Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 : The Lightweight Future of Foldable Smartphones

In recent years, the global smartphone market has generally shown weak performance, but one bright spot stands out—foldable smartphones.

After six years of development, foldable smartphones have shed the label of a “niche emerging species” and made significant progress in thinness, durability, battery life, imaging capabilities, and other aspects, gaining increasing recognition from consumers. Market data is the best annotation: from 2019 to 2024, global foldable smartphone shipments have increased by a whopping 180 times.

Recently, many mainstream smartphone manufacturers such as Samsung, vivo, and Honor have released new foldable smartphone models. From the perspective of hardware configuration and user experience, the strength of foldable smartphones has been further improved. For example, the newly released Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7 can compete with candy-bar smartphones in terms of "thinness," offering consumers a large screen experience combined with a slim and lightweight body.

A Brief History of “Weight Loss” in Foldables

2019 was a bleak year for smartphone manufacturers, with global smartphone shipments continuing to decline. But it was also a turning point for innovation in the smartphone industry.

In February of that year, Samsung released the world’s first foldable smartphone, the Galaxy Fold, which could open like a book. Just one month later, Huawei launched its own first foldable smartphone, the Mate X. Since then, the global smartphone industry has entered the new segmented track of foldables.

However, foldable smartphones at that time faced many challenges. In addition to the high price that deterred ordinary consumers, the "bulky and heavy" design also caused many people to give up the idea.

Over the next six years, while hardware performance continued to improve, one main development theme for foldables has been—“slimming down.” In this respect, the results have been remarkable.

The latest Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7 weighs only 215 grams, setting a new record for the world’s lightest large foldable smartphone. For reference, the first-generation Galaxy Z Fold released in 2019 weighed about 295 grams, which means in six years, the “weight” dropped by nearly one-third.

From another perspective, foldables used to be clearly heavier than bar-type smartphones. For example, the Galaxy S10 released in the same year (2019) weighed about 198 grams, while the first-generation Galaxy Z Fold was nearly 100 grams heavier.

But now, the weight gap is narrowing. Comparing the Galaxy Z Fold7 to the Galaxy S25 Ultra also released in 2025, the latter weighs 218 grams, which is 3 grams heavier than the Galaxy Z Fold7.

Compared to Apple’s iPhone, the latest foldables released by Samsung, Honor, and vivo are all lighter than the iPhone 16 Pro Max (which weighs 227 grams).

In addition to being lighter, foldables are also getting thinner. Judging from the new releases by several mainstream manufacturers, the folded thickness of the body has broken the 10mm mark, leaping significantly into the 9mm or even 8mm range; in the unfolded state, thickness is moving toward the 4mm mark.

Taking the Galaxy Z Fold7 as an example again, the folded thickness is 8.9mm, and the unfolded thickness is 4.2mm. Compared to the previous generation Galaxy Z Fold6, which had a folded thickness of 12.1mm and unfolded thickness of 5.6mm, it is significantly thinner.

Don’t underestimate a few grams of weight loss or a few millimeters (even fractions) in thickness—these greatly affect long-term holding comfort and user experience. Naturally, users are happy to see foldables becoming thinner and lighter.

From “Can Fold” to “Easy to Use”

People want foldables to be not only “thin and beautiful” but also “durable and easy to use.” Whether for manufacturers or users, the demand is for “both.”

Many components affect the durability of foldables, such as the hinge, screen, frame, etc. The hinge is a key component of foldables. According to disclosed information, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7 uses a brand-new ultra-thin precision armor hinge, which reduces its own size and weight while evenly distributing stress to enhance overall durability. Samsung has also upgraded the main screen structure of the Galaxy Z Fold7 by using a titanium protective layer, which increases structural strength while keeping it slim. In addition, the thickness of UTG ultra-thin glass has been increased by 50%, making the screen tougher and more durable. The cover screen glass adopts Corning Gorilla Glass Victus, enhancing the durability and crack resistance of the display cover.

Speaking of ease of use, AI is a must-mention.

When shooting videos with a phone, unavoidable background noise such as wind or traffic bothers many users. Now, with AI, these noises can be erased like typos with an eraser. The Galaxy Z Fold7 comes equipped with Galaxy AI tools optimized for large screens, including the newly upgraded Audio Eraser, which can actively detect and eliminate background noise in videos. There is also Photo Assistant, which uses AI to intelligently identify image elements, enabling operations such as object movement, zooming, and erasing, adjusting image angles, and automatically filling in missing areas to present a natural and complete visual effect.

The Galaxy Z Fold7 is equipped with the multimodal intelligent agent Samsung One UI 8, integrating large-screen multitasking and intelligent interaction tools. It can simultaneously interpret text, voice commands, and visual content, transforming the foldable phone into a smart personal assistant always at hand. For example, the new Meeting Assistant adds an AI summary function that can automatically capture screen content, extract speech content from participants, and generate illustrated meeting notes after the meeting, making meetings effortless and simple.

In addition to AI tools, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7 also enhances edge AI processing efficiency by using a custom-designed chip, making real-time language translation, generative editing, and other functions respond faster and interact more smoothly.

Looking at the development process, foldable smartphones are transitioning from “form innovation” to “experience reconstruction,” and AI technology is the core driving force behind this transformation.