Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 is the new Lamborghini of phones | Australian review
If there’s a Lamborghini of AI-powered smartphones right now, this is it. And finally, it can also take incredible pictures.
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As I’m checking out emails and Google chat messages across two screens on a super thin 8 inch display, a fellow editor is enviously watching on.
“I want one,’’ she gushes as I show off the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 to her.
And she’s not alone.
After three weeks of testing, this is probably the best phone I’ve reviewed in the past two decades.
If there’s a Lamborghini of AI-powered smartphones right now, this is it.
And like the supercar, it’s a design story that has been years in the making.
Finally, we have a foldable phone that should tempt many to switch to the innovative format.
As expected, the first thing you notice when you take it out of the box is how incredibly thin, stylish and yet solid it really is.
Then as you start to use it, you notice how light it is.
It’s an engineering wonder.
Folded, it’s the size of a normal phone.
There’s no bulge in the pocket, the feeling is the same as with any other phone.
The front screen display is more than adequate for checking messages, even scanning website headlines and stories, reading emails, and scrolling through social media sites.
With a new 200MP camera, it finally meets what I needed in a foldable phone: Something to take great pictures and video in a compact form, while being able to edit them on a bigger canvas.
And if I want to throw in a bit of AI image generation, or get Gemini to revamp my email, it’s also there.
And that’s the beauty of this phone.
On the move it’s a normal phone but the laid-back experience you get on the bigger screen means you can use it for everything from creating new marketing materials for your business to enjoying a movie while on a flight.
The Fold7 phone is 8.9mm thick compared to 12.1mm in the Fold 6.
Unfolded it is a super thin 4.2mm.
It weighs less than the S25 Ultra at 215 grams – something you really notice when you are holding it up for extended periods of time while gaming or watching a movie.
But what about battery life in the Galaxy Z Fold 7?
My big worry was the 4400mAh battery wouldn’t last the distance.
And after a big workout on the first few days, it was getting close to running out of juice.
I took it on a beach photo shoot before sunrise, including shooting lots of video, and then took it for a full day at Australia Zoo, again shooting lots of video and photos.
I also accidentally left video recording on a few times after hitting the record button again after stopping so the use was higher than it should have been.
Even with all that, the battery did get me through the day with about 20 per cent of charge left.
But given its hefty price tag, some have rightly suggested Samsung might have offered the more advanced silicon-carbon battery. Oppo, for example, has a 5910mAh battery in one of its phones.
There are also a few other things that are annoying about the Fold 7.
You definitely notice more reflection on the screen when in full sunlight, though you can get an anti-reflective screen protector.
While I was not a huge user of the S Pen, given the creativity options you have with a larger canvas, the lack of support for it in the Fold 7 is also disappointing.
As someone who goes to the beach a lot, the Fold doesn’t have the same dust resistance so the risk of tiny sand granules causing damage could be a concern.
But for 99 per cent of what most people will use a phone like this, it is an incredible device which combines creativity with fun, functionality and productivity.
What is the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 camera set up like?
The number one reason I wouldn’t buy a foldable phone in the past was because the cameras were never as good.
With the Fold 7, this has definitely changed.
It now comes with a 200MP ultra high resolution main camera with a two times optical zoom, a 12 megapixel ultra wide camera and a 10MP camera with a three time optical zoom.
In comparison, the S25 Ultra and the top of the range iPhone offer a 5X optical zoom.
But in our testing, even when we took the Fold 7 to 10x (a hybrid zoom), we were getting very good video and photos, especially in our daylight shoots.
The camera set up is equipped with a ProVisual Engine which Samsung says offers more than 160 AI-powered imaging technologies.
The end result is definitely sharper, more vivid night videos.
Samsung says the wide angle camera captures shots that are 44 per cent brighter and four times more detailed than those taken with the Fold 6.
We tested with a night time shoot from a balcony above the Brisbane River and the results, in both video and photos, were stunning.
The beauty of the 200MP lens during daytime shoots is that you don’t need to zoom in. With that much resolution you can crop your photo in later without losing detail.
One of the biggest challenge for me on the beach is how well my camera will capture the pooches on the move.
With a shutter speed up to seven times faster, the Fold 7 did a great job in getting shots of Ava and Maggie in full flight while I love the option of being able to create little slow motion videos by just holding down the video while it is playing back and saving the clip.
When I am wandering around our neighbourhood, I love to try to capture some of the bright colours of the flowers in full bloom, moving the camera really close to see what extra details it might pick up.
The 12MP ultra-wide lens on the Galaxy Z Fold7 now supports auto focus, enabling macro photography.
To maintain precise focus at close range, Samsung says the device leverages Dual Camera Depth Calibration — a system that gauges subject distance, switching between the wide and ultra-wide cameras when needed.
For those into selfies (not I), the 100-degree front camera on the main display allows you to take larger group photos.
When faces are near the edges, the camera uses Wide Distortion Correction, which automatically adjusts proportions and reduces distortion.
It also produces more natural skin texture on photo subjects, thanks to AI-driven adjustments.
Samsung says AI-powered filters trained on over 5,000 real analog film images let you fine tune your photos based on contrast, saturation and colour temperature.
When it comes to editing your photos and video, needless to say being able to do it on a bigger screen helps from the outset.
You can easily remove unwanted objects from your photos and then have the AI naturally fill in the background.
In the photos we tested, it did an exceptional job.
Through Galaxy AI’s scene-understanding capabilities, Suggest Erases proactively suggests edits like removing passers-by or other distractions in photos.
With the 8 inch screen, Side-by-Side Editing lets you compare original and edited versions of your photos in real time.
Through better AI prompt engineering, Portrait Studio helps pet lovers and portrait enthusiasts alike refine images to capture vibrant expressions and striking profiles.
Overall, there’s a lot to love about the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7.
With a starting price of $2899 it’s not for everyone but if you use your phone a lot for work and play, it’s certainly worth checking out.
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