Produced in paid partnership with Samsung. Every photograph here is our own, taken on the review units Samsung provided.
For years, buying a Samsung foldable meant accepting a compromise you did not choose. The Fold was the one that did everything, so it was also the one that was heavy, expensive and awkward in one hand. The Flip was the one that looked good, so it was the one you forgave for its camera. There was a fold for people who wanted a fold, and everyone else waited.
That is not the 2026 line. Samsung now sells three foldables in Malaysia that are genuinely built for three different people, and the honest answer to "which one should I get" has stopped being "the expensive one" and started being a real question about how you live.
Here is where each one lands.
Table of Contents
The Galaxy Z Fold8: the one most people should look at first
The standard Fold8 is the biggest change in the range and the one people argue about. Samsung made it shorter and wider, which sounds like a small thing and is not. Closed, it behaves like an ordinary phone: you can reach corner to corner with one thumb, which no previous Fold managed. Open, the 7.6-inch inner screen is a squarer shape that is simply better for reading and for running two apps at once.
It is the lightest of the three folds, the most pocketable, and it starts at RM7,299, which undercuts last year's Fold.
The trade is the camera. You get a dual 50MP system and no telephoto, so if your phone is how you photograph your child at a school concert three rows back, this is not the one.
The new Flex Titanium panel has done real work here. It is the faintest crease we have seen on a Samsung foldable, and the pair above is the honest version of that claim: visible if you hunt for it with the screen off, gone the moment the phone is doing anything.
Read our full Galaxy Z Fold8 review.
The Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra: the one for people who will actually use it
The Ultra keeps the taller book shape and answers the Fold8's one real weakness. It has the biggest, brightest 8-inch screen in any foldable, peaking at 3,000 nits, and it is the only fold in the range with a proper telephoto camera. It also keeps Flex Mode and adds DeX, so it can drive a monitor and behave like a desktop.
It is RM8,099, which is RM800 more than the standard Fold8.
That RM800 is the whole decision. If you would use the bigger screen and the longer lens, it is straightforwardly the better phone. If you would not, you are carrying more phone than you need.
Read our full Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra review.
The Galaxy Z Flip8: the one you will actually want to hold
The Flip8 is the thinnest and lightest clamshell Samsung has made, and it has the best cover screen the company has shipped. That cover screen matters more than the spec sheet suggests: you can reply, check a message, run a widget and take a photograph without opening the phone at all, which is most of what anyone does with a phone in a day.
It starts at RM5,399, which makes it the most accessible way into a foldable by a wide margin.
We should be straight about the trade. The cameras and the charging speed have not moved much this year while the price has. If you are buying a Flip, buy it because of how it feels in your hand and your pocket, which is a perfectly good reason, and not because you expect it to out-shoot the Folds.
Read our full Galaxy Z Flip8 review.
Three folds, three buyers
The simplest way to read the 2026 line:
- You want a big screen without the bulk, and you want to spend sensibly. Galaxy Z Fold8, from RM7,299.
- You want the best screen and the best camera in a foldable, and you will pay for it. Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra, from RM8,099.
- You want a phone that disappears into a pocket and looks like nothing else. Galaxy Z Flip8, from RM5,399.
The price ladder is what makes the family legible. There is now RM2,700 between the cheapest and the most expensive foldable Samsung sells here, and each step buys you something you can name.
The honest note
Two things are worth saying in a piece that is otherwise celebrating a good year.
The standard Fold8's new wider shape genuinely divides people. It is the boldest change Samsung has made to the range, and some long-time Fold owners miss the taller screen. We think the trade is right for most buyers, but it is a preference rather than a fact, and it is worth holding one before you commit.
And there is persistent talk that the Flip line may not continue in its current form. We do not know whether that is true, and neither does anyone outside Samsung. It is not a reason to avoid a Flip8, which is a finished product with a warranty, but it is the sort of thing a buyer would rather hear from us than find out later.
So, which fold are you?
If you are not sure, start with the Fold8. It is the one built for the most people, it is the one that behaves most like a normal phone when closed, and it costs the least of the two Folds.
If you already know you want the screen and the camera, the Ultra is worth its RM800.
And if the appeal of a foldable was always that it is a lovely object that fits anywhere, the Flip8 is the one, and it is the cheapest way in.
