{"id":821396,"date":"2026-07-23T18:55:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T18:55:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/821396\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T18:55:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T18:55:14","slug":"samsungs-head-of-design-on-the-galaxy-z-fold-8-and-the-smartphone-of-the-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/821396\/","title":{"rendered":"Samsung\u2019s head of design on the Galaxy Z Fold 8 and the smartphone of the future"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hubert Lee is Samsung\u2019s executive vice-president and head of the mobile experience design team, which means that he works on the South Korean giant\u2019s smartphones, tablets, smartwatches and more. This includes the much-anticipated Galaxy Z 8 series of folding phones, including the Galaxy Z Fold 8 and the bigger Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra.<\/p>\n

Lee sat down for an exclusive interview with Monocle on the eve of the launch.<\/p>\n

\u201cCall me Hughie,\u201d says Lee, who joined Samsung in 2023. \u201cTo have a new interpretation of what the future foldable should be, I wanted to bring a little bit of change into our look and feel,\u201d he adds.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Galaxy Z Fold 8 introduces a new form factor that\u2019s shorter and wider than most foldables when closed \u2013 but it opens out into a tablet with, for virtually the first time in a folding phone, the same 4:3 screen size as regular tablets \u2013 it looks like a smaller version of the iPad mini.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Looking forward: Hubert Lee (Image: Courtesy of Omnicom)<\/p>\n

How would you define the Samsung smartphone style?
We want our devices<\/a> to look clean, simple and, ultimately, modern, which also applies to the opening of a folding phone. [He points to the lightly curved edges where the two halves of the fold join.] It\u2019s two positive surfaces. Some brands have much rounder sections but if you go too round, it reminds you of a baby\u2019s butt cheek. We tend to go flatter on the sections.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What are the challenges of designing a foldable phone?
Foldable phones have a design challenge that regular phones don\u2019t: ease of opening the two halves. We asked, \u2018What would be easier to open?\u2019; when the gap is bigger, it\u2019s easier to put your fingers in between and open. But at the same time, if the gap is too big, it becomes visually awkward because then you have this huge gap.<\/p>\n

What inspired the new format for the Galaxy Z Fold 8?
We looked at familiar objects that we live with. In this case, the passport. Its utility is based on one-handed usage and this is inspiring. We like that proportion. The natural way is so important because if you force something, if it\u2019s unnatural, then people don\u2019t like using it.<\/p>\n

\"\"Return to the fold: The Samsung family (Image: Courtesy of Samsung)<\/p>\n

It\u2019s strikingly different from other foldable phones. What practical benefits does it enable?
People are consuming more media content. They\u2019re spending more time with their devices because of AI and most of that usage is coming from our mobile phones. This new form factor has come about because of a different way of using our devices or foldables.<\/p>\n

Folding phones are still a bit niche. It\u2019ll be awesome if we could get our foldables to become the household\u2019s mainstream device. But, of course, we have to back it up with reliability, durability and the highest quality that we can provide.<\/p>\n

What does the future of the smartphone hold?
One size doesn\u2019t fit all. It\u2019s very diverse now. The ways people use the devices are so different. To cater to all of these different needs is going to be a bit of a challenge in the future.\u00a0<\/p>\n

How about phone screens: how will they change?
There\u2019s a lot of talk about the display going away and everything being done by voice. We believe the display will stick around because whether you have glasses, watches or all these new AI wearables, we believe the phone will still be the mainframe.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re still going to focus on providing the best experience visually, while at the same time making it easy to use, even when you\u2019re not using the display. As for what the displays will be, whether it\u2019s OLED or even better than OLED, those changes will be implemented for sure.<\/p>\n

\"\"Screen test: The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 (Image: Courtesy of Samsung)<\/p>\n

Smartphones have become slimmer over the years. Will that continue?
There\u2019s going to be a limit of how thin the devices will be. But again, it\u2019s not about becoming the slimmest device<\/a> in the world. A core value for Samsung Design is about being slim and light. When you\u2019re using our devices, we believe the biggest factor is weight. The lighter it is, the more comfortable it is to use and carry around.<\/p>\n

How does the creative tension between designers and engineers resolve itself in developing a new product?
It\u2019s in a designer\u2019s basic nature to design something that is inspiring, something that stands out, something that can make a huge impact. Designers are like artists, they\u2019re visionary people. At the same time, engineers make things work. And it\u2019s always about the solution. If we want to make something happen, we have to make sure that the solution is there.<\/p>\n

How prominent should AI be in future smartphones?
A designer\u2019s responsibility is to ensure that AI is seamlessly integrated into our devices. Why would you want to see AI? It should be embedded so that it\u2019s there when you need it. But you don\u2019t really need to be aware of it. In the early stages, a lot of designers contemplated putting an AI button in a phone but, as it becomes more generalised, seamless integration is more important.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hubert Lee is Samsung\u2019s executive vice-president and head of the mobile experience design team, which means that he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":821397,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[49,48,848,11424,1124,61],"class_list":["post-821396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-samsung","tag-smartphone-design","tag-smartphones","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=821396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821396\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/821397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=821396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=821396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=821396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}