I’ve been using the Galaxy Z Fold 7 for a week, and I’ve run out of ways to say “It’s so nice.” It’s not essential, or life-changing; it’s nice.
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Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 review: stunning, bendy, and spendy
It’s an understatement, though. Samsung joins the likes of Honor and Oppo in making a folding phone that’s almost as thin as a regular phone, and it’s a trend with real benefits. Compared to the previous six generations of Samsung folding phones, the Z Fold 7’s inner screen feels like a bonus — one that doesn’t require the sacrifice of carrying a bigger, bulkier device to get. It is thin. It is luxurious. Also: it is two thousand dollars.
It’s so nice. It’s two thousand dollars. Somewhere in between those two statements, you’ll know whether the Galaxy Z Fold 7 is for you. If the size and bulk of previous foldables deterred you, then this is the phone you’ve been waiting for. Provided you have, you know, a couple grand lying around.
Writing a review of the Fold 7 feels like writing a review of two devices: the one you use with the phone closed, and the one that’s available with the phone open. The former got a major upgrade this year: it uses a normal 21:9 aspect ratio. Previous versions of the outer screen were longer and skinnier than your average phone, and I never quite got used to typing on them. I sometimes forget I’m using a folding phone when the Z Fold 7 is closed.
It works just like a regular slab-style phone outside of some extreme use cases. And for a folding phone? That’s mission accomplished.
Here’s the Z Fold 7’s dilemma: that outer screen is a 6.5-inch 1080p display that’s not as sharp or as pleasant to use in bright light as the outstanding screen on the far cheaper Galaxy S25 Ultra. That’s a point I kept revisiting as I used the Z Fold 7. As a total package there’s almost nothing like it, but plenty of its individual features fall short of the best slab-style phones.
Non-foldy phones offer better battery life, but the margin isn’t as wide as I feared. How much you use the inner screen will dramatically affect battery life; I got through a day of moderate use and occasional inner screen use with around 50 percent left. With more time on the inner screen and about an hour of hotspot use, the battery was down to around 30 percent by bedtime. Nobody’s buying a folding phone for its power efficiency, and I think these results are pretty good.
As soon as I open the inner screen, the slight shortcomings are out of mind. I kept forgetting that the inner screen even existed, but I quickly got into the habit of opening it. Do you know how nice it is to use Chrome on your phone with normal-ass tabs at the top of the screen? Do you know how much less fiddly a game like Diablo Immortal is on a big screen? Do you know how useful it is to keep the Uber app open on one side of the display so you can keep track of your driver’s arrival while you finish a sudoku on the other half? I do. Once you start using the inner screen, you keep finding new ways to use it.
None of the above is new or exclusive to the Fold 7, but I can’t emphasize this enough: this all feels like you’re getting away with something, because the experience of using this phone while it’s closed feels normal. No more chunky brick in the side pocket of my yoga pants. One nitpick: I don’t love how stiff it feels when I’m opening the phone. The grip from a case would help here. Overall, a slimmer, lighter, well-proportioned foldable really is a whole new ballgame.
There’s some bad news. I’m not one to get worked up about the way any camera bump looks, but this one protrudes a lot. The phone sits crooked on surfaces and wobbles when you tap the screen, which encourages you to put it on a table screen-side-down. Fewer distractions from notifications? Good! The screen is slippery and the phone slides off the edge of the bathtub? Bad! There wasn’t any water in the tub when that happened, but still.
The wobble is annoying; I have to prop it up on a couple of drink coasters if I’m using it on the dining room table. Samsung’s silicone grip case seems to mitigate it, but stand cases don’t fix it. A case feels like a requirement here (and I say that as a case hater!), but they’re thin enough they don’t erase all the benefits of a slim foldable.
