Smartphone manufacturers still want to make foldables a thing::Foldables are barely 1% of the market, but that’s not stopping anyone but Apple.
I love the foldable idea, but it’s well beyond what I’m willing to pay for the novelty.
Same! I had the LG v60 dual screen case, and loved it. Thats the farthest I’m willing to go, though. It was unwieldy, and almost impossible to use a popsocket with, no way to use a wallet case, et cetera. It’s not worth that price tag for less options just for the occasional use of a bigger screen.
Now, foldable tablet? That’s something I’d be down for (in theory. I am poor.). Closes up small enough for a pocket, folds out when you use it. Only screen on one side, so it can tossed in a bag without worrying about it, because it’s closed up and the screen is protected.
So…a touchscreen laptop?
What pockets do you have?
Jokes on you, I’m a loony toon. /s
Totally missed the pocket bit. Disregard my previous comment, lol.
You telling me you don’t rock South Pole?
Not even those could fit a laptop 🤣
Yes. But smaller, and with a screen where the keyboard should be, and no bezel between the screens. Media consumption device, not something for any real productivity. Very lightweight, good for watching youtube or hulu, but clamshell so it protects the screen.
as with all technology though, as they become more accessible with newer models being made and other companies making foldables, the price for the same kind of quality product we have today will inevitably be less in the future.
this is already happening with cpu performance, display quality, etc… it’s finally very affordable to get a 120 hz phone with a fantastic display and snappy processor, specifically thinking of something like the Galaxy A54 or Pixel 8 (on a sale)
a general rule i use regarding technology purchasing is that newest featured top of the line products are best left to rich people who can afford it, as badly as i might want it.
this goes for cars, phones, etc… one benefit to this is that it gives the product time to become not just more affordable, but better quality as well.
the earliest foldables cracked at their fold points, but Samsungs newest fold phone survived JerryRigEverythings bend test which is impressive.
in a few more years, this quality will surely be available at sub 1000 dollar prices, containing the most modern hardware which will be even better than is available now.
Yeah, the flip phones especially seem like a good form factor if they can make the price go down.
They already have. I think the Razr can be had at a reasonable price.
AUD 1400 is not a reasonable price to me.
Ah, sorry about that. Seems like all electronics gets way expensive in Australia. Motorola has em for sale for $499 USD (~$739 dollarydoos) here
I don’t give a flying fuck about foldable screens, give me a real keyboard. The bottom half of one of these flippable screens could totally fit rows of physical buttons!
That’s just Flip Phones with more steps.
We have come full circle to what smartphones we’re like 10 years ago.
https://sg.news.yahoo.com/top-smartphones-qwerty-keypad-152557008.html
I’ve been using the z flip 4 for over a year now. I think that is what it’s called… I won’t go back. The foldable phone is awesome.
I’ve got my Fold 3 and it’s amazing. Are there compromises? Absolutely. Are they worth it, also yes.
I’ve always been the type to upgrade my phone every year, but I’m thoroughly satisfied with this device after 2 years, and don’t see myself replacing it anytime soon.
The biggest thing foldables need now isn’t new features and spec bumps. What they need is a significant price cut.
Full-size foldable phones still costing $1800 5 years in is why they’re such a tiny market share.
Agree, it’s hard to imagine not having a fold after using it for a bit
What’s holding me back is that I’m worried the fold line would be too distracting, or would get worse over time.
I also love my s23 pen
I have a Pixel Fold and I hate it. It’s heavy, almost no third party apps are compatible with the square aspect ratio of the inner screen, and when you consume media there are massive black borders due to said aspect ratio that makes the viewable space the same as a regular phone. There’s literally no point to these things.
I see why Apple never jumped on board. I can’t wait until August when I can get rid of this damn phone.
Meanwhile my dad can’t get enough of his Zflip or whatever the smaller one is. Even with the screen starting to wear in the middle, it’s lasted longer than his other phones because the folding means it doesn’t get banged around.
Same goes with mentions of physical keyboards, all I get is flashbacks of my dad angry that his sausage fingers (tilesetter) can’t hit the buttons before touchscreen keyboards with bigger buttons hit.
How about a phone that unfolds to 2.39:1 ratio such as 2.95*7.05 and folds to roughly half that.
Honestly, there’s a completely unfulfilled market for smart phones with physical keyboards right now and fuck capitalism for not meeting this need more efficiently
N900 gang represent
Once they are cheaper and more durable I’ll buy one. Its still a new form factor that hasn’t been perfected yet, but that doesn’t mean its wrong for manufacturers to keep at it
I’m waiting for them to find a better spot on durability, weight /bulkiness and hardware like cameras.
They’re still too big and bulky for me, the other components are usually a bit behind, and the screen durability seems a bit too eeh still.
Which is to say, I’m interested in one, but they’re not there yet for me.
Honestly, unless they come out unlocked for like sub $300 I’m unlikely to want to get one as I have had no problem using sub $300 new phones for 4 years now. And no interest in spending more for a tablet - I’ve gotten tablets for sub $250 for like 8 years now and they are good for my needs.
