The Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra, Fold8 and Flip8 on display at Samsung Gangnam in Seoul (Samsung Electronics) Samsung Electronics said its new Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra, Fold8 and Flip8 drew 1.44 million preorders in South Korea over seven days, the highest figure ever recorded for a Galaxy smartphone. The tally, logged between July 28 and Monday, breaks the 1.38 million record held by the Galaxy Note10 since 2019, according to the company. It also tops the 1.35 million preorders for the Galaxy S26 series in March and last year's 1.04 million for the Fold7 and Flip7, a rise of nearly 39 percent.Samsung said sales ran at roughly 140 units a minute, and since Note10's record was set over 11 days, this year's pace was far higher.Driving the result was the standard Fold8, which accounted for about 70 percent of preorders. The model marks a departure from Samsung's taller book-type foldables, pairing a 5.5-inch cover screen with a wider 7.6-inch inner display, while the larger productivity role shifts to the Fold8 Ultra. The midsized redesign appears to be what expanded the buyer pool.Samsung said consumers in their teens through 30s again made up about half of purchases online, roughly consistent with last year. The company also said the number of female buyers in that age group for the Fold8 Ultra and Fold8 more than doubled from the Fold7, a device whose sales had skewed male.The record lands as Samsung's mobile and network division swung to an operating loss of around 700 billion won ($491.6 million) in the second quarter, hurt by rising memory and component costs. The company has said it will lean on higher-end devices to defend profitability in the second half.The lineup, which starts at 1.68 million won ($1,179) for the Flip8 and 2.28 million won for the Fold8, begins its global rollout across more than 100 countries on Aug. 7, ahead of Apple's expected entry into the foldable market later this year.