After 2 weeks away, I can confirm: the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra is the ultimate vacation phone

When I realized that the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra would be the phone I was using when I embarked upon two weeks of vacation, I was worried.

Testing phones for a living, I change between them a lot, and yet I’d never taken a foldable phone on vacation before. Some Android Police writers swear by clamshell foldables while traveling, but I didn’t know if the Ultra’s battery and durability would be enough.

As the title suggests, though, I was totally wrong. I’m ready to declare it the ultimate vacation phone; I needn’t have worried about its battery or how well it’d survive in my bag, and it brought some useful extra perks to the table.

A specs sheet you come to appreciate when you’re away

It doesn’t Fold under pressure

Before we look at the Ultra-specific bonuses, it’s worth noting this is a premium phone, and its premium trappings are naturally useful on holiday.

For example, the telephoto lens gave me more options for holiday snaps than a dual-lens phone would have (looking at you, Z Fold 8), and the 200MP main sensor employed some industrial-strength pixel binning to make night shots look vibrant.

It’s also a powerful phone, so I didn’t have to wait ages for apps to load when I was out and about, and fast charging meant I could plug it in before leaving the apartment each day and still have a full tank of gas.

The Ultra’s big screen was an airport savior

No more failures to scan

It feels like half of traveling these days is QR codes. Your boarding pass is now a QR code, train tickets are QR codes, sharing the Wi-Fi password in a rented apartment is done via a QR code. And yet they’re still woefully unreliable to scan.

Half the time, I use a train ticket QR code; it doesn’t work, and I have to find an attendant to let me in. I don’t think I’ve ever given an airline attendant my boarding pass without them scanning it five times before it works.

When traveling this time, I made sure to unfold the Z Fold 8 Ultra and open my boarding pass on it. The resulting QR code was larger and, sure enough, scanned much quicker.

This took away loads of the usual travel stress, so I could waltz through barriers and keep that timing tight.

It’s the real point of a foldable: keeping entertained on the go

Prepared for hours of gaming

People buy foldable phones for a range of reasons, but for me, the larger screen offers one key purpose: extra real estate for streaming TV shows and gaming. I’d estimate I was on transport for at least 20 hours over the two weeks; that’s a lot of time to burn.

For TV and movies, Samsung’s wider foldable unfortunately ruins the Ultra. Because of the aspect ratios, wide-screen videos aren’t any bigger on the inner display than on the outer one. I watched a few episodes of Citadel with gigantic black bars.

For gaming, however, it’s another matter. I downloaded the mobile port of a game I was obsessed with a decade ago, Total War: Empire, and those 20 hours absolutely vanished.

Complex games like this can feel cluttered on a normal phone screen, but with double the screen space, gaming feels markedly more fun. I can see much more of the map at once, or arrange my troops in formations while keeping tabs on the whole battlefield.

The Ultra’s battery capacity struggles on long trips

I love it for vacations, but there’s a problem

Foldable phones aren’t perfect, even after this many generations, and a few stalwart Z Fold 8 Ultra problems required some tinkering to solve. For example, the phone’s battery life isn’t great. It’s manageable day to day, but traveling drains the battery faster.

Constantly consulting Google Maps and websites for recommendations, looking at your phone in the airport to pass the time, getting your passes and travel ready. These eat through your charge. On the Z Fold 8 Ultra, my battery percentage plummeted daily.

As a solution, I turned on the standard Power Saving mode, and it dramatically increased the phone’s battery life. This stops background syncing and limits other functions, but it didn’t affect my use that much. I’ve kept it turned on ever since.

It’s the phone I’ll pick up for my next trip

When you go on trips, it’s important to look at your phone as little as possible. But they’re a valuable tool, and we rely on them when we’re vacationing just as much as in our day-to-day lives.

Because they’re fragile, I was worried about using a foldable. But my two weeks away have bolstered my confidence that this kind of device can survive in your under-seat baggage or in your pocket on a hike, just as much as any other device.

It’s always worth keeping your Android phone and data safe when you’re traveling.