Produced in paid partnership with Samsung. Every photograph here is our own, taken in Kuala Lumpur on the afternoon of 20 August 2026 on the phones named in the captions. Frames marked SHOT ON are unedited and unfiltered.

Merdeka week, three foldables, and one afternoon walking through Kuala Lumpur to work out who each of them is actually for.

Dataran Merdeka photographed on the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8, eleven days before 31 August
SHOT ON THE GALAXY Z FOLD8 Dataran Merdeka, eleven days before the thirty-first.

There is a particular kind of August afternoon in Kuala Lumpur. The flags are already up, the light turns gold at about half past six, and the city looks like it knows something is coming.

We spent one of those afternoons walking from Dataran Merdeka down towards the river with three foldable phones in our bags. It is a slightly ridiculous way to spend a Thursday, and it is also the fastest way we know to work out what a phone is actually for.

The padang in late afternoon on the Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra, with the Jalur Gemilang down the tower behind it
SHOT ON THE GALAXY Z FOLD8 ULTRA The padang, late afternoon, with the Jalur Gemilang running most of the height of the tower behind it.

Everything below was taken on that walk. Here is what we came back with, and what it says about which of these three is yours.

Table of Contents

The Galaxy Z Fold8: the one that finally lives in a pocket

The Fold8 is the one that stopped asking you to make a decision every morning.

Previous Folds were tall and narrow when closed, which made them phones you carried rather than phones you pocketed. This one is shorter and wider. It goes into the front pocket of a pair of jeans without a performance, and it comes back out one handed. That sounds like a small thing until you are standing on a crowded LRT carriage holding a rail.

The Galaxy Z Fold8 closed, going into a pocket like an ordinary phone, Kuala Lumpur
Kuala Lumpur, 20 August. The Fold8 goes away like an ordinary phone now, which is the whole point of this generation.

At RM7,299 it is the sensible one, and we mean that as a compliment. It is the fold for the person who wants a big screen for a Grab receipt, a PDF and a WhatsApp video call at the same time, and who does not want to think about the phone for the rest of the day.

It is also a better camera than its position in the range suggests. Three photographs from the walk, all straight out of the phone:

The Sultan Abdul Samad building shot on the Galaxy Z Fold8, flags hanging down the tower behind it
SHOT ON THE GALAXY Z FOLD8 The Sultan Abdul Samad building, with the flags hanging down the tower behind it.
Two flags down a tower above the mock-Tudor roofline of the Royal Selangor Club, shot on the Galaxy Z Fold8
SHOT ON THE GALAXY Z FOLD8 Two flags down the face of a tower above the mock-Tudor roofline of the Royal Selangor Club. Very few cities look like this.
The KL Tower seen through a gap in banana leaves, shot on the Galaxy Z Fold8
SHOT ON THE GALAXY Z FOLD8 The KL Tower, found through a gap in the banana leaves on the walk back.

The Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra: the one that does a day of work

The Ultra is a different proposition, and it is the one you see in the hands of people who are working.

Eight inches of screen, opened on a five foot way, with something to read on one half and something to look at on the other. That is not a demo. That is a trader checking stock while answering a supplier, or an agent showing a client a floor plan without asking them to squint at a slab.

The Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra open, our site on one half and a photograph on the other
Our own site on the left, and on the right the photograph taken thirty seconds earlier. This is the Ultra doing the thing it is for.

It is RM8,099, which is RM800 above the standard Fold8. That RM800 buys the brightest screen in any foldable, the only proper telephoto in the range, and DeX if you want to drive a monitor from it.

It also takes the best photographs of the three, which we tested the honest way, by walking down Jalan Raja and pointing it at the city.

Jalan Raja at rush hour shot on the Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra, dome, flag, LRT line and a bus
SHOT ON THE GALAXY Z FOLD8 ULTRA Jalan Raja at rush hour. The dome on the right, the flag on the tower, the LRT line, a bus and somebody crossing. A working city, not a postcard.
Jalan Raja looking towards Dewan Bandaraya, shot on the Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra
SHOT ON THE GALAXY Z FOLD8 ULTRA The same road looking the other way, towards Dewan Bandaraya.

If you are the person who reads contracts, edits on the move, or has ever wished a phone screen were a laptop, this is the one, and the price is an honest reflection of that.

The Galaxy Z Flip8: the one you give to someone

The Flip8 is doing something different again, and it is the one we would put on a Merdeka gift list without hesitating.

It is the thinnest and lightest clamshell Samsung has made. Closed, it sits in a palm like a compact. The cover screen handles the small jobs, replying, checking, paying, taking a photograph, without you ever opening it.

The Galaxy Z Flip8 closed, held in one hand against a red bunga raya
Against bunga raya, which was not planned and turned out to be the most Malaysian photograph we took all day.
The Galaxy Z Flip8 open, small enough to hold in one hand
Open, and still small enough to hold in one hand.

At RM5,399 it is the most accessible way into a foldable by a wide margin, and it is the one that gets picked up and turned over by everyone in the room.

A Galaxy Z Flip8 being handed to someone, the fold people give as a gift
Handed over. The Flip is the fold people give, and the one people are pleased to receive.

We should be straight about the trade, because we always are. The cameras and the charging speed have not moved much this year. Buy a Flip for how it feels in a hand and a pocket, which is a perfectly good reason to buy anything, and not because you expect it to out-shoot the Folds.

Although, for the cheapest fold in the range, it holds its own:

The Dataran Merdeka clock tower, the flag and Merdeka 118 behind it, shot on the Galaxy Z Flip8
SHOT ON THE GALAXY Z FLIP8 The clock tower, the flag, and Merdeka 118 behind it. Three different eras of Kuala Lumpur in one frame.
The flag at Dataran Merdeka, shot on the Galaxy Z Flip8
SHOT ON THE GALAXY Z FLIP8 The flag at Dataran Merdeka.

So, which Malaysian are you?

The neat thing about the 2026 line is that the answer stopped being about money and started being about how you live.

  • You carry your phone everywhere and want a big screen without the bulk. Galaxy Z Fold8, from RM7,299.
  • Your phone is a tool you work on, and you want the best screen and camera in a foldable. Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra, from RM8,099.
  • You want a beautiful object that disappears into a pocket, or you are buying for someone else. Galaxy Z Flip8, from RM5,399.

There is now RM2,700 between the cheapest and the most expensive foldable Samsung sells in Malaysia, and every step of that ladder buys you something you can point at.

There is money off across the range at the moment, too. Samsung is running up to RM800 in exclusive rebates, a further RM500 back with selected bank cards, up to RM400 through the Samsung Rewards Points Booster, and a 12 month iQIYI Premium subscription worth RM209.90. Worth checking which of those stack before you buy, because on the Flip8 it adds up to a real slice of the price.

What we can say after a month of carrying all three is that choosing between them is no longer a compromise. That is new, and for Merdeka week it is a genuinely nice thing to be able to write.