The Fold 7 uses a Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset tuned for Samsung, along with 12GB of RAM in the 256GB model I tested. It keeps up just fine, and I had no problems running Diablo Immortal at the highest display settings. The phone didn’t even get very warm. The Z Fold 7 did get mighty toasty in a bit of a torture test: using it as a hotspot on a coffee shop patio on a high-80s afternoon. I put it in the direct sun, which you should not do, and sure enough, it started closing apps after about 10 minutes to try and cool itself down. Extreme, yes, but good to know if you live in a place with high temperatures.
Another environmental consideration: dust resistance. The Z Fold 7 still doesn’t have a formal dust resistance rating; its IP48 means it’s fully water-resistant but only immune to very small particles, not specks of dust. Take extra care and consider adding Samsung’s extended warranty plan to cover pricey inner screen repairs.
The Z Fold 7’s 200-megapixel camera is adapted from the S25 Ultra’s, and it’s a great camera here, just as it is in the Ultra. Low-light photos are detailed, provided your subject isn’t moving too much, and Samsung’s preference for vibrant reds and blues is on full display. There’s also a 10-megapixel 3x telephoto and a 12-megapixel ultrawide — both solid performers if you don’t ask too much from them. Digital zoom past 5x from the telephoto lens looks pretty watercolor-y. But Samsung’s portrait mode with the 3x camera remains the best in the game, as it has been for years. Segmentation is so good it’s uncanny — isolating a subject down to the eyelashes on my son’s eyes.
If you compare the Z Fold 7 to a top-tier slab phone like the S25 Ultra spec by spec, the folding phone often comes up short. It’s less durable, battery life isn’t quite as good, and the camera system isn’t as versatile. But that misses the point of the Z Fold 7. This phone is a luxury and an engineering marvel. If you have the deep pockets and a mind open to the benefits of the big screen, then I think you’ll agree with me: it’s just so nice.
Photography by Allison Johnson / The Verge
Agree to Continue: Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7
Every smart device now requires you to agree to a series of terms and conditions before you can use it — contracts that no one actually reads. It’s impossible for us to read and analyze every single one of these agreements. But we started counting exactly how many times you have to hit “agree” to use devices when we review them since these are agreements most people don’t read and definitely can’t negotiate.
To use the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7, you must agree to:
- Samsung’s Terms and Conditions
- Samsung’s Privacy Policy
- Google’s Terms of Service (including Privacy Policy)
- Google Play’s Terms of Service
- Automatic installs (including from Google, Samsung, and your carrier)
There are many optional agreements. If you use a carrier-specific version, there will be more of them. Here are just a few:
- Sending diagnostic data to Samsung
- Samsung services, including auto blocker, customization service, continuity service, nearby device scanning, personal data intelligence, and smart suggestions
- Google Drive backup, location services, Wi-Fi scanning, diagnostic data
- Bixby privacy policy (required to use Bixby), plus optional for Bixby options like personalized content, data access, and audio recording review
There may be more. For example, Samsung’s Weather app also has its own privacy policy that may include sharing information with Weather.com.
Final tally: there are five mandatory agreements and at least 10 optional ones.
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If you want a great laptop, you’re going to have to fork over a ton of money, right? Not necessarily. There are dozens of good laptops on the market at various price points. However, it can feel overwhelming to find the right one for your needs (some are better suited for, say, college students, whereas others are ideal for gamers).
That’s why we’ve come up with this list of some of the best laptop deals available right now. In addition to the latest discounts, we’ll share each discounted model’s best features (and downsides) to give you more clarity during your shopping journey. And if you need to do more research, you can also check out our guides to the best laptops on the market and the top gaming laptops.
Apple itself no longer sells the 13-inch MacBook Air with M1 — and hasn’t for years — but you can still get this solid laptop for $599.99 ($50 off) at Walmart. The 2020 model is available in one configuration, with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, but it’s still capable at handling basic tasks like a champ, including streaming video, browsing, and dealing with documents. You can also use the M1 MacBook Air for creative work in Photoshop, Final Cut Pro, Logic, and Pixelmator, though you may experience slowdown due to its low 8GB of memory.
