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Or maybe sell a decoy non-working iPhone option made from crystal & fake diamonds for the fashion-conscious to leave on the nightclub cocktail table for their influencer reels, but then inject more Sony Sports Walkman-esque features into the iPhone for real world use.
This made me laugh out loud. Thanks for the chuckle this morning!
 
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I like the idea of a foldable unit that will fold out to a 16:9 ratio for media consumption. For now I just carry my phone and a tablet with me on commutes. Having a single device would be better.

But after paying £250 to replace the screen on my s22 ultra even though it was in a case, I've been really put off from any foldable devices or anything that costs >£600 for now. I tend to upgrade every 3 years now, my next phone will be cheap enough that it's replaceable if it breaks.
 
Samsungs doing all the R&D and heavy lifting. In a few years when Apple releases their own folding phone, they'll take all credit and Macrumors will actually give them all the credit.

Happens all the time.

Or, you know, they'll perfect it and make it practical and meaningful. It's not about being first.
 
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The fold seems more durable than I gave it credit for, though users will definitely experience some measure of wear and tear after a year. The crease, in particular, will get more prominent from all that repeated folding. Well, so long as users are going in with their eyes open...
 
I wonder since people seem to think having a larger screen is a gimmick, do you guys actually use your phone for things? And I mean using it for more than 5 minutes when there are no other options. My phone is completely unused while I'm home for more than using it 5 minutes in bed when waking up. When I know I am going to be waiting somewhere for more than 5-10 minutes I always bring my iPad mini because using the phone is just a terrible experience, it doesn't fit enough text on the screen to read a book, it doesn't fit enough of a website on the screen to get a good browsing experience.
 
Say what you want, but the foldable are more exciting than anything I’ve purchased from apple in the last few years. My 13 PM is cool, and my iPhone X was a game changer.. but the flip is the first time I’ve felt that cool feeling when you own some awesome new tech. Sorry but a bigger battery just isn’t really pushing the envelope let alone justifying the cost of an Apple upgrade.
Pill shaped camera ? Maybe less notch. That’s what we got? And people trying to act like the new fold isn’t exciting.

Yeah. Ok.

Go to a store and hold one and tell me that it’s not most exciting mobile tech in years.
 

The fold seems more durable than I gave it credit for, though users will definitely experience some measure of wear and tear after a year. The crease, in particular, will get more prominent from all that repeated folding. Well, so long as users are going in with their eyes open...
I've had my Z Fold 3 since launch (8/27/21) and I fold and unfold it between 30-40 times a day, and there is zero difference between the day one crease and the crease today.
 
I’m not there…yet. I don’t consume much video on my phone so I may not be the target demo. I don’t need the extra real estate. But maybe one day? Maybe.
 
I’m not there…yet. I don’t consume much video on my phone so I may not be the target demo. I don’t need the extra real estate. But maybe one day? Maybe.
See, these are the kind of comments I can respect. Hey, if the Fold isn't for you, that's okay. They aren't for everyone, nothing is. But the blind hatred and negativity spewed by people who have most likely never seen one in person and who've certainly never owned one of these devices is sickening to me. It's really sad honestly. This sort of thinking is precisely why books like "The Cult of Mac" were written.
 
No, they didn't. Perhaps large screens, maybe, but even then I'd argue that the vast majority of iPhone users aren't using the Pro Max.

In 2012, Apple was arguing that anything over 4" for a phone was "too large" for your hand. They also released a ridiculous ad to defend this position and fanboys were swearing all over it.
Meanwhile, Samsung was shipping 5.5" phones, which were seen as massive back then, but we all know how it turned out.

 
Foldable phones… might show us a future as well, but I'm not so sure about that.

For targeted use that needs a small portable package with as big a screen possible, they will be fantastic option one day. Just like ultra durable laptops for a construction environment. Too heavy to lug around between coffee shops but super great for the extra protection it affords on the job site.
 
I had the Fold 2, which also came with the pre-installed screen protector.
The phone's screen looked dirty after some weeks of use, and I had some issues with dust building up in one corner.

But what mostly brought me back to my iPhone 12 Pro was the iCloud Photo sync.

