. Its prime cores can reach clock speeds of up to 4.74GHz. So on paper, there is little reason to question the phone's performance credentials. But the bigger question is how well Samsung's slim foldable body can keep that power under control over longer periods.The benchmark numbers are a little more complicated. The Fold 8 Ultra scored 10,110 in Geekbench's multi-core test, narrowly trailing the Galaxy S26 Ultra. The difference becomes much more noticeable in AnTuTu, where the Fold 8 Ultra managed 3 million points, compared with nearly 3.7 million on the S26 Ultra. The gap could partly come down to the Fold's thinner design, which leaves less physical room for heat dissipation than a conventional flagship.Sustained workloads also reveal some of those limitations. In the 3DMark Wildlife Extreme stress test, performance stability fell to 71 per cent after around 16 minutes, indicating that the phone reduces performance as temperatures rise. These numbers are useful for understanding the limits of the hardware, but they don't tell the whole story. In everyday use, the Fold 8 Ultra feels every bit like a flagship.Apps open almost instantly, scrolling through social media is fluid, and switching between multiple apps remains smooth. This is particularly important on a large foldable, where multitasking is a major part of the experience, and the Fold 8 Ultra handles it without feeling like it is struggling.Gaming performance is equally impressive. Genshin Impact is playable at the highest graphics settings with very few noticeable stutters, but pushing the frame rate to 60fps at those settings causes more heat and introduces stuttering. At 30fps, the experience is considerably more consistent. Interestingly, dropping the graphics preset to Medium, reducing shadow quality and setting the frame rate to 45fps offered smoother and fun combat in my testing.The phone's haptics are another minor weakness. The vibration feedback isn't that strong in shooting games such as BGMI, although it doesn't take away from the overall gaming experience, and I still found the game enjoyable to play.Thermal management is generally good, too. In the CPU Throttling Test app, the Fold 8 Ultra did reduce performance during sustained loads, but it retained around 80 per cent of its peak CPU performance. In other words, there is a performance drop once the phone heats up, but it isn't severe enough to make the device feel sluggish. The phone can also become slightly warm when taking photos under harsh sunlight, although one positive is that it cools down fairly quickly once the workload stops.The Z Fold 8 Ultra lasted for around 10 hours when I mostly used it without unfolding the device. Using both the screens gave me about 8 hours of battery life in a single day, but the end result for every user could be different based on their usage pattern. For me, this score is pretty solid because my usage mostly involved using the phone for Instagram, X, YouTube videos and a bit of Netflix.Audio performanceThe Fold 8 Ultra's speakers are another area where I would have liked a little more. They don't get quite as loud as I would prefer, especially when listening to podcasts. That said, raw volume isn't the whole story. The speakers produce clean, well-balanced sound with a decent amount of bass, and the overall audio quality is good. I have used conventional smartphones that can play considerably louder but don't necessarily sound better. So, while a little extra volume would have made the Fold 8 Ultra's speakers more versatile, the sound quality itself leaves little to complain about.Camera performanceThe Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra’s camera performance is quite impressive in daylight, delivering detailed and vibrant images with good dynamic range. In the building and cityscape shots, highlights are handled well, while distant objects retain a reasonable amount of detail. Colours are punchy without looking excessively processed, although some images can appear slightly oversharpened when viewed closely. The camera also does a good job with close-up subjects, preserving textures and maintaining natural-looking colours.Portrait photography is one area where the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra’s cameras show versatility. In these shots, the phone captures skin tones naturally, with facial detail and a pleasing separation between the subject and background. The portrait processing keeps the images looking polished without making them feel overly artificial.Hair strands, clothing textures and small details remain defined, while the background blur helps keep attention on the person. The camera handles indoor lighting confidently, retaining balanced exposure and colour. Whether it is a child posing at a party or a composed portrait, the Fold 8 Ultra produces social-media-ready results.Click on any photo below to access all the camera samples in the albumIn low-light and indoor conditions, the camera continues to perform well. The restaurant sign and dimly lit surroundings retain decent exposure, while the pizza shot shows good colour reproduction and detail despite the challenging lighting. Noise is generally controlled, though shadows can lose some fine detail and brighter light sources occasionally show mild blooming. Overall, the Z Fold 8 Ultra offers a good camera setup that is capable across different lighting conditions, with particularly strong daylight results and respectable low-light performance for a foldable phone.Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra review: Is it worth buying?The Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra is the most refined foldable Samsung has made so far. Its slimmer and lighter design makes the large 8-inch inner display easier to live with, while the bright screens, smooth software, strong cameras and reliable everyday performance make it a genuinely practical device rather than just a novelty. Multitasking, media consumption and gaming are where the Fold 8 Ultra makes the strongest case for itself. However, the Rs 1.99 lakh price makes it a phone for a specific audience. The lack of S Pen support and Privacy Display are noticeable omissions, while sustained gaming can cause slight performance throttling. Battery life is good rather than exceptional when both screens are used.If you want the flexibility of a phone and tablet in one device and have the budget, the Fold 8 Ultra is easy to recommend. For everyone else, a conventional flagship like the Galaxy S26 series remains a more sensible choice.- EndsPublished By: Ankita GargPublished On: Aug 12, 2026 19:08 IST