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Two Foldable iPhone Prototypes Reportedly Pass Internal Durability Tests

Johns12 said:
I'm just not understanding the points you're making.
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What specifically?

Johns12 said:
Everything you say is based on YOUR perception
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and? he did ask why i think it's a gimmick. am i not allowed to give my perspective on this product?

Johns12 said:
but you ignore any other person who would have a different experience or use.
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No I didn't. For one, I literally said "so I'll trust you when you say it doesn't void warranty." when talking about peeling the plastic screen protector. I quite literally changed my mind about that part.

Sounds like you're the one ignoring everything I said.

Johns12 said:
Your arguments are like this to me. A Honda Accord does everything a car needs to do and does it well so no other car needs to exist.
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And your argument is like this to me: "Oh you hate the product I like, well you're just wrong and I don't care what you say".

Johns12 said:
My opinion is, technology always moves ahead. You may not like where it goes, but it's going. And the beauty of it is, if you don't like it, you don't have to buy it.
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Great but I'm not talking about folding display technology in general. I discussed why Samsung's implementation is a gimmick. You're overgeneralizing and exaggerating what I said.

There's a way to do folding displays. I drew up a few designs myself and am quite excited if Samsung or Apple ends up doing what I predicted.
 
satchmo said:
Can’t wait too see the carrying case. 😏
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It has to keep with the underwear theme, doesn't it?

Ford, I remember these things. So yuck. If a rear strap got in the wrong place, it was hell sometimes to dig it out. And using the hard plastic 'cup' was dangerous, not to mention the chaffing (but the cup was more useful, hockey, football, baseball, etc). I somehow found one cleaning out my parent's house, and my wife was fascinated by it. (I would have thought she had seen one before?) She asked if it ever worked as intended, protecting anything. I didn't think so. I can't think of a reason they required kids to use these. *shrug* Share the pain? I guess for kids that were already into boxers maybe?

But throw a few magnets in it, and it could work. Some were double layered, which made even less sense, so they would have 'pockets'. 😀😀😀😀😆

Jockstrap_Ad_1941_01.jpg
 
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dannyyankou said:
Maybe it’ll have a niche user base. But it will never be apple’s most popular iPhone. iPhone 11 and XR were the most popular iPhones in their respective years. Even iPhone 8 outsold the iPhone X. And it’s hard to tell now because we’re still in the early adopter phase, but I’m sure the cheaper iPhone 12 will outsell the iPhone 12 Pro.

The only route I see Apple going that will lead to a hit foldable is if they go the Z Flip or Razr route

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That Razr is kinda sexy. But who owns Motorola's phone business now? It seems to have changed hands a bit...
 

Two Foldable iPhone Prototypes Reportedly Pass Internal Durability Tests​

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Have they given them to an 8 year-old high on caffeine yet? :oops:



EDIT: I remember taking apart the family TV, and also the telephone. The later worked after I put it back together. The former? Well, the parents did end up getting a new one. 😆 😆 😆 :rolleyes::cool::p

Apparently all the electrons ran out on the floor...
 
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jmgregory1 said:
Hey Doc, Happy New Year to you and the family. Clearly Samsung has made improvements to both the screen itself and the hinge mechanism, but there will be limitations to just how far you can go in getting a rigid element like glass to bend. When you go ultra-thin for the flexibility, you increase fragility, which is where they’re at now with the micro-glass layer they’re using. The other issue that will always be a problem is that glass will never be able to be creased so that it folds like a piece of paper.

The fold will need to be a radius that forces the two halves of the screen apart from the hinge to the outer point where they meet. And although your experience with the screen of the Fold surviving your use, when you get into the millions of units that Apple sells, the potential for consumer issues would be too problematic for iPhone use, imho. I still think the two (or more) glass screens being used to create a rigid foldable would eliminate these issues. You’d have to trade the wrinkle of spine that you have now, for a thin line where the two pieces of glass meet, but I’m not sure that is actually a negative. You would still need to have some separation between the glass panels when folded, so that dust or sand doesn’t scratch or crack the glass when folded together, but it would be an equal separation compared to the teardrop that a folded glass panel has.
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Happy NY! But on topic the durability of these folding screens has been demonstrated, I put a link in a previous response in this thread demonstrating that it easily lasted 200k folds, although it started to creak around 100k and at 160k it didn't open smoothly anymore, but still worked. At 40 folds per day using the lower 100k longevity that's almost 7 years. 7 years is quite respectable for a smartphone, and that's a very conservative number and it's for last year's model, I would expect the Fold 2 to function better. . 7 years is certainly past the point where any oem, including Apple, would support the phone with updates. Looking at Apple's site the last phone they support is the 2015 6s. Folded 200,000 times: What the Samsung Galaxy Fold now looks and sounds like - CHIP

As far as the crease I don't disagree that conceptually it's not perfect, but in practice it really does disappear, your eyes just don't focus on it at all. But here is the thing, I'm certainly not cheerleading for "folding" phones, personally I'm more excited by rollable screens as they shouldn't have a crease. It's just that when something like this comes up there are many who shut down the entire paradigm of a screen that can be sized down, and I say "sized down" because really this can mean internally folding, externally folding, rollable, or whatever else is invented in the future.

