The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 is finally cheaper than getting a phone and
tablet separately heres why you want to buy it

Date:
Sat, 27 Dec 2025 04:15:00 +0000

Description:
The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 has dropped in price, making it cheaper than buying a phone and a tablet separately. Here's why you'd want a foldable instead of two separate screens.

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The Galaxy Z Fold 7 was arguably the best phone of 2025, and its truly an engineering marvel. It feels impossibly thin and light, especially when its closed, and you know that youre holding a full-sized mini tablet, even though it feels like a normal big-screen smartphone. The biggest problem - maybe the only big problem - was the price. Thankfully, deals like todays sale on Samsung.com finally drop the Z Fold to a price that makes perfect sense.

The Galaxy Z Fold 7 is on sale right now on Samsung.com with a $400 discount in the US, even if you dont have a phone to trade. There are huge trade bonuses happening as well, if you have the right phone. In the US, a Galaxy S25 Ultra or Galaxy Z Fold 6 will earn you $1,000 in trade (instead of that $400 discount). In Australia, an iPhone 16 Pro Max will drop the price of a new Fold 7 by AU$1,000.

The perfect price for the Galaxy Z Fold 7 would be the price of a 6.5-inch, flagship smartphone plus the price of an 8-inch tablet. The Galaxy S25 Plus starts at $999 / 999 / AU$1,699, though the Galaxy S25 Edge ($1,099 / 1,099 / AU$1,849) is probably a closer comparison, since its thinner and it packs the same 200MP camera as the Galaxy Z Fold. (Image credit: Future / Lance
Ulanoff)

Samsung doesnt currently make a premium 8-inch tablet, so the Apple iPad mini (2024) is the best 8-inch tablet to consider. The iPad mini costs $499 / 499
/ AU$799 for the latest model. Put that price together with a Galaxy S25
Edge, and youre paying $1,598 / 1,598 / AU$2,648 for both devices.

Why would you want a Galaxy Z Fold 7 instead of just buying a fancy new smartphone and a mini tablet together? Thats a great question! Here are four reasons why Id prefer a foldable (and one big reason why not): My Galaxy Z Fold 7 is always connected, unlike my iPad mini (Image credit: Lance Ulanoff
/ Future)

To be fair, you can get an iPad mini for $499 / 499 / AU$799, but youll need
a Wi-Fi connection to make it surf. You can use your phone as a hotspot, but when your phone is also a tablet - like the Galaxy Z Fold 7 - you dont need
to burn through your data allotment or battery power to connect a second device. Your tablet is your phone, so its always connected.

This also means you wont have to worry about sharing files between devices.
If you want to edit a document on a larger display, or even open a web page
on your tablet instead of your phone, you dont have to perform any magic tricks between screens. You just open the small screen, and it becomes a tablet. The Galaxy Z Fold 7 is more durable than any small tablet (Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future)

You might not think of foldable phones as durable, but the Galaxy Z Fold 7 is one of the most durable mini tablets you can buy. The Galaxy Z Fold 7 is water-resistant enough that you can dunk it in a pool or read your email in a bathtub.

There is no iPad you can buy with the same level of durability. Samsung makes water-resistant tablets (that are also more dust-proof), but only the larger Galaxy Tab S11 and Galaxy Tab S10 FE models.

You still have to worry about dust and small particles, so a trip to the
sandy beach will require some care. Still, its impressive that Samsungs foldable tablet has better ingress protection than Apples most portable iPad. Samsungs software is (shockingly) the best for multitasking (Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future)

Samsungs software doesnt get the same accolades as Apples iOS 26 and iPadOS 26, but Samsungs tablet software is the best youll find on any tablet - including the iPad. Samsung has done a great job making it easy to open multiple windows, to snap windows where you want them, and to move content between windows and apps.

Multitasking on a Samsung tablet is better than multitasking on any iPad, and its even better than multitasking on a Mac desktop with Apples macOS 26.

That makes the Galaxy Z Fold 7 a fantastic tablet for productivity and
getting things done, much better than an iPad mini. Samsungs version of Android is packed with useful tools and features, while Apples iPadOS tends
to get out of the way and let app developers do the heavy lifting in the apps you buy and download. The Galaxy Z Fold 7 has better cameras than any tablet (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

Samsung has been using a big 200MP sensor on its best camera phones for a few years, and this year it figured out how to pack that beefy component into its thinnest phones. Both the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and the thin Galaxy S25 Edge got
the same camera module as the mighty Galaxy S25 Ultra, instantly vaulting those devices to the front of the class for camera image quality.

That means the Galaxy Z Fold 7 isnt just the best foldable camera phone you can buy; it also packs a better camera than youll find on any tablet, especially an iPad mini. The iPad mini uses a single 12MP rear camera sensor. The photos it captures dont match what youll get from a Z Fold 7.

Best of all, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 uses its cameras in versatile ways. You can take photos with the phone open or closed, using either the smaller or larger display as your viewfinder. You can use the hinge and fold to aim that camera at yourself and see yourself in the outer display, making it a 200MP selfie camera. Theres really no contest; the Galaxy Z Fold 7 blows away the iPad
mini in camera capabilities, whether its open or closed. Why would you want two separate devices? Two big (battery) reasons (Image credit: Future/Jacob Krol)

Having two big batteries in a separate iPad mini and Galaxy smartphone is better than well, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 technically has two batteries, but they amount to a smaller total capacity than what youd get in two devices.

Its not even close. The Galaxy Z Fold 7 has two cells that offer 4,400mAh of total battery power. The iPad mini alone has a battery that is larger than 5,000 mAh. In our battery tests, the iPad mini and the Galaxy Z Fold 7
offered almost the same amount of screen time - just under 11 hours for both. Still, if you carry an iPad plus a phone, you get all that battery life and more.

The Galaxy Z Fold 7 still lasts through a normal day of use, but whats normal for a phone and tablet combo? If you really need to use both screens all day, and you rely on your devices to get work done, I would recommend buying the two separately to maximize your battery.

Otherwise, its easier than ever to make a case for foldable phones. The price has finally dropped to a level that gives you more at once than youd get buying a phone and a tablet separately.



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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/phones/samsung-phones/the-samsung-galaxy-z-fold-7-is -finally-cheaper-than-getting-a-phone-and-tablet-separately-heres-why-you-want -to-buy-it


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