Re: S25U > Z Fold 7 - anyone made the move, or using them side by side?

[Dan_B1979]

Merry Boxing Day to you all

Is anyone running a Z Fold 7 side by side with their S25U; or have moved to the Fold 7 from the S25U?

Been offered a brand new one at a very low/silly price and I'm very tempted by it - I only had one briefly when they first came out as had to move back to iOS as one of the authenticator apps we used at Meta was iOS ONLY - I'm no longer with Meta so I'm back to Android and my current S25U

 

[notforhire]

I and the bride played with one for a little over a week (coming from the S24U). It didn't tickle our fancy bones at all. However, if I had the chance to get one at a stupid price, I might take another run at it.

 

[mustang7757]

The Fold 7 is very solid device but if you go from the s25u you'll be losing the Spen (capacitive pen only) if important , battery life.
If you can keep both and get the Fold 7 that's an excellent combo.

 

[Dan_B1979]

The Fold 7 is very solid device but if you go from the s25u you'll be losing the Spen (capacitive pen only) if important , battery life.
If you can keep both and get the Fold 7 that's an excellent combo.

I've not even taken the S-Pen out of my S25U yet haha - I had every Note bar the 7 and never used it, so it's not an issue for me

I really enjoyed the Fold 6 and my Pixel 9 Pro Fold; just prefer the Samsung tech over Google's offerings

I work from home too, so battery life isn't an issue, I've Magsafe chargers in my office, , living room and bedside etc

 

[Talderon]

I've not even taken the S-Pen out of my S25U yet haha - I had every Note bar the 7 and never used it, so it's not an issue for me

I really enjoyed the Fold 6 and my Pixel 9 Pro Fold; just prefer the Samsung tech over Google's offerings

I work from home too, so battery life isn't an issue, I've Magsafe chargers in my office, , living room and bedside etc

I'm in the same boat, I work from home, so battery has never been an issue for me. When I am out and about, I never charge my phone, because when I get home, I am never far from a charger. lol

 

[Dan_B1979]

Well I've bought the ZF7 - should be with me on Monday fingers crossed

I think I'll certainly use it more with its central screen; more so as I'm really into a few books currently on Kindle and I've got a few car magazine subscriptions too

It'll also be much easier for my work emails (my currently contract role); my own business emails and the dual-sim capabilities...

I've fat fingers at the best of times when it comes to texts and WhatsApp haha

 

[Dan_B1979]

I'm in the same boat, I work from home, so battery has never been an issue for me. When I am out and about, I never charge my phone, because when I get home, I am never far from a charger. lol

Yup; I rarely leave home during the week, more so now I've started a new contract and all my colleagues in Belfast have the lurgy

Plus if I am out and about in either my E39 or our F31; they've both got UGreen magsafe chargers - so again, never too far away from a charging source

 

[mustang7757]

I've not even taken the S-Pen out of my S25U yet haha - I had every Note bar the 7 and never used it, so it's not an issue for me

I really enjoyed the Fold 6 and my Pixel 9 Pro Fold; just prefer the Samsung tech over Google's offerings

I work from home too, so battery life isn't an issue, I've Magsafe chargers in my office, , living room and bedside etc

Then definitely the Fold 7 is a go

 

[Talderon]

I have had almost every Note/Ultra series with an SPen since release and in all honesty, I got them for the performance and size more than for the SPen.

In all of those years, I have only ever used the SPen as a remote camera trigger more than writing with it, so losing that feature with the Fold was a no-brainer for me, I didn't care.

 

[mclarryjr]

My ZF7 is my second foldable Samsung phone and I've had around 6 Notes or Ultra phones and the last being the S25U. I really like both devices and the difference for me is that I use the Folds larger screen much more than I used the Spen.

Having a smaller battery and a little less on the camera's doesn't really bother me for day to day use.

 

[trucksmoveamerica#AC]

I've been using folds since the fold 2 and always used in conjunction with the S ultra series. I would swap between the 2 here and there. Since I have gotten the fold 7 I have not used the 25U. They perfected the fold 7 for me that I don't even have the urge to use the 25U.

