This week, Samsung unveiled its next generation foldables, which included the first wide foldable for the US market. The company is also launching a pair of new smartwatches. Currently, the foldables and watches are on pre-order – open sales start on August 7. Here are some of the offers we found for the new models.
You can check out our hands-on review for a closer look at the Galaxy Z Fold8 (the new wide foldable), the Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra (the successor to the Z Fold7) and the Galaxy Z Flip8.
Starting with Samsung US, the company no longer offers free storage upgrades. However, there are discounts that make up most or all of the difference between the base 256GB models and the 512GB upgrades – $200 off for the Z Fold8 and Z Fold8 Ultra and $150 off for the Z Flip8. Additionally, you can get an extra $100 off the Folds if you complete the purchase with PayPal (and use the code PAYPAL100). This is without a trade-in. If you do have an old device that you can part ways with, you can get up to $1,200 off the Folds and up to $600 off the Flip.
Switching over to Amazon, the retailer offers Gift Cards instead of straight discounts – $350 for the Folds and $200 for the Flip. Additionally, there are trade-in bonuses – this is credit you receive on top of the value of your old device.
Samsung also refreshed its smartwatches – after two years, the Galaxy Watch Ultra finally got a sequel and there is a new vanilla Galaxy Watch too (but there is no Classic in this generation). Check out our hands-on review for more details on the new 800mAh battery on the Watch Ultra2, the new Snapdragon Wear Elite chipset and other improvements.
In terms of competition, Google only has a book-style foldable – the Pixel 10 Pro Fold. The new Pixel 11 series is coming on August 12, so this one is due for replacement only a few days after the Galaxys hit the market. For completeness’ sake, the Pixel 10 Pro Fold has a 6.4” cover display and an 8.0” inner display. It’s powered by the Tensor G5 and a 5,015mAh battery (30W wired, 15W wireless charging). It has a 48MP main, a 10.8MP 5x/112mm periscope and a 10.5MP ultra-wide camera. The Pixel has superior IP68 dust and water resistance.
Motorola recently launched its first-ever book-style foldable, the Moto Razr Fold. It’s rated IP48 and IP49 – better water resistance than the Galaxy (IP48), but the same ingress protection (“4” is not really dust protection). The Razr has a 6.6” cover and an 8.1” inner display. It’s powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 (not Elite) and a large 6,000mAh Si/C battery with fast charging (80W wired, 50W wireless). It has a 50MP main camera, a 50MP 3x/71mm periscope and a 50MP ultra-wide.
Moto is better known for its flips, of course. We’ll look at the current 2026 models in a moment, but first we have to highlight the Motorola Razr Ultra 2025. At $400 less than the Z Flip8 (more than that, once you account for the extra RAM and storage), the phone offers a 4” cover and a 7” inner display, a Snapdragon 8 Elite (the old one), a 4,700mAh battery (68W/30W), an IP48 rating and a dual 50MP camera (wide + ultra-wide).
And since there is no Z Flip FE this generation, we’ll also highlight the Motorola Razr 2025. It’s a basic flip, but it’s a cheap one. It has a 3.6” cover and a 6.9” inner display, runs on the Dimensity 7400X chipset and a 4,500mAh battery (30W/15W). It has a 50MP main and a 13MP ultra-wide camera.
Let’s look at the 2026 models now. The Motorola Razr Ultra 2026 costs nearly twice as much as its 2025 sibling, but doesn’t improve much. It has the same Snapdragon 8 Elite chip (not Gen 5), the same cameras, the rest is mostly the same too. It has a brighter display and a larger 5,000mAh battery, but that’s about it for the major changes.
The Motorola Razr+ 2026 is cheaper – it costs $100 less than the Z Flip8, but it uses even older hardware. It’s powered by a Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 chip. By the way, the Z Flip8 for the US uses the same Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy as the Z Folds. Anyway, it’s hard to see a reason to pick the Razr+ 2026 over the Razr Ultra 2025, even if they were the same price (and they are not).
The Motorola Razr 2026 costs as much as the old Ultra (despite having only half the RAM and storage) and it is a fairly minor upgrade over the vanilla 2025 model. It has a Dimensity 7450X and faster UFS 3.1 storage (vs. UFS 2.2), plus a larger 4,800mAh battery (30W/15W). Overall, it has little else to justify the price premium over the Razr 2025.
Let’s wrap up by looking at some smartwatch alternatives. The Google Pixel Watch 4 is likely to be replaced along with the Pixel 10 models. At least it’s cheap with a $100 discount – and this is for the LTE model, which also features satellite SOS. This is something that even the Galaxy Watch Ultra2 doesn’t offer.
The Apple Watch Ultra 3 does have satellite SOS, but it costs more than double the Pixel price. And it’s $80 more than the Galaxy. Of course, watchOS devices are best paired with an iPhone. Note that both the Galaxy Watch Ultra2 and Apple Watch Ultra 3 are rated for diving and have dedicated apps for it (well, Samsung’s is still being developed – it’s coming later this year).
Finally, a quick check on the S26 family. The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra has the same 200MP camera as the Z Fold8 Ultra, the same 50MP ultra-wide and even the same dinky 10MP 3x telephoto. But it has the much better 50MP 5x/111mm periscope too. This phone measures 7.9mm thick and weighs 214g compared to 8.9mm and 215g for the foldable Ultra. This is with the same size 5,000mAh battery (and near identical 45W/25W charging). They have the same Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy too, of course. You can get the S26 Ultra for less than the price of the Z Flip8.
Speaking of, you can have a Galaxy S26 instead of the Flip. The phone is thinner and lighter (7.2mm, 167g vs. 13.1mm and 180g) with the same size 4,300mAh battery. It has superior dust protection with an IP68 rating and adds that dinky 10MP 3x telephoto camera – which is still better than what the Z Flip8 has (it has no tele camera at all). For the US market, these two use the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy.
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