Hardware

Published on July 30th, 2025 | by Andrew Bistak

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 Review

Official Blurb: Unfold bigger moments with the all-new Galaxy Z Fold 7. Now, the lightest and thinnest fold ever, without compromising on durability. It features stronger Gorilla Glass Ceramic 21 on the cover screen, an Advanced Armour Aluminium frame1 and hinge housing, so it’s built ready for life’s little accidents. Create wow-worthy photo and video content with the upgraded 200MP main sensor, a larger Ultra-wide camera that now supports auto-focus for macro photography, and increased 10MP sensor on both the main screen and cover, all supported with an improved Pro-Visual engine for stunningly vibrant visuals, day or night. Boost your productivity and creativity with the intuitive Gemini Live2 AI assistant, that supports natural conversational voice prompts and multi-modal processing. Enjoy the all-day power of the self-optimising battery whilst you immerse yourself in a truly expansive viewing experience on its wider cover screen and larger main display3 for the ultimate multitasking and entertainment experience.

The Review: The world of smartphones is constantly evolving and every so often, a new device genuinely pushes the boundaries of what’s possible. Enter the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 that comes with all the ‘stock’ smartphone features, however its new foldable design and captivating aesthetics really makes you take notice, particularly the high-quality foldable screen that is nothing short of a “wow” moment.

Aside from its luxurious appearance with four colours (Blue Shadow, Silver Shadow, Jet Black and Mint) plus the high-quality screen(s), the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 comes with a powerful Next-Gen Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Processor plus 12GB or 16GB RAM depending on the model which makes this smartphone a true work horse, especially when using the latest AI technology.

With a 4400mAh battery, it will easily get you through most of the day and then some, depending on usage. Of course, heavy gaming (not casual) or resource hungry apps will draw down the power faster. (*) Lastly, the Samsung Z Fold 7 is available in three sizes that include 256GB, 512GB and 1TB (16GB RAM) with a starting price of $2899AUD (July 2025). To support your purchase, Samsung provide an impressive seven years of OS updates and software support.

(*) Samsung report that you can watch up to 24-hours of video playback

The Unboxing

As you can see… the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 is well “ooh la la” and will definitely turn heads when you take it out to use. If I could choose one word to sum up this phone, it would be opulent! In terms of durability, the device comes with an IP48 dust and water resistance rating, while the screen uses a new titanium lattice to protect the display. What about that pesky crease with the foldable screen? Surprisingly it is not that noticeable and once open, you will forget there is a slight crease there.

.

Setting up the phone is like any other Android device, however with a Samsung flavour and once you go through the wizard, you’re ready to commence your new Galaxy Z Fold 7 experience with its re-engineered design. Unfolding the Z Fold 7 reveals the expansive 8-inch main display with a stunning resolution of 2,184 x 1,968 which is like using a laptop as the screen real estate is fantastic.

Both the inner and outer displays are stunning AMOLED panels, delivering vibrant colors, deep blacks and excellent brightness, making them ideal for everything gaming to media and even productivity as you can literally use this device (almost) like a mini laptop. When folded, it looks like a standard smartphone with the cover screen measuring at 6.5 inches that flawlessly swaps between both screens when closed or folded thanks to the Samsung OneUI 8 (user interface).

As mentioned, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 is powered by a custom-optimized, next-generation processor, delivering a significant boost in CPU, GPU and NPU performance. This translates to incredibly smooth multitasking, fluid gaming with optimized Vulkan support and ray tracing plus enhanced AI capabilities. For those looking at productivity, multitasking on the Z Fold 7 is fantastic as you can run up to three apps simultaneously in split-screen mode or have multiple apps open in pop-up view. The device comes with Android 16 and OneUI 8, ensuring a feature-rich software experience with a focus on seamless foldable functionality and the integration of Galaxy AI.

