I had the big size iPhone from whatever the first big one was. I thought I could never go back to a smaller screen size. Then I got the iPhone 15 pro and use it without a case. It’s light enough and small enough that I could never imagine wanting an air, and I’ve never once missed the bigger screen. I had forgotten about the bigger screen until writing this message out.
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Other The iPhone Air is the Appetizer....
- Thread starter blairh
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Nope…
it’s just a guess based on the few people here that talk about a folding phone and based on the very few I see in actual use from Samsung etc. I don’t want one, the pro models will not be foldable (thankfully), just the regular basic model.
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Have to disagree with you Eyoungren. The upcoming Apple foldable will be their flagship model so will get all the best hardware/software features first, which will drip down to the Pro and
regular iPhones later. This is not a 13 Mini situation, they are polar opposites in fact. Apple will also focus all their marketing power to promote the foldable (its already started now with Rumours of no crease), and going forward most likely gimp the lower models (even cancel some of them)to upsell you to it which they are experts at.
To me, foldable smartphones are a bit like what the Nokia E61 or E70 was to regular mobile phones. They tried to add a full keyboard and a slightly larger screen, which increased the size of the device and added complexity. Then along came an innovation—proper touchscreen—that solved the problem in a much better way.
Technology will probably take another leap forward soon anyway, bringing things like holographic displays or something we can’t even imagine yet. When that happens, the foldable concept will seem just as silly in hindsight.
My issue with the current foldable devices is that the unfolded screen is exactly twice the size of the folded one. That results in a display size that, in my opinion, doesn’t really work well for anything. It’s just a bit too small for multitasking (though still better than just the front screen), but especially when it comes to media consumption—watching shows, movies, or YouTube—it offers no real added value, since the widescreen size on the inner display is practically the same as on the outer one. The only difference is the huge black bars around it. That’s why I see the 2-fold as a gimmick. With a 3-fold, the unfolded inner screen provides more space and would actually offer real added value—but mechanically, the 3-fold is such a contraption that it’s a gimmick in terms of its construction.
For me thin and light iPhone Air with zero bezels and bigger screen would be a real improvement until we see that next tech leap.
But like I said, we’ll see. Time will tell.
I think so as well. The air will be sort of an engineering test for the folding iphone. I played around wih samsung‘s „air before the air came out“-clone. It didn‘t feel much different, but it made the samsung ultra next to it look fat. The only really noticeable and welcome difference was the reduced weight. I‘m pretty sure I don‘t want to pay whatever apple will take for a foldable iPhone, but the the idea of an air sounds intriguing to me.
The foldable will likely have to compromise on the cameras, because it has to work with a thinner main body than the Pros. I also wouldn't bet on the outer screen getting 120 Hz, 2000 nits, and so on. Furthermore, it will use Touch ID instead of Face ID. Nevertheless, it will be marketed as a premium model for sure. But in terms of sales the foldable vs. the Pro may be more like the AirPods Max vs. the AirPods Pro — the latter have the much larger market share.
Look again at the leaked dimensions of the foldable iPhone, the screen aspect ratios are different from most existing foldables. The outer screen is much shorter and wider than a regular smartphone screen, making the inner screen wider and less square, close to a 14:10 aspect ratio, around 50% wider than the outer screen, with only minor black bars for 16:9 content. It will be closer to the Pura X:
By this, I interpret you to mean the foldable will become Apple's flagship, replacing the slab form factor. And that if a slab form factor does still exist it will be the less powerful iPhones.
So…
If this is the case, then it is as I have mentioned elsewhere. I will find a different phone manufacturer to purchase my phones from. I am not interested in a foldable, not now or ever.
The slab form isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
Apple milked the iPhone 6 form factor in the just replaced SE for 10 years.
So in 10 years you can post here again your decision
In its unfolded form, this would be more practical. Using it in the folded state will be quite difficult. It’s a wide device that’s practically impossible to use with one hand. The short display means that scrolling through vertical content is worse than on a regular smartphone. I only see the point of that model if they remove the external screen entirely — in that case, it would be more like a foldable iPad. I don’t know. To me, these foldables are nothing but a compromise.
Don't use your smartphone with one hand. Unless you absolutely must (like riding a subway and holding onto something) using your smartphone with two hands is always going to be superior.
I'm not clear what you mean by 'vertical content'. The folding iPhone will be short and wide. It's going to make for a superior browsing experience as sites are intended to be consumed in a desktop orientation.
I see no compromises with the future folding iPhone. There will be hurdles to deal with though. (Particularly price and dust resistance.)
