Being the age I am, I’m just old enough to remember flip-phones.
A relatively simple concept that has been on my mind lately for reasons I’ll get to. Widely considered obsolete unless you just want a cheap phone to make calls etc., these phones featured a screen on one side, a keypad on the other, with a hinge joint between the two.
The reason that this device has been dragged back to the front of my brain in recent weeks is because I am reminded of them every time I see this:
To be clear: I’m aware that this foldable iphone is not the first foldable modern smartphone (I know Samsung released them years ago also).
But I’m also left wondering: what is the point? I think I can perfectly understand the use of flip phones as they were when they were popular, but foldable phones I just can’t see the benefit. As far as I can see, these foldable type of phones offer little to no benefit that you couldn’t get from, say a regular iPhone or Samsung phone, in terms of the consumer and how they are used in general life. I get that the hardware/software may be different, but that’s not going to be a factor in most people’s daily lives (you’re not going to care about the type of core, or the screen resolution when you make a phone call, etc.) It seems like it’s more of a gimmick from the companies making them to try and make more sales, but even if that’s the case, the product must have something unique to offer, so what is it about foldable phones that are so unique besides the gimmick of folding?
I’ve been a sammy Fold user since 2022, I’llnever go back to a typical phone. I don’t use the tablet mode too often, maybe 1-2 times per week, but it’s super handy during those situations. For me it’s mostly spreadsheets, navigating Canvas (school website), some email. I got just shy of 4 years out of my last one. Previous device died after 1 year… inner screen died, phone still worked of course, but replaced it under insurance. I’ve been in a chain of trade-ins that offset the cost of each new one device once I got past the initial cost of my first one from back in the day. I bring it up because the high pricetag is a major downside for people, but the high trade-in value is a benefit (my current device was $900 off). It’s definitely not for everybody, and definitely not something for the beach lol, but very useful to have a tablet available anytime.
Folding phones work great for selfies, you can use the front screen to compose the shot and and the quality of your rear camera.
I’d say they are slightly better in terms of watching videos. It really depends on the shape of the phone. Most of the time, the full screen is only slightly larger for widescreen content, but the big benefit is that there is a lot of dead space where you can hold the phone, or see captions without obscuring the video.
Folding phones are surprisingly much better for web browsing and reading. Larger views for web pages navigate much more easily, and the double-wide screen gives a lot of eye relief when reading e-books, and you spend less time turning pages, which does add up.
If you use any kind of remote desktop application from your phone, having the wide screen of a folder is a godsend. I do a lot of remote desktop shit on-call, and most of the time I just carry my phone with me instead of a full laptop.
Source : I use a Pixel 9 fold as my daily driver.
less damage. less chances of dropping and shattering or scratching the screen
Eh its luxury tech, you dont need one. Whilegenerally phones areborong tech I am pro niche products and trying things
Easy… I’ll give you the answer in one word…
NOSTALGIA
Us millennials thrive in the world of nostalgia and the market knows that.
I don’t understand. Do you not see that the screen doubles in size? It’s like a 2 in 1 phone/tablet. That’s the benefit.
I understand that, and yes I agree that it is a benefit for some people, but for others (myself included) it just isn’t.
As politely as I can, so you do see the point of a folding phone, you just aren’t the market for it. I agree with you that it’s not for me either, but that doesn’t mean they have no point and I recognize the larger screen use case for other people, whatever that means for them.
Size and weight are the most important things for me.
I had one of these; and I think this was the pinnacle of smartphones.
It could do pretty much everything my current phone does and I had either a gameboy or super nintendo emulator on it as well. The cool part was it was a workhorse that was small unlike today’s
tabletsphones. Oh yeah and this was in the early 2000s.Fits in my pocket
Flips are awesome, folds (opens on a vertical joint) are ass
My motorola razr 2025 is a flip smart phone, and as a lady, it actually fits in the pockets of all my pants. My old non-flip phone did not fit in my pockets. It is common for ladies pockets (if pants even have them) to be less than 1/2 the size of pockets found in mens pants.
Solid reasoning but it does treat the symptom rather than the cause, so to speak.
I fully agree. However, most people who design women’s clothing will continue to not put functional pockets in them because it does look good. So, I’ll do all I can do is continue to buy from brands that actually have functional pockets. It is exhausting. I cannot tell you how many wonderful pants at a good price I have passed up due to either completely fake pockets or pockets so shallow they are only good for a tube of lip balm. My pocket problems aside, I agree that folding phones are quite gimmicky.
Agreed. I learned all about pockets (or lack thereof) early on when my wife and I were dating. I just wish women could have pockets so it didn’t dictate other parts of life as a result.
Novelty.
