My first hand experience is that I will probably never be able to go back to a non-folding phone. The ability to get a small tablet on demand anywhere (subway, train, bed, couch, etc.) is really the next technological breakthrough we were waiting for.
I think the pricing and the battery kinda suck, android also doesn't have the same polish as iOS, but most of the criticism that I've read is not really relevant (for example, I can't see the crease at all if I look at my phone)
I use it a lot to read PDFs and watch videos, or when U want to multi task with two apps open at the same time (e.g. filling forms with a pic of my passport on the other screen). I also read mangas from it. Oh and the ability to use the back camera for selfies while being able to see myself is so great I use that all the time.
As someone who switched from using Android for many years to iOS for the iPhone Mini, this seems to be all about what you're used to. The lack of polish on iOS for many features, notifications and quick settings first among them, makes me crazy but not enough to deal with a huge phone. Android's had the notification shade with integrated settings since just about day one and it's a killer feature.
But Apple devices take a bit longer to go obsolete, and seem just a tiny bit less invasive as they don't rely on an advertising model for revenue.
But the iOS keyboard was completely unusable for me as a power user, and it cannot be replaced. I was missing so many features of Gboard. I absolutely could not consider an iPhone or any other replacement phone for that matter, if it does not support Gboard.
Gboard is crippled on iOS — why can’t we just have a damn comma on the main screen?! And why can't I just get my keyboard to be at the very bottom of my screen.
It's 2025 and we have gone so far backward.
edit: i can type without looking again! i hate that this was the issue.
The iOS keyboard puts absolute gibberish in there in ways it never did for me before.
The Apple AI predictive text seems strictly worse.
It looks the same but behaves differently enough that I have a hard time believing it shares code. When I turn off swipe, my tap accuracy goes MASSIVELY up, and a lot of the autocorrect screwiness seems to abate considerably. I can go back to blind thumb typing.
That said, swipe is so useful, I’ve left it on, and I deal with the degraded tap behavior. But maybe that’s a trade-off for you to consider.
I assume it's something to do with distinguishing swipes from taps with both active, but it really is a marked difference.
I used to smoothly type without looking on iOS. It was like magic. Now, it's just a mess. I think gboard on Android is the current top experience.
For one thing, the voice typing is useless. It respects neither the language of the full keyboard nor the language shown in its interface. And that separate interface needs to be brought up separately, thus requiring many taps - exactly what I'm avoiding by using voice typing in the first place.
Selecting text then pressing the Delete key does not delete that selection in Hebrew or Arabic. It does work in English.
The swiping in English works fine - probably because that library is lifted directly from Gboard. So the idea is independence from propriety Gboard is not reality anyway. Swiping does not work in Hebrew or Arabic - which together with the lack of voice typing means that I can not use this keyboard at all.
I do like the arrow keys and selection buttons in the toolbar. Gboard has that in a seperate pane, but in the toolbar is much more convenient.
Apparently the voice input is not coming from Heliboard. You could use an alternative service like futo voice input.
Why DOES everything seem to get worse? I can hear the Doctorow fans coming out of the woodwork to tell me it's "enshittification" but that's a cute conspiracy theory that doesn't explain at all why Google would allow Messages to have a memory leak after working fine for years.
There's no profit motive to making a core application shittier.
We have to dig deeper, because this kind of thing is everywhere and hand waving at capitalism like Doctorow does is a cop out and an unsatisfying explanation IMHO
Of course written by some cheap devs from India or Bangladesh.
If the code was even still written by a human at this point.
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/gboard-the-google-keyboard/id1...
If you're still on Android, try FUTO keyboard. I found the voice-to-text feature to actually be on par with Google's, but without the delay of a phone-home.
I'm not sure of another reason.
Google is collecting data but I do not see adverts in the OS.
I would say, though that in the year of our Lord 2025, largely hardware is good enough that the animations never stutter on android anymore, an android applications have largely converged on similar UI paradigms.
So I think the issue with criticism is that people hold in the heads for a very long time, I mean a clear example is how people think Linux is extremely user hostile, despite most metrics of what makes something user hostile being significantly superior on most widely available in the next distributions except of course the power user focused ones. Whereas Windows 11 and macOS clearly do not give a shit about breaking muscle memory or having UI inconsistency.
Criticisms live longer in our minds than they do in reality.
Maybe most people need more, but it annoys me greatly that it tries to be more than simple misspell fixer.
The only, literally only thing she liked was the seamless integration of airpods with phone, hated literally everything else about the hardware and mainly iOS/software. Too dumbed down for her, some trivial things she does often are simply not possible on iOS and that's it, no way on earth to change that without voiding warranty, if at all.
So now she bought Samsung S24 and couldn't be happier. The switch made airpods pro basically useless or more like supremely annoying to use (there's an anti-competitive case or two against Apple in this, degradation is very obvious and on purpose), so she gave them away and happy with whatever plugs she picked up from ocean of available and good enough hardware for her use.
My boss is same story - bought into Apple ecosystem with some older pro max variant maybe 5-6 years ago, then of course airpods and watches followed. The very definition of power user. Switching now back to android (pixel 10 pro), hates the products at this point.
These are people who don't care about price much but want best usability and convenience for them. From opposite side of spectrum of users. Me, I never had A device and probably never will, but I respect them for success and innovation they bring to the whole industry. Good competition literally helps everybody in long run.
I like a lot of Apple's hardware, and as of now I'm still "all in" on their ecosystems. I have the phone, watch, AirPods, iPad, macbook both for work and personal use, even an Apple TV box.
I can't stand iOS, but the only reason its "better" for me is just because I take advantage of all the other Apple devices and proprietary protocols + I prefer Apple Music over Spotify.
If third parties were allowed to also use AirDrop, shareplay/airplay, clipboard sharing, etc. then I'd dump my iPhone in a heartbeat. But, I love my apple silicon macs too much to get rid of those, and KDE connect isn't great on it, so I'm effectively "stuck"
Entification will only continue from here on both parties since they've achieved duopoly status, so as a customer you can only pick the lesser of two evils.
