Android

Foldable screens, to me, seem to be a recipe for disaster. Another point of failure.

Flip phones like from Star Trek are awesome though!

I don't trust it not to break.

Also they're wildly expensive.

Manufacturers are being forced to make their phones last longer with sensible things like replaceable batteries, so they're coming up with fresh designed obsolescence by adding things that will wear and tear to keep everyone spending $1-2k every couple of years.

Had a Z Fold 4 for a couple of months now and i dont ever want to go back. It feels great in the hand when closed and it is awesome to have a much larger screen available at any time. Crease isnt very noticable on it

I love foldable phones and can't wait for more manufacturers to hop on board. I have owned every iteration of the Samsung Z Fold series, Z Flip series, and Surface Duo series, and I am now rocking the Pixel Fold.

This form factor that Google adopted is the way to go. A shorter, wider aspect ratio on the outer display makes for an excellent phone experience while allowing you to unfold the device into a proper mini tablet in landscape orientation. I never enjoyed the narrow screen on the Z Fold lineup, so I opened the phone to do almost everything. With the Pixel Fold, I open the phone up only for specific things, such as showing someone else content on my phone, reading, or watching videos.

The biggest issue with foldables is that everyone seems to worry about the device's durability, which is understandable. I have never had an issue, and I don't baby foldable phones more than I would a standard slab. I also think the pricing of foldable is a massive turn-off for many folks. Last, many people either refuse to understand the "point" of foldable devices or simply don't. For example, with me saying that I use the Pixel Fold closed most of the time, some would say, "What's the point if you're not going to use the inner display?". The point with foldables is that you get options. You don't have to use the phone as a tablet 24/7. At that point, you might as well just get a small tablet. Foldables are supposed to give you a phone experience first while giving you instant access to a larger screen capable of light multitasking and better media consumption experiences than your traditional phone. The beauty of a folding device is that you get the best of both worlds all the time, and you decide how you want to divide your time between the outer and inner displays.

Long comment, but hey, I love foldables, and I will keep buying them. Unfortunately, I think it will take Apple releasing a foldable before they become mainstream :(

After my flip 3 broke not so positive.

Not interested in expensive gimmicks. How does it improve the experience? Now a phone that is a snap bracelet. Lives on my wrist. Sign me up.

What I want a phone to be:

• Thick with a (reasonable) bezel, so I can grab it easily and not activate the touchscreen at the edges of the screen
• Reasonably usable with one hand
• Sturdy, somewhat shock-proof and waterproof
• As serviceable / repairable as possible
• Long battery life (not use time, life of battery before it needs replacing)
• Built to last

Basically everything a foldable phone isn't.

Foldables are basically the opposite of what I want: a small slab flagship phone, maybe 5" would be ideal. I don't want it to become huge at any point.

Expensive, fragile and rather useless unless you plan to replace your computer and in that case you just made a bad decition. I think it's a very desperate attempt to hype yet another generation of smartphones no one needs with a gimmick becuase sales go down.

I think they're cool as a technical feat, but I'd be far too worried about breaking it to ever buy one. The fact that the crease is visible even on brand new devices looks like a disaster waiting to happen.

I've owned the Samsung fold2 & 3. Personally to me they are cool phones. However they just aren't made to last, and that's not the only problem. Realistically they are heavier, bulkier and have less specs than the top end smartphones. I found that each time I was holding it, I would rather be holding a normal phone just because my arms would get tired, it felt finicky to be holding such a large screen in public situations. It has its perks when sitting down in a plane, shopping mall, train. But again you could have an even larger screen and more power of you just brought a laptop. What makes me enjoy these products is the fact I've been dreaming about foldables since I was a kid, and that never disappears.

Seem like one of the shitttiest ideas out there, done just for the sake of novelty. If you’re lucky you’ll get creases and bad touch responsiveness. If you’re not, it is the most obvious point of failure due to mechanical stress. I could perhaps get behind “rollable” screens of the like (no hard crease), if they prove reliable.

