How does everyone here feel about foldable phones?

Previously on Lemmy:

Past Discussions:

Well, as promised, we are talking foldable this week. The excitement is palpable, and it looks like the rest of our mod team have already started the conversation here. Go check it out.

I honestly don’t know very much about foldable phones, so I’ll let the rest of our (very smart and knowledgeable) mod team handle this one this week. :)

Last thing for future reference at the end of the week, we also have a great thread discussing foldables here too, go check it out if you want more great discussions.

RobotToaster,

I’d rather have a hinged physical keyboard.

MooseBoys,

Dumb. But I also thought smartphones without keyboards were dumb and look where we are now.

MeanEYE,
@MeanEYE@lemmy.world avatar

To me they are necessary evil. I currently have Fold4 and use it as a replacement for my laptop since I have to be available 24/7 or close to that. I grew tired of lugging my laptop everywhere, which admittedly is very lightweight but charger, bag, accessories and the rest are not. So I decided to give Fold + bluetooth keyboard a shot at replacing my laptop which worked and I can get away with 85-90% of my work from my phone. Not as comfortable as laptop or desktop, but it’ll do.

Biggest downsides are that I can’t use my phone (easily) for navigation. One would think with such big screen that would be even easier, but naah. Mounting foldable phone is near impossible. It can be done in a car where you just buy tablet mount and you are good, but I don’t drive a car.

For me it’s been a game of tradeoffs. I gain some, lose some. At times it’s awesome on other times it’s annoying. Big screen and pen come very handy when signing documents for work or giving instructions to developers by drawing on screen shots. At the same time it’s heavy and bulky. Note series from Samsung was pretty much spot on what I needed, but they turned that into S2x Ultra, which I think would be too big for me, but I might change my opinion.

Everything else am fine with and I can get use to weight and all. Samsung needs to do few things for me to be happy. Pen needs to fit in the phone itself, lugging it around as addon to your phone case is not an option. Make a slim case which grips corners only like they did with S7 Edge series, this would solve all of my mounts and protection problems. Weight loss would be welcome but I can live with that.

Oneobi,

If they can somehow shove in an spen I’d be sold.

Damn spen has me hooked on Samsung. Its such a killer feature that is so underused by the masses.

Only yesterday did it bail me out of a password issue on my Jap PlayStation account via its translation feature. Totally seamless.

But yah, needs internal housing since I choose to not rock a case.

hubobes,
@hubobes@lemmy.world avatar

I need one which comes with /e/OS or at least has proper support for it.

Also the Z Flip form-factor seems to be the only reasonable.

SmoothSurfer,

Fuck them

Gamey,

Expensive, fragile and rather useless unless you plan to replace your computer and in that case you just made a bad decition. I think it’s a very desperate attempt to hype yet another generation of smartphones no one needs with a gimmick becuase sales go down.

Kerred,

All I want is practicality and replaceable parts. Still waiting for a FairPhone like device to reach the US

Gamey,

I got my brother to buy one but can’t affort one myself, it’s damn cool tho, especially while I watch it with my broken Battery and charging port!

dunestorm,
@dunestorm@lemmy.world avatar

I replaced my tablet, I can’t replace my PC so easily lol

Now I always have my tablet with me in the form factor of a phone. I wouldn’t call foldables useless, I love multitasking and consuming media on a large screen!

Gamey,

I kind of never liked tablets ether tbh 😅

Mojojojo1993,

Precisely. Yet people are buying.

Rathernotsay,

Love the Flip and will likely never switch back to a candy bar. It’s the new small phone, which barely exist nowadays

electrogamerman,

I think they are the obvious next step for mobile phones. But we are not there yet, where I would pull the trigger and buy one for me. I think they are too flimsy right now

Mojojojo1993,

Why would they be next steps ?

electrogamerman,

I think the trend is getting bigger screens but then having a big ass phone is annoying, so imo foldable phones is the obvious next step

Mojojojo1993,

Why would bigger hardware be the next step. Isn’t that kinda dumb ?

Next step are wearables.

Next logical step is a bigger viewing platform. Screens are dumb, but we need to see information, so really smart glasses or projectiors should be next step

electrogamerman,

I agree with you. Maybe I meant the next doable step. I think we are too far from smart glasses that can replace phones. Specially at low cost

Mojojojo1993,

I disagree. 350 xreal are pretty good.

It’s just mirroring your screen. Yeah it’s not going to be as good as native and nothing compared to apple. It’s the next steps which I think should be modular.

Wearables.

Glasses, hearable. Which is just a hearing aid but better and smart watch wrist band. With the phone tying everything together.

Obviously will near near perfect latency and much more powerful batteries. Plus some kind of wireless charging for all devices.

Screen should obviously be on glasses. Just makes sense. Only need a viewing platform don’t need anything else from it. Leave grunt in phone or computer box. It streams to watch glasses wrists and hearable.

Wrist can show small information, maybe reply to easy message and give notifications. Hearable is music and audio playback. And anything you need to view is from glasses

electrogamerman,

I wouldn’t change a phone for glasses, but maybe I am a minority

Mojojojo1993,

Why ? Is not really the phone change though. It’s just the way you view content. From laptops to phones to whatever is next. We view data so going straight to eyes would cut out middle man

electrogamerman,

I dont look good in glasses

Mojojojo1993,

Fair enough. Good point.

Maybe they will get significantly better.

UltraBlack,

garbage idea. Putting unnecessary wear on screens. They just break too quickly and instead of making phones bigger every year you could start making them smaller again

Android007,

deleted_by_author

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    DoakSteezy,

    You’re the first I’ve heard doing this, how does the interior screen work with Graphene? Are there any optimizations to take advantage of it? Or limitations (split screen apps?)? Sorry if these are dumb questions

    Chickens,

    Love my z fold 4 a year in.

    MargotRobbie,
    @MargotRobbie@lemmy.world avatar

    Anything particular you like about it?

    IGuessThisIsForNSFW,

    (Context I uses to repair phones for everyone’s favorite insurance company Asurion, so my perspective is more about the physical device and components)

    I fucking hate them. Super fragile AND super expensive. Not to mention if you have one and the screen protector get damaged manufacturers warranty only covers 1 replacement. Fixing that inner screen out of pocket is around $600-$700 which at that point is just buying an entirely new note or S-series phone. The only nice thing I can say is that the 4 Gen flips and folds are a bit sturdier than the first generation, so they are improving over time. Maybe by the fold 7 it will be in a place where consumers can buy and repair them for reasonable prices, but right now I always advise people to stay away.

    pastel_de_airfryer,

    I’ve been eagerly watching the foldable space ever since the first Razr was announced, but never took the plunge because I felt the tech wasn’t there yet. You would pay flagship prices for a fragile phone with bad specs.

    Now I think they are finally good enough. My next one will probably be a Razr, I don’t trust Samsung.

    rockyrikoko,

    Fold phones fix a problem I don’t have. The tech is interesting, but irrelevant to me

    MargotRobbie,
    @MargotRobbie@lemmy.world avatar

    It is pretty cool looking though!

    Mojojojo1993,

    Niche

    Lord_Logjam,

    This is how I feel as well. They are cool and if someone gave me one I’d use it, but I’m not going to pay double to get one myself.

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