Being the age I am, I’m just old enough to remember flip-phones.
A relatively simple concept that has been on my mind lately for reasons I’ll get to. Widely considered obsolete unless you just want a cheap phone to make calls etc., these phones featured a screen on one side, a keypad on the other, with a hinge joint between the two.
The reason that this device has been dragged back to the front of my brain in recent weeks is because I am reminded of them every time I see this:
To be clear: I’m aware that this foldable iphone is not the first foldable modern smartphone (I know Samsung released them years ago also).
But I’m also left wondering: what is the point? I think I can perfectly understand the use of flip phones as they were when they were popular, but foldable phones I just can’t see the benefit. As far as I can see, these foldable type of phones offer little to no benefit that you couldn’t get from, say a regular iPhone or Samsung phone, in terms of the consumer and how they are used in general life. I get that the hardware/software may be different, but that’s not going to be a factor in most people’s daily lives (you’re not going to care about the type of core, or the screen resolution when you make a phone call, etc.) It seems like it’s more of a gimmick from the companies making them to try and make more sales, but even if that’s the case, the product must have something unique to offer, so what is it about foldable phones that are so unique besides the gimmick of folding?
It is a gimmick. I think people just like the “wow” factor and ignore every other aspect of the phone. Some people complain about phones being too big now and so their justification is to get this phone and then… fold it.
From a practicality standpoint, makes no sense. Even more idiotic than the notch design phones had for a while. Screen protectors don’t make sense for that phone. Neither do cases. From an industrial design perspective… and what people seem to ignore is that phones are just small enough computers. Try opening one and take a look… all those parts are not meant to be folded. They will have a finite limit and it will eventually cause problems.
I would much rather just get an actual flip phone.
No point.
We basically hit the ceiling with phones ten years ago.
There’s no way to improve them without a massive shift in technology [think the shift from prop planes to jets]
Now they have to come up with new gimmicks to convince people to upgrade.
It’s like 1950’s Detroit putting bigger and bigger fins on cars that were basically the same as the 1930’s technology.
remember the curved glass, that gimmick dint last a year.
That’s what I suspected.
Just because you don’t see a point doesn’t mean there isn’t one.
There are multiple women I know that have a flip folding phone and love it because it fits into women’s pockets unlike a full size smartphone that can’t be folded in half.
It would be cheaper for them to buy boys’ pants and have them tailored than it would be to buy a new phone.
Sure, if money is all you care about then a foldable is probably not the right choice. But, many women do in fact want to wear dresses and women’s pants and having a phone that fits into them is an advantage. Or people that use a tablet day to day may find it’s actually cheaper to buy a foldable than both a smartphone and a tablet and having to carry both with them and charge both and find space for both, when a single device can serve both uses.
It’s like oreos. These are the “double stuff” smartphones, haha.
you’re not going to care about the type of core, or the screen resolution when you make a phone call…
It’s not really a phone anymore. It’s a portable pocket computer. Being able to unfold a larger screen makes sense for a portable pocket computer.
Except that the bigger screen doesn’t offer more usability. It’s not the same productivity boost you get from say adding a second monitor or higher resolution screen to a desktop. For the most part the difference between my iPad and iPhone is the layout not the functionality.
I greatly disagree. If you do a significant amount of reading on your phone, it’s really useful to be able to have the larger screen for a slightly larger font (while still scrolling less) and hold it further away from your face.
Also, I’ve used the inner screen of my phone to have 2 separate apps running side-by-side, reading with one side and typing notes with the other, seamlessly. Just like I often do with a second/third monitor on a PC
Okay but you are still just describing the layout and I could have two apps running side by side on my OG Note in like 2011.
Except with the portability of a phone and screen real estate of a tablet.
Why does this need to be explained so many goddamned times?
With a crease down the middle and reduced battery life, oh and it’s not actually as big as a tablet….
Seriously… fuck off with the attitude.
With a crease down the middle
You’ve clearly never used a foldable.
And you’re the one going out of your way to shit on other people’s tastse. Just let people get phones that fit their needs. It doesn’t affect you, so why throw a temper tantrum? Grow the fuck up
I stated my opinion in a public forum. If that shits on your tastes then that is your problem. You are the one throwing a tantrum because somebody disagrees with you. You literally weren’t required to reply to my opinion that was your choice.
