Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra Review: The Classic Fold Gets Pro Tools for Multitasking and Better Photos

6 min readThe Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra is the most powerful of Samsung’s three folding phones this year. The first “Ultra” Fold retains Samsung’s original “book-style” form factor found on last year’s Z Fold7: It’s tall and thin on the outside, but opens up to reveal a giant, 8-inch inner display that’s incredible for multitasking, as opposed to just watching videos, browsing the Web, or reading, to name a few tasks.With the Galaxy Z Fold8 delivering a new “passport”-style form factor, the Fold8 Ultra reframes the original design as the option for “power users.” The name says it all: Samsung calls its most powerful conventional smartphone the Galaxy Ultra, and a Fold Ultra should do the same, offering top-of-the-line specs. While the design is almost a carbon copy of last year’s model, the Fold8 Ultra adds a host of impactful upgrades, including a more powerful processor, an upgraded camera, and a larger battery with faster charging.In the past, folding phones have always lagged behind conventional flagships, even as they cost substantially more. The Ultra is still . . . well, ultra-expensive, but it finally has the internals that a top-of-the-line phone should have. While the new Z Fold8 is this year’s foldable showstopper, the Fold8 Ultra will not disappoint if you love the classic book-style fold, or want a foldable with the best performance possible.ProsRefined design with less visible display creaseAbundant power across the boardExcellent primary and ultra-wide camerasConsUnderwhelming telephoto cameraKey SpecsChipQualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5Display6.5-in. Dynamic AMOLED 2X display with 120-Hz maximum refresh rate, 8-in. Dynamic 2X AMOLED display (2,504 x 2,256 pixels)Camera50MP main, 50MP ultra-wide, 12MP 3X telephoto; 10MP exterior selfie camera, 10MP interior selfie cameraMemoryUp to 16GB of RAM, up to 1TB of storageConnectivity5G, Bluetooth 6.0, WiFi 7Refined Folding MechanicsStefan VazharovThe Fold8 Ultra’s tall form feels a bit odd when closed, but you see the appeal when you crack open its 8-inch inner display.Though the design and dimensions of the Fold8 Ultra have not changed year-to-year, Samsung has made a few upgrades to the phone’s materials that improve performance and usability. Samsung has added titanium alloy film and plates crafted from the same material to the display structure, which has done wonders for the inner display. Pretty much every foldable has some amount of creasing in the display over the hinge, but the Fold8 Ultra’s is easily the least visible I’ve seen on a folding phone. Ever.At a glance, the Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra is identical to the Z Fold7. The phones even have the same physical dimensions. However, a closer side-by-side comparison reveals that the Ultra model has a less visible display crease and a hinge with more satisfactory opening and closing feedback.What Makes This Phone ‘Ultra’? The Power to MultitaskThe Fold8 Ultra features a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 processor, the same one found in the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra. And just like Samsung’s flagship phone, it lets the Z Fold8 Ultra handle just about any task you throw at it, from running 10 to 15 apps, using Google Gemini to summarize large swaths of text or create images, or running a console-quality game.It’s worth noting, though, that you’ll also get this processor in the Galaxy Z Fold8 and Z Flip8. So, while this phone is substantially more powerful than its predecessors, it isn’t actually faster than the rest of the Z Fold 2026 line. That said, the processor lets you use the Fold8 Ultra’s massive 8-inch inner display in unique ways. Folded out, the Fold8 Ultra gives you the same viewing screen as a tablet, but in a square form factor that feels tailor-made for multitasking. If you’re really pushing it, you can actually set up three app windows at once, with a fourth running in a floating frame. It’s about as close as I’ve come to recreating a desktop-style workflow on a phone.Stefan VazharovWith a screen big enough to show multiple apps at once, the Fold8 Ultra takes especially good advantage of the Fold line’s top-tier processor.In fact, if you only need to use one or two apps, you can also use Flex Mode, which lets you turn half of the screen into a digital keyboard with a touchpad and scroll wheel when you open the screen 90 degrees, mimicking a tiny laptop. Using my phone this way brought me back to the early 2000s and my days trying to type on a Nokia Communicator phone with a built-in keyboard.Stefan VazharovFlex mode turns your phone into a mini laptop, complete with a touchscreen keyboard.Either way, with a top-of-the-line processor, this kind of multitasking will not slow your phone down. You can legitimately switch between apps and get work done quickly.The Best Camera on a Folding Phone YetHistorically, folding phones have always lagged behind conventional handsets in the camera department. Frankly, the Z Fold8 doesn’t quite buck that trend, but comes closer than any foldable yet.Stefan VazharovThe Fold8 Ultra has three cameras, just like the S26 Ultra, but only two of them deliver the same image quality.Though it’s not new for this year, it’s important to note that the Fold8 Ultra is the rare folding phone with a proper three-lens camera stack, akin to what you’ll find on conventional