I’m shocked that Apple didn’t just make the crease more obvious and consider it a design element and advertise it as something the consumer wants.
They are trying to make foldable iPhones because everyone else is making a foldable phone, but have they stopped and asked themselves if people want and need a foldable?
I have yet to see a real use case for something like a Samsung Z flip, and carrying a bulky Z fold phone in my pocket only to be able to have a tablet once in a while and watch a movie is not interesting enough.
I want a foldable phone.
Phones have become larger abd flatter over the years, and they’re just uncomfortable to have in my pocket. A foldable phone will solve this issue.
I didn’t buy one yet due to not believing the tech is there yet. Screens are very scratchable and the battery life is poor.
I love my flip 6. I had a flip 5 which I abused with no case on it. Got a deal to trade it in broken as fuck for a 6 straight up. I would hate to go back to a regular phone. They are better in every way and the crease isn’t even noticeable after using the phone for a couple days.
Nintendo DS emulation. That’s about the one novelty use case.
My wife loves her flip. I personally don’t like them, yes there is crease right where it folds and over time it will make your phone stop working. We just replaced hers after months of her dealing with the phone glitching. But she does enjoy it and requested getting another flip phone.
We just replaced hers after months of her dealing with the phone glitching. But she does enjoy it and requested getting another flip phone.
Does not compute. My wife had her Flip 3 replaced two times, and now she bought a Fairphone. Unfortunately they seem to be unreliable, the phone was quite nice otherwise.
The use case is people who want pocketable, one handed phones. It doesn’t matter to me if they make another iPhone mini or an iPhone flip. Whichever one they release will be my next phone.
The last iPhone mini release was in 2021. I don’t want a near 7” pro max phone. 6.4” is too big in my opinion as well.
I agree the Flip and kiln are utterly pointless, just a big ol nostalgic rip imo.
But book styles like Fold are pretty great, being able to go from phone to tablet whenever has been amazing! My Pixel 9 pro fold is my most used tablet ever, I’ve had a lot of tablets over the years and they all end up collecting dust in no time because they suffer from a fatal flaw. They’re never near me when I need/want a tablet the most.
I would have considered a folding book-style phone if I wanted a tablet. I agree that they’re likely the only viable use case that isn’t a complete gimmick.
I just got my pro fold, I haven’t used it that much as a tablet to be honest. It is nice to do when I need it.
Did you get the Google insurance thing that’s quite pricey with it? I have a few days to get it.
Do I need a foldable phone? No. Do I like the idea of owning a phone that is actually small enough to be used with one hand and can fit anywhere? Yes. Besides, closing it to end a call is very cool.
The ones I have seen in stores are still too long to be used with one hand or fit comfortably into a pocket. My Pixel 7a is about the biggest I can use one-handed, and even then there is awkwardness.
Most Androids have a one-handed mode, where it shrinks the display into a corner, so you can reach everything with your thumb.
Yeah, iPhones have similar modes, swipe down and the screen scrolls down you can also swipe the keyboard to either side for better access too.
I hardly ever do that though, except by accident.
Wouldn’t it be better to just, y’know, cut out the free space around it?
you mean having a small phone in the first place?
exactly
I miss small phones
Those are probably the Samshits and I too avoided them because they’re too damn long (And their user hostility lol), the Pixel 9 Pro Fold is what you want, folded it’s almost as big as the 7as screen (6.3 to 6.1 on the 7a)
First - 6.3 usually means already over the edge of comfortable, 7a is already almost too much. Second - thickness adds to it when it’s in your hand. And third - why would I spend huge money (doesn’t seem like it would decrease in price with generations as much as a normal phone, it might be EOL when it becomes affordable) on something that breaks more easily and is still bigger?
The implication is that when closed you can use them one handed
I have a Z flip and while it’s far from perfect, foldable flip phones are great and I’d choose them over a same-spec regular phone every day. Much more convenient to carry in my pocket compared to a slab and basically having an included tripod for photos is pretty nice as well.
My z flip is hands down my favorite phone I’ve ever owned and I didn’t get it expecting to like it much. I just needed a new phone and with Samsung’s recycling program, my old near-tablet sized phone made the switch like barely 100 bucks.
There are a lot of small advantages it provides that quickly add up to it being an overall superior experience. Now if only Bixby wasn’t the worst fucking thing ever.
Note: the latest pixel fold is about the same size and weight as the pixel 9 pro.
It’s actually kinda incredible that it is that light and thin while folding.
All
Of Apple’sFoldableiPhonePrototypesHave Visible CreasesGerman renowned institute “Stiftung Warentest” just tested two foldables (both Samsung I think) and had them 50.000 times folded and unfolded (they build machines to
torturetest stuff) and reported no creases.50.000 times is over four years for 32 uses every day (twice every wake hour). Would be more than sufficient for a normal user think.
Except Huawei Mate XS 2, Honor Magic V2, Oppo Find N.
Edit: search engine link unreliable.
So many links about creases.
Many such creases!
There have been plenty of fads over the lifespan of the smartphone market. E.g. curved edge screens. I think curved screens are another and Apple is right to ignore it. There’s too many compromises required for a foldable and not much benefit to be worth it.
My personal theory for the curved edges is, that samsung just wanted to prevent cheap off brand replacement screens.
Mine is that they wanted it to stand out, compared to all the other phones with flat screens at the time, especially with all the design clones.
You would look at it and go “oh that phone looks funny, must be a Samsung”.
Foldable at least has theoretical benefit, curved screens on a phone are fucking terrible
What I don’t understand is why nobody makes a foldable phone where it’s just two flat screens with an invisible bezel along one edge so they fit seamlessly together when fully opened.
