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Best Foldable Smartphone Ultimate Buying Guide 2025
Foldable smartphones have managed to evolve quite a bit over the last 5 or so years. Samsung has finally started catching up to the competition, and we have some really great offerings on the market at the moment. If you’re in the market for one such phone, picking out the very best foldable smartphone for your needs is crucial. Well, this list may help you, as it’s a buying guide, of sorts. Do note that the list is US-centric, so you won’t find devices that cannot be purchased in the States.
With that being said, quite a few compelling foldable smartphones are available in the States. You can take your pick between book-style ones and flip phone ones, there’s something for everyone. If you’re aiming for the very best, we have you covered. If you’re on a budget, that’s not a problem either, even though foldable phones are not as affordable as regular ones, of course. Either way, let’s delve into it, and hopefully help you choose your next or first foldable smartphone. These are some of the best Android phones in general, by the way.
Best Foldable Smartphone
There are several excellent foldable phones out in the market at the moment. We’ve decided to especially highlight the Galaxy Z Fold 7 from Samsung, though. Samsung made a huge leap with this phone compared to the Galaxy Z Fold 6, and it’s finally extremely competitive. This is the phone to get if you’re looking for a proper foldable phone that can become a tablet when you need it to.
The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 is our pick for the best foldable smartphone in general. This is a larger foldable, of course, but it’s the best pick for those of you who live in the US, easily. It is a major improvement over the Galaxy Z Fold 6, and it can easily compete with basically every foldable smartphone in the market.
The Galaxy Z Fold 6 is much thinner and lighter than its predecessor, while it’s also plenty powerful at the same time. It is only 8.9mm thick when folded, and weighs 215 grams. needless to say that’s a huge improvement over 12.1mm of the Fold 6, and its 239 grams of weight.
The Galaxy Z Fold 7 is fueled by the Snapdragon 8 Elite processor, while it also packs in 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM and UFS 4.0 flash storage. A 4,400mAh battery is included here, while the device does support wired and wireless charging. The charging is not blazing fast, though, but it does the trick. You’ll also find two 120Hz displays on the device, both of which are great, actually. Regardless if you need a phone or a tablet, this phone does the trick.
Pros
- Mindblowingly thin and light
- Bigger, Brighter Displays
- Better cameras
- Class-leading performance
Cons
- Another price increase, now $1,999
- Battery capacity and battery life need improvement
- S Pen Support removed
- Insane camera bump
What makes the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 special? Well, the first thing that always comes to mind when we think of this phone are the design improvements. The Galaxy Z Fold 7 weighs only 215 grams and is only 8.9mm thick when folded. That’s a major improvement over 239 grams and 12.1mm of the Galaxy Z Fold 6. The Fold 6 felt like it was several generations behind the competition, design-wise, that’s not longer the case, not at all. We’d even argue it’s worth upgrading from the Galaxy Z Fold 6 for this reason alone.
Other than that, this phone does offer a really good balance. It has two outstanding 120Hz displays, while it also packs in more than enough power to last your for years. The Snapdragon 8 Elite is here, along with plenty of RAM and storage. The device is also IP48 certified, which is always good to see, especially on a foldable. Granted, its camera performance and battery life could be better, but it’s still a major improvement over its predecessor, and it can compete with basically any foldable out there.
- Inner Display: 8″ Dynamic LTPO AMOLED 2X, 120Hz
- Cover Display: 6.5″ Dynamic LTPO AMOLED 2X, 120Hz
- Brightness: 2,600 nits peak (inner and cover display)
- Protection: UTG (inner display) / Gorilla Glass Ceramic 2 (cover display)
- Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite
- RAM and Storage: 12GB/16GB RAM ; 256GB/512GB/1TB Storage
- Cameras: 200MP primary camera at f/1.7, 10MP 3x telephoto at f/2.4, 12MP ultrawide at f/2.2 (120-degree FOV)
- Battery: 4,400mAh
- Charging: 25W wired, 15W wireless, 4.5W reverse wireless
- Colors: Blue Shadow, Silver Shadow, Jet Black, Mint
- Android Version: Android 16 (One UI 8)
- Software Support: 7 years of major Android updates
- AI Software: Gemini, Bixby, Circle to Search, Galaxy AI
- Camera Score: N/A
- Camera features: LED flash, Auto-HDR, 8K recording at 30fps, 4K recording at 60fps, HDR10+ recording, 10-bit HDR recording, OIS
- Battery life Score: 20 hours and 2 minutes
- Charging time: 1 hour and 16 minutes
Best Small Foldable Smartphone
If book-style foldables are not really your thing, and you prefer flip phone foldables, there are several great options on the market. The Motorola Razr Ultra 2025 is one of them, and arguably the very best flip phone that you can buy on the market at the moment. It’s a completely different form factor compared to book-style foldables.
