Your old Galaxy Note was thicker than you think, and the Galaxy Z Fold proves it

For years, thickness was the price you paid if you wanted a foldable phone. You got a little tablet that fit in your pocket, and you always noticed something was there.

Anyone who bought one of Samsung's early Galaxy Fold devices accepted the extra bulk as part of the experience. Well, it might be time to revisit that trade-off.

With the Galaxy Z Fold 8 series set to be announced at Unpacked on July 22, Samsung's foldables are now about as thin as the Galaxy Note phones many fans carried for years. In one case, the comparison is even closer than you might expect.

To be clear, the Galaxy Z Fold didn't replace the Galaxy Note. That role went to the Galaxy S Ultra, which inherited the S Pen and the familiar Note design.

What the Fold lineup did inherit was the Note's place in Samsung's launch calendar as the company's second flagship announced every year. That makes the Note lineup an interesting way to see just how far Samsung's foldables have come.

The Galaxy Note lineup ran from 2011 to 2020, and it was never an especially thin series. The large display, big battery, and built-in S Pen all took up space.

The original Galaxy Note measured 9.65mm thick. Samsung gradually slimmed the lineup over the years, with the Galaxy Note 9 — the one many fans call the last true Note — coming in at 8.8mm and the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra at 8.1mm.

Keep those numbers in mind.

The original Galaxy Fold from 2019 was between 15.7mm and 17.1mm thick when folded, depending on where it was measured. Compared to the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, it was roughly twice as thick.

Progress was relatively slow over the following years. Even the Galaxy Z Fold 6 still measured 12.1mm when folded.

Then came the Galaxy Z Fold 7. Samsung reduced its folded thickness to just 8.9mm and its unfolded thickness to 4.2mm.

Just a year later, a foldable phone that unfolds into an 8-inch tablet took up almost the same space in your pocket as the Galaxy Note 9. The Fold 7 is only 0.1mm thicker, while weighing just 14 grams more.

Samsung isn't expected to make another dramatic reduction in thickness this year. But the Galaxy Z Fold 8 series will keep its foldables firmly in Galaxy Note territory.

The standard Galaxy Z Fold 8 is rumored to measure 9.7mm when folded. That's almost identical to the original Galaxy Note from 2011, which measured 9.65mm. While it isn't expected to be as thin as the Fold 7 or Fold 8 Ultra, that's still dramatically slimmer than earlier Galaxy Fold models.

The Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra is where things get interesting. Like the Fold 7, it's expected to remain 8.9mm thick when folded. However, it's rumored to become slightly thinner when unfolded, measuring 4.1mm at the thinnest point instead of 4.2mm thanks to Samsung's new Flex Titanium display technology.

In other words, Samsung's most advanced foldable has about the same thickness as the Galaxy Note 9 when folded while unfolding into a small tablet.

Not long ago, one of the biggest arguments against foldable phones was their thickness. That trade-off was easy to see every time you put one in your pocket.

That's no longer the case. Samsung's latest Galaxy Z Fold devices are now similar in thickness to the Galaxy Note phones that millions of people used every day just a few years ago. Foldables still come with compromises, including their higher prices. But thickness is no longer one of the biggest ones.

Looking back at the original Galaxy Fold makes that progress easy to appreciate. In just seven years, Samsung has gone from making one of the thickest flagship phones on the market to making foldables that are remarkably close to the Galaxy Note in both size and pocketability.