Samsung has been playing it safe with its foldable designs for a few years now. While the upcoming Galaxy Z Fold 8 will stick to the familiar tall-and-narrow shape, a completely new device is joining the lineup this year.

Right now, it's being called the Galaxy Z Wide Fold (or the Z Fold 8 Wide), and thanks to some fresh firmware leaks, we finally know exactly what its inner screen will look like.

A True Tablet Screen

If you ever felt the Galaxy Z Fold 7 was just a bit too awkward and square on the inside, you are not alone. The Fold 7 has a weird 1.11:1 ratio. The new Wide Fold completely ditches that.

According to the latest leaks, the inner display will feature a 4:3 aspect ratio. If that sounds familiar, it's because that is the exact same screen ratio as an iPad. This is a massive deal for multitasking. Having two apps open side-by-side will finally feel natural, and watching videos or playing games will actually feel like you are using a real tablet, not just a stretched-out phone.

Firmware Spills the Beans

We didn't just get lucky with hardware renders; the software itself gave it away. Tech sleuths dug into the upcoming One UI 9 firmware (which is based on Android 17) for a device labeled SM-F971B.

Buried inside that code were images of the home screen and app drawer explicitly designed for a wider, 4:3 display. The fact that Samsung is already optimizing its software for this layout pretty much guarantees this phone is launching later this year alongside the standard Z Fold 8.

Beating Apple to the Punch

Let's not ignore the obvious here. Samsung knows exactly what it is doing. Apple has been heavily rumored to be working on a foldable iPhone with a very similar, wider aspect ratio.

By launching the Wide Fold now, Samsung is basically throwing the first punch. They get to claim they did the "wide foldable" first and establish dominance in the market before Apple even shows up to the party.

Leaked Image Gallery

TecHoper's Take When our team looked at these new dimensions, we instantly agreed that this is exactly what the foldable market needs right now. The original Fold design was revolutionary, but it has started to feel a bit cramped.

Launching the Wide Fold as a separate device alongside the regular Z Fold 8 is a brilliant move. It lets the company experiment with a much better, iPad-like 4:3 screen ratio without alienating fans of the classic Fold design. If Android developers actually step up and optimize their apps for this new tablet-style layout, the Wide Fold could easily become the best productivity phone of the year.