Samsung Galaxy Z Flip8 Review: Thinner, Lighter, Same Cameras
The Galaxy Z Flip8 is Samsung's thinnest, lightest flip phone yet, but the 50MP main and 12MP ultrawide cameras carry over unchanged from the Z Flip7 — and which chip you get depends entirely on where you buy it.
Samsung's flip phones have settled into a familiar annual rhythm: refine the hinge, shave a little weight, push the cover screen a bit further. The Galaxy Z Flip8 follows that pattern closely, arriving as Samsung's thinnest and lightest Flip yet, alongside the Z Fold8 and Z Fold8 Ultra in the same July 2026 foldable refresh. It's a genuinely likeable phone — just not one that moves the camera hardware forward at all.
Design and Build
At 180g and 6.1mm thick when unfolded, this is the slimmest, lightest Z Flip Samsung has shipped. The FlexWindow cover display carries over its familiar 4.1-inch size but gains more genuinely useful functionality this generation — live transcription and quick AI editing tools work directly on the cover screen without opening the phone. Colour options are Pink, Graphite, Cream, and Mint, sticking to Samsung's established flip-phone palette rather than introducing anything new.
Display
The 6.9-inch inner display runs Dynamic AMOLED 2X at up to 120Hz with HDR10+ support, while the cover screen matches it at up to 120Hz too — a detail that matters, since a laggy cover screen would undercut the phone's whole pitch of being usable while closed. Both panels are bright and sharp enough that image quality genuinely isn't a limiting factor here.
Camera
This is the section where the Z Flip8's rhythm breaks down into something closer to a stall. The 50MP main and 12MP ultrawide cameras are the same resolutions Samsung shipped on the Z Flip7 — not a rebrand of the same sensors necessarily, but no meaningful upgrade either, and GSMArena's own pre-launch reporting flagged this months before release as an unlikely-to-change spec. There's still no telephoto lens, which has never been a Flip-series feature, and the 10MP selfie camera is also unchanged. If camera improvement was the deciding factor in your upgrade decision, the Z Flip8 doesn't give you one.
Performance
Here's the detail that's easy to miss until you're actually buying: which chip you get depends on your region. US, Canadian, and Chinese units ship with the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 — Qualcomm's current flagship silicon, built on the same 3nm process as the Galaxy S26 Ultra. UK, European, and Korean buyers instead get Samsung's own Exynos 2600, a genuine 2nm generational step up from the Exynos 2500 in last year's Flip7, but one that still benchmarks meaningfully behind the Snapdragon variant in most independent testing. In real-world use, reviewers have generally found the gap less noticeable than the raw numbers suggest — both chips comfortably handle everyday multitasking, gaming, and Galaxy AI features — but Snapdragon buyers do get faster on-device processing for things like live transcription and photo editing. Both variants pair with 12GB of RAM.
Battery and Charging
A 4,300mAh battery with 25W wired charging is a modest, unexciting spec on paper, and it's the phone's lowest-scoring category here. It's enough to comfortably get most people through a full day of typical use, but the thinner chassis this generation didn't leave room for a bigger cell, and 25W charging is genuinely behind the pace most rivals — including several phones covered elsewhere in GSMTechTok's device database — now set at 45W or higher.
Verdict
GSMTechTok Verdict
The Galaxy Z Flip8 is a genuinely more refined, more comfortable-to-hold flip phone than its predecessor, with a cover screen that's finally doing more than showing widgets. But it's an iteration, not a leap — the cameras are unchanged from the Z Flip7, battery capacity is still modest, and which chip you get is a matter of geography rather than choice. Buy it for the design and the FlexWindow improvements, not for camera or performance gains over last year's model.
Frequently Asked Questions
What's actually new on the Z Flip8 versus the Z Flip7?
Body and cover-screen refinements, mostly. The Flip8 is thinner and lighter at 180g and 6.1mm unfolded, and the FlexWindow cover display gains more usable functionality. The main and ultrawide cameras keep the exact same 50MP and 12MP resolutions as the Z Flip7 — Samsung hasn't upgraded the sensors this generation.
Does the Z Flip8 get the same chip everywhere?
No, and this is worth checking before you buy. US, Canadian, and Chinese units ship with the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5. UK, European, and Korean units instead get Samsung's own Exynos 2600. Both are genuine 2026-era chips and neither is a bottleneck for everyday use, but the Snapdragon variant benchmarks noticeably higher and unlocks certain on-device Galaxy AI features faster.
Does it run hot during camera use or gaming?
Some reviewers have noted the thinner chassis runs warm near the cameras during extended photo or video sessions, and during demanding games, more than the bulkier Z Flip7 did. It hasn't been reported as a dealbreaker for typical use, but it's a real, physically-explicable trade-off of the slimmer body rather than a rumour.
Price history · 90 days · GBP
Galaxy Z Flip8
Current
£1,149
90d Low
£1,073
21 Jul
90d High
£1,172
24 Jun
Launch price
£1,149
All-time low ↓
Price tracking from major UK retailers. Updated daily. Prices may vary.
How it compares: Z Flip8 vs Z Flip 7
Samsung
Galaxy Z Flip8
From £1,149
Samsung
Galaxy Z Flip 7
From £999
SD 8 Elite Gen 5 / Exynos 2600
Chip
Snapdragon 8 Elite 2
50MP + 12MP
Main cam
50MP + 12MP
180g
Weight
Heavier, thicker body
From £1,149
Price
From £999
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