Later this year, assuming nothing goes wrong, Apple and Samsung will officially be competitors in the realm of foldable devices. What will that look like?
It's hard to say at this point because neither the iPhone Fold nor the Galaxy Z Fold 8 has officially been announced yet. It's widely expected that Apple will unveil its first foldable in September alongside the iPhone 18, while Samsung is said to be planning a July 22 launch for its next batch of foldables. In the meantime, we have a decent number of rumors and leaks that paint enough of a picture for us to compare these two devices prior to their unveilings.
iPhone Fold vs. Galaxy Z Fold 8: Design differences
While these two devices will technically be competitors, they won't necessarily look or feel the same, according to everything we've heard. To be more specific, Apple and Samsung are going to adopt entirely different display form factors in these two book-style foldables, at least if every leak is to be believed.
For starters, it's expected that Samsung will retain the Z Fold 7's display sizes with a few minor changes. That means it'll probably have a 6.5-inch outer display and an 8-inch inner display when unfolded. When it was released, the Z Fold 7 was the best foldable we'd ever tested up to that point (and might still be), especially thanks to its extreme thinness. It measured in at 8.9mm when folded and a mere 4.2mm when unfolded. One Korean news report indicated the Z Fold 8 could actually be slightly lighter than the Fold 7, so it could be downsized even more.
Backing up all of this was a leaked image of some dummy cases posted by prominent leaker Sonny Dickson earlier this year. One of them is clearly meant to be a successor to the Z Fold 7.
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As for the iPhone Fold (which is also rumored to be named the iPhone Ultra or iPhone Ultra Fold), Apple is taking a different approach with screen real estate. Reported specs include a 7.8-inch inner display with a 4:3 aspect ratio and a 5.5-inch outer display. In other words, it's a shorter, wider phone than Z Fold devices. Apple's foldable will also reportedly be a little thicker, at 9.5mm of thickness when folded and 4.5mm when unfolded. This is all backed up by dummy case photos posted recently by Majin Bu on X.
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Given the success Samsung and others have found with the traditional book-style design over the past few years, it's interesting that Apple is going with something that's more squat and book-shaped in comparison. We're not the only ones who have noticed, as Samsung is reportedly planning a Z Fold 8 Wide model that will go head-to-head with the iPhone Fold.
Don't forget about the all-but-confirmed Galaxy Z Fold Wide
We'd be remiss not to mention the rumored "Wide Fold" phone Samsung is working on. According to various leaks and rumors, it would have similar dimensions to the iPhone Fold, perhaps making it a more direct competitor to that device.
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Some reports have even suggested that the wider phone will be called Z Fold 8, while the successor device to the Z Fold 7 will adopt the "Z Fold 8 Ultra" moniker. For now, we're operating as if the taller, skinnier phone is the Z Fold 8, simply because it's more like the Z Fold 7. If Samsung does indeed go along with this very confusing name change, we'll accept it, begrudgingly.
We should also note that if the rumors are true, Samsung will have a flip-phone style Z Flip 8, a tablet-style Z Fold 8, and a new, book-style Z Fold Wide. That means Android users will have a trio of options for foldable form factors, whereas iOS users will be limited to a single option.
iPhone Fold vs. Galaxy Z Fold 8: Other rumored differences
As for other differences you can expect between the Z Fold 8 and the iPhone Fold, many of them are either very minor or are educated guesses. For example, we can say with some confidence that the iPhone Fold will run on iOS 27, while the Z Fold 8 will run on Android. That one is easy.
We don't have official price points for these phones yet, but neither of them will be cheap. It's expected that the iPhone Fold will cost somewhere between $2,000 and $2,500. Meanwhile, last year's Z Fold 7 was $2,000, a $100 price increase over the year before. Given the state of RAMageddon, one has to imagine that Samsung might have another price increase set for the Z Fold 8, though that hasn't been confirmed yet. These two devices might cost around the same amount of money, but it won't be a small amount, either way.
One other interesting difference to note is that Apple is apparently only planning two rear cameras for the iPhone Fold, while the Z Fold 8 is said to have three, just like the Z Fold 7 did. One report said Samsung will include a 200MP main shooter, a 50MP ultrawide lens, and a 12MP telephoto lens with the Z Fold 8. Meanwhile, the iPhone Fold is said to have two 48MP shooters on the back. Megapixel counts only amount to so much, so we'll need to do some proper testing before we say which camera array is better.
As for batteries, leaker Instant Digital said in February that the iPhone Fold would have the biggest battery capacity in iPhone history, though they didn't share a specific numerical size. Meanwhile, the Z Fold 7's biggest disappointment was its 4,400mAh battery, so it's encouraging to hear from the same Korean news report that told us the Z Fold 8 would be lighter that it will have a much bigger 5,000mAh cell inside of it.
It won't be long now before we have more information about both of these devices. By the end of September, we should be able to do a full, official comparison, so stay tuned.