For me notifications are generally more annoying than they are useful, and this doesn’t change under Android. In fact the emphasis that Android puts on them in the shade really sucks for me because it’d much rather have the quick settings pane fully visible than room for a couple more notifications — having to swipe again to see all the toggles is super annoying. So for me, the split shade that iOS does where swiping down on the top right edge of the screen shows only your quick toggles is preferable.
Some people basically live in their notifications, though. I’ve never been able to understand it, but they do, and so the Android way works better for them.
I think there are also less subjective aspects though, like the choice of animation curves through much of Android feels “wrong” somehow and different from almost everything else else out there, including Windows, Linux desktops, etc.
Just FYI, on Samsung Android Devices this is implemented as you describe.
Useless info: I think the feature was first implemented on Android 3 (Honeycomb) but then abandoned again on Android 4 (ICS)
"But for the most part, it seems like third-party Android apps don’t even try to achieve the look-and-feel comfort, fun, and panache of iOS apps." (referring to Android Mastodon clients vs iOS Mastodon clients)
Is nobody allowed to make any subjective judgement about apps?
iOS (and Apple overall) tends to be more opinionated. It says, “Do things our way and you’ll have a smooth experience.” Android, by contrast, has historically been more of a flexible “toolkit.” That gave you room to shape the platform to your liking, though it often meant less guidance and structure.
In recent years, Android has shifted toward more out-of-the-box convenience, closing some of that gap. But ultimately, it comes down to what you value: iOS offers a cohesive, guided experience, while Android gives you more leeway to adapt things if you don’t agree with the defaults. Neither approach is inherently better—it’s about what fits you.
Also, how Apple seems to deliberately avoid including a shortcut to the full settings anywhere in the control center or the shade. It honestly feels like one of those stubborn Apple things where at one point they decided Android including a settings shortcut (gear icon on the shade) was somehow an admission that its quick actions were poorly designed and iOS is above that.
To clear all, swipe down on the top left to show Notification Center. You should see an X button right of the words “Notification Center”.
If you want to launch an app from control center, open control center (swipe down from the battery icon), press and hold on a clear area until you’re able to edit it. Add a control. Scroll down until you see the Shortcuts controls and pick Open App, then pick Settings.
2. This is actually helpful thanks, don’t think of using a shortcut and making one myself!
Foldables are just so nice; the flip style for me is especially convenient since it is more compact in a pocket. I also feel like we're almost to the tipping point where we can consider folding displays solved to the point that new generations start having marginal iterations (as opposed to "wow, the crease is so much smaller!" and "Oh look, they finally got foldables IP68 rated!").
I'm 99% convinced that the iPhone Air is the crippled child of Apple's intention to make a foldable.
They couldn't nail the foldable part (for the time being at least) so they just launched the Air with the things they nailed about the design.
> android also doesn't have the same polish as iOS
Could you provide examples here? Don't get if this is a "feels" thing.
The things that imho iOS really nails better are: - integration with devices (in the same Apple ecosystem) - battery life when browsing
What else?
Here's part of the list of warnings I saw when I setup a Samsung Fold for someone else:
> Don't press the screen or under display camera with a sharp object such as a pen or fingernail. Doing so can result in scratches, dents, or damage to the screen.
> This phone isn't dust-proof. Exposure to small particles such as sand may cause damage.
I live close to the beach, so very often have a bit of sand in my pocket. Seems like these phones wouldn't last a weekend.
When you get sand in the hinges, it's pretty annoying and difficult to clean out. I was always nervous about taking my phone out on the beach.
That's tough living in Florida, the whole state is basically a giant sand bar.
I also actually didn't like the fold part. Most of what I do on a phone is read Kindle or browse the web.
For Kindle, the phone was uncomfortable to hold with one hand for long periods to read.
Web browsing was worse than a normal phone because many common sites like weather.com have responsive design that get very confused and unusable with that "in-between" size. The display on the outside of the phone that you can use while it's closed was so tiny and narrow it was unusable as well.
The whole thing was heavy and clunky feeling. (This was the most recent galaxy fold, the pixel one may be better)
I was pretty happy to go back to a normal form factor.
And it does increase the size of videos somewhat, compared to using the outer screen in landscape orientation.
Probably because of all the AI integration stuff. You don't get something for nothing. Turn on battery saver, data saver, and decrease brightness (and refresh rate if possible). Still, You have three screens worth of volume taking away space for a larger battery. That's the deal with folders.
After a little bit digging, it turns out, I wasn't the only one. A lot of people had complained about the lagginess around iPhone launch dates. This is an old graph from Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd....
This is actual data from Google trends: https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=iphone%2...
You can clearly see a spike in as recent as September 2025. But, the camera data was the last straw for me. As a photographer who paid $1000+ for the iPhone Pro Max - supposedly their latest and greatest phone of the time, only to get screwed over by greed 2 years later, I had enough.
I sold the iPhone at a loss, got myself a Samsung Note and I actually took pictures of the same hotel again and the difference was stark. That really told me everything I needed to know about Apple's ethics. In contrast, I also have a Samsung S10+ from ages ago and it still functions flawlessly. The trade off clearly is privacy with the Android eco-system, but until we have a decent Apple alternative that's also privacy focused, I'm forced to accept this trade off.
Funnily enough, my iPad and Macbooks never get slowed down, even if it's 5+ years. It's only for the iPhones. I guess they view the iPhone as fast fashion or something, but the ethical component is not acceptable to me.
The .0 releases of iOS have been getting worse lately and are not great, but usually by .2 or .3 it's fine if not better on the older devices.
I think the annual release schedule is too much for Apple to the point that now the .0 release is effectively a public beta. Especially if there are any big changes. iOS 26 RC is laggy on my 16 Pro Max, which without a doubt can absolutely handle it, it's just a buggy mess still. I'm sure that by .2 it'll be fine.
How do you go back on iOS? Oh yeah it depends on which app and sometimes even where you are within one app. On android? Use the navigation bar or the same back gesture, every time all the time.
Polish is also about visual consistency and Android is behind on that front.
It is the most obvious though, having to tap right at the top left (usually) of the screen for the most frequently used action is incomprehensible.
