Galaxy Z Fold 7 Camera Review
The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 is here, and with it comes a camera system eager to prove itself in the competitive foldable phone market. This deep dive explores the capabilities of its upgraded sensors and lenses, putting them to the test against the previous Z Fold 6 model and other leading contenders like the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold and Oppo Find N5.
The Dreaded Bump
One of the most important aspects of any modern smartphone is the camera array and if size indicates quality, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 should be a shoe-in for one of the best cameras on the market. The unfortunate reality of cameras on foldables is that cameras need depth and foldables seem to abhor the concept. When your phone is 4.2mm thick, the camera has to go somewhere so it tends to protrude out from the phone. This can lead to an awkward grip or a major case of the wobbles on a table.
How bad is it on the Z Fold 7? In some ways, worse than I expected and in some ways better. On one hand, the camera array is off to the side, which means when I’m holding the phone I just don’t touch it. It might as well not be there at all. On the other hand, when I place it on a table and try to interact with it like that, it’s like typing on a see-saw. The good news that’s a fairly rare occasion whereas holding the phone.. isn’t. The OnePlus Open bump is huge and it sits where my hand wants to, the Oppo Find N5 bump is smaller due to downgraded camera hardware, but also a bit more in the way and the Pixel 9 Pro Fold bump is small, but it sits in a corner which leads to a wobble.
The Specs
Samsung's iterative approach to the Z Fold line has led to years of complaints that the camera setup isn't up to par with other devices in its price range. We've also seen other Chinese OEMs push camera hardware to new levels, and it's interesting to see how the new Z Fold7 stacks up against its rivals, including its own predecessor.
The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 definitely brings a big upgrade to its main camera, jumping to a hefty 200 MP. This comes with a larger 1/1.3" sensor and 0.6µm pixels. This is a significant leap from the Z Fold 6's 50 MP main sensor, which has a 1/1.57" sensor and 1.0µm pixels. For zoom, both have somewhat disappointing 10 MP 1/3.94" telephoto lenses with 1.0µm pixels, and for ultrawide shots, they both have 12 MP cameras, with the Fold 7 having slightly larger 1.4µm pixels versus the Fold 6's 1.12µm.
When we look at the competition, the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold sports a 48 MP wide camera with a 1/2.0" sensor and 0.8µm pixels. Its telephoto is 5x 10.8 MP with a 1/3.2" sensor, and the ultrawide is 10.5 MP with a 1/3.4" sensor. Then there's the Oppo Find N5, which has a 50 MP wide camera with a 1/1.56” sensor and 1µm pixels and a 3x 50 MP periscope telephoto lens with a 1/2.75" sensor. Its ultrawide is terrible and comes in at 8 MP with a tiny 1/4.0” sensor and 1.12µm pixel size.
Based on these specifications, we can draw some conclusions:
Primary Sensor: The Z Fold7 should indeed offer the best primary camera performance, thanks to its leading 200 MP resolution and the largest 1/1.3" sensor size among all the listed phones. A larger sensor generally means better light gathering capabilities, leading to improved low-light performance and dynamic range.
Telephoto Capabilities: The Z Fold 7 falls behind a bit here by sticking with a small 1/3.94" 10 MP sensor. The Pixel 9 Pro Fold offers longer range zoom and even though its sensor is also small, it’s still larger than Samsung’s. The Find N5 uses the largest and highest resolution tele sensor and that allows it to overcome it’s 3x optical zoom to perform decently at longer range.
Ultrawide Camera: The Z Fold7 and Z Fold6 both feature 12 MP ultrawide cameras, which are higher resolution than the 10.5 MP on the Pixel 9 Pro Fold and the 8 MP on the Oppo Find N5. The Z Fold7's 1.4µm pixels on its ultrawide are also the largest among the group, which could translate to better ultrawide shots, especially in challenging lighting. We won’t even talk about what Oppo is doing.
Of course, if we start taking into account more Chinese OEM foldables, things start to look pretty rough for all three of these phones. For instance, the Honor Magic V5 packs an extremely impressive triple camera setup featuring a 50 MP wide lens with f/1.6 aperture, a 64 MP periscope telephoto lens with f/2.5 aperture offering 3x optical zoom and a 1/2.0" sensor, and a 50 MP ultrawide lens with f/2.0 aperture. It also has a camera bump that would makes it apparent that Honor thinks people genuinely do not care at all. There’s always a trade-off.
Primary Sensor
The primary sensor on the Fold 7 is generally a joy to use. The days of Samsung phones boosting colors to cartoon levels are mostly behind us leaving us with shots that look mostly like what I saw, with what I would consider a tasteful level of boosting. Shots don’t appear overly sharpened and when not using night mode, shadows look quite natural. Detail is nice, even in scenarios where lighting isn’t perfect - more on that later. I will even say that the longstanding shutter lag issues appear to be a non-issue for me. Shots of moving dogs remain nicely focused, so long as the lighting is awful.
