One of my biggest complaints about Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold lineup since the Fold 4 has been its cameras. When you’re paying this much for a phone, you expect it to be amongst the best, and that simply hasn’t been the case. Samsung went back to the drawing board with the Galaxy Fold 7, in more ways than one, but finally swapped out the 50MP wide-angle lens in favor of a 200MP sensor.
So what better way to find out whether the Galaxy Z Fold 7’s camera is actually better than by comparing it to a bunch of other phones? But, I didn’t just pick any phones; specifically, we have the Galaxy Z Fold 6, Pixel 9 Pro Fold, Galaxy S25 Ultra, and iPhone 16 Pro Max.
For the sake of transparency, all of the pictures were taken using the default settings, and none of the photos included have been edited.
Battle of the foldables
Although I prefer Samsung’s “kitchen sink” approach in terms of software features, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold has been my phone of choice for quite a while. Sadly, it fell short of the Fold 7 in the above comparison, as the setting sun was just too much for it to handle. As a result, the picture is more blown out, with the picture having a kind of orange tint.
The Fold 6 did better than I expected, as you can still tell that the sky is blue and there isn’t a weird tint overlay. On the downside, it looks like the Fold 6 would be perfect for Director J.J. Abrams with its lens flare. Not only do we get one that spans the edges of the image from the sun, but there are some smaller flares from the sun’s reflection in the water.
Honestly, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 just wins by default here. Nothing stands out in terms of negative effects, and it was able to avoid the pitfalls of the other two. But there also isn’t much helping it stand out otherwise.
This was also one of the tougher comparisons to pick a winner for. All three phones were to 5x zoom, which means that Samsung’s Fold 6 and Fold 7 are at the mercy of digital zoom, with this being one of the defaults of the Pixel.
I quickly counted out the Fold 6 as the AI “smooth over” effect is apparent in the text of the building. Even with the image colors looking pretty true-to-life, the obvious AI boost compared to the other two was the deciding factor.
I’ve looked at these pictures longer than any others in this comparison, and I’m still not sure either the Fold 7 or 9 Pro Fold is better than the other. There is a bit of a tint on the front of the building from the setting sun, but it’s not far off from the way it looked to the naked eye.
Meanwhile, the Fold 7 produced a cooler image with just a slight tint on the white letters. Both phones do a good job of preserving textures and clarity, leaving the rest to each phone’s color profile. Which means, both phones are the winners here.
- Winner: Tie between Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Pixel 9 Pro Fold
Last up, I maxed out the image resolution for all three phones, then zoomed in as far as I could to the sign you see in the image above. This gave me a good idea of which phone leaned more heavily on processing, versus just taking the picture.
At first glance, it might seem like the Fold 6 is the best, simply based on the brighter image that was produced. The Fold 7 was the next brightest, with the Pixel 9 Pro Fold being the darkest of the bunch.
While that might be enough for some people, the real story is told when you look more closely at the sign itself. Despite producing the brightest picture, it also has the most AI artifacting of the bunch. It’s almost like the phone was trying to put an overlay of the letters, but was off-center by a bit.
The Fold 7 did a pretty good job overall, as the sign is still legible, but it does look like Samsung’s smooth-over processing got the best of the hardware. As for the Pixel, well, it got everything right, even if the phone didn’t manage to capture as much light as its counterparts.
Below, you’ll find a few more side-by-side comparisons if you want a few other examples of how these foldable phones stack up.
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Foldable vs. Slabs
In an effort to “put my money where my mouth is,” the Galaxy S25 Ultra and iPhone 16 Pro Max joined the other phones on this adventure. These are still two of the best camera phones that money can buy, even if you broaden the scope beyond the confines of North America.
With this first test, I was a bit surprised to find that I preferred the Fold 7 out of the three. Usually, I lean more towards cooler-toned pictures, but both the iPhone and S25 Ultra ended up as backups for the next Abrams film.
Curiously, instead of the “linear” lens flare found in the S25 Ultra’s picture, the iPhone produced a lone dot off to the bottom left, along with a cluster right behind where the sun reflects off of the water. I don’t know why this happened or what explanation there could be, but even with its darker tones, the Fold 7 was my favorite here.
This was almost another “too close to call” comparison, but not because of the S25 Ultra. This time, it was between the iPhone and the Fold 7, as these two phones produced a bit more detail compared to the S25 Ultra. I honestly didn’t even notice it at first, until I looked at the base for the sundial.
Yet again, there’s just a bit too much of a smoothing effect going on with the S25 Ultra, which is definitely not something that I expected. To be fair, the same effect seems to be applied with the Fold 7, but to a lesser degree. Meanwhile, you can see a lot of the blemishes and wear from the iPhone’s picture, resulting in a more true-to-life image.
- Winner: iPhone 16 Pro Max
In the same way that I did in the previous section, I cranked up the image resolution and zoomed in on the sign. Surprisingly enough, the Galaxy S25 Ultra ultimately won out over the Fold 7 and iPhone because of the amount of image detail overall.
Admittedly, I think if I were basing this solely on being able to read the text on the sign, the iPhone would probably squeak ahead, but not by much. The S25 Ultra gave me a picture that was almost exactly what I was seeing in front of me in terms of the color tones, as seen in the grass.
The slight hint of AI enhancement on the sign is what dragged the Fold 7 down, but I’d probably put it in a 2nd-place tie with the iPhone as the rest of the picture looks pretty darn good.
Here are a few more comparisons if you want to see how well the Fold 7 fared against the S25 Ultra and 16 Pro Max.
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Is there a winner?
Not to be cheesy, but yes, there is a winner. And no, it’s not a phone. WE are the winners, as the Galaxy Z Fold 7 might not be the best, but this comparison proved to me that it can at least keep up with the best.
After years of harping on the idea of having inferior cameras in more expensive hardware, Samsung finally listened. So far, the Galaxy Fold 7 has proven to be quite impressive, and I have to imagine that future software updates will make it even better.
Not to mention that I didn’t even mess around with Camera Assistant via Good Lock. With that alone, I feel pretty confident that I could end up with pictures as good as the flagship slab phones, just with a bit of editing. And that alone is enough of a reason to explain why I’m excited about Samsung’s latest foldable.
Don’t sleep on the cameras
Sure, Samsung is putting a lot of focus on how thin the Galaxy Z Fold 7, but just as important is that we finally have upgraded camera hardware. For the first time in years, I can finally say that the Fold 7 is just about on-par with the best slab phones.
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