Despite Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 8 not coming with a privacy screen or S Pen support, it will sport a bigger battery and faster charging. But the real innovation is being saved for Samsung’s wide foldable, which will be lighter than most flat phones according to new details. Leaked internal sales targets also show Samsung is betting big on its new foldable category.
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The Samsung Galaxy Z TriFold has a similar aspect ratio to the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Wide. (Photo by Joan Cros/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
NurPhoto via Getty Images
Samsung tipster Ice Universe posted on X today that the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Wide will weigh just 201g. That's lighter than Samsung's own Galaxy S26 Ultra at 214g and significantly lighter than Huawei's Pura X Max at 229g.
Included in that lightweight frame is a 4,800mAh battery, which is 400mAh bigger than the Galaxy Z Fold 7's power pack, and it will support 45W fast charging.
That is nearly double the 25W that Samsung has stubbornly kept on its foldable lineup through the Z Fold 6 and Z Fold 7. Clearly Samsung has been listening to the complaints about slow charging speeds and bulky foldable designs.
This, Ice Universe claims, gives Samsung a "clear advantage" in the new wide foldable market, including over Apple's iPhone Fold, which the tipster believes will weigh more than Samsung's rival handset.
If accurate, that means Samsung is deploying its device slimming design process again. The company debuted this approach on the ultra-slim Galaxy S25 Edge and reused it in the Galaxy Z Fold 7, which allowed it to produce a foldable as slim as a standard flat phone. It looks like both versions of Galaxy Z Fold 8 will follow the same path.
On cameras, Ice Universe confirms a new 50MP main sensor with native 24MP mode support, which means you no longer need to download Camera Assistant to access that shooting mode.
Ice Universe also has details on the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, which measures in at 4.1mm when unfolded, shaving it down from the Galaxy Z Fold 7’s 4.2mm thickness, and 8.9mm folded. It will weigh 215g, the same as the Galaxy Z Fold 7.
Despite being slimmer than its predecessor, it will house a larger 5,000mAh battery, around 13% bigger than the Fold 7's cell, and support 45W charging. The overall dimensions, display sizes and general design will look "identical" to the Galaxy Z Fold 7, so this is very much a spec bump on an already established foldable design.
It will be interesting to see if Samsung uses silicon carbon battery technology for that larger battery in the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra. That would explain an increase of that size without making the device thicker. We also don’t know if the crease will be entirely eliminated with new screen technology, as Samsung demoed at CES, or simply reduced. The biggest question, though, is on price.
Samsung's pricing for its flagship phones is very much a live situation. The company has raised prices for several devices recently, including the Galaxy Z Fold 7, but it has also run a surprisingly aggressive discount for the Galaxy S26 Ultra in the last week. That is part of a strategy to keep its jewel in the crown as competitively priced as possible, while making up for memory crisis losses with price hikes elsewhere.
The question is: will the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra or Galaxy Z Fold 8 Wide get the same treatment? Can Samsung run aggressive deals to entice buyers to the foldable side?
I suspect the existence of Apple’s wide iPhone Fold means Samsung will be forced to run deep discounts weeks and months after launch. If you’re planning to buy either of Samsung’s foldables this summer, learn from the recent Galaxy S26 deals and wait for the inevitable price to drop. If you can’t be bothered to keep an eye on Galaxy Z Fold 8 pricing, subscribe to my newsletter for instant deal updates.
New figures from ZDNet Korea, citing multiple component industry sources, reveal Samsung has revised its combined sales targets for this summer's three foldable phones downward. The Wide Fold is the exception, and that exception tells you something important about which device Samsung actually believes in.
The combined sales target for the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, Z Flip 8 and Galaxy Z Fold 8 Wide has been trimmed from approximately 6.5 million units to 5-6 million. The biggest cut falls on the Z Flip 8, whose target dropped from 3 million to 1.5-2 million units.
The Wide Fold tells the opposite story. Samsung originally planned just 500k units of the new wide form factor. That target has been revised upward to 1.5-2 million units, a potential 4x increase, with component and display supply volumes increasing significantly since this month, according to ZDNet Korea.
ZDNet Korea says the reason for this is because the Flip 7's sales were "sluggish." It's worth pointing out that there have been several reports in the last few months about how well Samsung's foldables are selling, but those sales reports clump the Fold 7 and Flip 7 together. As ZDNet Korea points out, the Fold 7 delivered above expectations while the Flip 7 underperformed.
The higher cost of making foldable phones because of the RAM crisis likely plays a part in Samsung's decision to focus its efforts on what it believes will be the more popular device. That in itself is interesting because it shows Samsung's conviction in the Wide Fold as a new category is clearly genuine. You don't quadruple production targets for something you're uncertain about.
Also, if the Wide Fold is the jewel in Samsung's foldable crown, then expect it to get the Galaxy S26 discount treatment, which has seen surprisingly aggressive price drops for the flagship since it launched in March. Flip 8 buyers, however, may not be so lucky.
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