For what it's worth, I don't have the navigation bar at the bottom. I just use gestures, so anywhere I swipe off screen to on screen, it's considered a back gesture. Which, once you get used to it, you cannot go back. Well, you can. By swiping. ;}
only if I cannot reasonably access a computer will i use a thumb-typing touchscreen device to do serious work. as computing devices, they are sub-par when compared to desktops. as telephones, they are subpar compared to dumbphones
Its like wearing a thong or being locked in chastity.As a male I dont understand why people people wear those things.
If that’s close it’s not why Samsung‘s market share increased so much. That was for ALL foldable phones of all brands. That wouldn’t make statistical sense.
There are people who like foldable phones. Apple does not have them. And Samsung‘s market share went up.
Thats all we know. The rest is a catchy headline.
I also bet the numbers will change now that the 17 is out. These things are cyclical, and whomever releases first in a year typically gets a small boost. Samsung releases phones twice a year, Jan/Feb and July typically, while Apple is once a year in the fall.
These numbers are also only for one quarter.
Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see Android's market share increase in the US, and I say that as an iPhone user. Apple's marketshare, especially amongst young people in the US is not beneficial at all, it's effectively a monopoly, and with iMessage popularity here it causes a communications lock-in effect. But, I'm doubtful without seeing a full years worth of numbers or a more consistent increase.
Or maybe people are finally tired of Apple stagnating and are finally open to trying the other side.
It would give the idea of foldable phones a big visibility boost so more people would know they exist, thus perhaps more would buy them.
Think about how popular MP3 players were before the iPod, and how popular they were after even for non-Apple ones. It raised a lot of awareness.
It’s an interesting idea. Personally I have a hard time seeing a foldable phone being something I would be interested in. But I’m curious to see Apple’s take.
I'm still skeptical on that happening though. I don't think the screen tech is ready for an Apple quality device yet, and Apple is historically very into device separation - they try not to blur the lines between their products. iPad will never be a mac, macs will never have touch screens, I have a hard time seeing them making a phone that effectively becomes an iPad mini.
Better than 1.7%? Sure. Better than 5% I doubt it.
Here are some things to know about folding phones
1. They're like expensive cars. Do not own one without a warranty
2. As soon as the new model comes out, swap it in
3. If you're into smaller phones, they're a good option
4. They are not for the financially conscious. Those things are kind of a status symbolCurious to hear more about this. I don't mind thickness so much. How small are they? If I can get a decent phone with a <= 5" screen, I'd be ecstatic.
May have to get my hands on one some time and see how it feels.
I look at the prices and wonder how some of the people I see with them can afford them. But using them is probably many people's favorite hobby at this point?
I doubt many are dropping $2,000 cash on the new phones but are more likely getting it financed as part of their phone plan.
Funny I saw someone who's phone was so zoomed in the letters were massive in the messaging app, I thought they mistakenly did that but it was on purpose.
And yeah, being able to make the letters huge is a big deal. Also being able to dictate texts or emails was also huge for a lot of the people there. Much more convenient for them.
[1] Reviewer comparison: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45209164
[2] Specs: iPhone Air: 5.64mm, 165g vs. Samsung Edge: 5.8mm, 163g, 200MP camera, stereo, larger battery
https://www.facebook.com/theapplehubofficial/posts/galaxy-s2...
[3] Demand by young man: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44678489
https://www.canalys.com/newsroom/us-smartphone-market-q2-202...
The only drawback is the camera but turns out it's much easier to carry a dedicated camera (Canon g7xm3 in my case) than a dedicated reading device / tablet.
I haven't tried any foldable phones and I have no intention to anytime soon, but with other samsung phones my experience has been completely different. I've only ever used Samsung smartphones, and the only times they broke was when I dropped them or mishandled them myself somehow. My current one is past the 6 year mark, and I have no issues with it. It still keeps 48 hours of battery with my normal use (though that might not be saying much considering my normal use is different from most people's normal use of watching videos for hours)
Great hardware that nearly always impresses. Very infrequent hardware issues compared to its main competitors (in the android space).
Extremely annoying software experience. Locked bootloader aside, as I recognize that's only an issue for a very small group. But the software goes through these intense hills and valleys where you can go a long time without updates, with bugs, with bloat, with problems. Then a burst of updates that seem to address many of those issues, then it just slides back into the shit. And the amazing hardware is dragged down in this cycling, to the point where the phone will feel old at an accelerated rate. I've hard that exact complaint about apple and a few other android manufacturers many times but only Samsung has genuinely given me that experience.
It's very unfortunate. If they unlocked the bootloader I could bypass the software issues myself and have damn near the perfect phone.
Chris Young has a video about this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbaZpJ1AhFU
A forced reboot error first occurred between 6,000 and 10,000 folds, and the same error repeatedly appeared at roughly every 10,000 folds afterward (e.g., around 16,000, 26,000, etc.).
Around 46,000 folds, creaking noises started coming from the hinge.
At 75,000 folds, an unknown black liquid came out of the hinge, but it has not appeared again.
At 175,000 folds, all speakers (earpiece, top, and bottom) stopped working.
The hinge has become smoother. Free-stop still works, but elasticity seems to be lost.
The speakers failing at 175K folds seems like the major failing point. I suppose bluetooth would probably still be working so you could still limp through day-to-day activities.
"The best camera is the one you carry" is about opportunistic capture of moments i.e. it's better to record them on anything than nothing. That doesn't always work. I've lost more moments than I gained on a smartphone camera which won't focus on what I want, does weird uncorrectable things with white balance, has a pretty nasty digital zoom, or has gunk on the lens from being handled.
Me too, but this option is disappearing. As our minis reach end of life, I don't think we'll have other "small" options than foldables, unless you're willing to go for super niche android phones (eg unihertz)
Hopefully the foldables become more resilient by then
Seem to always have reliability issues with Samsung phones. Hopefully the 6th iteration is more stable.
The one with a pixel final break was when he landed in Belize to start a vacation and the screen died. Entire vacation he had to borrow wife’s iPad mini to read.
