I went hands-on with the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8, and this passport-shaped oddity has revived my interest in foldable phones

I’ve tested plenty of the best foldable phones in my time at TechRadar, but I’ve never opted to use one of these devices as my main handset long-term.

I use my phone for consuming content — scrolling, reading, watching — more than I do for productivity tasks, and so the appeal of having a heavier phone with a giant, square-sized foldable screen isn’t, for me, all that strong. Why would I watch a YouTube video with big black letterboxing above and below it, when I could simply use my regular phone in landscape for a better video-watching experience?

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 is a different proposition entirely. It’s still a book-style foldable — it’s got one smaller screen on the outside, and one larger screen on the inside that you open with both hands — but it’s shorter, wider, and dare I say cuter than the Galaxy Z Fold 7 before it. It’s the Galaxy Z Fold 7.5 in all but name (or maybe the Galaxy Z Fold Fat?).