I’ve been a fan of folding phones for a while now, going back to the first Pixel Fold in 2023. In a way, with this new phone, I’ve just gone back to that.
The first Pixel Fold was a “passport”-style phone, where it was a bit shorter and wider than other phones. This made the internal screen a better aspect ratio than other foldables, and it was great! For some reasons, for the last few years (and the coming year, it seems) Google went to the traditional tall folding phone, where it seems more like a normal phone when closed, and then makes a square when open.
Samsung just released their Galaxy Z Fold8, which goes back to the password-style layout so I decided to give it a shot. So far, so good! For you Apple users, the foldable iPhone (the “iPhone Ultra”) coming this fall is rumored to also be a passport layout, almost identical in size to the Z Fold8.
For some comparisons, here is the recent Pixel 10 Pro Fold compared to the Samsung Z Fold8, both closed and open:
Again, the current iPhone is very similar to the Pixel Fold when closed, and the coming iPhone Ultra looks to be very similar to the Z Fold8 (both open and closed).
The crease is far less visible in the Samsung (with Apple’s reported to be even better), and the wider aspect ratio makes the inner screen much better for watching video or reading.
Ultimately it’s not a huge difference, as it’s an Android phone with a nice processor, but the form factor is super interesting and I’m looking forward to spending more time with it.
If you’re an iPhone user, are you going to test out the “Ultra” when it comes out this fall?
