is out. It is a massive upgrade over the
, and truly shows that Samsung has been listening to its user base.
Well…to an extent, at least.
The Galaxy Z Fold 7 improved in many aspects, except the battery. | Video credit — Samsung
When leaks started talking about a Galaxy foldable that was only 8.9 mm thick when folded, I was very confused seeing the other reports of a 4,400 mAh battery. Why would Samsung improve the thickness, the crease, the cameras, and the durability of its foldable but still use a very outdated battery?
Going purely by numbers, there are other foldable phones out there that have much better batteries. For example, the two that I often cite as examples, the Oppo Find N5 and the newly released Honor Magic V5. Both are powerful phones with minimal crease visibility and much better batteries.
Samsung, on the other hand, still hasn’t adopted silicon batteries and has brought over the same battery as the one found in the Fold 6. Furthermore, the charging speeds remain painfully slow as well, relatively speaking. Fold 7 battery specs confirm that this is one aspect where Samsung did not put any effort in.
Or did it?
It’s a very durable battery
The Fold 7 is a stunner. | Image credit — PhoneArena
Something very interesting was recently brought to my attention by a renowned Samsung insider. The battery on the Fold 7, free of the certain limitations of silicon, is a much more durable battery than the ones found in competing phones.
This battery, after 2,000 charging cycles, still retains 80 percent of its capacity, just like the battery on the Fold 6. That drops down to almost 1,600 charging cycles for the aforementioned Oppo Find N5 and its 5,600 mAh silicon battery, and that’s under best case scenarios.
Simply put, the Fold 7 will last a lot longer than the N5, and that’s kind of necessary if Samsung is promising seven years of software support. Spoiler alert: it is.
No, really, the Fold 7 looks gorgeous. | Image credit — PhoneArena
Samsung has, of course, once again used the marketing term “all day long battery life” for the Fold 7. You can expect approximately six hours of screen-on time from the phone with moderate usage, and for the average consumer, that really is “all day” battery life.
If you want more, and don’t care about longevity, then the rival phones mentioned above are probably more your type.
What it means for the Fold
The Fold 7 sold me on foldables before the foldable iPhone could. Our Fold 7 hands-on only reaffirmed my beliefs that Samsung had not only caught up, but made a foldable that was worth a try even if you’d sworn off them for good.
The crease has been improved drastically, the exterior display is so much nicer, and the main display’s increase in size is a very welcome change too. In almost all aspects, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 is one of the best foldables you can buy right now, especially if you’re new to the segment.
While I’ve always been a strong advocate for larger batteries, I’m going to give Samsung a pass here. We already know that the company is experimenting with silicon batteries at the moment, so it’s not like we’ll never get a battery larger than 4,400 mAh.
The Fold 7, coupled with One UI, is such a brilliant phone in my opinion that “all day battery life” is good enough for me. You cannot go wrong with the Fold 7, and the battery isn’t as big of an issue as many will make it out to be. The new slim form factor, while retaining the same battery capacity, is also much appreciated.
I, for one, cannot wait to play around with the Fold properly, and it’s only made me even more excited for the Fold 8 and beyond. Foldables have finally, in my eyes, become a viable alternative to traditional phones. And the day that I make the switch permanently may not be far.