As someone who's used one before. I can see the benefit. But in order to be useful, it would need to replace something. Right now, the main thing it replaces is tablets. Me personally, I dont care for tablets and its also why i dont like folding phones. Either I do whatever I need to do on my phone or my laptop.

But the more interesting idea is it replacing the laptop. The idea of a singular device being able to run both desktop and mobile apps, makes it a little more intriguing. The closest you can get to this right now is Samsung dex (and I think android 17?). Hopefully in the future though, Linux phones will become more stable and useable. That'd genuinely be amazing.

This is middle tech. It is like walking is to speed walking then running. One fold is proof of concept when we get to 3 or 4 folds that's where the magic happens. People watching a video without headphones out in public on a tiny screen, pretty annoying. We are three folds away from someone unfolding a 32" screen to watch their content anywhere also without headphones.

I wish they'd bring back slider phones with physical keyboards. Pre-smartphone days I used to have a phone (I don't remember what it was) that was a full touch screen with a physical home and back button on the front and then you flipped it sideways and the back slid down and there was an entire physical keyboard for easy typing/texting. I'm not interested in a folding smartphone, but if they released a slider with an actual keyboard I'd buy it in a heartbeat. I loved that phone and I loved being able to type on the screen with a digital keyboard for quick stuff or flip the keyboard out and use actual keys when I wanted to type a novel of a text message.

Now we need nuclear battery powered foldable phones.

They can squeeze out higher profit margins if they don’t have to make a physical model variation for each country/language. Think of the shareholders!

In the context of people who use their phone while driving because they selfishly don’t care about the lives of people around them and can’t just wait a few minutes before responding to messages and watching videos.

While that's good to hear, I definitely won't risk it again. Anything mechanical is a high risk anyhow.

In detail what happens is that air seems to come in from the side of the fold. At first it was a very small 'triangle' on one side but that extended more and more until now there are larger long bubbles at the side of the (vertical) fold which stay there. A bit hard to explain.

Anyhow, normal or not I now have to deal with that and really didn't want to.

They don't have to sell multiple variations because they don't have to sell worldwide

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.

I often switch to my tablet for reading something on a bigger screen

If I wouldn't have a tablet, a folding phone would be able to provide the bigger screen.

new folding phone concept
it's one screen but folds out 2 speakers

I do work on my phone, desktop, tablet and laptop.

I also do free time and entertainment an all 4 devices

It would be cheaper for them to buy boys' pants and have them tailored than it would be to buy a new phone.

Novelty.

But a fat phone phablet, you also can't really use as a hone unless you fold it up?

i mean if you're already in the market for a new phone anyway I can see the line of thought with the flip folding ones, the Motorola ones are like 500 bucks or so which isnt bad relatively. i think they're cool as hell but won't get one until the inside screen is more resistant to scratches

They fail faster on average. Just because someone out there is still driving an AMC Gremlin doesn't make it a good car

But you don't need a folding phone for that?

My motorola razr 2025 is a flip smart phone, and as a lady, it actually fits in the pockets of all my pants. My old non-flip phone did not fit in my pockets. It is common for ladies pockets (if pants even have them) to be less than 1/2 the size of pockets found in mens pants.

Solid reasoning but it does treat the symptom rather than the cause, so to speak.

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.

Well I have one for the removable battery

I fully agree. However, most people who design women's clothing will continue to not put functional pockets in them because it does look good. So, I'll do all I can do is continue to buy from brands that actually have functional pockets. It is exhausting. I cannot tell you how many wonderful pants at a good price I have passed up due to either completely fake pockets or pockets so shallow they are only good for a tube of lip balm. My pocket problems aside, I agree that folding phones are quite gimmicky.

They fail faster on average.

Maybe the original designs, but not the new screens. The "failures" on old screens were mostly from idiots trying to peel off the plastic layer. It's difficult for engineers to underestimate the public.

Of course, Apple bots feed Lemmy and Reddit, so now that Apple sells Samsung screens, I'm sure reliability will magically increase.

hardly anyone under 50 uses a phone for calling any longer

WTF...what are those assholes screaming into their phones held 90 degrees to their mouths doing?

Agreed. I learned all about pockets (or lack thereof) early on when my wife and I were dating. I just wish women could have pockets so it didn’t dictate other parts of life as a result.

That is interesting. I admit I don't keep up with the state of the art on foldable devices because they didn't appeal to me (whenever I need a big screen, I also need a keyboard).

