Foldable smartphones have reached their fifth major generation, as heralded by Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip 5 and Fold 5…
For me it’s definitely the durability concerns. I’ve valued my phone’s water and dust resistance since getting an ip67 phone years and years ago. My brother had a flip and a grain of sand in his pocket got under the display; when he closed the phone the display died. And they expect me to pay more for the privilege.
The phrase “what’s stopping you” implies we’re all interested, but hesitant.
This is a really, really bad assumption.
Price, durability, use case…
There’s nothing about them that makes them worth sacrificing the first two above.
I mean they cost at least a grand.
Yeah, the reason I won’t buy one is because they cost the price of 3 phones
The price, the line down the middle, the hinge. Generally just not requiring any more screen space
My current phone still works.
Pretty much this. And they are still too expensive.
I don’t pay more than £400 for a phone. So that.
My current phone still works, too expensive, durability concerns (my current phone would not be working were it a foldable), center crease, looks like a pain to repair (right to repair hell yeah!), and most importantly…
…why? What do I gain by going with a foldable? My current phone doesn’t need to fold to fit in my pocket, and it doesn’t have so many compromises.
My ex has one. She used it half folded to prop it up to take pictures. That’s come in handy quite a bit actually. Also I like that you can close the phone to hang up calls. Sometimes I have to navigate back to the call app to hang up and it just feels ridiculous how hanging up is a multi step process if the call app isn’t open. Lastly, pocket space, I prefer the folded phone than a full sized.
I likely won’t get one for the same reason as you.
That issue can be solved with a case or even an accessory for propping up the phone. All the downgrades just don’t sell the phones.
- My current phone works fine
- I can’t run CalyxOS or GrapheneOS on it
- They are way too expensive
I think the Pixel Fold can run GrapheneOS, support might still be experimental though
Uhh the price tag? I just bought a new phone after 6 years of honoured service from my old one, payed the new one a whopping 300€ and it already felt like a rip off. Ain’t no way I’m paying four digits for a phone.
Stresses me out each time I open and close my phone thinking the life span of the display is shortened by 1
Price and durability. I don’t know, I can maybe get one eventually if I really want to, but shelling out like ~$1500 USD for a unproven screen design is pretty yikes to me. Plus, since my LG V60 is still serving me so well I really see no good reason to replace it.
It all comes down to the gimmick not being worth an additional thousand euros to the price of my phone.
I don’t think durability would be a problem for me as I already baby my glass back device and I haven’t been using screen protectors for years with no problem. The downgrade in cameras isn’t that big of a deal for me as most pictures I take are macro, and as it turns out phones nowadays are horrendous dogshit at it anyway.
I think I’d enjoy the gimmick, I used to own a flip phone as a teenager, it’s just not worth a thousand euros extra. I’d probably add another 150 or 200 euros to my pixel to buy a folding phone.
Why would I care if my phone folds. Id rather have no crease in my screen. But I don’t drop my phones often, is that the point of it folding? Cause it getting wider and shorter doesn’t necessarily make it more convenient
- Price
- Durability
- my feelings towards UI designers that now have to think “what if the screen just halved in size out of nowhere?”
I don’t want one. It’s a cool technological feat, but like a transparent monitor or flexible keyboard, it just doesn’t make sense for my needs.