The laptop’s battery lasted between eight and ten hours when we originally reviewed it, and those figures should be mostly accurate, barring some differences likely caused by operating system updates. In addition to offering great performance for its price, the laptop also comes with other nice-to-have features, including a comfortable keyboard and an excellent trackpad. Just note its 720p webcam isn’t particularly good, so if a high-resolution webcam matters a lot to you, you may want to buy one separately. Also, be aware that, due to the limitations of the M1 chip, you can only use one external display at a time and port selection is also more limited than newer models.
$699
The 2022 MacBook Air is a thin, lightweight device powered by Apple’s M2 chip. The M2 model touts an improved 1080p webcam and a better display than its predecessor while retaining features like long battery life and MagSafe charging.
Apple’s 13-inch MacBook Air with the M2 chip is a significant leap above the M1 model it succeeded, both in terms of design and performance. The old wedge-shaped look was replaced for a more squared-off design that’s still used by the current-generation MacBook Air. It has a 1080p webcam, which was a welcome improvement given the disappointing camera on the 2020 M1 model. It’s also much lighter and thus more portable as well, yet it retains features like MagSafe charging and Touch ID, as well as a nice display.
Despite its age, the M2 processor inside of this machine is still powerful enough to handle many tasks, from common ones such as browsing to more complex and creative projects. Compared to newer, pricier models, this one unsurprisingly struggles with gaming. That being said, it’s capable of running Cyberpunk 2077. The entry-level 13-inch MacBook Air with M2 launched with 8GB of RAM, but that configuration became unavailable last year when Apple made 16GB the new standard.
While a well-rounded laptop overall, there is one key area where Apple’s M1 model is better: storage. The base M2 MacBook Air with 256GB of storage is actually slower than its predecessor because it’s stored in a single NAND chip. This was corrected in subsequent MacBook Air models, so the slowdown is unique to M2 machines with 256GB of storage. Also, be aware as well that port selection isn’t great, and the included display notch — which is also found on both the 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros — can make using the menu bar more challenging until you get used to it. If that doesn’t bother you, however, you can get a configuration with 16GB of RAM, 256GB of storage, an 8-core CPU and GPU for $699 ($100 off) at Best Buy.
$799
The M4 MacBook Air has a speedy processor, and double the RAM of previous models. It has a thin and light design, all day battery life, and still starts with 256GB of storage.
The 13-inch MacBook Air with M4 is Apple’s latest thin and lightweight laptop, and it’s our top pick in The Verge’s guide to the best laptops right now. It’s not a MacBook Pro, but Apple’s M4 processor in the Air is still mighty capable. In our tests, it only throttled under heavy load from creative applications, which is understandable given its fanless design. The machine comes with 16GB of RAM as standard rather than an optional upgrade, but the base configuration still comes with just 256GB of storage, so be mindful of that limitation if you work with a lot of larger files.
Apple hasn’t increased the number of ports on a MacBook Air since reintroducing MagSafe to the M2 model in 2022, but this generation has Thunderbolt 4 ports rather than Thunderbolt 3 for faster file transfer speeds. Another notable addition is the 1080p Center Stage camera from the MacBook Pro, so you’ll stay in frame if you move around on a video call. Battery life should last all day, though your experience will vary depending on how hard you push this machine.
You can currently get a configuration of the 13-inch with M4 with 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, and a 10-core CPU and GPU for $799 ($200 off) at Amazon and Best Buy. If you need a larger screen, you can get the 15-inch MacBook Air with the same specs for $999 ($200 off) at Amazon and Best Buy.
M4 and M4 Pro MacBook Pro
$1299
The entry-level MacBook Pro with M4 starts with 16GB of RAM — double that of its predecessor — and a 512GB SSD for the same starting price of $1,599. It also gets a third USB-C / Thunderbolt 4 port and comes in a new space black option.
$1787
The 14-inch MacBook Pro with a 12-core / 16-core M4 Pro chip starts with 24GB of RAM — a 6GB increase over the prior generation. It also has a 512GB SSD, three Thunderbolt 5 USB-C ports, an optional nano-texture display, and a 12-megapixel webcam.
