Foldable smartphones have reached their fifth major generation, as heralded by Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip 5 and Fold 5...
For me it's definitely the durability concerns. I've valued my phone's water and dust resistance since getting an ip67 phone years and years ago. My brother had a flip and a grain of sand in his pocket got under the display; when he closed the phone the display died. And they expect me to pay more for the privilege.
The main thing stopping me is that I don’t use Android phones right now. But even if I did, I personally find the whole foldable phone thing to be a bit gimmicky. I’d want to see it have staying power over some years before I’d even consider getting one.
I totally get you on that second point, though I feel different on it. I feel regardless of phone type I would use it the same amount but I would like to have a Z fold when they're better to merge tablet and phone into one. I'm absolutely one for durability though.
I don’t see the point of it. It might be smaller in height when folded, but it’s twice as thick. That doesn’t make it any easier to pocket.
It also seems unnecessarily over complicated. The folding screen technology also doesn’t seem mature (high crease failure). I would think at least one or two phone companies would design them so they just met at a bezel-less seam rather than trying to actually fold an oled/lcd screen.
Same with me. I just don’t see the point. I can’t think of a situation where I need my screen to regularly get bigger or smaller. It might be helpful once in a while, but not enough to get a phone that does that.
Uhh the price tag? I just bought a new phone after 6 years of honoured service from my old one, payed the new one a whopping 300€ and it already felt like a rip off. Ain’t no way I’m paying four digits for a phone.
The fact that there will always be a seam in the folding screen. If I feel it while swiping over it or there’s weird glare because the surface is uneven that would drive me bananas
I’ve avoided the like the plague for all the obvious reasons, my mum has been using one for a few years now and ran into just about all of those reasons.
Permanant mid fold in screen.
Durability lasts far fewer actions than what was in the specs and warranty.
Refurbishing only introduced new issues and failed to resolve old issues.
Honestly, I just don’t find them very appealing, one of my coworkers has one and having the thing unfold into a shape more like a small tablet just looks like it’d make it harder to use one handed, and having a weird seam in the middle looks distracting. They look kinda cool and novel because I’m not used to seeing screens fold like that, but I don’t see myself actually preferring one once the novelty ran out.
I respect your opinion, but for me is it hardly a gimmick. I don’t need a tablet in my bag to view websites that aren’t compatible with mobile layouts, I have a tablet in my pocket whenever I want. Sure it’s not for everyone, just like iPhones vs Android, but the form factor of foldables absolutely solves the needs of some customers and I’m grateful there’s a line of products out there that fits my needs.
It took me a week or so to get used to the form factor but since then I can’t imagine going back to a slab. Different strokes for different folks.
I work with a lot of crappy websites and embedded systems. I can’t always carry a laptop, so a mobile device fits my use case very well. I also use my large screen to do split screen with two apps open at once, it makes taking notes and observations from videos and documentation a breeze.
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