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.

Zerfallen,

Foldables are basically the opposite of what I want: a small slab flagship phone, maybe 5" would be ideal. I don’t want it to become huge at any point.

solidgrue,
@solidgrue@lemmy.world avatar

I’m still rocking the OP5T+LOS20 and I’m not even shopping yet. It’s everything I need in a daily driver.

Mayyybe the Fairphone 5 if the specs are there at launch. I can afford to wait.

Zerfallen,

That’s awesome. I will need to find a new phone soon, and I’m dreading it.

BrianTheeBiscuiteer,

I miss the Galaxy mini series of phones. When picking my last phone size was a major consideration. I was a fervent Moto supporter but they just keep getting bigger and lag too far behind other flagship phones.

foofiepie,

Whatever happened to tiny phones? There was a glorious moment when the future promised cool miniaturisation and then everyone wanted an HD TV in their pocket. Did non-tat (I know about the cheap prison phones) mini phones progress at all?

ExtremeDullard,
@ExtremeDullard@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

You my friend are obviously not old enough to need reading glasses or progressives. There comes an age at which bigger screens are better. You will know one day :)

Zerfallen,

Is true, i don’t need reading glasses, and maybe one day I’d feel differently, but the OP asked for personal views on foldables, and at this moment in time, that is my view :)

Plus people of all ages did fine with smartphones with 3-5" screens for like a decade, including iPhones 1-5 i think.

30mag,

What do you think of the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip5? It’s a normal size phone that folds in half.

Zerfallen,

It’s cool technically and i love gadgets. But practically speaking, when unfolded, it’s too big, and when folded it’s too small (plus a waste of money if I’m not opening it to use, and thicc). Just a simple small slab would be so convenient.

The flip seems like all the ergonomic issues of a large phone, with the added hassle of needing to keep opening it. Still enjoy following the tech involved though.

Lord_Logjam,

I appreciate a small phone as well. The S10e was a brilliant device. I’ve gone back to a bigger phone now as there isn’t really much of a choice.

Anti_Weeb_Penguin,
@Anti_Weeb_Penguin@lemmy.world avatar

They are terrible, i would never buy one.

Poob,

I’m very interested in the ability to have a large screen when I need it. I am hesitant though. The prices are crazy, which isn’t surprising for new tech. I’m also going to wait a bit and let them iron the kinks out before I consider buying one.

I’m also pretty rough on everything I own, so it’s going to need to be as tough as a current slate phone before I look at them.

kratoz29,

I like the concept, but I don’t think we have endurable hardware for that yet… And I can’t afford them anyway.

I just hope they don’t end up like many of those interesting Android promises that go nowhere.

ljdawson,
@ljdawson@lemmy.world avatar

After my flip 3 broke not so positive.

MargotRobbie,
@MargotRobbie@lemmy.world avatar

Hi LJ!

ljdawson,
@ljdawson@lemmy.world avatar

https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/366214e3-d583-4fd8-ae47-4ee64befbb5e.mp4

clueless_stoner, (edited )
@clueless_stoner@lemmy.world avatar

How’d it broke? I have a flip 3 since it came out and its upper case fell out, but phone’s not broken yet lol

ljdawson,
@ljdawson@lemmy.world avatar

Whenever you open and close the screen flickers. Half the time when you open it doesn’t realise…

Rooki,
@Rooki@lemmy.world avatar

And you probably cant get it repaired. As those are declared most of the time as “Prototype” or similar.

HelluvaKick,

Flip 4 broke when I bumped the hinge in my pocket. Caused the middle of the screen to bubble, and then it cracked down the crease. Neither side would work after that.

jaden,

Mine broke too easily, and I made the mistake of buying the immature product used. Replacement parts were only $50 cheaper than buying another one used.

Purplexingg,

I fucking love foldables and think everyone should have one. I truly believe they are the next step in phone technology and cannot wait for when they solve the crease “problem” so people can stop complaining about it. Also getting the price to $999 is pretty key too. Or apple jumping on board.

WhoRoger,
@WhoRoger@lemmy.world avatar

It’s one bandwagon I’d like Apple to jump on. Whenever Apple makes something, everyone else has to do the same (only better and cheaper). So once there’s an iFold for 4000 $€£ or something, a year later every noname brand will have a 300 $€£ foldable.

Longmactoppedup,

Partner has the z flip4 and is very happy with it.

Although the folding mechanism on the first one seized up. When it was forced open, the pixels on the crease turned off.

Took it back to the retailer and they swapped it on the spot. They were out of 256GB versions, so they provided the 512GB one instead. As the price of them had dropped a lot since purchase, the store gave $250 cash back for the difference.

