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📱 We’re nearing the finish line in our Galaxy Z Fold 7 review process
🔋 We’ve been using it every day, and we have results on our battery tests
🪫 As it turns out, this ultra-thin phone can’t last a full day… with heavy use
🤳 Here’s how the Z Fold 7 held up, starting at 100% charge each day
I’ve spent nearly a week testing Samsung’s new Galaxy Z Fold 7, and one of the biggest questions I have about it is battery life. This $1,999 phone is one of the most expensive you can get in North America, competing with the likes of other flagship smartphones like the iPhone 16 Pro Max, Pixel 9 Pro XL, and Samsung’s own Galaxy S25 Ultra. All of these phones have proven they can last all day on a charge - even Google’s Pixel 9 Pro Fold can.
My question was whether the Z Fold 7 could keep up. After all, it comes with a 4,400mAh cell to power two large displays, a fast processor, and keep itself cool at the same time in a thin-and-light form factor. Seems impossible, right?
Well, it’s kind of possible. While you can stretch it to get through a full day, that’s not always the case.
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The 4,400mAh battery in the Galaxy Z Fold 7 can just barely last a full day with light to moderate use. If you don’t use the the large 8-inch foldable screen that often (and take a few less pictures), you can stretch it to get through a full day, but let’s be honest: who’s not using the big screen on this thing? It’s the whole reason you buy a folding phone.
My metric for good battery life on a phone is whether it can carry you through a full day of moderate to heavy use on a full charge. Most modern flagships have batteries that are big enough for this, and if they’re on the smaller side of the spectrum, software efficiency tweaks can help achieve it. For the Galaxy Z Fold 7, it seems like Samsung needed to do more work to reach this point.
After using the Galaxy Z Fold 7 for 16 hours, it dipped from 100% to as low as 15-20% each day. With its battery saving mode, you can eek out an extra hour if you’re in a pinch. At that point, you’ll want to avoid using the larger screen and stick with the cover display.
This is mediocre battery life, especially for a smartphone at this high of a price. While it’s normal for a phone of this caliber to not last that long with a 4,400mAh battery in tow, it’s a shame nonetheless that Samsung couldn’t squeeze any more life out of it.
Samsung included 25W charging on the Galaxy Z Fold 7, and I have no idea why. The company continues to ship folding phones with much slower charging performance than its other devices, which can charge at 45W. When it’s dead, the Z Fold 7 takes around an hour and change to get back to 100%. You can get to 50% in about 30 minutes, which is also behind other smartphones.
Is it painstakingly slow? Not necessarily. 25W is only slow by today’s standards. OnePlus set the bar high with its last few generations of phones that can charge at upwards of 80W, so everything else pales in comparison. Still, Samsung itself ships phones that can recharge at 45W, and it would’ve been nice to see that come to its most expensive foldable to date.
Like Samsung’s Galaxy S25 lineup and the Galaxy Z Flip 7, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 is certified “Qi2 Ready.” This updated standard means that while the Z Fold 7 supports the faster 15W wireless charging speed associated with Qi2 technology, it doesn’t come with magnets on the back for magnetic wireless charging. Instead, you have to buy a special case if you want magnets on your phone.
This is lame. Every time a company does this, I can’t help but roll my eyes. It’s been years since the Qi2 standard was introduced, yet no smartphone company wants to add it to its phones. Whether that changes in the future is unclear, but for now, you’re stuck with 15W magnet-free wireless charging with the Fold 7.
You also get reverse wireless charging on the Galaxy Z Fold 7. Wireless PowerShare, as it’s called on Samsung devices, hasn’t made many strides since it was added to Galaxy phones in 2019. It’s still locked to 4.5W on the Z Fold 7, which is just fast enough to give your earbuds or smartwatch a slight boost in battery life over the course of 10-20 minutes. Still, it’s there if you want it.
Because the Galaxy Z Fold 7 has underwhelmed me so much with its battery life and charging performance, it has me thinking about what I’d like to see in next year’s Galaxy Z Fold 8 to improve things. Here’s a rough idea of what Samsung could do to fix things.
🔋 Silicone-carbon batteries. A technology that started cropping up this year was silicone-carbon batteries, which use a new silicone-carbon construction to increase the capacity of a battery in the same size as a traditional lithium-ion battery. OnePlus did this with the OnePlus 13, incorporating a huge 6,000mAh cell in the same footprint as a regular 5,000mAh cell. If Samsung did this with the Z Fold 8, it could see big battery gains without having to increase the thickness of the phone.
⚡️ Faster wired charging. Just go with 45W, Samsung. It’s insane you can pay $2,000 for a phone in 2025 and be stuck with 25W charging. Figure out heat dissipation, charging performance over time, and all the other intricacies involved with increasing its speed, and just go with 45W charging for the Z Fold 8. You have expert engineers working on this stuff. C’mon.
🧲 Real Qi2. It probably won’t happen at this rate, but I’d also love real Qi2 charging on the Galaxy Z Fold 8. It’d be great to snap a MagSafe charger to the back of the device to juice it up, or place it on the standing Nomad charging station I have at my bedside table. Anything’s better than just guessing where the charging coils are on the back of it and risking mis-alignment before I go to bed. Plus, then I won’t need to buy a special case to make it work.
I’m nearing completion of my full Galaxy Z Fold 7 review for The Shortcut. If you want to be among the first to read it, be sure to subscribe and we’ll let you know when it’s live.
Max Buondonno is an editor at The Shortcut. He’s been reporting on the latest consumer technology since 2015, with his work featured on CNN Underscored, ZDNET, How-To Geek, XDA, TheStreet, Country Central, and more. Follow him on X @LegendaryScoop and Instagram @LegendaryScoop.
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