Plus, you no longer need to deal with buying and maintaining a separate device like an iPad! This is why I suspect Apple is dragging its feet on the foldable category, besides letting the screen technology mature. It will probably cannibalize some sales from that market segment.
I find my phone much more comfortable to hold than a book. It fits my hand.
You only read one sentence at a time anyway. I rather scroll, keeping the current sentence in the middle of the screen than jump around with my eyes in an open book, and having to turn pages, or keeping them flat.
Am I missing something? (Real question. I read a lot!)
Nah, I'd say most digital books are probably PDFs.
Not how I read when I read on paper & this bothers me on a phone a lot.
I'm not functionally dyslexic, but all the words pop out at the same time, you could say I read verbs, then tense, nouns after and then I read adjectives in a sentence.
But English is also my second language, so my first language's grammar probably fits closer.
Oddly enough when I first encountered lisp, the nested pile of map, fold and filter was easier because of the well trained habit of restructuring after reading verbs.
1) Some books have images, charts, tables, etc. The screen size makes a big difference for these.
2) The format of the "book". Reading a PDF for example is much better on a bigger screen.
https://www.arts.gov/stories/blog/2024/federal-data-reading-...
Though I agree with you that a larger reading screen would be very nice, I doubt such an experience on a device that offers endless digital distractions will reverse this downward trend - not that you said it would.
Also I doubt that Apple's foldable phone will cost the same or less than Samsung's, as is suggested in the article...
I've found a much easier solution to this problem.
For your second, I think you don’t understand why people buy/use iPads. First off, I don’t really know anyone who uses an iPad mini for anything productive (other than as a test device). A 7-9” screen is just not useful compared to a 13” iPad for things like Sidecar or reading sheet music in live performances. The 7-9” screen being an unfolded phone doesn’t change this.
A folding iPhone could eat the iPad mini, but that’s never been a cash cow for Apple or something power users cared about - it’s more of an “iPod touch” for kids. (And frankly, the Switch 2 kind of obsoletes it.) The thing that would eat 13” iPads’ lunch is something more like Apple Vision.
For me personally, it's my travel machine. I've done all sorts of things with it on the road. From SSH to using Photoshop to make some last minute edits. It (barely) fits in my pockets so I don't even need a bag for it. Probably my favorite machine ever at least in terms of form factor.
Screen size does seem to be a personal choice. For me, I've always liked small screens for portability. I'm the weirdo who actually got work done on the first gen Asus EEE PC and didn't mind it. But I can understand that wouldn't be for everyone.
My normal international travel load-out is a backup smart phone + an 8" LTE tablet with eSIM + bluetooth keyboard. It's about as minimal as I can get while still having a real keyboard and functional screen size to handle travel logistics.
I guess you don't know many pilots? :)
This is the app they use https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ForeFlight
Microsoft and Apple have already proven that students are willing to shell out the money to buy $1000+ products just to take hand written digital notes on. If Samsung or someone else could create a foldable that's in the ~$1500 range that can fold out into the size of an ipad mini AND has a good pen usage and storage situation, I believe it will sell incredibly well.
It'd be so cool to be able to walk to a lecture with only your phone.
That said, these days I use a Samsung Galaxy Note 10+, Amazon Kindle Scribe w/ Premium Pen, Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360, and when at a desk, a MacBook and Wacom One display, all with Wacom EMR --- no folding devices, since there doesn't yet seem to be one which uses the normal frequencies (most recent foldables used the same frequency for the stylus as is usually used for the eraser?!?).
I'd give a lot for a competitor to the Lenovo Yoga Book 9i which used a Wacom EMR stylus, or for a phone which used a standard Wacom EMR stylus.
The form factor doesn’t lend itself to storing a comfortably sized “pencil” along with the phone, and god forbid an Apple accessory exist that doesn’t feel perfectly integrated with the product it goes with.
I did try one, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold for 6 months before going back to iOS (I'm too deep on the ecosystem, but I like to try Android again every once in a while).
I think I only used it unfolded like three times. It was pretty much pointless for me.
Anything I need a bigger screen for, I almost always have either my laptop or iPad with me for that. I don't WANT to do things on my phone, I actually want to use it less - a foldable offers the alternative deal, where you want to and actively use your phone for more and more tasks forgoing other devices.
Not for me, probably never will be.
Consequently, probably why I might be "downgrading" from a pro max down to the new iPhone Air. No bulk, no excessive camera array...just a thin, light phone.
To people (like me) who want bigger screens, your comment reads akin to "Imagine that you need to grab your phone because you need a 6" screen, now instead you can just flip out a second screen from your Apple Watch and have a 2.5" screen."
I’m put off by how Samsung monetise every data source they’re trusted with though. E.g. TV viewing, phone data, Samsung Pay, forced analytics, etc.
As a brand they don't seem to have any restraint when it comes to user privacy.
I'd like a foldable but not so much to pay $1300 for the Razr.
AT&T doesn't have low end Motorolas so I bought an unlocked, guaranteed to work with AT&T, sub $300 one directly off motorola.com and took it to the AT&T store.
So far it's left me alone.
I'd to see some evidence for this claim. It seems to be a ridiculous offhand claim to make in this era of late stage capitalism. Flagship phones owners are wealthier, their data is more valuable for customer acquisition. Why in god's name would those penny pinchers leave that kind of money on the table? It makes no sense. It's not like flagship phone owners can track whether their data is being sold any better than low end phone owners.
They might make it harder to turn data collection off in low end phones, but that says nothing of their desire to be able to sell the data of flagship phone owners.
Out of all the companies, Google and Samsung are by far the most secure companies in terms of breaches and the magnitude of those breaches.
Of course, not going to that next step would be ideal, but at least you have some control over your choice on security.
You don't think those vulnerabilities are going to leak out during the 4 months that OEMs have them before patches are pushed out?
Google has chosen to sacrifice security for marketing.
It starts with Samsung's app icons. They all feel like a cheap knockoff of either Apple or Google to me.
I don't want to get a device where the UI looks like this.
Other than that, the Z-Fold 7 looks like a great device. I hope Google catches up.
