When I unfolded the smartphone, the crease down the middle of the screen was hardly noticeable. You had to look closely to even be aware of the fold line. The characteristic thick, heavy feel of a foldable phone was also greatly reduced. It even felt thinner than a typical bar-type smartphone I use every day.
I tried Samsung Electronics' Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra, powered by Qualcomm's latest mobile platform, "Snapdragon 8 Elite 5th Gen for Galaxy." What stood out first was the hardware change more than the performance numbers. The long-cited drawbacks of foldables—thickness and weight—were reduced, and the crease was barely visible when the screen was unfolded. I was left with the impression that the sense of unfamiliarity with using a "folding smartphone" had decreased significantly compared with transfer.
After unfolding the device, I read an e-book on Millie's library. This is where the advantages of a foldable clearly emerged. More text fit on one screen than on a regular smartphone, and it felt closer to reading on a small tablet. The hassle of constantly turning the page while reading long articles or documents was also reduced.
The multi-window feature that displays two apps on one screen was also interesting. At first, the idea of splitting the screen on a single smartphone felt a bit unfamiliar. But once you get used to, say, opening a document or video on one side and using search or a messenger on the other, it looked like it could be used efficiently for work or content consumption.
There were also drawbacks. You cannot use the expanded screen in the desired orientation in every app. When I tried e-books and games, there were cases where the advantages of a large screen came through better in landscape than in portrait. Personally, I found it comfortable to use the product unfolded in portrait, but some content made better use of the screen when rotated to landscape. The hardware is evolving quickly to suit foldables, but I was left with the impression that app optimization has not fully kept up yet.
With a foldable, the screen size and aspect ratio change significantly when you fold or unfold it, and you also have to consider switching between landscape and portrait. Apps therefore need an "adaptive" design that rearranges the user interface (UI) to suit the screen size and device state. Google is advising developers to apply separate layouts optimized for fold/unfold states and for landscape/portrait orientations on foldables. Starting with Android 16, restrictions on app orientation and aspect ratio have also been relaxed on large-screen devices, but composing the UI to fit each screen remains an area that requires optimization by app developers.
To check performance, I also ran a high-end game with graphics set to ultra-high quality. Even when moving the character, engaging in combat, and switching viewpoints quickly, overall gameplay was smooth. There were no noticeable stutters even during sequences with flashy visual effects. Unfolding the screen widened the field of view, making the game more immersive than on a regular smartphone.
However, I could feel the device temperature rise while playing ultra-high-quality games. After running a game for a certain period, the Z Fold8 Ultra became slightly hot and the warmth was noticeable to the touch. It was not enough to hinder gameplay, but the temperature increase was clear compared with everyday tasks like web browsing or reading e-books.
What underpins the Z Fold8 Ultra's performance is the "Snapdragon 8 Elite 5th Gen mobile platform for Galaxy." It features a custom 3rd-generation Qualcomm Oryon CPU, a next-generation Qualcomm Adreno GPU, and an enhanced Qualcomm Hexagon NPU. The CPU supports clock speeds up to 4.74 GHz. According to Qualcomm, compared with the transfer-generation Snapdragon platform, CPU performance improved by 20% and power efficiency by 35%.
The next-generation Qualcomm Adreno GPU adopts a new slice architecture. It is designed to handle complex graphics tasks more efficiently and supports Unreal Engine 5, Ray tracing, and HDR gaming. The ability to run smoothly on the large unfolded screen with ultra-high-quality games is backed by this graphics processing performance.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is also a key area of enhancement in this platform. Based on the enhanced Qualcomm Hexagon NPU, it supports on-device agentic AI that understands the user's intent and context and performs tasks on the device. Because AI tasks can be processed on the device without going through the cloud, Qualcomm said it strengthens both personalized features and privacy.
Representative features include "My FanCam," where On-device AI recognizes and continuously tracks a user-selected person or subject in real time. Using this, you can convert horizontally shot videos into vertical content suitable for social media.
"Call Screening" helps manage incoming calls using AI-based real-time voice recognition and transcription. All processing is performed on-device. "Photo Assist" supports editing tasks such as adding or removing objects in photos, restoring fine details, and readjusting composition using Generative AI.
The camera features were also strengthened. The Qualcomm Spectra ISP has been upgraded to a 20-bit image processing pipeline, providing up to four times improved dynamic range compared with the transfer generation. Dedicated image stabilization hardware supports a 360-degree horizon leveling feature, on which the "horizon lock" function is implemented.
All models in the Galaxy Z Fold8 series also support "Advanced Professional Video" codec recording. It focuses on shooting high-quality footage close to the original and reducing the loss of detailed information during post-production tasks such as adjusting highlights and shadow areas and precise color grading.
For connectivity, it features the Snapdragon X85 modem-RF system and Qualcomm FastConnect 7900. It supports 5G, Wi-Fi 7, and ultra wideband (UWB). It also supports Snapdragon Satellite, which lets you send and receive messages via satellite where cellular networks are unavailable.
What was most impressive about the Z Fold8 Ultra I used was, paradoxically, that it felt less like a "folding smartphone." Thanks to the thinner, lighter body and the nearly invisible screen crease, the unique sense of unfamiliarity with foldables diminished, and when unfolded, a wide screen appeared for reading, gaming, and multitasking.
On top of that, the CPU, GPU, and AI performance of the Snapdragon 8 Elite 5th Gen for Galaxy broadened how the large screen could be used. The smooth performance even in ultra-high-quality games was impressive. On the other hand, the warmth felt during heavy workloads and some apps not fully optimized for foldable screens were disappointing. As much as foldable hardware and mobile chips are evolving, it seems the app ecosystem also needs to follow with optimization to make proper use of them.