Fold phones fix a problem I don't have. The tech is interesting, but irrelevant to me

Too expensive.

Honestly, biggest deal breaker for me is the crease. When looking at it straight on, it's not the worst, but it's so jarring when you see it warp the screen and your finger runs across it. Not even to mention that it's bound to have a giant line or even a crack run down it the more you fold it. Sure the price tag is steep, but if they somehow manage to fix or improve that issue, I could see it as a viable option.

Mine broke too easily, and I made the mistake of buying the immature product used. Replacement parts were only $50 cheaper than buying another one used.

I went to the Samsung™ store and fondled their latest foldable phones lineup. Even on the demo models, you could clearly see the crease. It will only get worse as you use it. I think there is a market for folding phones but as separate screens, i.e. 2 or more panels side by side. If you gonna have a crease, might as well separate the screens.

Dumb. But I also thought smartphones without keyboards were dumb and look where we are now.

I think it’s one of the dumbest new “features” I’ve seen on a phone since… I actually can’t remember anything worse right now.

I definitely understand that there is a market for it, but personally I'm not interested. They're expensive, vulnerable, and I have no need for a screen like that. The high prices and vulnerability were excusable in the first few generations, but I feel like we should've advanced further by now. I wonder how many people really use one.

All phones that cost that much are dumb. Just get a computer instead and your money goes a lot farther to get screens and computing power.

$200-300 is about all I'll be willing to spend for any phone. I don't care what the features are that the expensive phones have, unless it's got some kind of alien laser technology that can do stuff that computers can't. For my price range I can have a great Pixel with GrapheneOS and that's about all I want.

I use a Fold 4. I am autistic.

I went into it assuming I would hate the crease. But decided the upsides outweighed that potential downside. But over a year in now and I don't even hate the crease. Honestly the thing I find the most annoying would also be on most other phones; Fold 4 has an underscreen camera with lower pixel density in front of it. Bothers the shit out of me. I've taken to having a floating button for screenshots/video and place that button directly over the camera circle. So instead of whatever is in my game looking stupid and annoying in that spot, I can just pretend the icon for the camera button has a weird design.

The upside for me is having access to a nearly 4:3 aspect ratio. I do alot of emulation of older games, so it's nice to have them be full screen again. Also the charging speed is pretty nice, can have the phone completely full from empty in just under an hour at max charging speed. Which means the 25% to 75% time is just nuts. Can plug it in and not get bored just from watching the percentage tick up. Lol.

I don't really have much use for it in folded bar form though, using it like an actual phone is of course better in that shape, but I didn't buy this phone because of how often I make or receive traditional phone calls. So it's mostly just a fast, useful tablet that I can fold up and put in my pocket. Honestly if there was a version without the outside screen, I would probably get that one. The only thing I use the outside screen for is to hang up at the end of a call. And I'm sure there is an alternate option for that. Could just have a tiny little info screen that had hang-up and speaker buttons. But yeah, if the outside screen isn't costing much to include, then whatever, I could take it or leave it.

I have the hand strap case directly from Samsung, I definitely recommend it. It's got adhesive strips that stick to the phone, designed to be put on once and never removed. It doesn't need to be cleaned under. Basically as minimal as possible while having the grip to the phone necessary to trust that strap with your $2000 phones life. Although I didn't quite pay that much, I always look for an open box deal. I got it 40% off.

But yeah, the crease isn't really annoying at all. At it's worst, when looking at the phone from an uncentered angle, it is visibly darker along each side of the crease, but looking at it straight on, which you generally would be doing, you can't even tell it's there. You have to touch it to notice it, but it's smooth enough that it doesn't affect playing games or anything.

I was worried it was gonna be much worse when thinking about it before I got hands on. So when my sister got a used fold 3, I borrowed it for a couple hours to play some specific games I wanted to try out. And I wasn't worried anymore about spending so much for a fold 4.