It’s not like there’s a use case where you operate the phone half unfolded and require both halves of the screen to be seamlessly connected.
If the flexing feature wasn’t a gimmick and there was an actual use case for a foldable pocket iPad, someone would have released a phone like the Kyocera Echo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyocera_Echo to commercial success.
Microsoft had a dual screen foldable like that, then stopped supporting it
not invisible, but the Surface Duo line was pretty much that.
Is “invisible bezel with actual screen below” possible?
Exactly. And it wouldn’t have to be double wide since some components could be pushed to the other size. I’m fine with it just being like two apps open and not even one big one. Multitasking.
I guess what we really need is a phone case that has hinges and we can just buy two phones!
Hey! What did you just say about the Nexus 4?
I’d tolerate a crease to have an ipad on my pocket
I have an iPad mini and enormous pockets. I’m living the dream.
Skirts with pockets= world peace, prolly
From what we know, the folding iPhone will be a flip style foldable. So, just a regular size phone, it won’t be huge when unfolded.
Sad. My pocket would like a flat big phone rather than a cube shaped phone
My flip 6 is less than an inch wide folded with a case on it
If you want an iPad in your pocket just buy a Pro Max.
iPhone Pro Max screen area: 115.6cm²
iPad Air 11" screen area: 357.6cm²
iPad Air 13" screen area: 519.3cm²
An iPad has between 3 and 4.5 times the screen space than the largest iPhone.
Which isn’t even close to an iPad in size, not even the iPad mini in terms of actual screen real estate.
I’d use the mini if they’d just let me lol.
You mean as a phone? Its modem only does data, yeah.
Yeah. And no phone app.
But that’s my preferred size for sure. I probably won’t bother with a max the next time I get a phone, just because it still isn’t actually big enough for me to justify the price difference.
Kind of relatable. I go with the smaller sizes (regular Pro) as the Max is too large for my relatively small hands to use one-handed but at the same time it’s not large enough to enhance what I can do with the device.
So what I do is I always have my phone with me and optionally I take my 11" iPad Pro with me, although I’m hoping they’ll release a new iPad mini in October as I’d like something a bit more portable (and I also want the variant with mobile data, while my 11" Pro is Wi-Fi only).
I have a Boox go color 7 that I have in my pocket a lot. I made a little leather sleeve for it and am frequently tempted to add a couple pockets to the flap and make it my permanent “wallet”. It’s better for reading, anyways, but there’s a lot of software I use that’s only on iOS without an acceptable Android substitute, and it’s also not a phone. (I’d also be perfectly happy with the watch as my “phone” and to carry two small tablets).
But you just can’t fit much on a phone screen.
The pro max is too small.
Fold the foil outside the hinge?
Foldable phones look and work like shit. Not a shock that Apple wants nothing to do with a silly fad— not until it’s worth it for them.
I am on my second foldable phone, and on my fourth year using them. Not only does your statement is not true, you probably never even touched a single foldable.
Looks? Subjective. I personally love the form factor. Works like shit? In your dreams.
You’ve been through two phones in just four years? That doesn’t sound that great for them…
I know a few people at work that have foldables. Both are not going back and the crease really isnt noticeable.
One guy has the Google Pixel Fold. His kids share his phone to leave his wife’s phone alone when they are watching something. It makes it easier to share with his kids because its a larger screen. When it was smaller they fought more because they couldn’t all watch on a small screen. Hes reaping benefits too. Ive seen him have it open to watch NFL highlights lol.
The other person I know is a manager and its just really nice.
I don’t have one myself because its pretty $$$. If I valued phones I would pick one up myself. Year after year they have gotten significantly better with the crease and hardware. They’re often very beast with hardware features.
Last time I looked, the aspect ratios for the unfolded screens were such that you didn’t actually get any more screen real estate than a normal smartphone so the kids analogy doesn’t make a ton of sense to me. For media it’s like you get the illusion of a bigger screen.
Unsure. I can only go off anecdotes and what ive been told but maybe that illusion works on the kids?
At 3:50 it looks like the phone is being opened to watch something. . Looks large to me
The tech specs here
Anyways, that was his reasoning. Lol its still a nice phone. Maybe he used same justification to get this nicer phone with his wife. He has the Google fold while the other guy has Samsung.
Which do you have? Genuinely curious, never used the modern ones, but assumed they’d be shit/very fragile
Not op, but I have the galaxy fold 3 and it’s amazing. I’ve had it for 3 years and I can’t go back to normal phones. And I’ve heard the same from many others that got their first foldable.
The screens are pretty fragile, however they’re protected when folded. Just don’t drop them onto anything while open…
Other than that they’re surprisingly robust. I’ve had 2 Moto Razr models and a Samsung Z Fold. First Razr did break the screen by leaving it open in a stupidly precarious position and it hit a piece of metal below directly on the folding screen when it fell. But day to day use I never worried about it.
I’ve had both the Samsung Fold 2 and now the Pixel Fold
N cer had any issues with them
Right now a Fold 6; the previous one I had was the 3.
But they’re going on the AI fad now. Not like they are geniuses after all.
They’ll wait for
the tech to matureother manufacturers to figure it out, starve people for a few more years, then release it with a +400% markup and act like they came up with the idea. That’s how it’s always been.Although I don’t see a future where bendable fucking glass screens become anything more than a gimmick.
(edit) oh hey, the Apple zealots are awake!
My bendable glass screen is the shit. I’m never going back. It’s so small in my pocket.
