[Android 0]

It finally happened. The ‘wide’ Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 is officially here, marking the company’s first foldable in a passport-style form factor. It’s shorter than the standard Galaxy Z Fold phones we’ve seen over the years and noticeably wider, which means it truly opens into a tablet-like form factor when unfolded.

Initially, I assumed Samsung was doing this purely to get ahead of Apple’s foldable iPhone Ultra arriving later this year. And on the surface, it’s easy to look at the new aspect ratio, call it the whole story, and write the Galaxy Z Fold 8 off as a lazy attempt at beating Apple to the punch. But that’s not actually the case.