That’s the reason I got a folding phone. I picked up a used OG Puxel Fold for around $300, installed GrapheneOS, and installed Termux. Unfolds into a large enough screen to make desktop PC application use work well. I regularly code on it and have Qt Creator and VSCode always available. I wish I could put postmarketOS or some other real Linux OS on it, but the screen makes it more viable than my actual Linux OnePlus 6 for desktop application use. It fits in my pocket too, which tablets do not.
But if someone could simply buy a bigger phone that fits well in the pocket and is comfortable to carry around, that’s also cheaper and can do pretty much everything the foldable one can do in terms of function (which you can buy) why would you pay extra for one that folds, just because it folds?
My fold is narrower and fits in my pocket better while also being more or less a tablet for work. No regular phone matches its functionality.
I don’t know about you, but I can’t fit an iPad Mini in my pants pocket but I can absolutely fit a folded in half iPad mini in my pocket. That is the point of folding.
What Is an iPad mini? Is it a phone though? I thought it was a tablet? I meant more like the iPhone pro max line.
Lots of tablets can be used as phones, if they have a baseband modem.
Yes but iPads run on IpadOS, where as iPhones run on standard IOS, which is less powerful.
If you want to move the goalpost, sure, but standard tablets don’t fit in your pants pocket.
To be clear, I’d never spend that much money on a phone or tablet and it’s fucked up that this is supposed to be the new standard iPhone.
I mean I suppose it’s possible that they could integrate the iPadOS into smartphones at some point, but we all know why they’re not going to do that…
It’s the same thing with a different skin. It’s the hardware that’s powerful or not, not the software.
Is an iPad mini a phone though?
See my previous comment re: portable pocket computer
Well I was asking about phones in the post. See up top
And you were asking for honest opinions, but you turned around and started being hostile and making up bullshit arguments in the comments.
Face it, you didn’t honestly want a cordial conversation. It’s pretty clear you wanted an argument just to try to win against someone with a different opinion
What exactly are you not understanding about my previous comments?
iPads are not pocket computers. No iPad has ever been designed to fit in a pocket as like a phone, so I don’t understand how you’ve arrived at the comparison of a foldable phone to an iPad in terms of size and fitting it in your pocket when iPads are a tablet computer that are not designed to fit in a pocket. I’m not doubting that iPad minis are computers, they’re just not by nature portable pocket computers, so I don’t quite understand why you’re drawing the comparison given that nobody puts iPad minis in their pockets (and if they do they are using them wrong because as far as I’m aware, they’re not designed to do so)
Yes, this is the answer and it’s not that hard to understand.
What is hard to understand is the value proposition. Flips are more expensive for a lower spec device usually, and they’re very unreliable–they’re still breaking alot; wouldn’t expect more than 2 years out of one.
For most people in the pocket computer market, their needs would be more economically served by a high end phone and a mid tablet, or a high end tablet and mid phone, both items having a naturally longer life than a flip, ald will each be used less, and are individually replacable.
All-in-all, flip phones are a fine concept, but at their price point and longevity, they don’t make a ton of sense for most people. Just easier to carry a tablet or put up with the smaller screen.
…expensive for a lower spec device, and they’re very unreliable…
We’re all waiting to see what Apple brings out. Perhaps they have come up with a reliable design. Perhaps it will be junk. In any case I agree that the price is not justified for most people today even if it robust and reliable. Personally, I almost never by expensive phones as my use is not very demanding.
I think Apple is buying their screens from Samsung, so wear should be the same. And, Neo aside, Apple is not known for bringing costs down.
Flips are more expensive for a lower spec device
The hell are you talking about? They tend to have roughly the same technical specs as their single-screen counterparts, with the only exception being the camera because of physics.
First, I meant folds, not flips…
Second, you are right; I had some old but also specific information I was misapplying.