Ever wanted a smaller phone? That's a flip phone, it just happens to expand when you need it. Ever drop your phone and damage the screen ? The closed flip phone is super sturdy. Ever wanted to put your phone on the table and use it with one hand, laptop style? Flip. Even in general use, having it slightly bent towards you is a nicer experience that a fully flat phone.
Yes, it has a slight crease in the middle, it has never bothered me even a little. And now, there's an actual microcrack across the crease, doesn't really bother me either, but for some people it might. Look forward to improvements in the next generations.
I also got the Clicks physical keyboard case for it, which turns it into a modern Blackberry type phone. I love it. The physical keyboard means no on-screen keyboard taking up your external screen space. I only actually open my phone a few times a day, which really helps keep doomscrolling at bay. Full discloser, the keyboard isn't perfect and definitely has some quirks and tradeoffs but on the whole I'm glad I got it.
Having both a phone and tablet in your pocket is phenomenal. I don't think I can go back at this point. Apple knows this, which is imo why the rumor is the new iPhone 17 will have a fold option for a higher price. If you think it's gimmicky, you haven't tried it yet.
Either they have good form factor closed but they suck open or they have good form factor open but they suck closed. They could go with no external screen but it would be much more annoying to use. And I think it says something fundamental about smartphones, that Steve Jobs intuitively understood: it's a good tool when you can pull it out of your pocket and use it in seconds (preferably one-handed when possible). Having a bigger screen but that needs to be unfolded doesn't add any benefits to this primary need and ends up requiring a lot of compromises (weight/volume, compromising pocket ability) for uses cases that are infrequent and would be better served by a typical table anyway. Funnily enough, in those situations you are quite likely to have the bag to carry this solution so the foldable phone becomes moot.
To make things worse, they are ridiculously expensive, often more than what it would cost to buy both an equivalent phone and tablet, which is at the same time stupid and genius. And yes, this is precisely why they are a social status thing. You have to be quite affluent to buy something so practically stupid, you are basically burning cash.
I find folding phones interesting for what they so aptly demonstrate about life in general: no matter how hard you try, you can't have it both ways.
I'll say this: I live in France and when Apple announced the first iPhone, I imported it from the US at great costs. So, it's not like if I am a luddite, I'm just able to understand what's good and useful while you may not.
Here is the thing, people are buying foldables only to show off, the functionality/usefulness makes no sense for the vast majority of people. Which is why they are still expensive and it will stay that way.
Even tech reviewers with infinite choices and zero affordability issues are not using them. If they were any good, they would be using them daily, but it's not the case.
What I'm saying about the first iPhone is that it was good and useful on release day, even though it was a flawed product missing many things that would only come later. And the cost wasn't a problem.
We have had many generations of foldables with improvement/refinements everywhere and they are still nowhere close to being ubiquitous or mainstream. At its 4th generation, Apple was selling 50 million iPhones globally even though it was one of the most expensive phones you could buy. We are in the 6th or 7th generation of foldable and they are not reaching anywhere near those numbers. Even if the price would come close to a regular smartphone it's doubtful that most would pay up because there are other compromises.
Fundamentally, foldables are niche products for tech geeks or people who like to show off, they will stay niche, just like VR and 3D before them.
I have been right on both of those before, do you want to make a bet?
I have various Samsung foldables in hand, yes. I am definitely impressed by how far they have gotten but it doesn't change the fundamentals.
The flip style is just plain dumb. External display is almost useless and you need to open it to do anything useful. They are smaller when closed but also thicker which just aggravates the bulk at the bottom of your pocket when regular sized phones were fine thickness and heigh wise; and the weight is about the same. For all those compromises you just get a longer screen, which is stupid since the primary mode of interaction is scrolling. Increasing height without increasing width in proportion is useless, you can just fit more stuff vertically that were already convenient to scroll through.
Foldables have more practicality since the external screen is often fully featured and can be used like a regular phone. But that's not a very strong argument since that's what is asked from any basic smartphone, down to the dirt-cheap ones. When open they have decent usefulness at first glance but nowhere near enough to make up for the compromises they require of you. The aspect ratio is always fucked up in order to maintain the external display viability. Even for basic stuff like watching videos, they have a bigger screen for sure but a big part of it goes unexploited. For many typical apps they don't make good use of the larger area because those apps are optimized for scrolling since that's the primary way of managing content for all smartphones (this is very similar to the bigger area in bigger phones that just go to waste for displaying white space, except worse). The "killer" feature is supposed to be multitasking, which for sure they are definitely better at than regular phones. Except the primary limitation for multitasking on phones isn't just the display size. You still have to rely on softwares that are made for quick interactions with a lot of space used for touch target so it is usable with your fingers. There is no hover state and all inputs are made for ease of use primarily, not efficient workflow. Typing can be better at the expense of a large display area for it which largely defeats the purpose of a bigger display. If you were in need of productivity, it makes no sense to still be slowed down by inefficient input and lackluster software. At this point you might as well carry a tablet with a keyboard or a small laptop, if you are going to have enough downtime that this is a reasonable expectation the immediacy of something that you can get out of your pocket isn't very relevant. What's more, because of physical constraint their battery life just sucks. They need to be thin to even be viable, so you end up with less space for batteries because a lot of it is used for the displays and mechanism, yet they consume more power because of the bigger display. So, even for a use case I can get behind like reading, they end up giving you less. You have more space but with a bad aspect ratio and you just end up killing the battery faster compromising the phone viability for the other stuff a phone is useful for in everyday life. You are promised more but in practice you just get less.
When Jobs announced and showed how the iPhone worked, I knew right away they had found the correct recipe. That's because I was using a Windows Mobile "smartphone" at this point and I had experienced first-hand how bad it was in practice at most things. It required stylus input most of the time, creating too much friction for most quick interactions that you require from something living in your pocket. The breakthrough of the iPhone wasn't the hardware; it was the careful design of the software around it that allowed fast and easy interaction for most useful things (even the way you would be able to navigate in desktop class web page before website became fully mobile was quite good). It cames at the cost of functionality and efficiency in the software but that was exactly what made it viable as a pocketable device.
