Samsung's New Galaxy Z Fold 8 Looks a Lot Like the Foldable iPhone

For seven generations, Samsung insisted a foldable phone should be tall and narrow, like a television remote. On July 22, it changed its mind. The new Galaxy Z Fold 8, announced at Galaxy Unpacked in London and in stores August 7, is short, wide and roughly the shape of a passport. If that silhouette rings a bell, it should. It is almost exactly the shape of the foldable iPhone Apple is expected to announce in September.

Gone are the remote-control proportions of the Fold 7. The Fold 8 pairs a 5.5-inch cover screen with a 7.6-inch main display that opens to a 4:3 ratio, the same proportions as an iPad. Rotate it and you get 3:4, which Samsung pitches as the reading mode. At 201 grams it is the lightest Fold yet, just 4.5mm thick when open, with a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip, a 4,800mAh battery and dual 50-megapixel cameras. It starts at $1,899.99, a hundred dollars less than the Fold 7 did at launch.

Now hold that up against the rumor mill. Apple's first foldable, likely named the iPhone Ultra, is expected to carry a 7.7 to 7.8-inch inner display at, yes, 4:3, plus a 5.3 to 5.5-inch outer screen in what leakers describe as a wide passport design. Mashable called the Fold 8 "suspiciously similar to the rumored foldable iPhone," and Forbes noted that Samsung's launch has only turned up the volume on Apple's September plans. Samsung didn't just beat Apple to the wide foldable. It shipped the reference unit.

Samsung, naturally, will not say the A-word. "As AI becomes more agentic, mobile devices will become the most personal entry point to experiences that understand and adapt to each user," said TM Roh, chief executive and head of the Device eXperience Division at Samsung Electronics, in the launch release. "By setting a new standard for foldables, we are once again advancing the premium mobile experience." In other words: welcome to the shape we think Apple is about to make famous.

Whether Apple can actually sell you one is another matter. Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of TF International Securities expects the iPhone Ultra to share the stage with the iPhone 18 Pro at Apple's September event, likely September 8 or 9 according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, but with only 500,000 to 1 million units assembled in the third quarter against more than 20 million iPhone 18 Pro units. "The foldable iPhone is highly similar to the iPhone X in this regard: both use an innovative user experience as a key selling point, while manufacturing challenges limit early production," Kuo wrote. Translation: announced in September, shipped whenever.

The wrinkle is that Samsung gets paid either way. Samsung Display is Apple's foldable panel supplier and reportedly built the near-creaseless OLED screen to Apple's specification. So whether you buy the $1,899.99 Fold 8 now or hold out for a rumored $2,300 to $2,500 iPhone Ultra, the money ends up in the same place.

If you want the shape today, the Fold 8 is up for preorder with as much as $1,200 in trade-in credit before the August 7 release, in lavender, cream or graphite, plus a pistachio color exclusive to Samsung.com. If you can wait a little over a month, September will tell us whether Apple's version was worth copying first.