$2234
The 16-inch MacBook Pro with M4 Pro starts with 24GB of RAM and offers more computing cores (14 for the CPU and 20 for the GPU) compared to the 14-inch model. It also picks up Thunderbolt 5 ports and a new 12-megapixel Center Stage camera.
The M4 generation MacBook Pros are Apple’s fastest laptops yet. The 14-inch MacBook Pro with M4 starts with 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD, and comes equipped with three Thunderbolt 4 ports, an HDMI port, an SD card slot, and a MagSafe charging port. It can send video to two external displays simultaneously (the previous generation could only handle one) and has an improved 12-megapixel Center Stage camera with better video quality.
The M4 MacBook Pro and M4 MacBook Air run on the same chip, but the Pro’s cooling system is better, so it handles resource-intensive tasks (including games) without throttling as easily. The laptop’s 14.2-inch screen is bright (up to 1,600 nits when viewing HDR content), and supports the P3 color gamut, both of which are important to professionals who rely on color accuracy when editing photos and video. The display has a 120Hz refresh rate, so scrolling through webpages or moving windows around should appear smoother than 60Hz screens. In our stress test, which included editing 33-megapixel RAW images and working with a large photo library in Adobe Lightroom, the laptop ran for 12 hours without kicking up the fans or feeling hot to the touch.
If you want even more power, you can jump up to the 14-inch MacBook Pro with an M4 Pro processor. It comes with 24GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, a 12-core CPU, and a 16-core GPU. The M4 Pro MacBook Pro has over twice the memory bandwidth of the base M4 MacBook Pro, so it should perform better across the board. That said, it might be tough to notice the benefits of its extra memory and processing power during casual use, but it will come in handy when you’re pushing the laptop to the limits while video editing or playing games. It has three Thunderbolt 5 ports, and you can use that extra bandwidth with an external SSD with fast transfer speeds, to name an example. You can also get the MacBook Pro with M4 Pro with a 16-inch screen if you’d like to work on a larger display.
Right now, the 14-inch M4 model with 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD and 10-core CPU and 10-core GPU is $1,299 ($300 off) at Best Buy and $200 off at B&H Photo. You can get a 14-inch M4 Pro model with 24GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, 12-core CPU, and 16-core GPU for around $1,786 at Amazon, Best Buy, and B&H Photo. The 16-inch M4 Pro MacBook Pro with 24GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, 14-core CPU, and 20-core GPU is currently on sale for around $2,234 at Amazon and B&H Photo.
Microsoft Surface Laptop 7th Edition
$1000
The 13.8-inch Surface Laptop is Microsoft’s closest rival to the MacBook Air, using Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X chipsets for exceptional battery life.
We chose Microsoft’s 7th Edition Surface Laptop as one of the best laptops you can get because it’s the top Snapdragon Copilot Plus PC we’ve tried yet. The laptop runs on a power-efficient ARM processor that doesn’t skimp on performance. Its 13.8-inch 2,304 x 1,536 120Hz screen supports Dolby Vision HDR (High Dynamic Range) and looks very nice. It has a large, precision haptic trackpad that gives you plenty of room to tap and swipe, an offers satisfying feedback no matter where you press it.
The laptop has a pair of USB 4 ports, one USB-A 3.1 Gen 1 port, plus a headphone jack. One of the concerns of using an ARM-based Windows PC has been software compatibility, but this model proves that’s no longer something to be as worried about. It runs Photoshop, and apps compiled for X86 processors work thanks to Microsoft’s Prism emulator. Be sure to check the compatibility of the specific Windows app you rely, though, as there’s still a chance they won’t work as intended.
Even after our toughest tests, the battery lasted seven hours. That’s with 100 percent screen brightness, after downloading multiple Steam games, attending video calls, and running through multiple projects in Photoshop. Using the laptop with less power-hungry apps, including Slack, WhatsApp, Discord, and Chrome, the laptop used just 30 percent of its battery in seven hours. For the best battery life, you’ll want to stick to using native ARM apps when possible. If you want to make the switch to an ARM-based laptop to get some of the benefits MacBook users have had for years, the 7th Generation Surface Laptop is worth checking out.