MangoPenguin,
@MangoPenguin@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

I like the idea, but they’re way out of my price range and easier to break too.

breakerfall,

I have a Surface Duo 1 and I really think they got the form factor right, as opposed to the folding glass one-big-screen types. The SD also folds backwards so you don’t need (to pay for) three screens. Also, most of the functionality of the Pixel Fold is shown off as multitasking two apps side by side, which is exactly the power user use case the SD was made for.

IMO two-screen side-by-side folders could be down to $1K at this point if they didn’t all employ fragile bending glass and superfluous outer displays.

Also, I like the idea of a Flip… again, without a big outer display. Give me e-ink on the outside or something for the clock and message previews – I’ll open the phone if I need to anyway.

WhoRoger,
@WhoRoger@lemmy.world avatar

IMO two-screen side-by-side folders could be down to $400 at this point

FTFY

BananaTrifleViolin,

I used to have a clam phone when I was a kid and I love the idea of a foldable phone now.

But I wouldn't buy one any time soon - the idea of a hinged phone and screen just sounds far to vulnerable to wear and tear. As soon as you start adding moving parts you increase the risk of failure.

It's a great concept but at the moment it's a superfluous luxury and as they're so expensive then the cost of a breakage is just too much to tolerate. As the technology and manufacturing improves and/or becomes cheaper I might get one. But at present I don't want to risk buying a very expensive phone that could break in such a basic way as a hinged phone and folding screen could.

AnonymousLlama,
@AnonymousLlama@kbin.social avatar

I'm still not sold on the displays. Every time I've seen one the promise has always been "the screen is better", but when eventually I get hands on with them all I see is a massive crease in the middle and I can't unsee it

Purplexingg,

Some points you can’t really refute are cost and repairability. Yes, they’re expensive and yes, they’re quite difficult to repair, there’s no getting around that. One thing you don’t have to worry about is the screen though. I’m not sure what people have told you about it being “better,” because at this point most phone screens are pretty incredible; great brightness, contrast, oled, 120hz. Where foldables do shine is content consumption. I use my phone A LOT. And trust me when I say that the experience is pretty unparalleled. Multitasking, large video streams, gaming, browsing Reddit and now Lemmy were all absolutely incredible experiences and I can never go back to a slab phone. I bought both the 14 pro max and the pixel 7 pro to try to come back but it’s just not the same at all.

And the crease thing 100% disappears after 1 hour of using it. A lot of people hear about the crease, decide they don’t like it, try to have a hands on, see the crease and focus solely on it the whole time saying to themselves, I hate the crease, why would anyone buy this. It’s analogous to when apple did the notch; tech people were like what the fuck is apple doing, why are they making phones so ugly, I use that part of the screen, Samsung made mocking ads about it. And now every phone on the market has some variant of it because people learned it’s really not a big deal. Your fingers never go in the middle of the screen to feel it and as long as you have your phone on like 10% brightness it will wash out the crease from being apparent if you look at it dead on.

Trust, next time you’re at best buy check out Google or Samsung’s offerings. The phones are incredible.

Mr_Dr_Oink,

I actually find it quite nice to fidget with the crease. Like when im scrolling in portrait mode ill use my index finger and move up the crease. Its one of those weird things people do. I like caressing the crease 😜

nehal3m,

They seem extremely difficult to repair so it’s a hard pass from me.

WhoRoger,
@WhoRoger@lemmy.world avatar

Everything is stupidly difficult to repair these days. Just today I watched repair videos of Samsung Fold 4 and the old Razr, and it honestly didn’t seem much worse than any other phone. At least you don’t need fucking lasers to remove the backplate like on iPhones.

TheInsane42,
@TheInsane42@lemmy.world avatar

I had a Nokia 8110 and 7110 which had a sliding mechanism to get the mic closer to the mouth (and to look cool), that made (some) sence. Now, I don’t see the advantage of a folding phone. Why make a phone shorter while making id thicker? I’m missing the ‘small’ 4" phones that looked like bricks compared to the old gsm models.

Hazdaz,

As with a lot of the negatives (including price), they will improve as time goes on,but to a large degree I see foldable as a fun engineering exercise to look at, but mostly pointless for the time being. I especially find it ridiculous when a foldable is 2x as thick as a regular phone and reviewers act like it’s magically half the size when you close it. You’re sacrificing height for thickness, but the volume is almost the exact same as a regular device.

As someone who loves the large screen of my tablet, I like the idea of a foldable, but they are a long way away from mass adoption.

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