Samsung has finally done what foldable fans have been asking for: make the screen crease much less of a problem. The catch is familiar — the better the pitch gets, the harder the price is to defend.

At Galaxy Unpacked, Samsung split its foldable strategy in two. The standard Z Fold 8 is the weirder, more experimental device, with a shorter, wider shape that one hands-on verdict said "feels great, and almost immediately intuitive."¹ That model appears aimed at everyday comfort and media use, even if its stripped-back camera setup leaves obvious compromise at a starting price near $1,900.¹

The Z Fold 8 Ultra, by contrast, is Samsung playing the hits at the high end. Reviews cast it as the more traditional successor, focused on multitasking, top-tier specs and finally taming the display crease. One report called it "its most ambitious yet," arguing Samsung "finally made the crease invisible" thanks to new Flex Titanium display tech.² The broader Unpacked roundup was a touch more measured, noting the crease is not gone entirely but is now "significantly less noticeable than the crease on Samsung’s previous foldables."³

That leaves the real divide not over engineering, but over value. The wider Fold 8 is being framed as a surprisingly pleasant redesign, while the Ultra is the spec monster for buyers who want fewer trade-offs. But both arrive under a cloud of sticker shock: the Fold 8 starts at $1,899, and the Ultra climbs to $2,099.99.¹²

Samsung and Google, naturally, want the story to be bigger than hardware. Google executives used X to spotlight Gemini features headed to the new foldables, with Sundar Pichai touting "task automation" across "40+ popular apps" and Demis Hassabis boosting Samsung’s launch around new AI capabilities.Sundar Pichai (sundarpichai)⁴Demis Hassabis (demishassabis)⁵

So Samsung’s 2026 foldables look sharper and more mature than ever. The unresolved question is whether a less visible crease — and more visible AI branding — is enough to make foldables feel essential rather than merely expensive.