Foldables reintroduce friction while only offering minor benefits that are still worse than something like an iPad Mini that wouldn't add much more friction (instead of having it in your pocket, you need to carry in a small bag) but provide a better experience for basically everything.
There is also the unavoidable problem of the crease (the annoying reflections/diffraction it creates) and the worse feeling/experience of a display that isn't glass covered. To top it off, you end up with durability problems that are plaguing the whole category and aren't solvable unless they come with some glass that would basically be magic considering the science on that.
The reality is that foldables are fundamentally flawed and there is no amount of technical refinement that will change that. To keep the typical smartphone usefulness, you need to compromise the tablet experience and vice-versa. They end up being worse at both use cases while not even saving you money. This fact actually should actually tell you something: they are more expensive than buying both a regular smartphone and small tablet. It makes no sense because they use less materials by definition and the engineering costs should be spread across all units. Since the volume is so small that is not the case. That means they are supply driven items, something that manufacturers are pushing to increase the profit per item and absolutely not something that people are asking for. Which is exactly why they are a show-off luxury item, they make no financial sense and this is actually their primary feature. It allows you to announce to the world you have enough disposable income to not care about practicality. They are just like the impractical sports cars a young fool would buy before he gets financially wiser or the absurdly expensive mechanical watch a successful business executive would buy to announce his success. Except that instead of targeting tiny markets those things have, they are targeting the upper middle class. The per unit profit is lower but the volume is potentially much bigger, there is money to be made thus it gets made.
They remind me of the "multifunction" cooking robots (like the Thermomix) that promise to do everything yet cannot do anything well and efficiently. They have motors that are too slow to make a good blender but too little torque to make a good processor. The jug they use is too large for proper cavitation yet too small to accept raw ingredients without preprocessing. And they don't cost less than the combination of devices with equal capabilities. They are driven by the same marketing fundamentals, as something that adds convenience but actually loses efficiency and quality if you were to try using them for what they pretend to do. Unsurprisingly they target bored middle-class women just like much of the large smartphones, and, ultimately the foldables.
So here it is, I understand why Foldable exists. I get the "reasons" some will get one and I find the engineering prowess very cool. But they will never be the "next big unlock". And they don't have to be, they are not a tool in any practical sense. That's fine but it's just not for me.
It also cost over 2000€ which is more than a Pro iPhone plus iPad combo, while only giving you the benefit of being somewhat pocketable. It is not a better phone and a much worse tablet. If the thing is going too annoying to carry in pocket (particularly when cycling) and requires me to get a bag, I might as well have a bag big enough to carry the superior option which also happens to be cheaper and will get much better battery life (among other things).
It's a niche show-off device of little practicality. It is like small sports coupé cars. I understand why some get them but they will always be a way to attract attention more than anything else.
But I seriously doubt it will happen in any reasonable time frame. They are fundamentally supply driven, pushed by companies marketing tech they want to sell for a bigger profit.
To become a commodity, the "pro" phones would first need to come down in price so that they are not such a big differentiating factor. Yet the companies keep adding more stuff to those in order to have the price stay around 1K.
Because the rate of improvement has slowed, we can observe the start of price compression, mid-range slab phones have become much more usable and fully featured. But there is a long way to go, Apple has only started this year to trickle down some of the pro features to their base model (mostly pro motion). To get to the 800 figure you need to have regular fully featured slab phones at around the 500 mark otherwise it doesn't make economic sense for companies to sell them at this price.
Considering where we are at this price point with the iPhone 16e (Apple is basically the price setter for much of the market), I wouldn't hold my breath.
I actually predict the reverse. Slab phones will keep getting better in the mid-range, to the point where it's going to be hard to argue for any other choice for most people. Cheap phones will get good enough to the point that they are not completely horrible but will stay a relatively poor value, using older tech in exchange or moderate savings. High-end phones will stay expensive (or even increase in price sightly) with various differentiating "features" and convenience that are unessential but good for bragging point or displaying your superiority. Foldables will stay at the apex and try to have everything of the high-end slabs but with the folding functionality as a bonus.
It is basically what the car market is, which is almost a commodity nowadays. You have the cheap cars that offer everything truly necessary for basic use but make some compromises on quality and technological refinement. Then you have the mid-range that has basically everything you could need at good enough quality/confort level while being technically up to date. And at the high-end of the market, you have the luxurious cars, German style, where you get everything a mid-range car would get you but with better quality and some features that are mostly about bragging rights and social status.
In getting commoditized the smartphone will follow a somewhat normal distribution when considering volume shipped with a larger share of the profits coming from the far end. I expect foldables to stay in that far end for quite a long time. After the iPhone launch, smartphones overtook every other type of phone at every single price point in just a few years. If foldable were going to take over, it would have happened by now, but volume has stalled and even regressed. Maybe they can get it going with major price drops but it hasn't been necessary for the slab smartphones, in fact as usefulness increased, prices increased as well.
I'm going to add that those market dynamics are exactly why we are getting an iPhone Air this year. It is a phone purely made as a differentiation factor to allow for a bigger price while not offering much practical value in return. It is made for people who would spend more than what the base iPhone sell for but also don't really care about any of the features of the "Pro" models because they wouldn't use them much and wouldn't be able to tell the difference in everyday use while paying the cost of weight/size (I don't know why they made the screen bigger than the base pro, there is probably something supply side pushing for this decision). That way they can sell more status than a base phone would provide (that is hilarious equal or better in most relevant specs) while keeping the BOM very close and thus get more profit. Outside of this the phone makes no sense; it's thinness and weight saving have no practical value because they are so small that they cannot fundamentally change the typical experience of using a smartphone.
