Engadget gave the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra a score of 8.8 out of 10. The review says the phone has real improvements in speed, screen brightness, and battery life, but the total package does not do enough to earn the "Ultra" name (Engadget).

Samsung announced the Z Fold 8 Ultra alongside the Z Fold 8 and Z Flip 8 on July 22, 2026, calling the lineup foldables "perfected for every way of living" (Samsung Newsroom). All three phones go on sale August 7, 2026 (Samsung Newsroom US).

The Z Fold 8 Ultra looks almost identical to the previous model. It is 8.9mm thick when closed and weighs 7.58 ounces (215 grams), the same as before. When opened flat, it is 4.1mm thin, slightly thinner than the 4.2mm of the Z Fold 7, making it the thinnest foldable Samsung has made. The phone has an IP48 rating for dust and water resistance, and the edges are tapered to make it easier to open with one hand.

Under the folding screen, Samsung added a titanium alloy layer to make the phone stiffer and reduce the visibility of the crease, which is the faint line you can see and feel where the screen bends. Whether this actually helps in everyday use is something only weeks of handling can confirm, but the approach fits Samsung's pattern of making small, steady improvements to its foldable phones.

The outside screen is 6.5 inches. The inside screen is 8 inches. Both use AMOLED technology, which produces rich colors and deep blacks, and both refresh 120 times per second for smooth scrolling. Samsung increased the inside screen's sharpness and raised peak brightness to 3,000 nits, up from 2,600. A nits rating measures how bright a screen can get, and 3,000 is very bright, which helps outdoors in sunlight. The inside screen also has a new anti-reflective coating to reduce glare. Engadget called the brighter screens a clear improvement over the previous model.

Speed is where the Z Fold 8 Ultra makes its strongest case. It runs on a chip called the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy, paired with up to 16 GB of RAM (PhoneArena). Engadget found the performance to be the best in its class, crediting the new chip. The chip is a special version Samsung had tuned for its own phones. The cheaper Z Fold 8 uses the same chip family but without that custom tuning.

Battery life improved a lot. The Z Fold 8 Ultra has a 5,000 mAh battery with support for 45W wired charging (PhoneArena), and Engadget says it lasts much longer than the previous model. For foldable phones, which have struggled with battery life for years, this is one of the most important changes in this generation.

The camera system is the same three rear cameras as before. Engadget did not highlight camera quality as an area of improvement.

A few things are missing. The Z Fold 8 Ultra has no built-in magnetic ring for Qi2 accessories, which are wireless chargers and mounts that snap on with magnets, similar to Apple's MagSafe. That means you need a third-party case or adapter to get that magnetic alignment. For a phone at the top of Samsung's foldable lineup, that is a notable gap, since the rest of the Android world is moving toward this kind of compatibility. The phone does include a side-mounted fingerprint scanner and a removable SIM tray.

Price is a sticking point. Engadget lists cost as a drawback. The standard Z Fold 8 starts at $1,899.99 (Samsung Newsroom US), and the Ultra costs more than that. Both the Z Fold 8 and Z Fold 8 Ultra come in 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB storage options. The Z Fold 8 weighs just 201 grams, making it Samsung's lightest Galaxy Z Fold yet.

In my view, the pattern here is a familiar one. Samsung's foldable phones have gone from experimental to polished over several years, and the big changes have slowed as the design matured. The Ultra's real gains this year are inside the phone: a faster chip, brighter and sharper screens, much better battery life, and a slightly thinner body. The outside looks largely the same, and the "Ultra" name promises more than the design changes deliver. If you already own a Z Fold 7, there is not much reason to upgrade. If you are trying a foldable phone for the first time, the Z Fold 8 Ultra is the most complete device Samsung has shipped, even if it is not a dramatic leap forward.