This is middle tech. It is like walking is to speed walking then running. One fold is proof of concept when we get to 3 or 4 folds that’s where the magic happens. People watching a video without headphones out in public on a tiny screen, pretty annoying. We are three folds away from someone unfolding a 32" screen to watch their content anywhere also without headphones.
new folding phone concept it’s one screen but folds out 2 speakers
I often switch to my tablet for reading something on a bigger screen
If I wouldn’t have a tablet, a folding phone would be able to provide the bigger screen.
I wish they’d bring back slider phones with physical keyboards. Pre-smartphone days I used to have a phone (I don’t remember what it was) that was a full touch screen with a physical home and back button on the front and then you flipped it sideways and the back slid down and there was an entire physical keyboard for easy typing/texting. I’m not interested in a folding smartphone, but if they released a slider with an actual keyboard I’d buy it in a heartbeat. I loved that phone and I loved being able to type on the screen with a digital keyboard for quick stuff or flip the keyboard out and use actual keys when I wanted to type a novel of a text message.
My first smartphone was a Samsung Epic 4G. I still miss the keyboard sometimes…
That’s exactly what I want as a smartphone. I don’t want a huge screen or fancy features, give me a little touch screen, a good camera, a physical keyboard, and an actual home button and I’d be so happy.
They can squeeze out higher profit margins if they don’t have to make a physical model variation for each country/language. Think of the shareholders!
They don’t have to sell multiple variations because they don’t have to sell worldwide
you’re not going to care about the type of core, or the screen resolution when you make a phone call…
It’s not really a phone anymore. It’s a portable pocket computer. Being able to unfold a larger screen makes sense for a portable pocket computer.
Yes, this is the answer and it’s not that hard to understand.
What is hard to understand is the value proposition. Flips are more expensive for a lower spec device, and they’re very unreliable–they’re still breaking alot; wouldn’t expect more than 2 years out of one.
For most people in the pocket computer market, their needs would be more economically served by a high end phone and a mid tablet, or a high end tablet and mid phone, both items having a naturally longer life than a flip, and will each be used less, and are individually replacable.
All-in-all, flip phones are a fine concept, but at their price point and longevity, they don’t make a ton of sense for most people. Just easier to carry a tablet or put up with the smaller screen.
Flips are more expensive for a lower spec device
The hell are you talking about? They tend to have roughly the same technical specs as their single-screen counterparts, with the only exception being the camera because of physics.
First, I meant folds, not flips…
Second, you are right; I had some old but also specific information I was misapplying.
That said, it will always be true that you’re paying more for the screen; if you want to pay the same price for a foldable, you’re sacrificing on hardware…
That said, it will always be true that you’re paying more for the screen
Think of it this way, for a lot of people (myself included), a foldable serves as both a phone and a tablet. Most of the time a foldable is cheaper and more convenient than an equivalent phone and tablet combined.
I personally used to use a tablet 2-3 days per week. But it would be super annoying because I wasn’t using it often enough to charge it every night like my phone, so about half the time the battery would be dead or low. Because of that I often also had to carry a power bank and charge cable around with the tablet.
Maybe you don’t have a need to a tablet or you use one daily and don’t have this problem. But for me a foldable is a really useful compromise
Yes, my original comment was agreeing that folds are pretty durn nifty.
As for your price considerations, you are leaving out longevity. A regular phone and tablet will last you many times longer than a fold. In the long run, it will be cheaper to have both.
I also specified that either the phone or the tablet be high spec. Just as you don’t always need to have a big screen, you also don’t always need to have the latest CPU and most RAM. Buying a high end tablet and a high end phone to replace a high end fold would be overkill.
BTW - I had that same exact problem with my tablet, which I used maybe once a week. Every time I’d pick it up, it would be dead or almost dead. What’s killing your battery is the radios–wifi, bluetooth or whatever. I used to have a program to automatically kill those things, but then Samsung killed access (which why I will never buy another Samsung tablet again). I started trying to remember to turn on Airplane mode, but that didn’t turn off wifi for some reason. Then I tried remembering to turn it off. But how do you confirm a tablet is off without turning it on? Maddening.
I’m using the tablet more frequently now, so it’s not as bad, but I think its helped to leave Battery Saver on full time.
…expensive for a lower spec device, and they’re very unreliable…
We’re all waiting to see what Apple brings out. Perhaps they have come up with a reliable design. Perhaps it will be junk. In any case I agree that the price is not justified for most people today even if it robust and reliable. Personally, I almost never by expensive phones as my use is not very demanding.
I think Apple is buying their screens from Samsung, so wear should be the same. And, Neo aside, Apple is not known for bringing costs down.
For most people in the pocket computer market, their needs would be more economically served by a high end phone and a mid tablet, or a high end tablet and mid phone
Which makes it frustrating that the tablet market is so tiny compared to the phone one. And many of them have worse specs than even entry-level smartphones (Samsung is still selling the S6 Lite, which has a paltry 4GB of RAM and can barely handle running a single heavy app without crashing).
