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Comment by solardev | Hacker News Reader

Personally, I'd just open my laptop or plug it into the desktop monitor.

Like even a giant iPad with a keyboard isn't productive for me. I just use my phone to check messages, read the news, etc. If I want to do something useful, I just sit down at the ultrawide and use a real OS with like four times the memory.

I played with those folding phones at the store last week and thought to myself "nah, just more shit to break. And what would I do with it anyway? Watch YouTube slightly bigger? It'd be much harder to type on too."

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Smartphones / tablets are for the most part devices for consumptions, and foldables are better at that than normal smartphones.

The improved reading experience on a device I have all the time with me is an attractive proposition.

The disadvantages (chiefly price and weight / thickness) currently outweigh the value for me, but I hope it gets better.

Personally, I'd just open my laptop

Exactly. I refuse to use my phone for everyday computing. The screen is too small and/or doesn't have enough pixels to display enough data at a time. I normally use a 4K screen.

I liken using a phone for everyday computing to be like using 'keyhole surgery' for surgery on the heart. You need to be able to see a job as a whole not just a tiny portion of it.

And don't get me started on how big and cumbersome today's phones are. I went though several decades where mobile phones shrank from being a heavy house brick to a 'chocolate bar' that fitted easily into a shirt pocket. Only for the progression to start going all the way back to today's monstrosities.

> Personally, I'd just open my laptop or plug it into the desktop monitor.

Most of the world doesn't have a laptop and are not interested in getting one. Even more so when it comes to a desktop. But they would be thrilled about a device which is as easy to carry as a phone but can have as big a screen as an iPad when watching Youtube or reading news or doing a video chat. I can immediately think of at least 5-7 family members who would love this kind of device.

Would they still want it at 3 to 4x the price of a generic phone and a generic laptop?

Tell me you're a fellow boomer without using the word.

These kids today...might not even have a full computer at home. It is possible that they only use one at school/work. So the majority of the compute time is on a device. This is something I have to remind myself of a lot more often. The mobile first concept is real for a reason. So, just having an ultrawide and a system with an OS is pretty much on the lines of a class distinction.

Idk, I’m a young millennial and I am in the same boat as GP commenter. I have an iPhone SE, any bigger just feels wrong. I can’t imagine wanting a bigger thing to stare at in my hands, and I’m typing this from the tiny old iPhone

Not a boomer but a millennial. I dunno if it's a class thing (my phone, computer, and monitor combined still costs less than some new phones these days). I need the computer for work because it's my livelihood. And I play video games on it (streaming, cuz I can't afford a real gaming PC).

But I can totally believe that for many people the phone is their only device. I still struggle to imagine what use case would be better on a slightly bigger phone, especially if it makes typing harder. I had a Steam Deck for a while and that size is similar, and it was so hard to interact with that keyboard vs a regular phone in portrait mode.

I have no issue with manufacturers trying new form factors. Somebody out there must want them. I just wish they also kept making smaller phones for the small-handed among us...

>might not even have a full computer at home

How awful. Do they play games, do work and watch TV on their phone?

Yes. It’s mind boggling, but it’s what they have, so it’s what they use

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