If you follow smartphone news, you've probably heard Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 users wax lyrical about its new form factor.

I've written about how it's amazing for video, and other writers have said they want it to be the new, normal foldable shape.

But there's another aspect to the ratio which people haven't discussed as much.

I've used the Z Fold 8 for almost a month now, and like everyone else, I've paid too much attention to the inner, main display, and not enough to the outer, smaller one.

To better appreciate the phone's outer screen, I forced myself to stick to it for a long weekend. No unfolding to play a game, watch a video, or respond to a message. For four days, I used only the one screen.

Remembering the Galaxy Z Fold 8's forgotten display

It's the one you use all the time

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8's 5.5-inch, 1248 x 1972, 120Hz cover display is the one I use most. It's handy for quick tasks, checking notifications, and most everyday tasks.

However, the point of a foldable phone is its larger, inner display, often referred to as the "main" display. That's why more attention has been paid to the Fold 8's 7.6-inch, 2448 x 1848, 120Hz display.

This all leads to the cover display being forgotten — I've seen much less coverage on it — and it's a shame. I was immediately drawn to it, thanks to its compact and pocketable size.

The screen's 16:10 aspect ratio makes it stouter than your average smartphone (they tend to be 18:9, and plenty are 20:9 nowadays, both of which are thinner than 16:10), and you can feel it while you're holding the phone.

When I started using the Fold 8, it took me a while to get used to the wider, shorter cover form and the hand stretch it required. I eventually found my footing, especially because it was so handy to reach the fingerprint scanner.

That sums up my initial experience with the phone's main display. Both before I started my long-weekend trial, and during it, I loved how the small screen meant I could easily reach icons and buttons at its extremes.

I quickly get tired of huge smartphones, and the Z Fold 8 was a breath of fresh air. I barely missed its large outer display, though I felt a little ridiculous playing games and watching videos on the cover display when I knew a larger one was hidden underneath.

However, the more I used the Z Fold 8 in its compact form, the more one annoyance showed itself. One task doesn't feel native on the smaller, wider display, and if there's a Z Fold 9, I'd love to see it addressed.

The Fold's keyboard takes up far too much room

Half the screen is occupied

When you need to type anything on an Android phone, the keyboard appears. It's designed to reach a certain height to show all the keys, and because of its aspect ratio, the Z Fold 8 falls afoul of that height limit.

On the Z Fold 8's cover screen, the keyboard takes up a full half of the display. That's not an exaggeration; the images above show how much space the letter icons take up.

It's frustrating because when you're typing, you can't see much of the rest of the display. That includes the search bar, results page, and sometimes your written comment.

In Google Maps, you see fewer results than you otherwise would. Spotify shows only a few artists or tracks, and I didn't get a full single row of Netflix results, as you can see.

The worst offender is WhatsApp. If you're responding to a long message, you can't read the whole thing while you type your response. And if you're writing something lengthy, the text box combines with the keyboard to obscure responses.

It's a problem the main display has too. I've found the keyboard takes up more space than I'd like.

This isn't a deal-breaker for the phone by any means, but it's something I haven't faced in the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra. Due to its different aspect ratio and form factor, the keyboard takes up less of the screen on that foldable.

To work around the problem, I installed and set up GBoard for the Fold. It takes up less space, but the difference is tiny, and the keys don't look designed for the larger display like Samsung's Keyboard does. GBoard looks childish on a Fold. No thanks.

An unavoidable issue I'd like to see fixed

Given the keyboard's nature and shape, I can see its screen dominance being a hard problem to avoid. I can't say I'm surprised, or that it'd affect my buying decision if I didn't already have the Fold 8, and getting the Ultra is an easy solution.

However, it's something I'd love to see Samsung look to address in future foldables, if it brings this form factor back. After all, it's created fold-friendly software tools like Flex Mode, so an adapted keyboard makes a lot of sense.

Perhaps my problem is that I don't appreciate Samsung's Keyboard enough, though. Thankfully, there are some simple Samsung Keyboard tips to speed up writing, which I should check out.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8
  •                 **SoC**
  • Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy
  •                 **Display type**
  • Dynamic AMOLED 2x 120Hz
  •                 **Display dimensions**
  • 7.6-inch open / 5.5-inch closed
  •                 **Display resolution**
  • 2448 x 1848 open / 1972 x 1248 closed