And Samsung is really quite awful in terms of locking down the OS, second only to Apple, which really has some really good tablets; though it is so damn annoying that the mini has such extreme hardware. It’s like they KNOW that’s the form factor people want, so they make it as expensive as possible.
My daily drivers are a Pixel 7, a 10+ y-o gaming PC running linux, and a mid Galaxy Tab A, mostly for browsing. The Pixel downloads my torrents, and the gaming PC runs my media server and does some AI stuff.
I think I’m happier having several mid-range devices that are adequate for the task they are put to than having fewer devices that are more capable.
That’s the reason I got a folding phone. I picked up a used OG Puxel Fold for around $300, installed GrapheneOS, and installed Termux. Unfolds into a large enough screen to make desktop PC application use work well. I regularly code on it and have Qt Creator and VSCode always available. I wish I could put postmarketOS or some other real Linux OS on it, but the screen makes it more viable than my actual Linux OnePlus 6 for desktop application use. It fits in my pocket too, which tablets do not.
Except that the bigger screen doesn’t offer more usability. It’s not the same productivity boost you get from say adding a second monitor or higher resolution screen to a desktop. For the most part the difference between my iPad and iPhone is the layout not the functionality.
I greatly disagree. If you do a significant amount of reading on your phone, it’s really useful to be able to have the larger screen for a slightly larger font (while still scrolling less) and hold it further away from your face.
Also, I’ve used the inner screen of my phone to have 2 separate apps running side-by-side, reading with one side and typing notes with the other, seamlessly. Just like I often do with a second/third monitor on a PC
Okay but you are still just describing the layout and I could have two apps running side by side on my OG Note in like 2011.
Except with the portability of a phone and screen real estate of a tablet.
Why does this need to be explained so many goddamned times?
With a crease down the middle and reduced battery life, oh and it’s not actually as big as a tablet….
Seriously… fuck off with the attitude.
With a crease down the middle
You’ve clearly never used a foldable.
And you’re the one going out of your way to shit on other people’s tastse. Just let people get phones that fit their needs. It doesn’t affect you, so why throw a temper tantrum? Grow the fuck up
But if someone could simply buy a bigger phone that fits well in the pocket and is comfortable to carry around, that’s also cheaper and can do pretty much everything the foldable one can do in terms of function (which you can buy) why would you pay extra for one that folds, just because it folds?
I don’t know about you, but I can’t fit an iPad Mini in my pants pocket but I can absolutely fit a folded in half iPad mini in my pocket. That is the point of folding.
What Is an iPad mini? Is it a phone though? I thought it was a tablet? I meant more like the iPhone pro max line, or the Samsung equivalent
Is an iPad mini a phone though?
See my previous comment re: portable pocket computer
Well I was asking about phones in the post. See up top
What exactly are you not understanding about my previous comments?
iPads are not pocket computers. No iPad has ever been designed to fit in a pocket as like a phone, so I don’t understand how you’ve arrived at the comparison of a foldable phone to an iPad in terms of size and fitting it in your pocket when iPads are a tablet computer that are not designed to fit in a pocket. I’m not doubting that iPad minis are computers, they’re just not by nature portable pocket computers, so I don’t quite understand why you’re drawing the comparison given that nobody puts iPad minis in their pockets (and if they do they are using them wrong because as far as I’m aware, they’re not designed to do so)
And you were asking for honest opinions, but you turned around and started being hostile and making up bullshit arguments in the comments.
Face it, you didn’t honestly want a cordial conversation. It’s pretty clear you wanted an argument just to try to win against someone with a different opinion
Lots of tablets can be used as phones, if they have a baseband modem.
Yes but iPads run on IpadOS, where as iPhones run on standard IOS, which is less powerful.
If you want to move the goalpost, sure, but standard tablets don’t fit in your pants pocket.
To be clear, I’d never spend that much money on a phone or tablet and it’s fucked up that this is supposed to be the new standard iPhone.
I mean I suppose it’s possible that they could integrate the iPadOS into smartphones at some point, but we all know why they’re not going to do that…
That’s an Apple problem. There’s plenty of Android tablets that can be used as a phone
It’s the same thing with a different skin. It’s the hardware that’s powerful or not, not the software.
My fold is narrower and fits in my pocket better while also being more or less a tablet for work. No regular phone matches its functionality.
The size of screen you get from folding phones is on par with a small tablet and doesn’t come close to fitting in pockets. And even if you could get a pocket that it could fit in, it’d be u comfortable at best and likely to be broken at worst. Folding phones get around both of those problems.
Having a folding phone is more like having a tablet with you all the time, except without the hassle of carrying an extra device around.
