Galaxy Z Fold 7 vs. Z Fold 6: Slimmer Body, Bigger Screens and Slightly Higher Price

At Samsung Unpacked in July, the phonemaker launched its most superior foldable but: the Galaxy Z Fold 7. It supersedes final 12 months’s Galaxy Z Fold 6 with upgrades large and small (or fairly, large and skinny), however how precisely do they examine? This is the Galaxy Z Fold 7 vs. Galaxy Z Fold 6 specs comparability. 

Samsung has been releasing foldable telephones for over half a decade now for the reason that preliminary Galaxy Fold (no “Z” again then) launched in 2019, and the corporate has gotten fairly good on the newer smartphone format. Gone are the times of show and hinge sturdiness points; now, Samsung’s foldable telephones are as dependable as their flat counterparts… although at $2,000, the Z Fold sequence’ costs are nonetheless excessive sufficient to place them out of attain of all however deep-pocketed fans.

The Z Fold 7 packs the most recent Samsung upgrades and a few design improvements, whereas the Z Fold 6 remains to be a strong and succesful gadget, leaving both an important selection for many who can afford them — simply observe the $100 distinction in record worth, as all these upgrades have led the Z Fold 7 to begin at $2,000 whereas the Z Fold 6 begins at $1,900. This is how each foldable telephones examine.

Design and show

Each the Z Fold 7 and Z Fold 6 observe the identical broad design: a book-style foldable that has an outer display to operate kind of like a flat smartphone when folded closed. It may be unfolded to disclose its wider, extra tablet-like inside show, offering extra display actual property for duties, video games and watching media. 

The Z Fold 7, nonetheless, takes the Z Fold 6’s design and slims down its thickness so it takes up even much less house in pockets or baggage. The Z Fold 7 is 8.9mm when folded up, down from 12.1mm thick within the folded-up Z Fold 6. Likewise, when unfolded, the Z Fold 7 is barely 4.2mm thick, down from the 5.6mm within the Z Fold 6. That is even thinner than the Galaxy S25 Edge’s 5.8mm thickness, which instructions an $1,100 worth due to its personal intentionally skinny and light-weight design. 

Whereas customers could not see how a lot thinner the Z Fold 7 is except they put it aspect by aspect with one other cellphone, there are areas the place it is noticeably trimmed down — there’s hardly any bezel left across the prime and backside of the USB-C port. The brand new foldable is available in at 215 grams, which is concerning the weight of most flatphones and lighter than the Z Fold 6’s 239 grams.

Each foldables are IP48 rated for mud and water resistance, which means whereas they could survive being dunked in water for at the least half-hour (the “8” in that score) they will not shield towards molecules smaller than 1mm (the “4” in that score, decrease than the “6” in most telephones’ IP68 score) — so maintain both foldable away from mud and sand.

Learn extra: I Held the Galaxy Z Fold 7. It’s So Thin I Almost Forgot It’s a Foldable

The Z Fold 7 is general barely taller and wider than its predecessor, which ends up in larger screens. The brand new foldable has a 6.5-inch AMOLED Full HD Plus (2,520×1,080 pixels) cowl show, up from the 6.3-inch AMOLED Full HD Plus (2,376×968 pixels) cowl show on the Z Fold 6. Each fashions have 1 to 120Hz variable refresh charges. 

Equally, the Z Fold 7 has a bigger 8-inch AMOLED tablet-like (2,184×1,968 pixels) inside show in comparison with the Z Fold 6’s 7.6-inch AMOLED tablet-like (2,160×1,856 pixels) inside show. Each even have 1 to 120Hz variable refresh charges.

Cameras

The Z Fold 7’s digicam array is generally unchanged from final 12 months’s mannequin, with one obtrusive exception: the 200-megapixel fundamental digicam, which it inherits from the Galaxy S25 Ultra that launched in January (and in addition made it to the Galaxy S25 Edge that arrived in Could). Whereas we have not had a lot time to strive it out, the Z Fold 7’s fundamental digicam ought to take sharper photographs than the 50-megapixel one on final 12 months’s Z Fold 6.

On paper, the Z Fold 7’s remaining cameras appear in any other case equivalent to their counterparts on the Z Fold 6: a 12-megapixel ultrawide digicam, 10-megapixel 3x telephoto and a 10-megapixel front-facing digicam on the duvet display. The ten-megapixel digicam on its inner show is now within a show cutout, transferring away from the under-display digicam that prior Fold telephones used.

Each foldables shoot video in 8K at 30 frames per second.

Specs and battery

It isn’t shocking that the Z Fold 7 will get a lift in specs over final 12 months’s Z Fold 6. Essentially the most notable is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite within the Z Fold 7, which is extra highly effective and environment friendly than the Z Fold 6’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3.

The Z Fold 7 has the identical inner storage choices as its predecessor: 256GB, 512GB and 1TB. However whereas the Z Fold 6 solely supplied 12GB of RAM for all three of these storage choices, the brand new foldable kicks it up a notch by providing 16GB of RAM for its largest storage (the 256GB and 512GB are once more paired with 12GB of RAM). 

The Z Fold 7 has the identical 4,400mAh battery capability as final 12 months’s Z Fold 6. However till we check out the brand new foldable, we can’t know whether or not its explicit setup will end in kind of battery life — the marginally bigger shows on the Z Fold 7 would recommend it could drain its battery quicker, and prior testing with Snapdragon 8 Elite telephones discovered they drained extra energy.

Connectivity-wise, the Z Fold 7 has the sting with its Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 assist, that are newer and extra superior than the Z Fold 6’s Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 assist.

However there’s nonetheless one space the place the Z Fold 7 stays painfully behind the instances: charging. The foldable nonetheless has 25-watt most charging, which is fairly dismal and borderline embarrassing in 2025 for a cellphone of this worth — even the flawed OnePlus Open that launched in 2023 had quicker 67-watt charging, which stuffed that foldable from lifeless to 76% in half an hour. As a degree of comparability, final 12 months’s Z Fold 6 (additionally 25 watts) recharged simply over 40% in half-hour. 

Each telephones even have Qi wi-fi charging. Samsung is promoting magnetic cases for the Fold 7 that add compatibility with Qi2 wi-fi chargers and different magnetic equipment.

Software program, assist and AI

The Galaxy Z Fold 7 launches with Samsung’s One UI 8 and Android 16 out of the field, which is an enchancment over the Z Fold 6 arriving with Android 14. Sure, regardless of being a 12 months aside, Samsung’s greatest foldable will arrive with the most recent model of Google’s cellular working system, which the software program big surprise-dropped back in June months forward of its standard launch window.

Whereas that is clearly a giant win for the brand new foldable to not have to attend weeks or months for Android 16, it is also a long life improve: Samsung is as soon as once more promising seven years of software program and safety updates for the Z Fold 7, which suggests it ought to get annual upgrades till 2032. However whereas the Z Fold 6 has the identical variety of upgrades, a kind of was Android 15 that got here out later in its launch 12 months — which means it ought to solely get upgrades till 2030.

Each folding telephones get the total suite of Samsung’s Galaxy AI options in addition to Gemini entry. From Google’s Circle To Search to erasing objects in photographs, there is a vary of little instruments and methods. However as a result of the Z Fold 7 will get extra years of Android updates (and has a more recent processor), it may get extra Galaxy AI options sooner or later.

Watch this: Extremely Skinny: First Take a look at the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Z Flip 7

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