I set up the OneDrive photo library sync in the Samsung photo app, but it wouldn't sync pictures correctly. Samsung support couldn't solve the issue and told me to check with Microsoft. I never lost any images since using iCloud, and this sync issue was enough not to trust the sync capabilities of other companies.

Back to the Fold: Multitasking on this phone was quite weird, as two apps side by side were too narrow. Something I wasn't used to from my iPad Pro.

Not sure if the Fold 4 changes this.

I have a Surface Duo 2 as a test from my company: I'm not too fond of the bugs the device has (it is acting up after taking phone calls), but I do like the idea of having two separate screens on which each app looks and acts like it would on a regular phone screen.
 
But the Newton, Note 7, Mobile ME and iPhone 4 paved the way towards better smartphones. The Newton (and the Knowledge Navigator video before that) teased what a smartphone could be like, but was a decade ahead of its time. The Galaxy Note series showed that a lot of people wanted much bigger phones; at the time, a contemporary iPhone was 3.5 inches, when the Note was 5.3. By now, the general-purpose iPhone 13 is 6.1 inches. Mobile Me had some right ideas, but presumably launched prematurely. So they rebranded iTools, .mac, Mobile Me yet again, this time into iCloud. The iPhone 4 was a big leap, introducing among other things the Retina Display, which is now table stakes for any $150 Android smartphone.

Foldable phones… might show us a future as well, but I'm not so sure about that.
I agree. My point was those were all considered failures. The Newton was part of the pen writing to text era. Mobile Me, although it didn't work very well, kind of gave birth to ICloud. You can decide if that works well. IPhone 4 gave birth to the 5 which I loved. The battery problems of the Note 7 made Samsung be extremely careful with the follow up Note 8 which I bought and kept for almost 5 years. Great phone. For that matter, the IPhone 1 was not a great phone. It was a great idea and a new paradigm which has now changed the way we view cell phones.
 

The fold seems more durable than I gave it credit for, though users will definitely experience some measure of wear and tear after a year. The crease, in particular, will get more prominent from all that repeated folding. Well, so long as users are going in with their eyes open...

Wear and tear on the movable parts is unavoidable. Anything with a hinge or joint will wear in time. Out back and knees, our windows, our Powerbook Titaniums, know it all too well ;)

The more usage the faster the wear. So how many times does one ‘unfold’ a Fold device a day? Most people have the habit of looking at their phone every few minutes.

The worst part if day/night and summer/winter temperature changes are known to damage flexible screens.
 
In 2012, Apple was arguing that anything over 4" for a phone was "too large" for your hand. They also released a ridiculous ad to defend this position and fanboys were swearing all over it.
Meanwhile, Samsung was shipping 5.5" phones, which were seen as massive back then, but we all know how it turned out.

Apple was right then. I literally work in UX and am part of usability studies all the time. People demand larger phones, for reasons, but struggle to use them properly. When holding a regular iPhone pro in a single hand, I've never seen a person with hands large enough to tap a hamburger menu at the top left of the page without adjusting their hand to the point that they can no longer reach the bottom. It's beyond ridiculous, but then again, we are living in the dumbest possible timeline, so hey!
 
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But what mostly brought me back to my iPhone 12 Pro was the iCloud Photo sync.

I set up the OneDrive photo library sync in the Samsung photo app, but it wouldn't sync pictures correctly. Samsung support couldn't solve the issue and told me to check with Microsoft. I never lost any images since using iCloud, and this sync issue was enough not to trust the sync capabilities of other companies.

Congrats on being one of 3 users that relied on Microsoft sync on an Android device.
I've been using Google Photos since day one, and never lost a picture.
 
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I had the Fold 2, which also came with the pre-installed screen protector.
The phone's screen looked dirty after some weeks of use, and I had some issues with dust building up in one corner.

But what mostly brought me back to my iPhone 12 Pro was the iCloud Photo sync.

I set up the OneDrive photo library sync in the Samsung photo app, but it wouldn't sync pictures correctly. Samsung support couldn't solve the issue and told me to check with Microsoft. I never lost any images since using iCloud, and this sync issue was enough not to trust the sync capabilities of other companies.