Someone else said they use their foldable phone to read PDFs; I can see how that would be useful.

Realistically, could a foldable phone last 5 years of daily use? (5yr is my minimum durability standard. I actually use my phones longer)

My first smartphone was a Samsung Epic 4G. I still miss the keyboard sometimes…

Fits in my pocket

Flips are awesome, folds (opens on a vertical joint) are ass

Ok, you got me. I forgot about those dorks.

Also, the people who use voice to text at full volume out in public. What the hell. Just type.

That's exactly what I want as a smartphone. I don't want a huge screen or fancy features, give me a little touch screen, a good camera, a physical keyboard, and an actual home button and I'd be so happy.

I don't understand. Do you not see that the screen doubles in size? It's like a 2 in 1 phone/tablet. That's the benefit.

I understand that, and yes I agree that it is a benefit for some people, but for others (myself included) it just isn’t.

As politely as I can, so you do see the point of a folding phone, you just aren’t the market for it. I agree with you that it’s not for me either, but that doesn’t mean they have no point and I recognize the larger screen use case for other people, whatever that means for them.

Size and weight are the most important things for me.

I had one of these; and I think this was the pinnacle of smartphones.

It could do pretty much everything my current phone does and I had either a gameboy or super nintendo emulator on it as well. The cool part was it was a workhorse that was small unlike today's tablets phones. Oh yeah and this was in the early 2000s.

Easy… I’ll give you the answer in one word…

NOSTALGIA

Us millennials thrive in the world of nostalgia and the market knows that.

remember the curved glass, that gimmick dint last a year.

Eh its luxury tech, you dont need one. Whilegenerally phones areborong tech I am pro niche products and trying things

less damage. less chances of dropping and shattering or scratching the screen

Folding phones work great for selfies, you can use the front screen to compose the shot and and the quality of your rear camera.

I'd say they are slightly better in terms of watching videos. It really depends on the shape of the phone. Most of the time, the full screen is only slightly larger for widescreen content, but the big benefit is that there is a lot of dead space where you can hold the phone, or see captions without obscuring the video.

Folding phones are surprisingly much better for web browsing and reading. Larger views for web pages navigate much more easily, and the double-wide screen gives a lot of eye relief when reading e-books, and you spend less time turning pages, which does add up.

If you use any kind of remote desktop application from your phone, having the wide screen of a folder is a godsend. I do a lot of remote desktop shit on-call, and most of the time I just carry my phone with me instead of a full laptop.

Source : I use a Pixel 9 fold as my daily driver.

I've been a sammy Fold user since 2022, I'llnever go back to a typical phone. I don't use the tablet mode too often, maybe 1-2 times per week, but it's super handy during those situations. For me it's mostly spreadsheets, navigating Canvas (school website), some email. I got just shy of 4 years out of my last one. Previous device died after 1 year... inner screen died, phone still worked of course, but replaced it under insurance. I've been in a chain of trade-ins that offset the cost of each new one device once I got past the initial cost of my first one from back in the day. I bring it up because the high pricetag is a major downside for people, but the high trade-in value is a benefit (my current device was $900 off). It's definitely not for everybody, and definitely not something for the beach lol, but very useful to have a tablet available anytime.

I think it's probably the bigger screen size and an attempt to boost sales by offering something different because there's not much to really motivate the regular person to buy a new phone unless theirs is just old and needs a refresh. Now that I say that it makes me think there might be a big market someday for refurbished older phones because they don't have fucking AI in everything.

They think holding the phone like that is smart. All those PhD eengineers were stupid to put the mic and speakers 90 degrees off.

So, then, you're asking what the point of tablets are? You've never wanted to read on a train?

Absolutely I see your point, I just wondered if there were any other points (ones that might appeal to people who don’t find that particular point appealing), but it doesn’t appear that there is (unless anyone can suggest an alternative to the gimmick). If there is a point, but I don’t see any benefit of that particular point, then to me there is no point. So if there are any other points, I would consider. Idk if I explained my point of view well enough (I did try to explain I considered the folding to be a gimmick in the post above) but that’s it as best I can explain it.

I’m asking: beside the folding space thingy point, what else do the folding phones have in terms of appeal to the consumer (specifically the consumer who doesn’t see any advantage in the space/size points?

Oh! Well there's also the Green Lantern thing. Have you ever wanted a green spectral pet bird, for example? They do that too, but mostly it's the size thing.

Have you ever wanted a green spectral pet bird

Erm… no. No, tbh.