Samsung launched new foldable smartphones earlier this month, including the Galaxy Z Fold8. If you didn't know it was a Samsung device, you might look at it and think it's Apple's foldable because it matches rumors about the iPhone Ultra so well.
The Z Fold8 is likely to be the closest competitor to the foldable iPhone Ultra, which makes iFixit's teardown of Samsung's smartphone an interesting read. Will Apple's foldable have some of the same troubles as the Z Fold8, or has Apple solved the issues plaguing foldable smartphones?
Hinges have been a failure point on foldable smartphones, and it's a design problem Samsung hasn't been able to solve. The Fold8 has a dust-and-water ingress rating of IP48, so it's resistant to water, but not to dust. It's hard to keep dust away from a smartphone, and when dust gets inside, it gums up the hinge mechanism and it fails.
iFixit did a dust test on the Z Fold8, putting particulates in the hinge. It resulted in "truly awful crunching and grinding noises" and then the device stopped opening normally. Dust that made its way into the hinge did stay out of many of the sealed portions of the phone, but if a foldable smartphone isn't folding, there's still a major issue.
An IP4X dust rating means the Z Fold8 is resistant to particles 1mm in size and greater, but as iFixit found, many sand and dust particles are smaller than that. iFixit said beach sand measured 0.16mm, and the powder it used was 0.04mm.
Samsung used a new hinge design for the Z Fold8 and added a titanium-reinforced display structure that helps the screen open flatter, but it couldn't get rid of the crease entirely. Creases in foldables can become more visible over time as the device is opened and closed, and a recent Tom's Guide review said the crease in the Z Fold8 became more visible after just seven days.
iFixit was not impressed with the repairability of the Z Fold8, and it earned a repairability score of 4/10. The bezel around the inner display broke into pieces as it was removed, and there's no way to get to the hinge without removing the display. Batteries also aren't easy to replace because doing so requires removing the outer display. "It's an expensive, painful repair even when everything goes right," said iFixit.
The Z Fold8 has a tablet-like look and feel with a 5.5-inch screen when closed and a 7.6-inch screen when open. Most of Samsung's prior foldables have been tall and narrow, but this one is closer to an iPad mini, and its dimensions nearly match those rumored for Apple's foldable.
Apple waited to make a foldable iPhone because it wanted a device that had a minimal crease. Rumors suggest it is using a display panel created by Samsung Display and liquid metal for the hinge, along with optically clear adhesive to make the crease disappear as much as possible.
iFixit will likely do the same hinge test when the foldable iPhone comes out, and we'll know whether Apple "solved" the crease and hinge issue or will be dealing with the same problems. The foldable iPhone Ultra will be introduced at Apple's annual September event alongside the iPhone 18 Pro models.
Google's new Pixel 11 Pro Fold has an IP68 dust-and-water-resistance rating with a gearless hinge design, so it will presumably fare better than the Z Fold8 in a dust exposure test. It launches on August 20.