Not everyone likes book-style foldables. Some of you just want a regular phone that folds in half basically. That was you get a regular phone, and a tiny phone that you can use. Well, in our opinion, the very best such device on the market, at the moment, is the Motorola Razr Ultra 2025. This is an excellent phone in every way, basically, and unlike the Galaxy Z Flip 7, it allows you to use that cover display to its full potential out of the box. You don’t have to jump through hoops to do it.
The Motorola Razr Ultra 2025 comes with a rather large cover display, a 4-inch panel. That is large in cover display numbers, and that panel is also really good. It’s an OLED display that has a 165Hz refresh rate, just like the main panel on the phone. It also gets quite bright. The main display is great, too, and it gets even brighter than this one at 4,500 nits of peak brightness.
The Snapdragon 8 Elite will make sure the phone runs properly, along with 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM and UFS 4.0 flash storage. Motorola really didn’t skimp out on what matters. A 4,700mAh battery is also included, along with fast wired and wireless charging. Even the camera performance this phone offers is not bad at all, especially with the main camera. Motorola’s processing here is also quite good.
Pros
- Excellent battery life
- One of the fastest charging smartphones in the US
- Unique materials and colors make the Razr Ultra really pop
- Motorola is still unmatched with its cover display, it’s insanely helpful
- The crease is mostly gone
- Finally, true flagship performance out of the Razr Ultra
Cons
- The Razr is still a bit too tall. It takes some getting used too.
- New AI button is not needed
- Don’t expect many software updates, unfortunately
The design and the cover display are the things we think of first when it comes to the Motorola Razr Ultra 2025. The phone looks great, it has a large cover display, and silicon polymer back. That makes it more grippy than its competitors, and it’s actually a pleasure to hold, whether it’s unfolded or not. Motorola did a fantastic job in the design department. The phone is also not too heavy, not at all, it weighs 199 grams.
The cover display is also worth highlighting. It’s not only quite large for what it is, but it supports a 165Hz refresh rate, and it allows you to use all the same apps as on the main display… out of the box. It also gets very bright when you need it to. The main display is great too, while the phone will also charge very fast when you need it to, thanks to 65W wired charging. Wireless charging is also supported, though
- Display: 7″ & 4″ LTPO AMOLED 165Hz
- Brightness: 4,500 nits / 3,000 nits peak
- Protection: Gorilla Glass Ceramic (cover)
- Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite
- RAM and Storage: 16GB RAM ; 512GB/1TB Storage
- Cameras: 50MP primary camera at f/1.8, 50MP ultrawide at f/2.0
- Battery: 4,700mAh
- Charging: 68W wired, 30W wireless, 5W reverse wired
- Colors: Pantone: Rio Red, Scarab, Mountain Trail, Cabaret
- Android Version: Android 15
- Software Support: 3 years of major Android updates
- AI Software: Gemini, Circle to Search
- Camera Score: N/A
- Camera features: Pantone Validated Color and Skin Tones
- Battery life Score: N/A
- Charging time: N/A
Second-Best Small Foldable Smartphone
We had a hard time deciding between the Motorola Razr Ultra 2025 and the Galaxy Z Flip 7 for the best small foldable, so we decided to include both of them on the list. They’re basically standing side-by-side on the throne, even though we gave a small advantage to the Motorola Razr Ultra 2025. The Galaxy Z Flip 7 is an excellent flip phone.
The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 was neck-to-neck with the Motorola Razr Ultra 2025 for the best small foldable. We had to make a choice, though. The Galaxy Z Flip 7 is still a great option, though, of course. It may actually suit a lot people better than the Motorola Razr Ultra 2025 simply from the software standpoint, if you’re used to using Samsung’s One UI skin.
The Galaxy Z Flip 7 also has a very nice and large cover display. It fact, it’s even slightly larger than the one on the Motorola Razr Ultra 2025. Both displays on the phone offer a 120Hz refresh rate, and both of them are more than bright enough. The Exynos 2500 fuels the phone, while the device comes with 12GB of RAM.
