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Phones Folding phones the next frontier
- Thread starter Tulani
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I like the round camera bump on the Oppo and One Plus foldables. Looks clean and unique from the typical block camera bumps. The circle also looks like a large lens and gives the impression of powerful cameras, whether that's true or not.
contacos
macrumors 603
This is what I mean haha there are so many Chinese phones that have a huge camera bump to give the impression that it's amazing but it's actually a horrible low budget camera. I think there were some where the 3rd "lens" isn't actually a functional camera!
I hear ya, but it may be hard to imagine the usefulness of a foldable phone if looking at it from a standard slab phone use case. A foldable can be used just like a slab phone 100% of the time, but a slab phone can't mimic a foldable.
MacCheetah3
macrumors 68040
@1:30
Exactly! ZFold vs. iPhone Pro Max. Folding or candy bar/slab. Each is just a different approach to the phablet, a compromise of a regular phone and tablet in one.
P.S. I chose to buy an original Pixel Fold secondhand (<$500) some time ago to test the folding concept because it has (one of the) smallest starting/closed sizes and the least perfectly square unfolded ratios. Although, it’s still very close to square. Therefore, for me, other than a brochure-style foldable (i.e., “TriFold”), the ZFold 8 Wide (or similar form) would be my only consideration. But I’m also not willing to pay 2x or so over the non-folding device price.
Ludatyk
macrumors 604
Z Fold 6... February Security update finally out
aggie99
macrumors 65816
Received the Feb security update on my TriFold this morning as well. Good to see that so far they are pushing out timely updates for it. I have wondered how well they will handle updates on the Trifold with such limited quantities of it being used/sold.
Moto Razr Fold leak shows stunning limited edition black and gold colorway
Motorola's upcoming foldable will come with a World Cup-themed variant
www.androidpolice.com
aggie99
macrumors 65816
Almost a month in and I still absolutely love this device. I did drop it last night while drunk 😬 made a little ding on the corner. I love it so much I might get a second one as a backup 🤦
Ditto. I've been unfurling the inner screen more frequently and using it as a tablet in portrait mode, unless I'm watching content in glorious landscape orientation. I attended an in-person all-staff meeting at work last week and people were blown away and asking to hold the phone, lol. Fortunately, no drops yet but the OWKEY case gives me some peace of mind and pretty good all-around protection.
rhinosrcool
macrumors 68000
Well, I can't get it but you guys sure make it seem worth it. Congrats.
Oh, just remembered, I did drop it once when I was in a hurry and misaligned the MagSafe car mount. Fortunately, the case was on and it landed on my rubber floor mat, so no real risk of damage but I did utter some choice words.
I've been really impressed with the UGREEN MagSafe car mount. It is rated "up to 350g" but holds the 397g TriFold without a problem, even over potholes and railroad tracks. One thing though is the phone tends to rotate upside down while on the car mount due to the rotating kickstand. I don't mind it as long as the TriFold stays securely attached, which it does.
I've been really impressed with the UGREEN MagSafe car mount. It is rated "up to 350g" but holds the 397g TriFold without a problem, even over potholes and railroad tracks. One thing though is the phone tends to rotate upside down while on the car mount due to the rotating kickstand. I don't mind it as long as the TriFold stays securely attached, which it does.
ClaraStahlbaum
macrumors 6502a
I don't think folding phones are the next frontier for most people given the current pricepoint of them, compared to regular phones.
Innovation is always expensive in the beginning, but will eventually trickle down to mainstream price points. Slab phones can't continue to get any bigger and are already unwieldy for many people. Foldables solve that conundrum by providing a larger screen in a smaller footprint.
By mainstream price points do you mean the same price as big slab phones like the 17 Pro Max and the S26 Ultra?
I also think that foldables will become more mainstream too because of big screen in a folded form factor.
Luftkopf
macrumors 65816
I still haven't seen anything to make me believe folding phones are anything other than a niche product. It might be a worthwhile niche for some, and who knows, maybe they'll stick around this time, but I still doubt that many average randos in 5 years time will be getting folding phones instead of their base iPhone 22 or whatever the equivalent 'droid is.
Foldables will still cost more than a comparable slab, but the price disparity will lessen over time. I mean, a foldable still offers you more functionality over a slab phone so there's always going to be somewhat of a premium.
If you look at the Flip phones they're priced similarly to a slab phone, but I don't really see the benefit of a Flip over slab. Just saying the pricing is comparable.
Foldables have been available for seven years, with sales increasing every year. I think we've already reached a point of them "sticking around", especially with Apple jumping on the bandwagon finally.
Luftkopf
macrumors 65816
Yeah, but even an iPad mini is too small for that. Maybe if you fold a 13” iPad in half?
That's fair. I hope the price disparity decreases, especially as more companies get on board.
SteveJUAE
macrumors 601
It always makes me smile when I see the standard "solution looking for a problem" comment in many forum chats about foldables 🙂
Just a few minutes research in to the history of many personal folding items we carry soon tells us why
Although some like folding penknives go back many 100's of years many portable personal items start around the 1800's and are linked to fashion trends and/or material and engineering development.
Eyeglasses are a good example and innovations in materials over many years led to where we are today and taken for granted and were often only affordable to the wealthy until mass production, not unlike pocket books needed changes in printing technology.
Others like the demise of the pocket watch mainly due to waistcoats no longer common place and something we all are use to is folding our dollar bills in half came about in changes to jacket pockets in the 1950's
I guess had hats still been popular we would be wearing many of today's tech on our heads lol
I don't see foldables as niche products but simply a stage in the evolution of the tech we carry today and had the "folding glass" been around 10 years earlier I doubt we would of seen the large format max phones 🙂
Just a few minutes research in to the history of many personal folding items we carry soon tells us why
Although some like folding penknives go back many 100's of years many portable personal items start around the 1800's and are linked to fashion trends and/or material and engineering development.
Eyeglasses are a good example and innovations in materials over many years led to where we are today and taken for granted and were often only affordable to the wealthy until mass production, not unlike pocket books needed changes in printing technology.
Others like the demise of the pocket watch mainly due to waistcoats no longer common place and something we all are use to is folding our dollar bills in half came about in changes to jacket pockets in the 1950's
I guess had hats still been popular we would be wearing many of today's tech on our heads lol
I don't see foldables as niche products but simply a stage in the evolution of the tech we carry today and had the "folding glass" been around 10 years earlier I doubt we would of seen the large format max phones 🙂
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