handsets. Its 200-megapixel primary and 50-megapixel ultrawide cameras are exceptional, mirroring the cameras on the S26 Ultra. In many types of scenes, including expansive New York City architecture landscapes, low-light photos, and macro shots, you can capture beautiful photos and crisp video with up to 8K resolution, as I did during my testing.The Fold8 Ultra form factor lets you try some fun camera tricks, too. With the device partially unfolded, the camera app creates a viewfinder on one half of the screen, and a control panel on the other. Between the high-quality lenses and control-oriented features like this, the Z Fold8 is undoubtedly the best foldable for camera nerds, though I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it over a conventional flagship.Stefan VazharovSamsung’s adaptable UI gives you simultaneous access to your camera, your camera roll, and camera settings.Unfortunately, the third lens, a 10-megapixel telephoto camera with 3x optical zoom, is unchanged from the Z Fold7 and quite underwhelming. My zoomed-in photos were solid, but not really much better than other, cheaper phones with a similar telephoto lens. I can see why Samsung didn’t upgrade the lens: The Z Fold8 Ultra is very thin, and adding more zoom would inevitably make it thicker. Still, given how close the Z Fold8 Ultra comes to mirroring the S26 Ultra in nearly every other way, the poor telephoto lens feels like a serious shortcoming. A bigger camera bump is a small price to pay for better photos, I say.Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra Camera SamplesAnd You’re Getting a Bigger Battery, TooThe Fold8 Ultra also outclasses the other Folds with a larger 5,000-milliampere-hour dual battery and an advanced silicon-carbon build. The latter puts the device’s battery capacity on par with the S26 Ultra, while keeping the Galaxy Z’s thickness to almost half that of the Galaxy S when unfolded. I got a full day of standard use, switching back and forth between the inner and outer screens, with juice to spare. The Z Fold8 Ultra only supports 45-watt charging, though, so it’s a bit slower to charge than the S26 Ultra. That’s still way ahead of the Z Fold7, so it’s a substantial upgrade.Samsung Phones Get the Most Out of AndroidStefan VazharovAs with just about every Samsung phone, Samsung has committed to supporting the Fold8 Ultra for 7 years, so this phone will continue getting security updates until you’re ready to upgrade.Like the Galaxy Z Series phones that launched alongside it, the Fold8 Ultra runs the latest, recently released Android 17 out of the box, backed by seven years of guaranteed platform and security updates. The level of future-proofing is on par with Google’s Pixel phones and worthy of the Fold8 Ultra’s name and price category.Samsung’s One UI 9 custom interface complements Android 17 perfectly and helps get the most out of the Galaxy Z Series form factors, as I mentioned. The bespoke interface also comes with deep, yet easy-to-access Google Gemini integration and a ton of visual customization options.Should You Upgrade to the Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra?The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra is the power user’s folding phone. With a processor to support its multitasking capabilities, superior camera performance, and the biggest battery in the Z Fold line, there are a lot of task-oriented reasons to spend an extra $200 to get this phone over the new Z Fold8.If you don’t specifically need those features and simply want the best foldable experience possible, I’d steer you toward the standard Z Fold8: Its new passport-sized form factor is easier to use and plays nicer with more apps. It’s better for watching videos, playing games, and daily scrolling. It’s an easier, more fun experience, and it has the same processor as the Fold8 Ultra, so it can support whatever you want to do.By the time you read this, Google will also have announced the Pixel 11 Pro Fold, which offers similar specs in a similar package. I’ll be testing that phone extensively in the coming weeks, so stay tuned for an update on how it stacks up. For now, I’m comfortable saying you will not be disappointed in Samsung’s book-style foldable this year.Shop Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8 UltraSamsung Galaxy Z Fold8 UltraSamsung Galaxy Z Fold8 UltraSamsung Galaxy Z Fold8 UltraStefan is an award-winning consumer technology editor with over a decade of experience in reviewing gadgets, particularly smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, desktop and laptop computers across multiple form factors and platforms, as well as accessories for them. He also covers televisions and audio equipment, including headphones, earbuds, wireless speakers, and soundbars. Since joining Hearst in 2015, Stefan has contributed to BestProducts, Popular Mechanics, and numerous other publications. Prior to his current role, he served as the US Editor for GSMArena.com.Mike Epstein is a Senior Commerce Editor at Hearst Enthusiast Group, producing reviews for buying guides Popular Mechanics, Runner’s World, Bicycling, and Best Products. Prior to joining Hearst, he was a video game and technology critic for over 10 years, with bylines at IGN, Gamespot, Variety, Lifehacker, Kotaku, GamesRadar, Flavorwire and Digital Trends, among others. Now, he’s a jack of all trades, helping reviewers share everything they know about all kinds of technical gear, from snowblowers, to running shoes and bicycles, and every kind of gadget imaginable.