Who would ever need a folding phone? This sounds like a silly idea. Apart from the obvious party trick (“hold my drink - ima fold this phone in half”) I don’t see any reason for a phone to fold halfway down the middle into a ridiculously thick package that can’t be comfortable carried inside any reasonably sized pants pocket.
"All this week, I kept coming back to a thought about how we use our phones. We pull them out to check something quickly, but then, all of a sudden, a half-hour disappears scrolling Instagram or Twitter or whatever. It’s a real problem.
But it’s a problem I didn’t really have with the Galaxy Fold. When I was using the tiny screen, I just wanted to get something done quickly and put it away because the screen was small, and I wasn’t in a place where I wanted to unfold it.
On the flip side, when I was using Galaxy Fold unfolded, I was really using it. I had to hold it in two hands, and it felt much more like using a tablet, an active device I was choosing to use. It requires some small measure of intentionality — more than a phone, anyway.
I found myself using it in meetings, and nobody batted an eye. I was reviewing docs for the meeting, but I could have just as easily been messing around on social media. But think about the social rules of a work meeting: somebody messing around on their phone is a jerk, but somebody using a tablet is more likely to be doing something relevant. The Fold feels like a different device with different social rules, and that’s fascinating."
I'm on iPhone now and I've "regressed" back to a relatively normal phone size with the iPhone 7. I almost got a Plus but I had an iPhone 6 before that and got comfortable with the smaller size. I'd probably be fine with the SE at this point, but since Apple has dropped that form factor I'm not going backwards.
So yes, I can see a place for a folding device when one needs to carry both a phone and a tablet, but for me at least, I can move to a phablet for that.
But I do sometimes have a use for the large screen on my phone, and I would definitely have a use for a smaller (one-hand-sized) phone screen, so having both of those available in one device appeals to me.
https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/19/18498904/samsung-galaxy-f...
My cynical side says that this will probably doom the whole idea of a foldable phone. The manufacturers want us to be distracted and spend that half an hour scrolling social media. They want us to be sucked in to using it constantly. They don't benefit from encouraging us to only use our gadgets when we've deliberately decided that we want to. And so it seems likely they'll kind of forget about this once the novelty wears off.
What effect this has on your desire to purchase and use devices is up to you.
This folding phone seems targeted at letting people carry a phone with a gigantic screen. People that are buying XL versions of existing phones (a surprising number of people) that want even bigger screens (that still fit in the pocket) seem to be the target, and/or people who want a 2-in-1 phone+tablet.
I don't really like large phones, but I do like using tablets. Having the choice between a phone-sized screen and a tablet-sized screen in a single device seems personally desirable to me; I don't really care much about the device size itself as long as it still fits in my pocket (unlike the tablet it'd be replacing).
Not even that thick! When your battery is about 4mm thick and only takes up part of the phone, you can roughly double the battery life by taking the phone from 7.5mm to 10.5mm.
A folding display solves that issue. Small when it needs to be, large when you want it to be.
Yeah, it's thicker than a typical phone, but that's usually not the limiting dimension when determining pocketablity.
I think this is probably the sticking point for people who don't see the point of this. At least for me, there's no unserved gulf between my phone and a computer. I've had a tablet in the past, but there was really just no use case where the tablet was the top choice over both my phone and computer; I always preferred one of those over the tablet.
For that it is a cracking little device, a phone screen is too small to read comfortably and if I'm watching a movie in bed the ipad is the perfect size.
Originally bought the device for testing and it ended up been the thing I spend the most time looking at after a desktop/laptop.
Enough that I'm considering buying the new ipad mini and giving the old one to my stepson.
(I feel silly writing this, but just in case it's not clear, I am referring to a generic "you", and not you in particular.)
This only applies in a hypothetical future where someone figures out how to make a durable folding display though.
Additionally, I read a lot more when I have my tablet with me, as it's easy to pop it out and read an article or chapter when I'm waiting for the bus, etc, and it's not tedious to read on like it is on my phone, as the tablet has a larger screen. I also rarely carry my tablet around as it seems superfluous with my computer and phone.
That's why I, at least, am jumping at the chance to have a device that is both easier to read, and not as big as my tablet.
I love the multitasking on my iPad, so a smartphone that can turn into a mini-tablet that might support similar forms of multitasking sounds awesome to me. I'm just gonna wait until somebody releases a model that doesn't cost me an arm and doesn't break within a week.
I would love to have a phone that I can open up to tablet size, so I only need one device for both jobs. Find something too big for the small screen? Open it up, continue. Taking out the tablet works (especially with the various sync techs for websites), but is not really a "nice" workflow.
Too bad I don't trust Android.
I can't imagine a use case for this that would make it appealing to me. But apparently there are a lot of people who can.
Different strokes and all that.
But what perfection would actually look like to me would also being able to use a bluetooth mouse and keyboard, and (somehow) outputting the video to a real monitor. At that point, it would be a suitable on-the-go replacement for most laptop needs.
I keep being slightly tempted to get one as an on-call/ultraportable laptop, since it's possible to connect various USB-C bits as required.