Ryan Haines / Android Authority

The Galaxy Z Fold 8 isn’t far away now, and rumors and leaks are heating up and giving us an idea of what to expect from this year’s folding phones. As someone who loved the Z Fold 7, I’m excited about what the Z Fold 8 will bring, provided it offers key upgrades over the current model.

Samsung’s phones have felt stagnant of late, and there are five upgrades, in particular, I want to see this year.

Larger batteries

Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority

Battery life has always been a difficult spot for folding phones. The hinge and other components unique to the form factor leave less room to fit a large battery. Even so, Samsung needs to catch up. Samsung has used the same 4,400mAh battery from the Z Fold 3 to the current Fold 7, and it cannot deliver competitive battery life anymore, especially when Motorola’s Razr Fold has an impressive 6,000mAh silicon-carbon battery that can last two days on a single charge.

The Razr Fold is a slightly unfair comparison, as it is significantly heavier and a bit thicker than the Fold 7. Even so, the battery life in Samsung’s current foldable phones isn’t good enough, and a larger battery is a must. It doesn’t need to be as giant as Motorola’s, but closer to 5,000mAh could be a big upgrade.

Faster charging

Zac Kew-Denniss / Android Authority

Samsung’s charging speeds have been a point of criticism for years, and it was a pleasant surprise to see the Galaxy S26 Ultra finally offer meaningful improvement. I’m hoping that means the Galaxy Z Fold 8 will charge faster, too.

Since the Galaxy Z Fold 4, all Samsung Z Fold models, except the Tri-Fold, have had 25W wired and 15W wireless charging speeds. The aforementioned Galaxy S26 Ultra can charge at 25W wireless and 60W wired. That still can’t match competitors like the Razr Fold (which has 50W wireless and 80W wired charging), and it would be unrealistic to expect Samsung to match that with the Z Fold 8. However, a move to at least 45W wired charging would be a significant upgrade over the current 25W limit.

Improved telephoto camera

Hadlee Simons / Android Authority

The telephoto camera in the Z Fold 7 is awful, to the point that Samsung shouldn’t have bothered including it. Strong words, I know, but it’s the truth. The paltry 10MP 3x telephoto can trace its roots to the Galaxy S21 Ultra. It was mediocre in 2021 on a phone that at least had a better secondary telephoto lens, but on a $2,000 phone from 2025, it’s unforgivable. In most lighting conditions, the Z Fold 7 crops to its 200MP primary lens instead of using the 3x camera. If the phone thinks that the sensor is useless, who am I to argue?

It would be unrealistic of me to expect Samsung to fit the same 50MP 5x telephoto lens from the S26 Ultra into the Z Fold 8. However, other folding phones have proven that there’s room for better than what we have in the Fold 7. The Honor Magic V6 has a 64MP periscope telephoto camera. While the Pixel 10 Pro Fold only has a 10.8MP telephoto sensor, it makes up for that with a 5X optical zoom. Samsung can and should do better here with the Fold 8.

Bring back the S Pen

Alex Walker-Todd / Android Authority

I love the S Pen. It isn’t perfect, and I think Samsung needs to make some upgrades to keep the stylus relevant. But even if the S Pen remains as it is, I want it to come back to Samsung’s foldables. Even with the awkward carrying case situation, I used the S Pen with my Z Fold 4 every day. It’s not hard to understand why that’s the case — if the S Pen is useful on the S26 Ultra’s screen, naturally, it’s even better on a large foldable screen.

If Samsung does bring back the S Pen, I’d like to see some new features included. It always annoyed me that the S Pen only worked on the inner screen, making the screen-off memo feature useless, and making the stylus more awkward to use overall. I don’t want to sound like a broken record by bringing up Motorola’s Razr Fold in every segment, but the stylus that phone supports works on both of its displays.

I’d like a better way to carry the S Pen than sticking it to the back with a case, but in all fairness to Samsung, I can’t think of a better storage method that’s realistic with the hardware we have now, so that’s a pipe dream.

Built-in Qi2 support

Ryan Haines / Android Authority

Magnets are cool. They’re also useful, especially when you add them to the back of a phone. I know you can buy cases that add Qi2 support to phones, but the experience is always better when the magnets are built into the device. I use Qi2/MagSafe accessories with my Pixel 10 Pro every day, and whenever I use a different phone, I immediately miss them. Google fit Qi2 magnets into the Pixel 10 Pro Fold, and I’d be shocked if Apple didn’t include MagSafe in its upcoming foldable.

With competition increasing in the US, Samsung needs to do something to make the Z Fold 8 stand out. If it doesn’t, then there’s a chance that Samsung will start to lose its share of the foldable market, and that would be a real shame. With a few smart upgrades to the Galaxy Z Fold 8, Samsung can help limit the damage.