Report: Apple is testing foldable iPhones, having the same problems as everyone else::Don’t expect these clamshell-style foldables in 2024 or 2025 or maybe ever.
Apple already made a folding phone. It was called the iphone 6.
My boomerang lasted many years though, I’ll give it that.
I just upgraded from the 6 Plus to the 12 Max like a year ago.
I know Lemmy hates Apple, but I love iOS. Probably because I started on it. My son almost has me convinced though. I might let him pick my next phone and put LineageOS on it.
If I were to get an iPhone, the primary reason would be for longevity. The update support has just been so hard to find on Android. Let’s see now that Google and Samsung are pledging more than 2 OS updates, but their commitment remains to be seen.
It’s pretty awesome that I got nearly a decade out of my last phone. I didn’t upgrade because it wasn’t meeting my needs either, I upgraded because I had been through 10 screens in that time and the connectors were in bad shape. I’d have to smack it to get the screen on sometimes, or pop the screen up and push on the connectors.
I personally don’t care I don’t want a foldable phone ( my last job gave me a Flip 3 and it was a terrible experience) I’d rather phone with a removable battery than with a foldable screen.
I’d rather have a unfoldable phone and a tablet than a foldable, which is literally just the worst of both worlds.
My pixel fold has been great ha
My Samsung Z Fold 5 has been awesome as well. Im too lazy to go grab a tablet, id rather always have a decent sized screen with me
My S23 Ultra/Tab S5e has as well
Removable batteries for sure, but I spent 20 years waiting for the clamshell design to make a comeback and I love my Flip (4). Phones need to fit in pockets and have a decent sized screen.
I can’t speak for the flip, but the fold 4 is fantastic. I can’t imagine going back to a slab
Doubt it will ever get back to how it was with how easily they could be removed but there may be steps towards it https://www.euronews.com/green/2023/06/22/new-eu-law-to-force-smartphone-makers-to-build-easily-replaceable-batteries
You can replace the battery easily on fairphone 5
I can’t wait for Apple to announce in a key note they’ve revolutionised the phone market again with the world’s first folding phone.
Those apple boys are so talented 😊.
Did you say folding phone? Ew
I think you’ll find it’s the new iPhone 17 with dynamic flex technology and that Tim Cook will repeatedly say on stage that this has “never been done before”.
But what apple specific non standard proprietary shit will they implement that you will have to buy from them for 10 times the price that competitors offer the equivalent. This is the interesting question.
This is no ordinary folding phone my friend. Behold ‘The HiNGE’!
Leveraging our proprietary ROTATION™ technology
They actually was first with folding smartphone though, remember iPhone 6 bending drama
Why don’t we get back to smaller smartphones like a decadr ago?
If you ignore screen size (which people erroneously use as a metric for phone size, since it’s an easily findable and easy to understand number) and instead look at actual phone dimensions, most phones now aren’t actually dissimilar. Bezels have shrunk a lot.
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Galaxy S24, Jan 2024: 147mm x 70.6mm
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Galaxy S5, Feb 2014: 142mm x 72.5mm
S24 frontal area = 10,378mm²
S5 frontal area = 10,153mm²
The S24 is only 2% larger than its decade-old equivalent. Not something you’d even notice.
If you include the thickness of the device, then the S24 is actually 4% smaller than its decade old equivalent.
Now sure, there were smaller phones, especially if you go further back, like an iPhone 3G genuinely would be considered tiny now.
It’s just worth noting that phones aren’t actually growing each year anymore like people say they are, and they haven’t for a while. Bezels shrinking is a huge change in design for TVs, monitors, laptops, phones.
People are just hearing things like “6.3 inch screen” and they think “wow, my old phone only had a 4.5 inch screen. This phone must be so much larger!”
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Same reason you can’t buy a new small pickup truck. They don’t make them because the mass market isn’t there
Cmon! If I promise to put truck nuts on it and drive aggressively will you let me get the small one?
Sorry, it’s not burning through enough diesel
I have an iphone mini… you need smaller than that? Why? It’s pretty darn small already.
They quit Mini business at iPhone 13.
Only folding phone I’ll accept is a Surface Duo type setup. Don’t fold the panel itself, just have a different panel.
With a seam? I think I’d personally absolutely hate that.
Did anyone ask for folding phones?
For the love of god, yes. About half the time, I want a phone. The other I want a tablet. A foldable phone similar to the galaxy fold is exactly what I want.
But I’m locked into the Apple ecosystem for multiple reasons. And no, “just get two devices” isn’t that great an option. I don’t use them at the same time, why not just have them be the same device? Also helps with the fact that I might want to go back and forth between something in both modes.
Well, I just got the S24 Ultra and it’s darnn near tablet size. This dwarfs my previous Note. I’m just happy to finally have a flagship Samsung with a flat screen. Rounded screens suck.
Sales suggest, “Yes.”
I live in Korea and I see the Samsung foldable phones in the hands of like every 5th person, so yeah I’d say they sell
Interesting. Seattle, Washington pretty tech centric city, I’ve only seen the one guy. Mostly a 80/20 split between Iphone/Samsung flagship phones.
The US in general is obsessed with iPhones, more so than pretty much all other developed countries
The only improvement I care about is bringing back physical buttons. Touch screens suck ass. I don’t give a fuck about cameras. I don’t give a fuck about folding bullshit. All I want is an interface that doesn’t blow dick. Apple is garbage along with the rest of them. Clueless fucking morons.
Most of the buyers think that touchscreens are very future and normal buttons are very past, because touchscreens are like magic, look! And because everybody uses them. And because more pixels. And because they don’t have to reliably enter text most of the time. Especially not looking at the phone.
I think it all still gets down to people poking screens with their fingers thinking it looks smarter and more elegant (LOL). It has a lot to do with how it looks for others.
It’s more the fact that hardware buttons take away from screen real estate. Yeah, the touch method kinda sucks, but when you’re done with the keyboard it poofs away into more screen.
If you try to put a keyboard on a recent phone for example, and you don’t try to minimize it into oblivion, you’re losing about 4/5ths of the screen. That isn’t a crazy amount, but when you’re playing a game or watching a video, that loses out on quite a bit of space.
Not to mention the aspect ratio would be off for so many things.
the problems:
- they’re crap
- they break easily because they’re crap
- they’re expensive and have a high cost of ownership because they’re crap
- NOBODY FUCKING WANTS THEM
so, why is this happening?
Um… I started with a Fold 2 and currently on a fold 5. Maybe YOU don’t want them, but it’s hardly nobody.
Hard disagree, fold 4 gang.
Personally, I love fold phones. They give me portability and a big screen which are the two things I most want in a phone
Shit on Apple for a lot of things, but if they put out a foldable it’s not likely to be crap hardware. Just overpriced with an annoying OS.
Just like Samsung’s phones then? 😆
You think Samsung hardware compares with Apple hardware? O.o
Don’t get me wrong, they don’t tend to put out shit. But they’ve also had a track record of issues like cracking screens and exploding batteries.
Apple tends to only put out the most polished version of something possible, assuming it ever sees the light of day. Their entire reputation is built around that point. If they release a foldable, the hardware will likely be on point.
That’s not to say it will be perfect, it’ll still be running their overly locked down walled garden POS software. But you’re telling me if Apple released a foldable that could have Android installed you wouldn’t be interested?
iPhone 4 antenna “you’re holding it wrong”
iPhone 6 folding
Wireless mouse charge port on the bottom
Apple pencil charging on the iPad
iPads with display bright spots due to structural adhesives underneath letting go and cables pressing up
MacBook butterfly switches
Garbage cable quality all around
