Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra
I tested out the Z Fold8 Ultra and the nfc antenna performance on a bare device is mostly good. I then obtained a thin case with a 1mm thickness, ideal for better nfc performance while still offering some shock protection to the device. With the case consistent reads are still possible, but when adding a magnetic phone grip reads are more difficult requiring odd angling. With these accessories on the device the implants reads are:
xM1, L0: okay
NeXT, R0: good
Spark 2, L3: not good, placement at L3 makes getting close difficult due to camera bump and magsafe phone grip
dUG4T, Dorsal Forearm: suprisingly only okay-ish
Apex Module, Dorsal Forearm: not good, requiring odd and difficult angle to get a read
Most of the performance issue is solved by removing the magsafe phone grip. But the camera bump still detracts a bit from having easy reads so I am adding a repeater sticker which is a game changer. After testing locations with the repeater boosting the field strength I am now able to read all types of implants easily and consistently.
I didn’t own the fold7 but from what I’ve read the antenna is the same/similar. At the time of this post teardown photos of the device are still designated as confidential thus are unavailable. The fold8 ultra manual shows the general antenna location here:
Testing determines this to be mostly accurate. These are the locations the Midwest Gadgets 27mm field detector determines to have the strongest field:
The left most positions just below the flash LED have the strongest field, followed closely by the bottom right position. However these are close to the camera bump and my magsafe accessory so I am placing the repeater on the right upmost position parallel with the flash LED. The open flat space available here makes reading all tested implants easy and is especially noticable at L3 with the Spark 2.