I'm scared to see the fold 8, I fear they are going to screw it up, everyone thinks they need huge front screen and whine about it. They whined about UDC so much now we have a hole on the inside screen. You probably will find that with the fold 7its nice sized, you can use the front screen for on the go one handed things. You can open the screen up to get big screen for more in depth stuff. IMO Samsung hit the sweet spot on outside screen size. Hopefully they will move the trifold version to the fold line. You have the flip, fold and trifold version, like the S, S+ S ultra.

 

[Talderon]

I've been using folds since the fold 2 and always used in conjunction with the S ultra series. I would swap between the 2 here and there. Since I have gotten the fold 7 I have not used the 25U. They perfected the fold 7 for me that I don't even have the urge to use the 25U.

I'm scared to see the fold 8, I fear they are going to screw it up, everyone thinks they need huge front screen and whine about it. They whined about UDC so much now we have a hole on the inside screen. You probably will find that with the fold 7its nice sized, you can use the front screen for on the go one handed things. You can open the screen up to get big screen for more in depth stuff. IMO Samsung hit the sweet spot on outside screen size. Hopefully they will move the trifold version to the fold line. You have the flip, fold and trifold version, like the S, S+ S ultra.

I agree with what you said about the Fold 7 hitting the sweet spot.

I don't think the Tri-Fold is really going to take off. It's really Niche and honestly, has less practicality than the Fold series. You can't even use it when it's partially folded which is a big point of the Fold. You either have it closed or all the way open, no in between.

 

[Dan_B1979]

Well I’m really enjoying the Fold 7 and glad I went for it and sold the S25U on (also a superb phone)

I have my Fold 7 sat in a Spigen Slim Armor Pro case and it’s excellent. Fits perfectly and super strong magsafe

 

[mustang7757]

I heard rumors the Fold 8 might go to a passport design like the first Pixel Fold , if they do I would love that footprint.

 

[mlblack16]

I've been using folds since the fold 2 and always used in conjunction with the S ultra series. I would swap between the 2 here and there. Since I have gotten the fold 7 I have not used the 25U. They perfected the fold 7 for me that I don't even have the urge to use the 25U.

I'm scared to see the fold 8, I fear they are going to screw it up, everyone thinks they need huge front screen and whine about it. They whined about UDC so much now we have a hole on the inside screen. You probably will find that with the fold 7its nice sized, you can use the front screen for on the go one handed things. You can open the screen up to get big screen for more in depth stuff. IMO Samsung hit the sweet spot on outside screen size. Hopefully they will move the trifold version to the fold line. You have the flip, fold and trifold version, like the S, S+ S ultra.

I do have one request though and that is to change the orientation of the camera hump.

No, I'm not getting a fat a$$ case to remedy the problem. That defeats the whole point of making the device so thin. A simple change in the orientation making it horizontal allows us to easily use the device without constant wobbling.

 

[mclarryjr]

I heard rumors the Fold 8 might go to a passport design like the first Pixel Fold , if they do I would love that footprint.

I'm really interested in the design if they change, I never had the chance to play with the first Pixel Fold. I know the inner display would be much better just not sure if I'd like the outer display being short and wide. I do like the idea of Samsung possibly doing 2 different Folds, more choices are alway better.

 

[donm527]

I heard rumors the Fold 8 might go to a passport design like the first Pixel Fold , if they do I would love that footprint.

Agree. I am not disappointed in trying the Fold 7 as my first foldable. It's definitely a huge step in design (thinness) and larger outer screen over the ZF6 and only got it because the larger outer screen was much more usuable. But I think it needs an even wider larger screen. Also needs S-Pen support.

To OP original question I have both S23U and the ZF7. Not rocking them side by side because I wanted to give the ZF7 a fair chance running it as a daily.

ZF7 is nice. But for me coming from the S23U and cameras are top importance to me, the ZF7 cameras are not great. Not as good as my S23U which is a couple of years back. So, it's a pretty cool phone but if cameras are important, at this price point, I'd pass.

