Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra vs. Motorola Razr Fold

What happened

Samsung just held its 2026 Unpacked event, where the tech giant unveiled its new smartphone series, headlined by the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra the company's most powerful foldable to date. Building on seven generations of innovation, the flagship combines a powerful processor, a larger battery, a lightweight design, and a wider inner display to deliver a user experience few provide.

At just 215 grams, it's nearly 30 grams lighter than the Motorola Razr Fold, which weighs 243 grams. While that may not seem like much on paper, it's instantly noticeable during everyday use when you're holding the phone for extended periods to read, browse the internet, or watch videos. 1 mm when unfolded, making it easier to hold in one hand.

What's great is that it still boasts a huge eight-inch inner display. This amount of width provides a more spacious workspace, giving productivity apps like spreadsheets, web browsers, and writing apps extra horizontal space. Split-screen apps feel less cramped, and online content can take advantage of this larger canvas for a more immersive experience. Samsung has spent several years building a robust ecosystem of AI features for its mobile devices.

And the large panels enable users to fully leverage this comprehensive platform. For brevity, I won't go over every AI feature on the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, but I will highlight a few standouts Samsung mentioned. You have Now Brief, which provides personalized notifications tailored to your routines, interests, and daily needs.

It even provides insights into device security, so you can stay on top of potential risks and malware entry points. Now Nudge is an assistant that surfaces contextually relevant suggestions inside text threads. For example, the tool will recommend checking your calendar to ensure you're available on a certain date or finding a restaurant online.

Why it matters

As impressive as it may be, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra faces stiff competition from the 2026 Motorola Razr Fold. It is a compelling alternative to Samsung's offerings, boasting similar features such as high-end hardware and vibrant panels. I'd even argue that Motorola's device is better in certain areas. The question remains: which should you buy?

I compared the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra to the Motorola Razr Fold across multiple categories. If performance is your top priority, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra is the stronger choice as it is powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5. 74GHz, an Adreno GPU, and a next-generation Hexagon NPU designed to enhance AI models.

According to Qualcomm, the platform delivers 20% faster CPU performance and 23% faster GPU performance than the Snapdragon 8 Elite, making it well-suited for multitasking, mobile gaming, and general productivity. Samsung also has an advantage in storage options.

While the Motorola Razr Fold is only available with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra comes in 12GB RAM with a 256GB SSD, 12GB RAM with a 512GB SSD, and 16GB RAM with a 1TB SSD. This combination of a high-end processor and multiple storage options makes Samsung's device feel almost like a mini-workstation rather than a foldable phone.

What to watch

0 update, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra will house a new AI Assistant Activity dashboard, providing a universal overview of all AI automations running on the phone. You won't have to hop from app to app in order to see what's going on. Samsung gave the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra a large 5,000 mAh battery.

That's a significant improvement over the previous generation and will translate to longer runtimes. However, it still falls short of the Razr Fold, which packs a 6,000m mAh battery. Yes, that size difference makes a big difference. When I reviewed the Razr Fold, I put it through my standard battery test by running a nonstop YouTube livestream on both the cover