Back to the Fold: Multitasking on this phone was quite weird, as two apps side by side were too narrow. Something I wasn't used to from my iPad Pro.

Not sure if the Fold 4 changes this.

I have a Surface Duo 2 as a test from my company: I'm not too fond of the bugs the device has (it is acting up after taking phone calls), but I do like the idea of having two separate screens on which each app looks and acts like it would on a regular phone screen.
I had both Duos, still have Duo 1. Love how thin the device is. The thickness of the Folds is my biggest issue with those devices. If/when they solve the chunkiness issue they’ll be much more appealing to me. I see the pros of having two separate screens like the Duo, but for most folks in most cases I think the answer is a single screen that folds/rolls/etc.
 
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Apple was right then. I literally work in UX and am part of usability studies all the time. People demand larger phones, for reasons, but struggle to use them properly. When holding a regular iPhone pro in a single hand, I've never seen a person with hands large enough to tap a hamburger menu at the top left of the page without adjusting their hand to the point that they can no longer reach the bottom. It's beyond ridiculous, but then again, we are living in the dumbest possible timeline, so hey!

Most people have two hands so you don't have to use only one in situations where it is a big reach. If you are part of the minority that only has one hand there are smaller phones available. Also having UIs that are designed by competent people means the things you use frequently should be near the bottom for larger screens.

I'd rather have an slightly useful larger phone (or a very useful tablet sized foldable) that I have to two hand in some situations than go back to a phone that wasn't very useful at all. Reaching the entire screen with one hand doesn't matter if you can't fit anything on the screen to begin with.
 
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Apple was right then. I literally work in UX and am part of usability studies all the time. People demand larger phones, for reasons, but struggle to use them properly. When holding a regular iPhone pro in a single hand, I've never seen a person with hands large enough to tap a hamburger menu at the top left of the page without adjusting their hand to the point that they can no longer reach the bottom. It's beyond ridiculous, but then again, we are living in the dumbest possible timeline, so hey!
What's so dumb about wanting a phone with larger display and longer battery life? Yeah the trade-off is less usability with one hand use. I normally use one hand for normal browsing and use two hands to type this text. For me, I find small one-handed phones to be a compromised UX and more so than a larger one that occasionally need two hands.
 
Most people have two hands so you don't have to use only one in situations where it is a big reach. If you are part of the minority that only has one hand there are smaller phones available. Also having UIs that are designed by competent people means the things you use frequently should be near the bottom for larger screens.

I'd rather have an slightly useful larger phone (or a very useful tablet sized foldable) that I have to two hand in some situations than go back to a phone that wasn't very useful at all. Reaching the entire screen with one hand doesn't matter if you can't fit anything on the screen to begin with.
Mobile phones are mostly used by a single hand. If you need to use 2 hands to use a mobile phone, there are other devices out there that will serve you better.
 
Mobile phones are mostly used by a single hand. If you need to use 2 hands to use a mobile phone, there are other devices out there that will serve you better.
What are these other options and do they comfortably fit inside a pocket? I have an S22U and soon to be Z Fold 4. I have rather small hands compared to the average, but there are reasons why larger phones sell better despite the poor one-handed usage. My wife has even smaller hands, and she has the 13 PM. People have adapted to larger phones because the advantages outweigh the disadvantage of one-handed use.
 
What are these other options and do they comfortably fit inside a pocket? I have an S22U and soon to be Z Fold 4. I have rather small hands compared to the average, but there are reasons why larger phones sell better despite the poor one-handed usage. My wife has even smaller hands, and she has the 13 PM. People have adapted to larger phones because the advantages outweigh the disadvantage of one-handed use.
Oh yeah? Explain the advantages to me.

The iPhone PM shows the same things a Pro shows, just slightly larger. Now what?
 
What's so dumb about wanting a phone with larger display and longer battery life? Yeah the trade-off is less usability with one hand use. I normally use one hand for normal browsing and use two hands to type this text. For me, I find small one-handed phones to be a compromised UX and more so than a larger one that occasionally need two hands.
Again, we're living in the dumbest possible timeline, so sure.
 
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