Samsung Design Chief Says AI Has Increased Phone Usage Time — Z Fold8's Form Factor Came From a Passport

Why does the Galaxy Z Fold8 look so different from other foldables? The person who led the product's design explained it himself. Executive Vice President Hubert Lee, head of Samsung Electronics' MX Design Team responsible for the design of smartphones, tablets, and watches, revealed the origins and design philosophy behind the new form factor in an exclusive interview with Monocle.

Lee, who joined Samsung in 2023, opened the interview by saying, "Just call me Huey." He summed up this generation's goal this way: "We wanted to bring a bit of a shift to our look and feel, for a new interpretation of what the foldable of the future should be."

A Form Factor That Started With a Passport

Closed, the Galaxy Z Fold8 is shorter and wider than most existing foldables. Unfolded, it becomes a screen with a 4:3 ratio, the same as a standard tablet.

Where did that ratio come from? Lee's answer was a passport. "We looked at familiar objects we live with every day. In this case, it was a passport. The way a passport is used is based on one-handed use, and that inspired us. We liked that ratio."

The standard he emphasized repeatedly was naturalness. "The natural way matters a lot. If you force something, if it feels unnatural, people won't want to use it."

Closed, It's a Phone. Unfolded, It's a 4:3 Tablet.

The Galaxy Z Fold8 was unveiled at Galaxy Unpacked in London on July 22. According to Samsung Newsroom, the eighth-generation Galaxy Z lineup splits into three: the Z Fold8 with its new form factor, the Z Fold8 Ultra — introduced by Samsung as the first Ultra model in its foldable portfolio and keeping the existing tall, narrow form factor — and the clamshell-style Z Flip8.

The Z Fold8's cover screen is 5.5 inches with a 10:16 ratio, designed to be used like a regular phone while closed. Unfolded, it becomes a 7.6-inch main display with a 4:3 ratio. Both screens run at a 120Hz refresh rate and reach up to 2,600 nits of brightness. It runs on the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip with One UI 9 based on Android 17, comes with 12GB or 16GB of RAM, and offers storage options from 256GB up to 1TB. The battery is 4,800mAh with 45W wired charging, and the camera setup pairs a 50MP wide lens with a 50MP ultra-wide lens. Samsung Newsroom said its proprietary Flex Titanium technology minimizes crease visibility on the display.

The device launched on August 7. Pricing varies by market — according to Tech Advisor, the Z Fold8 starts at $1,899 in the US, $100 lower than the Z Fold7's launch price of $1,999. The Z Fold8 Ultra starts at $2,099, and the Z Flip8 starts at $1,199.

"AI Has Increased the Time People Spend on Devices"

Asked what drove the change in form factor, Lee's answer was AI. "People are consuming more media content. Because of AI, time spent with devices is increasing, and most of that usage happens on phones. This new form factor came about because the way people use devices — the way they use foldables — has changed."

The explanation is that device usage patterns changed because of AI, and the hardware's proportions followed that shift. It echoes how Samsung framed the eighth-generation Z series at Unpacked, describing it as a combination of "agentic AI that understands the user and hardware tailored to lifestyle." The wider screen now carries AI features like Gemini Notebook, which summarizes meeting materials and converts them into videos, slides, or podcasts.

Lee was candid about where the foldable market currently stands. "Foldable phones are still a bit niche. It would be really great if our foldables became a mainstream device in every household. Of course, that has to be backed by reliability, durability, and the best quality we can offer."

Baby Bottoms and Gaps — Design Problems Unique to Foldables

Asked to define the Samsung smartphone style, Lee said he wants it to "look clean, simple, and ultimately modern." His explanation of the curved treatment at the fold is amusing. "Some brands make the edge much more rounded. But if it's too round, it starts to look like a baby's bottom. We tend to keep the edge flatter."