I wish they would put a proper keyboard on a phone again. There’s dozens of people like me who misses those things, why is nobody doing it?
I’m sure even fewer people want the thing I want back: a scroll wheel a la Blackberrys from the '00s. Those things were incredibly accurate and allowed pixel-specific pointing, something that you just don’t get from a touchscreen.
Totally agree. The smartphone market is wayyy to homogenous. All they compete over is price and what alphanumeric digits the chips contain. Give us foldables, sliders, cheap phones, high end phones, phones full of ports, small phones, and big phones. This is what the phone market used to be about until the mid '10s
And what about phones with a removable battery? Would be real nice to keep a couple spares instead of a big power brick I have to charge it from.
The same reason for the small phone form factor, the 3.5mm headphone jack, and the replaceable battery disappearance. All extraordinary ideas that I would personally would like to still be a thing for the sake of providing variety and choice to all customers. There’s a vocal minority that constantly asks and demands those features. But when manufacturers make and sell them, they only move a few thousand units in contrasts to the several hundred millions of sales for the traditional models. Because conceptually they might be good sensible ideas, but on a practical sense, they aren’t the main priority of the vast majority.
Would love something like that if it were available.
I love my flip phone. I’d love a phone with a hardware keyboard even more, but at least a folding flip phone is interesting in a sea of rectangles.
I just want a phone without a front camera
Is that because of the bump it causes, or something else?
I never used it and I don’t like screens with a notch.
Oh, silly me - I misread it as the rear facing camera :)
Notches suck, they’re just an anti feature, but considering the vapid selfie generation, I suspect they get a lot of use
I don’t take selfies, and certainly don’t post them to social media, but I still use my front facing camera all the time. Zoom/Teams/WhatsApp video calls are a big part of modern life. That’s what the camera’s actually for, in the context of being a “phone”.
I loved my z fold 3. Took too many falls and the inside screen had it. Would happily get another if they weren’t so expensive.
This article seems to only talk about the ones that fold like a book, and not on the ones that fold like a clam. I don’t get the fixtation on that design - at this point it’s more of a tablet than a phone, and for a tablet it’s pretty small. When opened, the Samsung Z Flip has the dimensions of a smartphone - which means you can put it to your ear or operate it with one hand. You can’t do that with the Z Fold - it’s too wide. Also, the Samsung Z Flip costs half as much as the Z Fold - which is still not cheap, but it’s not that much more expensive than Samsung’s regular flagship phone with the same specs. So I assume affordable flip smartphones should be possible - maybe not this year, but probably soon enough.
Z Flips sell twice as much as Z Folds - all while Samsung is spending most of the marketing effort on pushing the Fold. Maybe if they focused on the Flip instead they could have made this one “a thing”?
The tablet thing is the point I like about my foldable phone. I couldn’t be bothered to carry a tablet with me, but the Fold fits in my pocket without any issues and I love the bigger screen. If I have to use my phone with one hand, I just use the outside screen (which to be fair hasn’t the best aspect ratio).
It’s odd that we should need to spell out that different devices are designed for different kinds of users with different use cases.
You can take my foldable out of my cold dead hands!
which one do you have?
zFold 4
They’ll catch on and become highly desirable approximately 1 minute after Apple makes one.
I think foldables have found a niche market at the moment. People buy them, just not in the quantities the companies might want.
The main reasons for this are Samsung being stagnant on its innovation with foldables (Z flip 5 notwithstanding), much of the competition being limited to China only or aren’t being marketed at all, and the book style foldables all being overpriced (they still MSRP for $1700-$1800 plus 1000% storage markups, they should be aiming for a $1200-$1300 MSRP).
Here in the US, we have:
The usual Samsung foldables: The Z flip 5 which is a great device at on okay price, and I’ve seen a few of these (or the previous gens), notable because 85% of the devices I see are iPhones. The Z Fold 5 is stagnant and overpriced.
Pixel Fold: Hahahahaha it can’t even last a week before the screen dies lol lol haha
Moto Razr Flip 40 and its variations: Nobody knows that these phones exist, and the ones who do struggle to even find a place to buy the phone. On Amazon listing for the US version is blended with the international listings and is often out of stock, and Motorola’s website gives me an error when I try to get to the buying process on its phones. Also there’s like 3 different versions of this phone Real shame, because they are good phones for a great price if you can stomach the poor battery life.
OnePlus Open: Possibly the most innovative phone of 2023, this phone 1-ups the Z Fold line in nearly every way, although it’s still pricey. But again, basically nobody has even heard of this brand, much less this phone. They just believe Samsung is the only one that makes foldables while they choose to buy the latest iPhone.
I feel like the percentage of the market that wears button down shirts but also needs a smart phone for business, that is also small enough to close the flap so the phone doesn’t fall in cow shit or go up the grain auger, is comparatively small. It’s really annoying they haven’t changed those pockets from cigarette pack size to smart phone size.