In the first shot, the shadows in the green leaves is maintained while the brighter areas like the clouds remain properly exposed as well. The barn’s shade of red appears accurate despite being on the fringe of the shot and in shadow as well. Nice.
Indoor shots of my dogs look great with their colors being reproduced accurately and plenty of furry detail.
Macro shots using a 2x crop turn on decent as well. Notice the minute detail on the little mushrooms in shot 6. Lots of camera would get a bit noisy with a shot like this, but the Fold 7 holds it together without resorting the aggressive smoothing that other OEMs use.
Low Light and Poor Lighting
In night mode, Samsung’s algorithm is occasionally a bit too much for me. In the first two shots, parts of the photo look damn near like daytime. In reality, it was so dark I couldn’t see anything with my own eyes. Is it impressive that the camera manages to give me a usable photo? Yes. Do I wish they looked a bit more like nighttime? Also yes.
The third shot was taken at about 8am with no lights turned on and it turned out surprisingly well. Rather than the noisy low detailed mess I was expected, I got a photo that was detailed and even managed to get the colors mostly right, if not a touch washed out.
The last shot is deceptively challenging. Taking a photo of a constantly jittering black dog in a poorly lit room.. The result is a touch noisier than you’d hope, but totally usable.
Telephoto Sensor
The telephoto is easily the weakest camera we have to work with on the Fold 7. It’s small, it’s only 10MP and it’s only 3x. It’s so lackluster that the phone will occasionally use the primary sensor cropped in digitally to deliver a better shot if you have scene optimizer enabled. It’s fine for portraits and at 3x or 4x the shots are fine, but many foldables have done much better. At extreme zooms, things fall apart significantly. Granted, you’ll probably not going to be shooting at 20x often, but when you do, it’s not great. It’s time for Samsung to step up with their foldable zoom.
Ultrawide Sensor
The new ultrawide performs well. As usual, exposure suffers a bit and you’ll see some additional noise and grain on the edges, but by most standards this is a perfectly acceptable ultra wide. One thing aiding this performance is the fact that Samsung increased the size of the pixels on the sensor this year. That allows the sensor to gather more light, improving detail and shutter speed. I’ll also say that the ultrawide’s use in macro shots surprised me. I was able to get quite close and the detail is very nice. Not quite as good as a tele-macro, but not bad at all.
Video
One of my biggest hopes for the Fold 7 is that with the same sensor as the S25 Ultra being used, that it would achieve similar video quality. So far, I think that’s exactly what they’ve pulled off. In good lighting, videos are crisp, colorful and detailed. In more challenging scenarios, you’ll certainly see a bit of noise arise, but things are much better than the were on the Fold 6. The Oppo Find N5 opts for aggressive smoothing that leaves the shot looking overly processed and a bit washed out and the Pixel 9 Pro Fold looks less detailed by a good margin. This is finally a foldable I can shoot b roll with.
Selfies and Portraits
Whether you’re using the cover display selfie shooter on the one on the inner screen, selfies look fine. They’re the same sensor, so that makes sense. Portrait mode does a passable job cutting out hair and the ability to use the primary sensor for selfies is a big advantage over slab phones.
Comparisons
On immediate takeaway is that the Galaxy Z Fold 7 has the most noticeable shallow depth of field. Looking at these first shots, you can see that the focus begins to fall off much sooner than the other cameras. Overall, I think the Fold 7 delivered the most balanced an accurate shot. I like what the Pixel is doing, but I can’t say it’s what my eye saw. The Fold 6 struggles more in the shadows and Oppo’s shot is focusing on being punchy at the expense of accuracy. I’m sure some will like that.
In the next shot, the Fold 7 once again handles the shadows better than the Fold 6. Oppo and Google continue to do some slightly odd things that sort of look cool, but aren’t representative of reality.
Then there’s zoom. At 3x, color reproduction actually seems improved vs the Fold 6 and detail looks good. As the 9 Pro Fold has no tele lens until 5x, it’s certainly lagging behind. With the Find N5’s excellent 3x camera, I think it’s fair to say it has an easy win here. At 5x, the Fold 7 maintains a more accurate color reproduction vs the Fold 6, but both are starting to get that oil painting look. The Find N5 is holding things together pretty well as expected and the Pixel 9 Pro Fold jumps into the driver seat with a detailed shot.
Honestly, the 3x holds up better than you’d think, but Samsung does start to lean pretty heavily on sharpening and the shots do start to look a bit rough at higher end zooms.
The ultrawide isn’t even really worth digging into. If the ultrawide is important to you, the Fold 7 is far and away in the lead there. Just look at the noise and level of detail.
Ultimately, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 makes significant strides in its camera performance, particularly with its high-resolution main sensor and improved ultrawide lens. While it shows clear advantages over its predecessor and holds its own against many competitors in key areas like color accuracy and video quality, the telephoto capabilities remain an area for future enhancement. This makes the Z Fold 7 a compelling choice for those prioritizing primary and ultrawide camera performance in a foldable device.