You can get a 13.8-inch Microsoft Surface Laptop (7th Edition) with a Snapdragon X Plus processor, 16GB of RAM and 512GB SSD for $999 ($100 off) at Amazon. A model with the Snapdragon X Elite processor, 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD is on sale for $1,099.99 ($300 off) at Best Buy.
Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 714
$629
Acer’s Spin Chromebook is configured with Intel’s first generation of processor with an NPU. It also has Google Gemini baked right into the OS, and if you sign up for a new Google One AI premium plan, your first year of service is free.
Verge reviewer Antonio G. Di Benedetto chose Acer’s Chromebook Plus Spin 714 as one of the best laptops for students because it offers an excellent balance of power, battery life, specs, and value. It’s also made the cut in our guide to the best Chromebooks because it supports Google’s Gemini smart assistant, and comes with a one-year subscription to Google’s One AI premium service. The current-generation laptop is a solid choice a year after it was released thanks in part to its Intel Core Ultra 5 Series 1 processor, which allows you to run Linux apps instead of being limited to software solely available through Google’s Play Store.
On to the specs: The laptop has a 14-inch 1920 x 1200 resolution touchscreen display, which can be flipped 180 degrees, so you can use the laptop as a large tablet if you prefer. The Plus Spin 714 has two Thunderbolt 4 ports and an HDMI port, which is an acceptable array of ports for a Chromebook. However, it only has 8GB of RAM, which will likely be a performance bottleneck if you intend to keep dozens of tabs open.
If your needs are relatively light and you don’t mind working mostly in the cloud instead of with local files, this is a solid computer. You can grab the Chromebook Plus Spin 714 for $629 ($170 off) at Best Buy.
$1300
The Asus Zenbook S 16 features AMD’s Ryzen AI mobile processors. It’s one of the thinnest and lightest 16-inch laptops available and doesn’t cut corners on performance. It’s a mighty machine that can handle all sorts of heavy workloads with ease and grace.
We chose Asus’ Zenbook S 16 as another one of our top recommendations for students, but it’s a solid laptop for anyone who wants a large-screened Windows laptop. In our tests, the 16-inch 120Hz 3K (2,880 x 1,800) OLED display emits vivid colors and excellent contrast. The laptop was more than capable of handling common tasks, including video chats using its 1080p webcam, music streaming, but its graphics and gaming performance is what really sets it apart from laptops in its size and price classes.
This machine runs Cyberpunk 2077 at around 77 frames per second with the resolution set to 1080p with AMD’s FSR 2.1 upscaling software turned on. The laptop isn’t designed for gaming, but it’s good to know it’s up to the task if you’re willing to turn down some graphical settings. The Zenbook S 16’s battery lasted 11 hours during our testing. However, the percentage indicator in the Windows taskbar would often fluctuate, making it difficult to pin down exactly how much juice was left.
You can get a configuration of the laptop with 32GB of RAM, 1TB of storage, and an AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processor for $1,299.99 ($500 off) from Asus if you sign up for a free Asus membership. We signed up for the membership, and it took about five minutes from start to finish.
Asus ROG Strix Scar 16 (2025, RTX 5080)
$3000
Asus’ ROG Strix Scar 16 is a powerful gaming laptop configured with a 16-inch 2.5K 240Hz screen, Nvidia 5080 graphics card, Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX processor, 32GB of RAM, and 2TB of storage.
If you want to take a powerful gaming PC with you on the go, Asus’ ROG Strix Scar 16 is one of the best we recommend. It has a 16-inch 240Hz Mini LED display with a resolution of 2,560 x 1,600. The screen can’t quite match an OLED when it comes to rich contrast, but you get Dolby Vision HDR here, and its color accuracy impressed us in our tests. The laptop has larger keys instead of a number pad, which makes sense for a gaming-focused laptop. If you need a number pad, you can bring up a touch-sensitive one by clicking and holding the top part of the laptop’s large trackpad.