This cannot be stressed enough. We are finally going to get an iPhone where you can easily reach the very top. I can't remember the last time I was able to do that on an iPhone. Plus the wide inner screen will be ideal for all video content.
The Apple Fold will be the flagship of course it will be especially at £1,500+, but they will keep slab iphones alongside it don't worry about that, will be similar to the Google Pixel line up. Most of their R and D and innovations will go into the Foldables though, as slab phones are pretty much obsolete now in terms of innovation.
I think this will depend on what Apple does with a foldable screen. Foldable screens are plastic so they’re not as durable. Can you imagine what happens to the plastic screen when this phone gets closed in your pocket on some minor debris? This may not be a concern for the person that wears a Rolex and a business suit. It’s going to be a problem people that go outside to do things or work with their hands. Even someone like a stay at home mom with kids there’s going to be cases where stuff gets stuck between the screens. Sure there’s AppleCare but for a $2000 iPhone replacement is going to be somewhere in the range of $400. I think initially there’s going to be some wow factor where people are like I must have this but if the experience is poor, where either the device is easily damaged or doesn’t work properly, it’s going to fail.
They also have a crease in the middle after a while. Samsung has improved the crease issue, but it’s still there. If Apple can somehow fix that, then maybe. Microsoft tried by putting two glass screens next to each other with a hinge. It failed terribly, but I don’t think the design was a failure. I think Microsoft’s implementation was a failure.
I know there are foldable screens out there, and people buy them, but not in a significant numbers. For every foldable screen I see out there, I see at least 100 traditional slab phones.
Putting better features in the more expensive model isn’t upselling, that’s just offering different tiers of feature sets and prices. Upselling would be if an Apple salesperson tried to convince you that you need the Promotion when you don’t, in order to try to get you to buy the higher priced tier.
What sense would it make for a company to offer similar feature sets in different price tiers? Of course more people would go for the cheaper model then. That’s not cannibalizing, that’s basically just lowering prices.
So what you’re actually complaining about is either that there is no tier in between the regular and the Pro that offers the exact feature set you want, or that Apple’s prices are too expensive, or both. Either way, no matter how the tiers/features are set up, people will always be in your position where they want a certain feature for less money. So not offering Promotion on the lower tier isn’t devious on Apple’s part. You simply don’t like it.
There’s always going to be different tiers of products. That topic has always been interesting to me. Where you see it most publicly is with automobiles. They might make an L and an LE model. I’ve always been curious to why the guy going to the dealership says I really don’t need the additional E 😂
All phones are a compromise. The point of a foldable like this is to have a larger screen available than would otherwise fit in your pocket. Most people use their phone two-handed anyway most of the time.
Here’s an illustration of how one-handed operation of the Pura X looks like:
And here’s how the (larger than the Pura X) iPhone Fold outer screen and the 16 Pro Max screen would compare:
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It's 2025, not 2012. Nobody is using their phone with a single hand anymore. Nothing in Apple's current lineup is intended for a single hand.
The small outside display is for alerts and text replies. If you want to really interact with the device, you unfold.
You can see from Huawei, there are huge benefits from that form factor. You save battery from not having a big always on display. The main camera can be used for selfies.
They kind of have an Apple like advantage since they’re not using the Google Play store they can make the apps work specifically for their limited number of phones.
I think the US did them a favor by removing Google from there phones.
Well, I must be stuck in 2012 because I use my phone mostly single handed. It’s a fairly large phone, 14 Pro Max. I don’t have small hands so maybe that’s why?
A phone should be comfortable to carry and hold on the go, and if I can’t use it with one hand it’s useless.
All the phones are so big that most people can't use them one handed, so they need to grab it with two hands not by choice.
If we fold a large pizza in half, does it weigh less, and/or have half the kcal?
Apple already tried the single handed iPhone mini. We all know the sales results.
Everyone is using two hands because 1) large displays require two hands and 2) they recognize how much faster they can type.
I disagree. In my opinion the upcoming foldable will just be another high end iPhone model. It will not supplant the iPhone Pro and the iPhone Pro Max, it will simply sit in the product line with them. Cameras, for instance, will always be better in the iPhone Pros; and for some users [me] the camera is by far the most important feature.
Apple sells tens of millions of iPhones every year and there is plenty of room for two more clearly distinct models like an iPhone Air and like a foldable.
Edit: Actually more than just be another high end iPhone model, because it will marry the iPhone and iPad mini devices, creating a hybrid. So it will be sort of its own thing that sits with the Pro iPhones. But the Pro iPhones will not go away in any sense.
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