This smartphone ships with Android 16 out of the box, and comes with a huge software support promise. Samsung is promising 7 years of major Android OS upgrades for the device. A 4,300mAh battery is also a part of the package, while the phone also supports both wired and wireless charging. You’ll find a very fast and reliable fingerprint scanner on the right-hand side of the phone. All in all, the Galaxy Z Flip 7 does have a lot to offer, and it’s also not heavy at all, quite the contrary.
Pros
- Solid, thin design
- Larger foldable display
- Good performance
- Large, and nice cover display
- Outstanding software support
Cons
- Slow charging
- Cameras could be better
The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 is one of the best-looking flip phones out there, if not the best-looking one. The bezels around its cover display are immensely thin, as Samsung managed to spread out that display to the max. The phone has two really good displays, and you can make that cover display serve you as well as the main one with some slight tweaking. The Exynos 2500 may not have been as great of a choice as the Snapdragon 8 Elite for this phone, but the chip does perform well, you don’t really have to worry about performance here.
The Galaxy Z Flip 7 is also IP48 certified, which is another positive for the phone. It will give you some piece of mind, that’s for sure. The battery life may not be its strength, but the device does support wired, wireless, and reverse wireless charging. The charging may not be blazing fast, but at least that battery capacity is not huge, so it’ll charge faster than you may think. While its ultrawide camera is kind of forgettable, the performance of the main unit is not bad at all.
- Display: 6.9” (main) & 4.1” (cover) AMOLED 120Hz
- Brightness: 2,600 nits peak
- Protection: Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2 (cover display)
- Processor: Samsung Exynos 2500
- RAM and Storage: 12GB RAM ; 256GB/512GB Storage
- Cameras: 50MP primary camera at f/1.57, 12MP ultrawide at f/2.2
- Battery: 4,300mAh
- Charging: 25W wired, 15W wireless, 4.5W reverse wireless
- Android Version: Android 16 (One UI 8)
- Software Support: 7 years of major Android updates
- AI Software: Gemini, Bixby, Circle to Search, Galaxy AI
- Camera Score: N/A
- Camera features: HDR, panorama, 4K at 60 FPS
- Battery life Score: N/A
Best Budget Foldable Smartphone
Yes, budget foldable smartphones are a thing these days. Back in the day, that was certainly not the case. Now, you can get a foldable at a rather reasonable price, a current-gen foldable. The Motorola Razr 2025 is our pick for this category. This is also a flip phone, but it’s a rather compelling flip phone at $549.
If you really, really want a foldable, but you’re on a budget, the Motorola Razr 2025 is a great option. This smartphone costs only $549, which is actually quite affordable for a foldable smartphone. The Motorola Razr 2025 is also no slouch. Yes, it is inferior to the Motorola Razr Ultra 2025, obviously, but it’s still a very good smartphone and worth this price tag, that’s for sure.
The Motorola Razr does offer a really nice design. Even though it doesn’t have as thin cover display bezels as the ‘Ultra’ model, and has a smaller display, it still looks very appealing. Its main display is a very nice 120Hz panel, while the cover display has a 90Hz refresh rate. The phone itself is fueled by the MediaTek Dimensity 7400X, which does a fine job. Don’t expect ‘Ultra’ performance, but it does the trick.
Both wired and wireless charging are supported here, too, while the phone is IP48 certified for water and dust resistance. There is also a solid 50-megapixel main camera included. It’s not great, but it’s not bad either, it does the trick. It’s far better than the ultrawide camera that is included here. Motorola had to cut corners somewhere. Its side-facing fingerprint scanner is fast and reliable.
Pros
- Nice-looking phone
- Not flagship, but good performance
- Very good cover display
- Good photo processing
Cons
- Plenty of bloatware
- Software update longevity
The price tag is something that we always think of first when the Motorola Razr 2025 conversation comes knocking. $549 is a very appealing price tag for a foldable smartphone, especially one as solid as the Razr 2025. If you can catch a discount, then it’s an even better deal, of course. This phone offers a really good design and build quality, and it’s one of the grippiest foldable smartphones on the market. Its eco leather backplate has a lot to do with that, that’s for sure.
The device may not have the best displays on the market, but both panels on the device are really, really good. The fact you can use that cover display for basically anything, same as the main panel, is a huge bonus. That’s not something a lot of flip phones can say for themselves. Despite the fact it’s technically a budget device, this phone supports both wired and wireless charging, and has a very fast and reliable fingerprint scanner on its right side.