That said, it will always be true that you’re paying more for the screen; if you want to pay the same price for a foldable, you’re sacrificing on hardware…
That said, it will always be true that you’re paying more for the screen
Think of it this way, for a lot of people (myself included), a foldable serves as both a phone and a tablet. Most of the time a foldable is cheaper and more convenient than an equivalent phone and tablet combined.
I personally used to use a tablet 2-3 days per week. But it would be super annoying because I wasn’t using it often enough to charge it every night like my phone, so about half the time the battery would be dead or low. Because of that I often also had to carry a power bank and charge cable around with the tablet.
Maybe you don’t have a need to a tablet or you use one daily and don’t have this problem. But for me a foldable is a really useful compromise
Yes, my original comment was agreeing that folds are pretty durn nifty.
As for your price considerations, you are leaving out longevity. A regular phone and tablet will last you many times longer than a fold. In the long run, it will be cheaper to have both.
I also specified that either the phone or the tablet be high spec. Just as you don’t always need to have a big screen, you also don’t always need to have the latest CPU and most RAM. Buying a high end tablet and a high end phone to replace a high end fold would be overkill.
BTW - I had that same exact problem with my tablet, which I used maybe once a week. Every time I’d pick it up, it would be dead or almost dead. What’s killing your battery is the radios–wifi, bluetooth or whatever. I used to have a program to automatically kill those things, but then Samsung killed access (which why I will never buy another Samsung tablet again). I started trying to remember to turn on Airplane mode, but that didn’t turn off wifi for some reason. Then I tried remembering to turn it off. But how do you confirm a tablet is off without turning it on? Maddening.
I’m using the tablet more frequently now, so it’s not as bad, but I think its helped to leave Battery Saver on full time.
For most people in the pocket computer market, their needs would be more economically served by a high end phone and a mid tablet, or a high end tablet and mid phone
Which makes it frustrating that the tablet market is so tiny compared to the phone one. And many of them have worse specs than even entry-level smartphones (Samsung is still selling the S6 Lite, which has a paltry 4GB of RAM and can barely handle running a single heavy app without crashing).
And Samsung is really quite awful in terms of locking down the OS, second only to Apple, which really has some really good tablets; though it is so damn annoying that the mini has such extreme hardware. It’s like they KNOW that’s the form factor people want, so they make it as expensive as possible.
The iPhone Duo (pictured above) makes a good case. It’s a 5.4" phone and iPhone users have been calling for a sub-6" phone for years. Now they can get one, albeit at $1999 to start. Then it opens up to a tablet-sized device for media consumption. So it’s convenient.
I think there’s a greater point to be made here, and it’s the folding screen itself. I think it’s a modern marvel of technology, and it would not advance like it has without mass adoption. Folding phones are pushing that, so the tech is getting better. I don’t really see much of a point for it, but I’m glad it exists and a mass market product is driving costs down, and R&D up.
There are a lot of neat things the Duo does, but none of them are essential to what I do, and certainly not for the cost. For example, I do use StandBy, the iPhone feature where if it’s charging and it’s on its side, it turns into a clock. The Duo does it in “tent” mode, which means it’s open halfway and it’s standing on its sides, with its hinge up in the air. The outer screen displays the clock face. Problem is, a regular iPhone can do the same thing with a FlyGrip, a PopSocket, or a $1 picture frame or plate holder you got at Goodwill. I have a $9 phone stand I use at my bedside.
I think it’s funny that Samsung and other Android OEMs have been making them for years, but now that Apple is also making them, people are starting to ask questions. Maybe they had the questions before, but they weren’t worth the time to ask when their brand wasn’t making them. And that’s fair. Unlike Android, iOS doesn’t exist to vacuum up all your personal data and sell it to advertisers. So it’s perfectly reasonable to be skeeved out by the advertising company that makes phones and the phone OS everyone else uses. Samsung isn’t an ad company, but they have to include all the data collecting bits. Gods forbid they make their own OS. Oh wait, they did, it was called Tizen and nobody wanted it.
I think it’s funny that Samsung and other Android OEMs have been making them for years, but now that Apple is also making them, people are starting to ask questions
To be fair, I did have questions back then, I just didn’t have Lemmy lol. Thanks for your share.
As the owner of a fold6 I can tell you that one of the reasons I got it is that it could replace the occasional tablet use when you need more space eg maps and pictures.
