Question What's the point/attraction of a folding phone?

[AnitaPeterson]

It looks as if the folding phones are all the rage these days, with the Barcelona fair and all... But asides from the stratospheric costs, is there any incentive to buying a foldable phone?

When the whole madness started, I thought the foldable phone was an update on the clamshell model: hard covers opening like a book, providing access to a large screen which is otherwise protected from shocks and knocks.

It turns out the screeen folds outwards, providing not one, but two distinct surfaces/planes that could break after some rough handling.

So, what is the point of all this? Are manufacturers just making expensive items just because they can, without ever wonderning of they should?
Is it a desperate move to provide something different from the rest of the pack? Or is there a real demand for such devices?

What do you folks think?

 

[ElFenix]

1. halo device
2. unlike 3d/curved TVs, which i don't think anyone was actually asking for, one device that's both phone and tablet clearly has some value. people want big screens and people want things that fit in their pockets. this is a solution to that.
3. i agree with you about the whole outside being screen. don't really like that part. scratch city. and drop it?

 

[ericlp]

The problem is with these phones...the way I see it, first of all, it's not that much bigger than regular phablet, and not small enough to justify carrying around a phablet that is 3~4 times as thick without a case (if a case can even be added).

For one, the screens take up a lot of battery power, so not only is it phablet size, but it's thick and heavy. Since... if you want a days worth of use, gonna need a over 5KmAh battery. Maybe even 10K... Who knows.

The bigger question is...who is gonna buy a 2K folding phone? Maybe it is the future, but, I was thinking these things would have a roll up paper thin screen that wouldn't suck down hardly any battery usage.

Are they pushing the envelope? Yeah... it is innovative, and will probably make sense after the 5~10 cycle of these things get developed. Samsung is only making a limited # of these. So I doubt you'll see this go mainstream. If anything it will just go down in some museum as a early folding phones, so your grandkids can laugh about it...kinda like how we laugh about flip phones today.

 

[Gunbuster]

Its for the people who don't remember the early winmo days of plastic touch screens getting all scratched up, failing, or de-laminating. They are in for a treat.

 

[Nalyk]

I guess they're further pushing the boundary between laptops like the Surface, and tablets. It'll be interesting to see if one fold becomes two, or like the comment above a screen that can be rolled.

At given spec's and my current usage, it just makes more sense to put the money into a laptop with that extra processing power, instead of something that seems so fragile on paper. Only time will tell how durable the new devices actually are, compared to other tablets.

I definitely agree about the screen folding in to protect itself, that seems to make much more sense than the way it is being implemented. I will be curious to see if going forward this is what manufactures will do, especially given the price tag.

 

[lakedude]

I think a folding inward phone is a great idea in theory. The idea of a large screen that is protected in a clamshell is terrific. The seam/fold is a durability issue in practice, as is the extra bulk.

I'd sooner trust 2x hard screens side by side.

 

[Roland00Address]

The problem is with these phones...the way I see it, first of all, it's not that much bigger than regular phablet, and not small enough to justify carrying around a phablet that is 3~4 times as thick without a case (if a case can even be added).

Here is the screen size comparison between an unfolded huaweii mate x (8.0 inch with a 8 by 7.1 screen ratio so 16 by 14.2) vs iphone xs max ( see green smaller rectangle 6.5 inch with a 19.5 by 9 ratio)


The huawei mate x thickness will be 11mm (when folded) vs an iphone xs max thickness of 7.7 mm. For comparison iphone 3g was 12.3 mm thickness and the iphone 4 brough in the "thin" 9.3 mm thickness.

Now I think it is obvious you would want to put this phone in a protective case but even if you double the thickness (no case will be 11nm thick on top of the phones 11nm) again 22mm the iphone xs thickness would be 7.7nm and would you really keep a naked robotic core thickness of an iphone xs max but not also put it in a case so the difference will be less than 22mm / 7.7=2.85

So we are talking about 2x thickness worse case scenario of 3x and not 3x to 4x.

----

I am very skeptical of foldable phones in the near future, but I am making the argument in this thread for the sake of argument. The device can be made, but would it be a good device that you can sell 1 million devices, 10 million, 50 million, etc? Aka my skepticism is not on the device itself as a prototype but does it scale?