I have to say, I've always found foldable flip phones more appealing than the book-shaped models like Galaxy Z Fold 8. They're shaped like a proper phone, but with the ability to fold into a more compact and convenient form for travel — like a Transformer, but without all the baggage of potentially running into a Decepticon on the highway.
Sadly, it seems Samsung may be giving up on flip phones, at least for the immediate future. We first heard reports of this back in May, with news that Samsung may have canceled the Galaxy Z Flip 9. Now, long-time Samsung leaker Ice Universe has corroborated those claims with a brief post on X.
The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8 is likely to be Samsung's last small folding product. pic.twitter.com/9zN4nNRLT2July 9, 2026
The leaker doesn't elaborate on the post in any way, simply stating that the Z Flip 8 will likely be the last small foldable that Samsung makes. Which, honestly, isn't actually that surprising when you think about it.
Over the past few years, it seems as though the Z Flip series has been an afterthought for Samsung. The focus has been on the flagship Z Fold series, and the feeling I got was that there just wasn't enough interest left to produce a really solid Z Flip upgrade.
If you think about how the series has changed over the last few years, the biggest upgrade has been the cover display, but even that has reached the point where there isn't much else that can be done. Things like the cameras and battery have barely changed, while the price has slowly risen.
On top of that, Samsung also has to contend with the rising cost of actually making these things. RAM and storage prices are sky high right now, of course, but phone production itself has become more expensive over the past several years. We may have reached the stage where interest in the Z Flip series isn't enough to justify producing them. Though I do wonder if things would be different if the lineup hadn't suffered years of stagnation and minimal attention.
The fact that Ice Universe says that this will be the last "small folding product" says a lot too. It means Samsung won't be scrapping the Z Flip series in favor of something new. Instead, it'll likely go all in on the Z Fold series now that we have Ultra and Wide variants to choose between.
It's not ideal for those of you hoping to get a foldable Galaxy experience on a smaller budget, considering the astronomical Z Fold prices, but at least Motorola is still in the flip foldable game. For now, anyway.
