Do you care about folding phones?

[Keudn]

With all this talk of folding phones, I am curious. Do you all care? Why do you/don't you?

[SupaKomputa]

nope. How do you protect a folding phone?

but it is mainstream i would just follow.

[Abudis]

I wouldn't say I'm for or against them, more so that I am interested in the tech and what added functionality manufacturers will try to introduce.

 

From what I've seen so far, I like Xiaomi's direction the best. You have a normal-sized screen that turns into a tablet-like one. Samsung's teaser (the one with the dimmed lights) didn't really impress me. Because it was a larger smartphone screen when unfolded but a pretty tiny screen folded.

 

I'd say that Xiaomi tries to make fit more screen in the "volume" of a normal modern smartphone and Samsung tries to fit a normal smartphone screen in a smaller package. The other 2 approaches I've seen (Motorola's RAZR patent and the other one that folds in the middle) seem a bit half-backed and just trying to get in the scene some way.

[markr54632]

Honestly I am sick of the direction portable devices have been going. I would be more interested in a user serviceable phone with user replaceable battery.

 

I am absolutely anal about scratches on screens. A flexible screen would last about a week before I would consider it unusable.

[Yeroh]

I don't really see any major benefit in the technology, at least for phones.

 

The one thing I can see this being somewhat useful for is content consumption, but then I'd already rather use my notebook or TV to get an even bigger image. I suppose if you're big into on-the-go movie watching I could see this feature being a worthwhile addition, but that's not really my thing. Even then, there will be a price to pay for this functionality, and you're obviously introducing even more potential points of failure to a device that's traditionally been fragile.

 

I just doubt that the benefit would outweigh or even just offset the disadvantages in terms of panel quality, durability, thickness/portability, etc.

[captain_aggravated]

I don't understand the basic concept.  Let's break it down point by point:

 

• Tablets don't fit in a pocket.
• Cell phones are now by law the size of tablets, it's impossible to get one that isn't at least 5"
• We're going to make one the size of an 8" tablet that folds in half with about an inch bend radius, that still won't fit in your pocket but for a different reason.
• I don't like consumer electronics at all anymore.
• I think I'm going to just throw my main breaker and let my food spoil.

[creaturevoidof_form]

The foldable display technology has still a long way to go to achieve absolute practicality. Royole's Flexpai is a great innovation but still far from practical in terms of everyday use. As MKBHD said, there are very few use-cases for the technology. Additionally, the "disguised" folding phone from Samsung and "leaks" of Xiaomi's own foldable phone do not look so promising either. We'll have to wait until the Unpacked event on 20th February where it is rumored that Samsung will be revealing the foldable phone in all its glory. All in all, since the technology is in its first generation, there's still a lot of rooms for improvement. However, I'm still pumped for it and hope the OEMs are able to truly wow the consumers.