There are design problems unique to foldables. One is how easily the two halves can be pried open. "If the gap is big, it's easy to slip a finger in and open it. But at the same time, if the gap is too big, it looks visually awkward." Balancing ease of opening against visual appeal, he said, is a core challenge of foldable design.

His stance on the thinness race was equally clear. "There will be a limit to how thin a device can get. And being the world's thinnest device isn't really what matters. A core value of Samsung Design is thin and light, but I think the biggest factor in how a device feels to use is weight. The lighter it is, the easier it is to use and carry."

"The Phone Is Still the Mainframe" — Screens Aren't Going Anywhere

Asked what will happen to smartphone screens in the age of AI, Lee pushed back directly against a common industry assumption. "There's a lot of talk that displays will disappear and everything will be done by voice. We believe displays will stick around. Whether it's glasses, watches, or new AI wearables, we believe the phone will still be the mainframe."

That said, he expects the screen technology itself to keep evolving. "Whether it's OLED or something better than OLED, that kind of change will definitely happen." The goal, he said, is to make the experience easy even when you're not actively looking at the screen, while still delivering the best possible visual experience.

Why They Considered — and Dropped — an AI Button

Asked how prominent AI should be in future smartphones, his answer is worth noting for any company building AI hardware. "It's the designer's responsibility to make sure AI is seamlessly integrated into the device. Why should AI be visible? It should be built in so it's there when you need it, but you shouldn't have to be consciously aware of its presence."

In fact, designers inside and outside Samsung reportedly considered adding a dedicated AI button to the phone early on. "As AI becomes more and more common, seamless integration matters more." Rather than surfacing AI through a separate button, the team chose to embed it invisibly.

On the tension between designers and engineers, he said: "It's a designer's nature to design things that inspire, that stand out, that make a big impact. Designers are like artists — people with a vision. Engineers, meanwhile, are the ones who make it work. In the end, it always comes down to solutions. If you want to make something real, you have to check whether a solution exists first."

A Designer Who Came From Mercedes

Lee's career path is unusual for the smartphone industry. Before Samsung Electronics announced his hire in late 2022, he spent 20 years designing cars at Mercedes-Benz, including a stint leading design for the company in China. He's known for leading the design of the second-generation CLS. In other words, a designer with an automotive background is now redrawing the face of Samsung's foldables.

His approach of finding proportions in familiar objects, and his preference for weight — a tactile factor — over raw thinness numbers, both echo the grammar of automotive interior design, which starts from the experience of holding a product in your hands.

Market Reaction — Fold8 Praised, Ultra Reviews Split

Early reviews of the new form factor have been favorable. Gizmodo titled its review "The Most Fun Phone in Ages", and Tech Advisor's hands-on called it "the foldable you didn't know you needed." Many reviewers credit the shorter, wider build with improving everyday usability for things like messaging and watching videos.

Reviews of the Ultra, which kept the existing form factor, are more mixed. Android Central titled its review "Let's Call It Ultra in Name Only", pointing to the price increase to $2,099. The general tenor of early reactions is that the new form factor is the main event, while the Ultra remains the conservative choice.

Editor's Take

The most notable part of this interview is that AI was cited as the reason for changing the form factor. The diagnosis that "AI has increased time spent with devices" became the basis for changing the physical proportions of the hardware. That marks a shift beyond simply adding AI to a feature list — it signals a stage where changes in usage patterns driven by AI become the starting point for hardware design itself.

The question "Why should AI be visible?" fits the same pattern. While dedicated AI devices have tried to surface AI through buttons and separate hardware, Samsung considered an AI button and dropped it — on the judgment that the more common AI becomes, the less visible its presence should be. Combine that with the outlook that "the phone is still the mainframe," and Samsung's picture becomes clear: AI seeps into the phone, the phone remains centered on the screen, and the screen grows large enough to hold the extra usage time that AI has created. The next round of foldable form-factor experimentation will likely come down to who can read AI usage-pattern data more accurately.