When we reviewed the Galaxy Z Flip8 we gave it 7.5 out of 10 and called it a tougher sell than last year, because it costs RM400 more than the Flip7 while most of what changed is software. That verdict stands.
But one line in that review deserves its own piece, because it is the thing people actually buy this phone for and it is hard to show on a spec sheet. The cover screen is the best reason to choose this generation, and the reason is not that it is bigger. It is that you stop opening the phone.
Table of Contents
What FlexWindow actually replaced
Older Flips had a cover screen that showed you things: the time, a notification, the weather. The Flip8's runs a full app drawer, so the small screen stops being a display and starts being the phone. Swipe up and the apps are there.
In practice that changes a specific, boring, constant moment. The phone is shut in your pocket. Something needs thirty seconds of attention. On a slab you unlock a six inch screen and get pulled into everything else on it. On the Flip8 you deal with it on a panel too small to distract you, and put it away still folded.
The part that matters if you make things
This is where the Flip earns a place in a bag rather than in a spec comparison.
The best camera on any folding phone is the rear one, and the Flip8 lets you point it at yourself. You frame on the cover screen, so a selfie is shot on the proper sensors instead of the small front camera. Samsung added hands-free shooting from the cover screen this generation, so you are not reaching for a shutter button either.
Then fold it to ninety degrees and it stands on its own. No tripod, no clamp, no propping it against a mug. A table, a wall or a railing becomes a camera support, which for one person filming themselves is the whole problem solved.
Our review called the software toolkit creator-friendly and said the fold-and-stand shape makes this one of the better phones for casual vlogging. Having carried it, that is the honest summary: not the best camera on the market, the most convenient rig for one person with no crew.
What it shoots
An honest note on that photograph, because we checked rather than assumed. Its file data shows it passed through Adobe Lightroom, unlike the frames in our Fold8 camera test, which came straight off the phone and were published untouched. So read it as framing and field of view, not as evidence about the sensor. We would rather say that than let a graded file stand in as a camera sample.
On the cameras themselves our review scored them 7.0, the same as the Fold8. Good in daylight, unremarkable next to a camera flagship at this price.
So who is it for
The Flip8 is RM5,399 for 256GB and RM6,199 for 512GB, RM400 above the Flip7, and that is the single biggest argument against it. Our review flagged battery and value as its weakest scores, both 6.5.
If you want the most phone for the money, this is not it, and we said so. If you want a phone that stays shut, films you without a tripod and disappears into a pocket, nothing else does that, and the cover screen is finally good enough that living with it closed is the normal way to use it rather than a party trick.
Full pricing, storage options and launch offers are in our Galaxy Z Flip8 price and specs guide.
