At first glance — a marketing collaboration with a blockbuster. At second glance — Samsung is publicly changing the form factor of its flagship foldable smartphone for the first time in several years, and it's doing so now for a reason.
What the teaser showed and why it matters
Samsung Mobile US's official post featuring Spider-Man catching a foldable phone contains the phrase "A brand new shape for a brand new day" — a direct pun on the movie title "Spider-Man: Brand New Day". But behind the wordplay lies specific geometry: the teaser shows a body where buttons are shifted to the upper corner of the frame, while on the Galaxy Z Fold 7 they are positioned roughly in the middle. This means a proportionally lower and wider device.
Sources confirm the same conclusion. According to tipster Ahmed Qwaider, the Galaxy Z Fold 8 will have a 7.6-inch foldable screen and a 5.5-inch outer display, both with QHD+ resolution. Expected dimensions when folded are 123.9 × 81.9 × 9.7 mm, when unfolded — 4.5 mm thick.
"A brand new shape is coming" — text on Samsung's teaser postcard, where the top half tears away to reveal the new movie's logo.
Samsung Mobile US, July 2025
Why Samsung copied a design that doesn't yet exist
Several supply chain reports indicate that Apple's foldable iPhone will use a similar wide format with proportions around 4:3. Samsung is holding Unpacked in London — and this is no random choice: Europe is Apple's strongest premium market, and Samsung is putting the Fold 8 on shelves a full two months before the first foldable iPhone, reportedly, appears in September.
So Samsung is not reacting to Apple — it is trying to define what a "correct" foldable phone should look like before Apple enters the market. Consumers should become accustomed to the wide form factor as the norm — before they even see an alternative.
The lineup splits for the first time
This time, Samsung is launching two separate book-style foldable smartphone models for the first time: the standard Galaxy Z Fold 8 with the new wide body and the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, which retains the familiar vertical design of its predecessor.
- Fold 8 — wider, shorter, lighter (201g according to leaks, 14g less than Fold 7), aimed at competing with Apple
- Fold 8 Ultra — classic silhouette, 200 MP main camera, Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, an upgrade for those already in the ecosystem
- Both models — 12 GB RAM, up to 1 TB storage, 4800 mAh battery
According to tipster Tarun Vats, when unfolded, the Fold 8 will be 4.5 mm thick — making it one of the thinnest book-style foldable smartphones.
Marketing as a signal
Samsung wiped its Instagram accounts down to six posts on June 30, replacing years of content with short videos — chocolate bars breaking, rows of puzzles being cut. The message is consistent: something is changing shape. According to Geoffrey Godsick of Sony Pictures, the goal of the partnership is to "integrate technology that people use every day into the world of Spider-Man" — in other words, to position the foldable smartphone as an everyday device, not a premium rarity.
This is the problem: foldable smartphones remain niche not because of design, but because of price. Pricing for both models remains one of the biggest unknowns before Unpacked — and the way Samsung positions them relative to each other will determine which model most buyers actually consider.
If the Fold 8 launches cheaper than the Fold 7 — the strategy against Apple will look convincing. If the price stays at $1799+ — Spider-Man won't help.
