Forget the thickness, this is my favorite Z Fold 7 upgrade

I’ve used a Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 for well over a year now, and it’s an excellent smartphone.

However, the reveal of the Galaxy Z Fold 7 gave me the chance to take some time away from my foldable phone, to look back on it and see what I really loved about it, and crucially, what it could have done better.

It’s not a controversial opinion to say the Z Fold 5 is great. Samsung clearly knew what it was doing when it built that phone.

Still, there are a number of flaws with the phone. They range in severity, including a slightly lacking battery capacity, but most of them are easily worked around or ignored.

Except for one, which I found to be a pretty terrible issue. It wasn’t big enough to ruin my time with the phone, but it did mean I wasn’t that bothered about going back to a foldable phone.

When I heard that Samsung had potentially fixed that issue? That changed everything.

The Z Fold 5’s big screen is used less than you think

I haven’t missed it

The Z Fold 5’s inner display is the centerpiece of the smartphone.

It’s the big folding screen, it’s the bit everyone wants to see when they notice your phone isn’t just a “normal” smartphone, and the element that provides the biggest wow factor.

It’s an exceptional piece of work, too. It’s bright and colorful, and while it does have a crease, you forget it’s there shortly after starting using it.

I only really remembered it was there when well-meaning admirers pointed it out.

And it’s not just gorgeous, it’s extremely useful, too.

I don’t tend to read e-books on my phone, as a dedicated e-reader is far better suited to the task.

The inner display, while not as easy on the eyes as an e-ink display, has a wider aspect ratio that makes reading feel natural.

It’s also perfect for reading manga on the Shounen Jump app, as I’d previously needed a tablet to see the sort of detail I could see on the Z Fold 5’s screen.

So it’s all glowing praise for the inner screen then? Yes … and no.

It’s hard to fault the Z Fold 5’s inner screen, but it’s worth pointing out that if you’re anything like me, you probably won’t use it as much as you might think.

There’s no better display if you’re watching Netflix, YouTube, reading a book, or flicking through a comic or manga.

But when you’re on the tube? Holding your phone in bed? Typing on a messaging app? Or pretty much any activity that involves using your phone? It’s not great.

The big screen that makes it great to read or watch from is a complete liability when it comes to scrolling or typing.

It’s not too bad if you’re using two hands, but one-handed? Forget it, unless your hands are Andre the Giant-levels of huge, you’re going to struggle to reach across your phone.

I’ll stress this doesn’t make the inner display bad — it’s just specialized.

Because of this, it means you’re not going to use it as much as you might have assumed. And that means the smaller outer display is handling a lot of your everyday use.

It is not up to the task.

The outer display is a bit rubbish

The Z Fold 5’s outer display is a technically strong piece of kit. It’s a 6.2-inch panel with Samsung’s Dynamic AMOLED 2X tech, a 120Hz refresh rate, and Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2.

It’s as bright, clear, and colorful as any of Samsung’s displays.

There’s nothing really to fault it from a technical side. Still, one specification does hint at the biggest problem it has. The resolution is an odd 2316 x 904, adding up to a 23.1:9 aspect ratio.

The S25 Ultra has a 19.5:9 aspect ratio, and that gives you some idea as to quite how narrow the Z Fold 5’s outer display really is.

Coming from almost any other smartphone, it’s hard to describe just how cramped an experience it is.

And it affects close to everything you do on the phone.

Social media feels pinched and tight, and text is made smaller than usual to compensate.

Images are often not quite large enough to be seen properly on the outer display, so you need to open up the inner display to see them — only, doing that tends to refresh apps like Facebook, which makes the image disappear. Woops!

Remember how I said the inner display is perfect for reading books and comics?

It’s a good job because the outer display is terrible at it.

Like images, manga and comics tend to have set dimensions, which means you’re unlikely to see details, and in some cases, actual text.

E-books fare better, thanks to their adaptive nature, but it’s still not a good experience.

It works okay most of the time, but you never really lose that sense that the display could work a lot better. And it does mar the experience as a result.

Fixing this issue makes the Z Fold 7 a must-buy

It’s now a smartphone as well as a foldable phone

After spending over a year with the Z Fold 5, I was about ready to give up the foldable phone experiment.

Yes, it was useful from time to time, but I found myself craving the much simpler experience of a normal smartphone.

And going back to a Pixel 7 Pro has been a breath of fresh air again. I can just use my phone without having to change screens, and while it’s not as good for reading, it’s so much better than the Z Fold 5’s outer display.

However, Samsung’s ninjas must have noted my discomfort because the Z Fold 7 has entirely changed the game.

The outer display is not only larger, but it’s also wider, coming in at a more standard 21:9 aspect ratio.

It’s a relatively small change, but it makes a huge difference for everyday use.

Sure, the inner display is still going to be better for reading, watching videos, and other multimedia, but the outer display is much less likely to feel like an afterthought.

And since you’re going to be using the outer display a lot more than the inner one, you want it to be a good experience.

By making the outer display wider, Samsung has made it far more comfortable to use and a far better buy as a result.

The Z Fold line has always been a great foldable, but now, thanks to the Z Fold 7’s changes, it’s a great smartphone, too. And I suspect I’ll be picking one up eventually.