Sure I would prefer a phone with no crease, but the Fold 2 with the crease is still an incredible phone and I will take it over something like an ipad mini 5 with a glass screen all day long. I also think we underestimate technology, just think about it for a moment, we have a phone with a glass screen which can fold! It's quite possible that by the time Apple comes around to the market there will be no more crease, and/or gorilla glass may have screen technology to add, or any number of things.
 
I think anything big enough to be a useful tablet would fold into something too big for a useful phone, and anything small enough to be a useful phone would unfold into something too small for a useful tablet.
 
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dannyyankou said:
Personal opinion, foldables don’t seem to be better at anything than a smartphone or a tablet. It makes for cool demo, but it seems like a mediocre tablet and phone combo.
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Agree. Think this would be a better concept for like a tablet based upon the foldable that are already out there (and yes I get apple could do different) but you can’t beat physics and the crease is there to stay (for the time being).
 
As I sit reading all this I really have no desire for a phone that folds.... of course when they were talking about making a larger iPhone (think iPhone 5) I thought I wouldn't want a larger phone..... Now I'm wishing my iPhone 12 pro max was larger lol. If anyone can pull off a folding phone properly it will be Apple. Time will tell.....
 
If this makes their flagship normal phones 50% cheaper than it is today, I welcome foldable iPhone. I will take the normal flagship version of the iphones at 50% lesser cost than it is today.
 
LeadingHeat said:
I just hope in true Apple fashion that this thing is super polished. I don’t want an entrance into the market with a half baked product just to “keep up”. Again, knowing Apple I have good hopes that wouldn’t happen. I wonder what they could bring to the table to make this type of device game changing, and potentially convince me that it isn’t a gimmick but rather a device that’s going to stick around.

The biggest part for me is durability. Not only opening and closing (although extremely important... how often do you find yourself unlocking your phone every day? That sounds like it would be the equivalent of physically opening this foldable phone) but also drop tests. This sounds like much more glass, and when hinges are added in, I can’t imagine it would be more durable than what we currently have in iPhones.
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Kinda like their butterfly keyboard? Apple is just like any other companies. They are not immune.
 
Brandon916 said:
Kinda like their butterfly keyboard? Apple is just like any other companies. They are not immune.
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That’s not even remotely the same. They didn’t make a product to “rush” into a market. It was just a new keyboard which failed.
 
lazyrighteye said:
EDN citing Prosser as source - ohman...

Say Apple is working on a foldable device (why wouldn’t they?). And say that work manifests into a shipping product (why would they?). I wonder if it would be positioned more as an iPad mini than aniPhone.

While I’m not currently interested in such a device, Apple is the only company that could make me think otherwise. That said, I’d be surprised if a foldable hand held comes to light - mainly because I can’t see the draw. What today issue is it addressing?
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iPad Mini replacement is what I was thinking. The last iPod Nano was replaced by the watch. Seeing as how Apple targets entertainment more than business, I can see this being a reality. Capture your videos and photos and then edit them and watch them on a full screen. Plus the development side, often times this type of development will lead to new features or other devices. Nothing says this will actually come out, I would assume Apples R&D has a crazy sized budget. I would think pure entertainment is what they would address, “do you need one, nope, do you want one, yep.”

I agree with you though, not in the market for this tech, but Apple has a way to make things interesting.
 
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spinedoc77 said:
Great, I can't wait to get back to Apple, but I've been immensely enjoying my Galaxy Fold 2. To me foldable phones are a complete paradigm changer and I don't think I could ever go back. I'm hoping some different concepts come to fruition such as rollable screens instead of foldable, but they are all under the same paradigm.

Just waiting for the inevitable "Why would anyone want a foldable phone?", which will change to "Wow why didn't anyone else think of this?" the minute Apple releases one.
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Two questions! 1) What is so great about a foldable phone? 2) What are you missing with Android that makes you want to return to iOS?
 
Qwell said:
Two questions! 1) What is so great about a foldable phone? 2) What are you missing with Android that makes you want to return to iOS?
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1) Having a tablet sized screen that folds up and fits into my front pocket, no more carrying around my ipad mini 5.
2) Privacy
 
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