And the OS and SW is not optimized taking advantage of the large screen enough. Just the other day I was setting up the Avis app going through registration and had to stop and restart, try changing font size, because the next button would be unreachable below the bottom of the screen and forgot what I had to do to get it to work. I don't know if it was because I was using a custom font and customized font size but 7 generations in, it shouldn't be so buggy. And I run into stuff like that occasionally so it's frustratuing. And no sign that developers will really update apps to optimize their apps like they do with apple between phone and tablet form factors.

Web browsing... I prefer desktop mode in open screen. You close the screen to continue browsing on outside screen... it's so tiny you have to change to mobile view.... Why couldn't Samsung give the option to set viewing modes for browsers in open or closed?? At least in Samsung Internet Browser since it't their own app?? I can't believe this hasn't been a complaint in past generations? And then their is my complaint on not being able to set separate font size between outer screen and open screen. Even though sounds like I am ranting, I don't hate the phone. Just have to make concessions for it's shortcomings. Doesn't hurt I didn't have to actually shell out $2k for the phone I guess.

It's already January so I will keep rocking the ZF7 until the S26U comes out and I think I'll probably move to it. I'll keep the ZF7 to maybe use for the SF8 if the passport design pans out and they do other things like SPen and hopefully camera improvements.

Maybe I'll trade in my iPhone 15 I use for running and go with a iPhone 17 Pro Max. I've been watching a lot of videos and seems like their cameras are excellent this year and go with that as my daily.

 

[mustang7757]

Agree. I am not disappointed in trying the Fold 7 as my first foldable. It's definitely a huge step in design (thinness) and larger outer screen over the ZF6 and only got it because the larger outer screen was much more usuable. But I think it needs an even wider larger screen. Also needs S-Pen support.

To OP original question I have both S23U and the ZF7. Not rocking them side by side because I wanted to give the ZF7 a fair chance running it as a daily.

ZF7 is nice. But for me coming from the S23U and cameras are top importance to me, the ZF7 cameras are not great. Not as good as my S23U which is a couple of years back. So, it's a pretty cool phone but if cameras are important, at this price point, I'd pass.

And the OS and SW is not optimized taking advantage of the large screen enough. Just the other day I was setting up the Avis app going through registration and had to stop and restart, try changing font size, because the next button would be unreachable below the bottom of the screen and forgot what I had to do to get it to work. I don't know if it was because I was using a custom font and customized font size but 7 generations in, it shouldn't be so buggy. And I run into stuff like that occasionally so it's frustratuing. And no sign that developers will really update apps to optimize their apps like they do with apple between phone and tablet form factors.

Web browsing... I prefer desktop mode in open screen. You close the screen to continue browsing on outside screen... it's so tiny you have to change to mobile view.... Why couldn't Samsung give the option to set viewing modes for browsers in open or closed?? At least in Samsung Internet Browser since it't their own app?? I can't believe this hasn't been a complaint in past generations? And then their is my complaint on not being able to set separate font size between outer screen and open screen. Even though sounds like I am ranting, I don't hate the phone. Just have to make concessions for it's shortcomings. Doesn't hurt I didn't have to actually shell out $2k for the phone I guess.

It's already January so I will keep rocking the ZF7 until the S26U comes out and I think I'll probably move to it. I'll keep the ZF7 to maybe use for the SF8 if the passport design pans out and they do other things like SPen and hopefully camera improvements.

Maybe I'll trade in my iPhone 15 I use for running and go with a iPhone 17 Pro Max. I've been watching a lot of videos and seems like their cameras are excellent this year and go with that as my daily.

I agree with apps still not fully developed for the inner screen, as for the iPhone 17 pro max I have the silver very solid overall and cameras

 

[mustang7757]

I'm really interested in the design if they change, I never had the chance to play with the first Pixel Fold. I know the inner display would be much better just not sure if I'd like the outer display being short and wide. I do like the idea of Samsung possibly doing 2 different Folds, more choices are alway better.

For me I like the width and height of the pixel fold, I'll show u pictures of mine later when I get home , the inner display on my pixel fold is damaged so just use the outer display.
I agree two different Fold versions would be great but they need to have Spen built in and support if any device that should have it this would be the one .

 

[mustang7757]

My fold7 and Pixel Fold
Just remember the pixel fold inner display not working but size comparison