The main reason to buy a book-style foldable like the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8 is that it opens into a large screen for reading and editing documents, then closes back into a device that fits in your pocket. That makes sense, because when it’s folded, you can do many things quickly without opening it completely, such as replying to a message or navigating to another section of the app you’re using. Once you open it, you can use two applications simultaneously, or a single application that needs the full screen. The phone has a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor paired with 12GB of RAM, and over the last few generations, Samsung has worked to make the hinge thinner, the overall size smaller, and the crease on the inside less noticeable.
Head over to Amazon to get the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8 for just $1,650, down from its usual price of $1,900. That’s a $250 discount and 13% off.
A book-style foldable phone with a cover screen for quick tasks
The inner display is exactly what justifies this phone’s high price. When opened, it has an internal display similar to those found on small tablets. With that said, the type of things you can accomplish on this phone are entirely different from what you can accomplish on other smartphones. For example, you can read a PDF without pinching and zooming to see everything clearly, run a spreadsheet next to a web browser, or view something on one screen while keeping a messaging app open on a second screen.
The phone also has built-in multi-window capabilities. On some phones, you may only be able to view two applications at a time, but with the Galaxy Z Fold8 you can view three applications at the same time. What’s even better about the multi-window capabilities is that you can actually move data between windows instead of cutting it and pasting it into each one. People who often work remotely on their smartphone during a daily commute may appreciate these capabilities.
On the cover display, you can perform many of the same tasks you would after unfolding the phone. Those include checking messages, responding to calls, controlling music playback, and navigation. Since you’re doing nearly all of your quick tasks on the outer screen, you’d only need to fully unfold the phone occasionally during a typical day.
Over multiple generations, Samsung has reduced the thickness of its phones and made the fold down the middle of the inner display much less pronounced than before. This version folds flatter than previous versions, weighs less in your pocket, and the center crease is now shallow enough that, under regular use, it doesn’t catch your eye.
This device includes Galaxy AI. It allows you to translate conversations during a call in real time, summarize long documents and notes, and remove objects from photos while replacing them with what was behind them. By running Galaxy AI locally on the device rather than in the cloud, you can still use all the above features in airplane mode. Samsung has also committed to providing seven years of operating system and security updates for the device.