Gaming: The Galaxy Z Fold 7 is a lean-mean gaming machine thanks to its processor and the Adreno 830 GPU which allows for Vulkan Optimization. This results in smoother frame rates, better performance in complex scenes and enables advanced visual features like ray tracing. With our testing, games such as Genshin Impact, Grid Legends, Call of Duty Mobile and Diablo Immortal looked amazing (almost next-gen console worthy) with excellent frames per second thanks to the CPU/GPU and when matched with the 120Hz refresh rate, this is true mobile gaming at its best. In other words, full detail running at exceptional speed.

Benchmarks

Our first test was with 3DMark for Android that is a benchmarking app that measures GPU and CPU performance on smart devices. It provides test results and comparisons that are useful for evaluating gaming capabilities and overall hardware efficiency.

How did the Samsun Galaxy Z Fold 7 “unfold”?

3DMark for Android scored the device at 12312 (Solar Bay), 6426 (Wild Life Extreme) with Sling Shot Extreme (OpenGL ES 3.1) “Maxed Out” and Steel Nomad Light being 59% better than all other android and tablet devices.

The Samsung Z Fold 7’s 3DMark scores indicate that it’s a powerhouse in terms of graphics performance courtesy of its Snapdragon 8 Elite processor plus its Adreno 830 GPU and is definitely one of the best-performing Android devices for gaming and graphically intensive tasks.

We also tested the Z Fold 7 with Geekbench for Android which is a cross-platform benchmarking tool that evaluates a device’s CPU and GPU performance using real-world workloads. It produces single-core and multi-core scores that help users compare processing capabilities across different smartphones and tablets which makes it a great comparison app. Single-core performance is crucial for the responsiveness of individual apps, general UI fluidity and tasks that don’t heavily utilize multiple cores. This score puts the Z Fold 7 among the very best Android phones on the market, potentially even rivaling some of Apple’s single-core performance.

Further, the Multi-core performance indicates how well the CPU can handle demanding tasks that can be split across multiple cores, such as heavy multitasking, video editing, complex calculations and gaming. A GPU score of 16726 for a mobile device is phenomenal and this kind of score indicates that the Z Fold 7 will handle the most graphically demanding mobile games at their highest settings with ease. So you can expect smooth frame rates, detailed visuals and an immersive gaming experience. Beyond gaming, it also means the device is well-suited for other graphics-intensive tasks like video editing, 3D rendering, and augmented reality (AR) applications – and AI!

Photography

The camera system on the Galaxy Z Fold 7 has received a power-up with its 200MP main camera that with its Samsung’s ProVisual Engine technology successfully captures some amazing images (and video).

Although limited with optical zoom, the 30x digital zoom with its software processing is still quite good as you can see from some of the samples below.

The front-facing camera is 10MP with the inner display a 10PM sensor which is ideal for teleconferencing or video chats.

For those that enjoy video recording, the Fold 7 supports 4K UHD and HDR10+ recording with a handy Super Steady mode to keep your videos more stabilised.

The camera system on the Galaxy Z Fold 7 captured some super clear shots with vibrant colours that excelled in a variety of lighting scenarios – even at night, the camera system does a great job at capturing images.

Final Thoughts?

Samsung have aimed for the stars or the galaxies with their new Galaxy Z Fold 7 that is a true upgrade over its predecessor with its refined design, improved displays and powerful performance. Best of all, it folds up like a “standard” smartphone for portability and pocket-ability. However, by opening up the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7, it offers users a true tablet like experience but without the weight or size. It’s one of the best smartphones on the market, however it does come at a cost.

About the Author

Andrew Bistak When he's not trying to save the world, Andrew enjoys travel (although loathes turbulence), going to the movies, reading and being a dad to his two dogs (and now twins) with his wife.

Related Posts

Australians Are Spending Smarter: OPPO A5 Series Now Available to Meet Demand for Value Phones →

RAZER LAUNCHES BLACKSHARK V3 PRO: THE FASTEST PRO-GRADE WIRELESS HEADSET FOR ESPORTS →

ZE500 for ASMR Earbuds Review →

Yoto Review … A whole new world of audio for kids! →