If Apple can ever get behind the durability/quality compromise of a foldable display it is probably a "try run" for an Apple foldable that would be likely sold at twice the price while not increasing the BOM anywhere near that. It won't be better at much of anything than their pro models but that is basically the point: keep expanding the price range at the high end where profits are still to be made. They know that their basic phone will eventually have to offer even more or lower in price to stay competitive (which is why they increase the base storage ahead of the competition this year). Apple has always been able to extract more profit by staying ahead of the curve in this way. They intuitively understand the social value of technology more than the technology itself, that has made their success. High-end Androids are niche for basically the reverse reason of high-end iPhones dominating the top of the price brackets: no matter how good they get, they will never provide the same social status and coolness of an iPhone. It is thus a bit "stupid" to overspend on a smartphone and it not being an iPhone. Androids' manufacturers have struggled to make their stuff better for this reason, volumes at the high-end cannot warrant the same investment than Apple is able to make. They are constrained by bottom-up economics while Apple has fun with trickle-down economics. For this reason, if Apple is ever to release a foldable, I expect the volume of Android foldables to decrease or lower their price, in the process rendering their primary appeal less effective, still resulting in lower volume over time.
I bought mine because it's useful, it's weird to read that someone would think that it's a status symbol. Are noise canceling headphones a status symbol too for you?
Particularly so if the content has a table, grid, or similar.
Typing isn't perfect, but it's somewhat better.
Photos and images are so much better on the foldable.
For videos the advantage isn't so great, but at least you don't need to rotate the phone. You can watch both horizontal and vertical content.
Considering how most customers prefer a large phone, I'd rather bet on foldables becoming the default.
When making selfies on a regular phone, you use the front-facing camera which is often sub-par. But with the Samsung Folds, you use the main camera for selfies (you flip open the phone, and see the viewfinder on the outside screen).
Samsung's current, Fold 7, is 8.9mm closed. Turns out you can actually go thinner than a thin slab like Samsung Edge (5.8mm) or iPhone Air (5.6mm) because you can move components out of one side and put them in the other, including battery. This lets Samsung build a foldable that's 4.2mm when open, meaningfully slimmer than either the Edge or Air.
My guess is Apple's book-style foldable will be ~4mm open and ~8.5mm closed and just edges out Samsung's Fold 8 when they ship next year.
My flip 5 inner screen is currently unusable so I'm stuck using the small square cover screen which I'm enjoying quite a bit too. I don't know if my next phone should be a flip phone or a small phone, but nothing gets as small or as good hardware as the front cover of these flip phones, vs other small phones
(Amazingly, "small" is roughly the size of the Nexus S... which I found to be the ideal phone size for my large hands.)
e-waste? Their latest phone is running the very same version as the four-year-old Pixel 5a; Android 14.
Incidentally... not only does my Pixel 5a still runs software distributed through the Play Store just fine, its battery life is still quite acceptable.
You don't even get that with most Pixel phones. Through to the Pixel 5 family, you only get three years of updates, period. Through to the Pixel 7 family, you get an additional two of security updates. It's not until the Pixel 8 family that you're getting what you demand.
That's a lot of "e-waste" that Google only recently stopped generating. ;)
But, honestly? I'm not sure why you consider the current five-years-of-updates policy to not be creating an unacceptable amount of e-waste. I have (and still use) nearly-twenty-year-old laptops with the latest Linux kernel and desktop environment software (& etc) versions available. They work just fine. The only maintenance required has been battery replacement and occasional thermal paste replacement. [0]
Only five years of updates? That's an absolutely absurd policy.
[0] Though, it's not clear that the thermal paste actually needed to be replaced... it was just fun to break out the screwdrivers and service manual.
Yep, agreed. While my "e-waste" epithet was deliberately inflammatory, I really do have a problem with what they and others were doing before. Thankfully, with newer Pixels (and Galaxies, iirc), that's getting better on the Android side.
> I'm not sure why you consider the current five-years-of-updates policy to not be creating an unacceptable amount of e-waste. I have (and still use) nearly-twenty-year-old laptops with the latest Linux kernel and desktop environment software (& etc) versions available.
You're getting sidetracked from my original point (that Unihertz's practically nonexistent support disqualifies it for me), but I would certainly like to have higher standards! Core smartphone hardware has matured to the point where I would like to see 10+ year lifetimes.
However, you're making a false equivalence here; a smartphone is at the mercy of the vendor to provide updates, while a laptop (thanks to commoditized hardware and a lot of work in the Linux kernel) has a more stable base to work from. Again, if we could reach that place for smartphones, I would be into it. But until we're at the point where you can viably buy a 10+ year-old phone and install a supported operating system (where "supported" includes critical firmware updates), this is a bad comparison.
You are aware that a lot of Android's security-relevant stuff is provided in one or more "apps" [0] that get regularly updated? IIRC, way back in the day Google used to ship all of the system software in one immutable blob that relied on OTA updates. However, Google found that telcos would often take way too long to approve handset updates... so Google split most of the security-relevant code out into something whose update system they fully controlled.
1) Do you know how much security-relevant stuff is contained in the base OS vs those "apps"?
2) Were you aware that Android 14 is still a supported version of Android?
3) Were you aware that Android 13 is also still supported?
4) Did you know that those split out "apps" that I was talking about support all the way back to Android 6?
> However, you're making a false equivalence here...
Nope. You're thinking much too narrowly.
> ...a smartphone is at the mercy of the vendor to provide updates, while a laptop (thanks to commoditized hardware and a lot of work in the Linux kernel) has a more stable base to work from.
You can select laptops that have components that don't work with Linux, or only work with particular kernel versions. That "lot" of work in the Linux kernel that you refer to? A fair chunk of it is "just" working with the various device manufacturers to open source and mainline their drivers.
If Google gave a shit about e-waste, they would have at minimum gotten the relevant phone manufacturers to give Google a source code license to the drivers & etc for the relevant phones and permission to adapt that software to newer kernels and ship compiled binaries in AOSP and Google Android.
But, they didn't do that. So, they clearly don't care.
> Core smartphone hardware has matured to the point where I would like to see 10+ year lifetimes.
We could have seen 10+ year software-support-lifetimes from the phones that shipped with the first commercially-released version of Android. Go take a gander at the huge array of weird-ass one-off device drivers in Linux mainline. "Phone hardware was too immature for it to be adapted to later kernel versions" is a bogus statement.
[0] ...whose name I can no longer remember...
Yes, I am aware.