In that, it succeeded quite well. However, everything is now optimized toward the standard phone format so it’s nice but not really that important.
Would I buy a phone with a foldable display again? No, because after 22 months with like 1 fold a day the protection already comes off (replacing it is only 20€ if paid but I have to go on a field trip to get it made) and the price for the device is just not worth it.
So next time standard format again.
That is definitely not normal, I had my z fold 5 for 2 years and I would say I’m a power user, unfolding it at least 10 or 20 times at minimum per day, and nothing on the phone wore out
Untill the tech improves, nothing.
I’ve seen three foldey phones in the wild, and they all had a smattering of problems; dead pixels along the foldey bits, cracked plastic along the foldey bits, scratches on the non-foldey bits because shrapnel gets in between the screens, ect…
If we had just kept working on the keyboard slidey phones, we’d have pocket terminals by now, but the keyboard died and was replaced with software…
Edit: typos
I don’t get it either. Seems like mostly just a novelty item. I sometimes get the feeling that smartphones have become pretty much as good as they can get in this current form and manufacturers are just trying to come up with imaginary problems to solve in order to stand out somehow.
Just buy any mid-range Android (or and older iPhone) and you’ll get a great device that does everything it needs to and you can stop thinking about whatever the next year’s release does marginally better than the device you have now and use that mental energy on something else.
Slop for the sloptumors. Flimsy expensiv gadgets that will be replaced by a new model in less than a year, an even more expensive one no doubt. Fodder for the ever hungry god of capitalism, for if it stops eating it will cease to exist. A single speck in an unending stream of shit.
My (adult) son has had a Samsung Fold for several years now and really likes it.
For him, it’s basically a phone and tablet combined, and he no longer uses a separate tablet.
It’s also good for running two apps side by side, and I see him doing that a lot (you can setup app groups that automatically launch together on each half of the inside screen).
Flip phones were great!
The form factor itself isn’t bad, it’s just pretty unusable with all the durability issues. It’s also too large, until they are thinner, they are more cumbersome to use as a phone.
Once they are durable, thinner and much cheaper, they will probably become very popular.
For all the naysayers - I’ve wanted a fold since the S4 (2014ish) when Samsung demo’d two S4’s hinged together.
Being able to double screen real-estate when needed (eg having a tablet sometimes) but carrying it in a phone-sized device makes lots of sense.
And having double the physical space inside offers an opportunity for better heat management - if only to shift the battery to the other side (also means you can fit a physically larger battery).
Lots of potential, but also lots of hurdles to overcome. Unfortunately they’ve all focused on making the screen seamless first, rather than making the software seamless first.
I guess it also depends heavily on what/how you want to use it. Like, most of that stuff probably wouldn’t be of much if any benefit to me, but I can see that it clearly is to some people, whether that’s at work or just in general life.
I have a new motorola razr.
Mainly I just think it is neat, but I do like the little screen on the outside. Ive actually noticed my screentime has decreased a lot. Its something about that extra step of opening it up and being able to handle little things on the small exterior screen.
I like how it fits in my pocket when folded compared to a normal phone
Another small thing is that I can set it up half folded to hold my flashlight while working or act as a camera tripod.
Battery is really good too. I’m not sure if it can just fit more battery or if the small exterior screen limits battery usage when closed, or both.
Sometimes you want a larger screen for media or multitasking.
Or in the case of the flip-phone form factor, you want a phone that you can put away or fit in a smaller pocket/purse.
I’ve had one of the smaller Samsung foldables for almost 2 years now. I hate Samsung’s software experience, but the hardware is actually pretty great due to the half size in the pocket. Im having issues with my screen protector now right at the hinge now and need to see about getting it replaced and I used the phone on a river in a dry bag once and ended up getting a piece of sand in it early on so there is an annoying little spot on the screen protector from that too so I avoid putting the phone in more rugged environments now.
TLDR: So yeah, best thing is a smaller device to carry around but other issues with them.
I think the point is to make them bigger so they can start selling smaller ones in the hear future and keep the endless cycle of “New” phones going on forever, like a subscription but with extra steps.
