Seems like foldable phones are taking over (e.g. Motorola Razr making waves) and only Apple is missing an entry in this form factor now. Almost everyone who can afford one swears by it with the exception of weak build quality.
What do you think? Anyone has one?
Personally, I'm betting on rolling screens (like Oppo X 2021) which seems like the most convenient take.
Personally for me; they're something I hard pass on.
Foldables have breakable mechanical parts, unwieldy software support, janky resolutions, break easily, are difficult to encase protectively, tend to be prone to sudden screen failures at the substrate (LCD/OLED) layers, and are largely still an immature technology that hasn't yet filled any niche need that I have.
I am more happy with screens that I can feel assured can possibly survive an appropriate impact and behaves like a properly hardened mineral (Mohs Hardness 7 or better) like modern screen glass typically should be. My phone should withstand occasional accidental impacts and incidents.
That expectation isn't because I'm careless. It's because I am an overabundance of careful. I deeply appreciate, value and enjoy the confidence provided by my phone being sturdy enough to survive the very occasional and casual mishaps that tend to occur. I do not like purchasing cheaply made devices typically. For smartphones; it feels like you need the device to have an actual lifespan; one should never need to replace their phone more frequently than once every 3 years; unless the phone itself breaks, or becomes obsolete due to cellular network technology upgrades.
I think they are an awesome concept, and I can see how certain people could really take advantage of the larger screen and better multitasking.
Personally the things stopping me are
Plastic screens. I already scratch my glass ones.
Cost. In Canada they are 2x more than a regular flagship.
Worse front screen. I just know I'll get lazy with the folding aspect quickly, and I'll just be using a worse front screen the majority of the time.
One of the largest upsides I see, though, is the fact you can use the rear cameras as front facing cameras. That's pretty wild and opens up WAY better selfies and video calls.
I'm really keen on folding phones. They remind me of a time when phones were more than just a shiny rectangle, when they had physical features to draw in new customers. When/if Apple finally jump in on them, I'd be tempted. But the older I get, the more cynical I become, and can't help but think about the lifespan of those £1500 devices.
I mean, my current phone is an iPhone 13 mini, and I love it. It's physical feature is that it's smaller than almost everything else out there, and I know that, four, five years from now, I'll be able to replace the battery in it for a nominal fee, and keep on using it.
I don't see foldables being that way.
How long will the screens on them last before they give up, rendering the whole device useless because the cost of repair is comparable to that of simply replacing the whole thing? And that's to the benefit of the manufacturer, whose only goal is to sell more phones. Of course, this will also massively affect the resell value. I just sold my last phone, an iPhone XR, for £180. That's a four year old device that's still worth 1/4 of it's original price. How much can you sell a four year old Razr or Galaxy Flip for, given the finite life span of the screen?
I've got a foldable one, the phone's performance is great, and I cannot feel the fold while I'm swiping around.
That said, I don't use the folding part much, it's just going straight in my pocket, and the split screen mode isn't that useful for my use cases atleast - so much so that foldability won't be much of a factor in my next purchase
I don't know, for me they just feel so flimsy, but then again, I'm the one usually buying phones that are out of date when I get them, and use them until they break, so I'm probably not representable..
I have an old cheap smartphone that I have wanted to replace for many years now. But any time I check the market it has been mostly more boring phones bloated with features and hardware that I care nothing for. The only thing that actually has me a bit excited are foldable or rollables, though I'm stuck in a endless "just wait one more generation" loop. I am gonna have to break it soon.
If it makes you feel any better, the day you finally pull the trigger, they will release a new generation with massive improvements. So it's smart to keep waiting until you're old and frail.
Same. It just seems like a really cool feature. Bought an cheap Poco pro to postpone the purchase a couple years as I was fed up with the battery dying within hours on my old smartphone. I can wait another 4 years, the feature will be just as fun then I figured.
Waiting for the price to come down and lineage support. The best thing about it is you get the best if both worlds with a big screen which can still go into your pocket easily enough.
Yeah, the 1700$ price tag on pixel foldable making me feel like it might take a while to get this down. I sure hope that 1500+ usd is not the flagship reality now. I think it'll take one mid-range foldable to break this pricing standard though.
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