- Display: 6.9″ & 3.6″ Foldable LTPO AMOLED 120Hz
- Brightness: 3,000 nits / 1,700 nits peak
- Protection: Gorilla Glass Victus (cover)
- Processor: MediaTek Dimensity 7400X
- RAM and Storage: 8GB RAM ; 256GB Storage
- Cameras: 50MP primary camera at f/1.7, 13MP ultrawide at f/2.2
- Battery: 4,500mAh
- Charging: 30W wired, 15W wireless
- Colors: Pantone: Gibraltar Sea, Spring Bud, Lightest Sky, Parfait Pink
- Android Version: Android 15
- Software Support: N/A
- AI Software: Gemini, Circle to Search
- Camera Score: N/A
- Camera features: 4K at 30 fps, gyro-EIS
- Battery life Score: N/A
- Charging time: 55 minutes
Best Foldable Smartphone for Android Purists
If you simply love Google‘s iteration of Android and don’t want third-party software on top of it, there’s a foldable out there for you, too. We’re talking about the Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold, of course. This is not the best foldable on the market, as it does have several notable drawbacks compared to the competition, but it’s still a very good Pixel smartphone, and it may be ideal for some people.
The Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold is Google’s best foldable yet, and the only one announced in 2025. This handset is different than most of the book-style competitors. It is thicker and heavier than the Galaxy Z Fold 7, OPPO Find N5, and other competitors in the space. However, it’s not too thick nor too heavy, at least in our opinion. So if you don’t mind the the added thickness and heft, this phone is definitely worth considering.
The phone looks really nice, Google did a fine job in the design department. Google also made some improvements over the Pixel 9 Pro Fold in the design department. The phone has two very compelling 120Hz displays, an 8-inch main panel, and a 6.4-inch cover display. The Google Tensor G5 fuels the device, the latest and greatest chip from the company. Some of the competitors are still more powerful, but this chip is more than enough for this phone. Everything works really, really well.
Google managed to stuff a 5,015mAh battery on the inside of this phone. It could be larger if Google used a silicon-carbon pack, but this is not bad. The Pixel 10 Pro Fold supports 30W wired and 15W wireless charging, while it also supports reverse wired charging. The latest version of Android is included here, while Google promised outstanding software support for the device. Stereo speakers are included as well, and much more.
Pros
- Good cameras, not the best on a foldable however
- Bright, readable displays
- AI features are top-notch
- Great build quality
- First foldable with IP68 rating
- Good battery life for a foldable
Cons
- Heavier and thicker than the competition
- Still Expensive
- No major camera upgrades
The Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold is a book-style foldable, but it’s notably heavier and thicker than most of the competitors. Some of you may actually like that, and consider that a positive. You’re probably in the minority, though. Still, the Pixel 10 Pro Fold feels so good to hold and use. It’s a quality piece of hardware, at least it feels like it.
A major positive for this phone is its IP68 certification. It is the first foldable phone, to our knowledge, to offer such certification. That puts it on the same level as regular smartphones when it comes to water and dust resistance. Needless to say, quite a few of you will appreciate this.
Google also made a huge software update promise here. The Pixel 10 Pro Fold will be getting Android OS updates for the next 7 years. There’s a higher chance that the phone will become obsolete or broke down before you lose software support for it, which is saying a lot.
- Display: 8″ & 6.4″ Foldable LTPO OLED 120Hz
- Brightness: 3,000 nits peak
- Protection: Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2 (cover)
- Processor: Google Tensor G5
- RAM and Storage: 16GB RAM ; 256GB/512GB/1TB Storage
- Cameras: 48MP primary camera at f/1.7, 10.5MP ultrawide at f/2.2, 10.8 telephoto at f/3.1
- Battery: 5,015mAh
- Charging: 30W wired, 15W wireless (Qi2)
- Colors: Moonstone, Jade
- Android Version: Android 16
- Software Support: 7 years of major Android OS updates
- AI Software: Gemini, Circle to Search
- Camera Score: N/A
- Camera features: 4K at 60 fps, gyro-EIS, 10-bit HDR
- Battery life Score: 16 hours and 49 minutes
- Charging time: 1 hour and 35 minutes
The post Best Foldable Smartphone Ultimate Buying Guide 2025 appeared first on Android Headlines.
