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?
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.
Novelty.
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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.
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
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
It’s so assholes on public transport or other public places with absolutely no sense of decency and narcissism that would rival the orange idiot can play videos, or music without headphones. Also, if you’re one of those people, fuck you
But you don’t need a folding phone for that?
Fidget toy
Well, if you’re my friend’s kid, the point is to make it super easy to accidentally shatter the screen when you close it.
Your poor friend lol
Yeah, I felt super bad cuz she had her own flip and it was a year or two old at that point, but her kid closed it on a small bit of something and that was enough, apparently.
Definitely doesn’t make me want a foldable phone, I’m too damned forgetful and would absolutely fuck up my phone like that.
As someone who’s used one before. I can see the benefit. But in order to be useful, it would need to replace something. Right now, the main thing it replaces is tablets. Me personally, I dont care for tablets and its also why i dont like folding phones. Either I do whatever I need to do on my phone or my laptop.
But the more interesting idea is it replacing the laptop. The idea of a singular device being able to run both desktop and mobile apps, makes it a little more intriguing. The closest you can get to this right now is Samsung dex (and I think android 17?). Hopefully in the future though, Linux phones will become more stable and useable. That’d genuinely be amazing.
Now we need nuclear battery powered foldable phones.
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.
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.
…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.
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
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.
That’s an Apple problem. There’s plenty of Android tablets that can be used as a phone
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…
It’s the same thing with a different skin. It’s the hardware that’s powerful or not, not the software.
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.
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.
It’s a full color tablet that fits in your pocket. That comes with huge quality of life improvements displaying PDFs, e-books, comics, spreadsheets, charts, diagrams, videos, etc. Have you ever tried reading a PDF on a phone screen? It sucks.
I’ve had a fold for a couple years now, and I use the inner screen constantly. If you don’t read as much as I do it’s probably just a gimmick, but it’s great for me.
The foldable screen was a game changer for me. Id never had a ebook reader before and now all of the sudden I can read a book at work on my breaks. But also the coolest part is getting into graphic novels and comics for the first time in my life. Life changing.
the coolest part is getting into graphic novels and comics for the first time in my life. Life changing.
Yup, comics suck on a phone screen. I had been looking for a good color e-reader, and all things considered the portability of the fold made the decision pretty easy
Meh, people go on about productivity and whatnot but I don’t think that’s a good thing, if you need to work you use a computer, need to do both? Then use a laptop, people already have no boundaries between work and personal life, foldables are making it worse.
I do work on my phone, desktop, tablet and laptop.
I also do free time and entertainment an all 4 devices
I didn’t say anything about work or productivity. Like it is useful for that, but it’s largely for leisure reading.
You could say the same thing about laptops, of having a desktop PC in your house.
How about be an adult and set some boundaries for yourself instead of pretending that since we have improved technology that you’re “enslaved” or something. “Woe is me, Apple hath made it too difficult to avoid my boss with this big luxurious screen!”
Nah, capitalism did that, sweetie. Your toxic boss did that. But you’re a grown up and you can assert yourself without being rude. Practice in front of the mirror if you have to, okay?
Bigger screen, smaller pocket size.
They also break easier so you have to buy more phones.
Screen is always protected though and those screens were very easy to scratch.
They can be damaged by dirt getting in the hinge. Iirc, the Pixel fold is the least at risk at an IP68 rating, but other brands tend to be IP4X (the first number is how resistant to particles)
If a piece of sand gets caught in the hinge it can permanently cause the screen to bubble out.
For the record, I’ve had a Samsung Z Fold the past 2 years without much issue besides the cases and protectors always falling apart within a year. And I’m going to switch to a Pixel Fold soon for Graphene OS
I’m gonna throw a big asterisk here though. I bought my current pixel 9 pro fold in 2024 and it didn’t break until today, when I was opening it. I saw nothing to indicate why it happened.
I have dropped it enough to be amazed it’s late this long.
I saw nothing to indicate why it happened.
That alone is a giant red flag to me. I just don’t like the idea of adding complexity where it isn’t necessary but I understand that is a choice some people make.
No point.
We basically hit the ceiling with phones ten years ago.
There’s no way to improve them without a massive shift in technology [think the shift from prop planes to jets]
Now they have to come up with new gimmicks to convince people to upgrade.
It’s like 1950’s Detroit putting bigger and bigger fins on cars that were basically the same as the 1930’s technology.
Just because you don’t see a point doesn’t mean there isn’t one.
There are multiple women I know that have a flip folding phone and love it because it fits into women’s pockets unlike a full size smartphone that can’t be folded in half.
It would be cheaper for them to buy boys’ pants and have them tailored than it would be to buy a new phone.
i mean if you’re already in the market for a new phone anyway I can see the line of thought with the flip folding ones, the Motorola ones are like 500 bucks or so which isnt bad relatively. i think they’re cool as hell but won’t get one until the inside screen is more resistant to scratches
It’s like oreos. These are the “double stuff” smartphones, haha.
It’s like oreos. These are the “double stuff” smartphones, haha.
I like the idea that they’re called “double stuff” because they doubled the “stuff” in the middle, but couldn’t think of a better word to call it other than “stuff”
That’s what I suspected.
If cost was no different I would get one if they would do it right. Motorola had one that had a normal phone sized screen and then folded in half like a dumbphone but then they put onther screen on the outside. I would like it designed to protect the screen when closed and I don’t want another screen on the outside to be available to break. conversely I use a tablet and having a phone that gave that larger form factor as an option would be great. now really my ultimate though is just a dumb/featur/flip:phone that can act as a mobile hotspot and that you can connect to and go through all the settings and features and such from a web browser to the local address of the phone. especially to upload/download contacts and calendar.