Under the hood, Asus fitted the ROG Strix Scar 16 with an Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX processor, 32GB of RAM, 2TB of storage, and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 graphics card with 16GB of dedicated video memory. The laptop’s display supports Nvidia’s G-Sync technology, so you shouldn’t see screen tearing or other graphical anomalies when playing games. The laptop has three USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 ports, an HDMI 2.1 port, an ethernet port, and two Thunderbolt 5 ports. You can use either the HDMI 2.1 port or Thunderbolt 5 ports to carry a 4K 120Hz video signal to a compatible TV or gaming monitor.
In case aesthetics matter to you, the ROG Strix Scar 16 has RGB lighting on its underside as well as a dot-matrix LED array that can display animations on its lid. These features aren’t new, but each can add some flair to your setup. Right now, you can get the Asus ROG Strix Scar 16 in its base configuration for around $2999.99 ($300 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and Walmart.
Update, August 5th: Updated pricing and availability, and added new deals on Apple’s MacBook Air with M4, the MacBook Pro with M4 Pro, the Asus Zenbook S 16, the Asus ROG Strix Scar 16, Microsoft’s 7th Generation Surface Laptop, and Acer’s Chromebook Plus Spin 714.
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Google’s August Pixel update includes a fix for Android’s three-button navigation and gesture navigation systems becoming unresponsive.
The issues appear to have started popping up shortly after the official release of Android 16 in June. Ever since that update, the user said that navigation has been “a complete mess” and that they ran into issues with buttons being “completely unresponsive” or delays of “over 30 seconds” on their Pixel 8 Pro. Another user said they had to occasionally press the back button “a few times” on their Pixel 9 to get the phone to register it. The swipe gesture to navigate back also occasionally stopped working, as noticed by Android Police’s Artem Russakovskii.
Google’s patch notes only vaguely say that the issues would happen under “certain conditions.” In addition to general stability improvements, the update also fixes an issue where a scheduled dark theme wouldn’t work. It also includes a security fix for a high severity remote code execution vulnerability.
The update is rolling out now for Pixel 6 devices and newer.
Connecting to free airport or hotel Wi-Fi can often be a time-consuming and frustrating task that doesn’t seem worth the effort for a bag full of wireless devices. TP-Link has announced its first Wi-Fi 7 travel router, providing up to a total of 3.6 Gbps of bandwidth while also making it easier to get multiple devices online from anywhere.
The TP-Link Wi-Fi 7 BE3600 Travel Router (TL-WR3602BE) is available now for $139.99 but Amazon has it for $109.99 with a $30 discount that’s available until the end of August.
We all travel with multiple devices needing Wi-Fi connectivity, and when you add kids and family into the mix, connecting them all to hotel or airport Wi-Fi can be an arduous job. Having all those devices pre-connected to a single travel router streamlines the process since you’re then only connecting one device to public Wi-Fi. You can use TP-Link’s mobile Tether app or the router’s web interface to navigate those annoying captive portals and login pages just once.
Other reasons to use a travel router include an extra layer of privacy. The TL-WR3602BE includes support for the OpenVPN and WireGuard protocols, so you can connect to over 35 different VPN providers, including NordVPN and Surfshark, while using a public Wi-Fi network you don’t entirely trust. And while your smartphone can serve as a hotspot for a handful of devices, TP-Link’s new travel router can connect to up to 90 at once.
There’s no built-in battery, but the travel router needs just 5V and can be powered using an included AC adapter, an external power bank, or even a USB-C connection to a laptop. It includes a pair of external antennas you can raise to extend its range, a USB-A 3.0 port for sharing files from connected drives, a 2.5 Gbps WAN and 1 Gbps LAN port, and a customizable button that can be configured to turn the VPN on and off, or quickly activate other functions.
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