The weight was an issue originally, took about 2 weeks to get used to it, and then about a month later I got the strap case and it would have solved it anyway. It's lighter than a hand-held gaming console, and I'm sure a few of us used to hold those for hours when we weren't as strong as we are now. The original issue was mostly when trying to hold it one-handed from one side of it. Or gripping accross the phone in folded out mode. I have decently big hands, smaller hands would have made it more than a 2 week issue. But yeah, if my hands were smaller, the problem would have remained until I got the strap case, then you hold the phone from it's center of weight and your hand is in a comfortable position while doing so. Or I just tuck one finger tip into the strap and two more on the outside of the strap and hold the phone from one side still. Comfortable and distributing the phones weight more evenly.

I'm interested but am waiting to let the technology mature some more, and let the price come down.

I'm skeptical how well the screen holds up at the hinge, so I guess I'm not an early adopter. Show me one a year old that's had the same cheap screen protector on the entire time - if it still looks good I might consider it. Otherwise I don't see a reason to upgrade.

As a woman with tiny pockets I'm considering switching from my (already small) S22 to a Flip-type foldable phone just to not have my phone poke into my hip bone every time I sit down.

I'm still not sold on the displays. Every time I've seen one the promise has always been "the screen is better", but when eventually I get hands on with them all I see is a massive crease in the middle and I can't unsee it

Never used a foldable phone. Looks cool, but too bad its not dust resistant and the curved display is very weak against scratches. A hinge in a phone just further shorten it's lifespan. I wouldn't use them until it's not only water-resistant, but also dust proof, and the hinge better outlast the lifespan of the rest of the phone. Considering the high price and alsp comes with so much drawbacks, they aren't for the average person. It's a rich person's toy.

I'd rather have a hinged physical keyboard.

To me they are necessary evil. I currently have Fold4 and use it as a replacement for my laptop since I have to be available 24/7 or close to that. I grew tired of lugging my laptop everywhere, which admittedly is very lightweight but charger, bag, accessories and the rest are not. So I decided to give Fold + bluetooth keyboard a shot at replacing my laptop which worked and I can get away with 85-90% of my work from my phone. Not as comfortable as laptop or desktop, but it'll do.

Biggest downsides are that I can't use my phone (easily) for navigation. One would think with such big screen that would be even easier, but naah. Mounting foldable phone is near impossible. It can be done in a car where you just buy tablet mount and you are good, but I don't drive a car.

For me it's been a game of tradeoffs. I gain some, lose some. At times it's awesome on other times it's annoying. Big screen and pen come very handy when signing documents for work or giving instructions to developers by drawing on screen shots. At the same time it's heavy and bulky. Note series from Samsung was pretty much spot on what I needed, but they turned that into S2x Ultra, which I think would be too big for me, but I might change my opinion.

Everything else am fine with and I can get use to weight and all. Samsung needs to do few things for me to be happy. Pen needs to fit in the phone itself, lugging it around as addon to your phone case is not an option. Make a slim case which grips corners only like they did with S7 Edge series, this would solve all of my mounts and protection problems. Weight loss would be welcome but I can live with that.

There could be some interesting designs, but to take advantage of that the UI would need to adapt, I think.

Today I'd rather have user-replaceable batteries and screens.

I tried the Fold3, and had it back under warranty 3 times, until Samsung opted to replace it. They replaced it with a Fold4 (which was nice) in beige (which wasn't nice).

So I sold it and got a Pixel 7 Pro, and I couldn't be happier.

Honestly, foldable screen tech still needs a lot more maturity, IMHO. It was actually a relief to switch back to a phone where my heart didn't miss a beat every time I opened it, or heard the creak/crack sound when closing it. It was honestly pretty stressful, wondering if each day was the day I'd join the long list of people with busted screens through no fault of their own.

Foldable phones have the problem with the hinge and that the display is not very suited for constant folding. I would think those phones will even last half of a normal phones lifetime aka 2 years and thats profit for the Companies!