> 1) Do you know how much security-relevant stuff is contained in the base OS vs those "apps"?
No, I'm not very knowledgeable about where the lines get drawn, especially for non-Play-related components. It is a relevant point to make though, and is definitely crucial to this topic. However, from what I can infer (e.g. from blogs and mastodon threads by the GrapheneOS folks), there is plenty of security-relevant OS-level stuff that needs patching over the lifecycle of a device. And firmware-level stuff is almost equally as important. Both these OS-level and firmware-level things are out of scope for these apps that Google pushes.
> 2) Were you aware that Android 14 is still a supported version of Android?
> 3) Were you aware that Android 13 is also still supported?
> 4) Did you know that those split out "apps" that I was talking about support all the way back to Android 6?
Yes. I couldn't have told you that it was Android 6 off the top of my head, but that timeline sounds about right.
> You can select laptops that have components that don't work with Linux, or only work with particular kernel versions. That "lot" of work in the Linux kernel that you refer to? A fair chunk of it is "just" working with the various device manufacturers to open source and mainline their drivers.
That is a good chunk of what I'm referring to, yes. Also in-scope is working with manufactures (of both the device and its components) to provide firmware updates e.g. via fwupd. Afaiu, the baseband for mobile handsets is especially important because it's a highly-privileged component that is
> If Google gave a shit about e-waste, they would have at minimum gotten the relevant phone manufacturers to give Google a source code license to the drivers & etc for the relevant phones and permission to adapt that software to newer kernels and ship compiled binaries in AOSP and Google Android.
> But, they didn't do that. So, they clearly don't care.
I more or less agree with you. But my point isn't that Google cares about e-waste. Rather, my point is that devices with longer lifecycles (e.g. Pixels) are superior to devices with short lifecycles (e.g. Unihertz devices). Which is a pity, because I love so much about the Unihertz design. Almost perfect for me.
> We could have seen 10+ year software-support-lifetimes from the phones that shipped with the first commercially-released version of Android. Go take a gander at the huge array of weird-ass one-off device drivers in Linux mainline. "Phone hardware was too immature for it to be adapted to later kernel versions" is a bogus statement.
I think you've picked out some very specific parts of my response and fixated on those. What I'm saying is that you cannot, in fact, pick up a 10 year-old handset and use it with up-to-date software and firmware[0]. My requirement/desire (which others may not share) is that I should be able to buy a new handset and use it for a bare minimum of 5+ years. As far as I can see, Unihertz's devices do not meet even that pitifully low bar.
[0] Tbh, firmware update support varies greatly for laptop and desktop hardware too. I'm no expert, but seems like lots of room for improvement there.
If you mean "fold", then probably only while closed, subject to the same hand-size limits. While open, with the screen opened to the left, like a book, they're quite a bit wider than even the largest human hand could reasonably type on.
The Z Fold 4 feels like two flagships stacked in your pocket. The Fold 7 is lighter than an iPhone Pro max and only a vinyl sticker thicker. It feels identical to a flagship in your pocket but it's got an 8" screen. Not innovative? Where's Apple's innovation toward an 8" smartphone?
I didn't really get much value out of the touchbar (never really used any per-app touchbar functionality), but it was mostly fine -- I adjusted to the touchbar escape key pretty quickly.
Is it such a bad idea? I use a convertible Thinkpad to take handwritten notes as well as usual laptop duties. Perhaps it just doesn't fit your usecase, it seems that plenty of these laptops are still being made today.
Granted, my previous Gen 1 Thinkpad had constant motherboard and memory issues - not sure if design flaw, lemon, or otherwise. To their credit, Lenovo warranty repaired it and eventually gave an upgrade (my current device) for no charge.
They will not get fines and lawsuits if they make a foldable phone with a display that degrades over time.
I do think a move like this will hurt their reputation for making durable devices. They are a victim of their own success a little here.
I didn’t say this. I would merely accept other companies being held to the same standard.
> They will not get fines and lawsuits if they make a foldable phone with a display that degrades over time.
This will 100% happen. When it does I will come back and post here.
Am I missing some other blunder?
Butterfly: https://www.keyboardsettlement.com/
Batterygate: multiple countries. Here’s Canada: https://www.reuters.com/technology/apple-pay-c144-mln-settle... US: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/11/18/apple-f...
Nothing for bendgate
Yes, a lot of the time they settle, so no admission of guilt but it still costs them money.
They got lawsuits because of batteries that degraded over time.
These batteries were not fit for purpose. The phone design was defective. It literally could not manage after normal and expected degradation.
Imagine if, after Microsoft failed to build the Xbox 360 correctly, they just silently throttled all the machines to reduce the chance they would fail, rather than what they had to do, which was replace all the defective machines, 25% of the fleet, on their own dime.
In most countries that aren't the USA, consumers have a right to expect their products to work for some time and be fit for purpose. Apple blatantly violated that right, and used a quiet software update to hide that.
Apple loves to just deny and ignore their design failures. It used to be the norm for Macbooks to just cook their GPU to death, and apple would always refuse to acknowledge such things until they settled the lawsuit and quietly put up some sort of "we will fix this at your expense" program.
As for other manufacturers not being held liable, Galaxy Note 7 had plenty of related lawsuits and customer action holding them accountable amongst many other cases of the same.
Apple is just a company like any other.
Mindset as in levels... I used to be afraid of my $30K student debt while I was in school thinking getting an engineering job that pays $60K would be great but now I make more than that and my debt is also beyond $30K so yeah levels.
like... it's completely okay to not want something expensive not because you're poor but because you just don't want to spend money on it; your preferences for what's worth money to you don't have to be justified to anyone else. Except for maybe your family.
Personally I don't have any desire to buy any of those expensive things at all, because I don't even notice their existence, but that's just me. Seems better to be minimalistic. Similarly, to not have any debt, because why would you want to be more stressed and tied to a job than the minimum possible? But maybe it's different if your friends / social circle cares about shiny things or something.
The car thing I like driving fast/sporty cars, cheapest one for performance would be an older Corvette but yeah (not saying Lambo is performance, that one it's the looks, Exige though is both though different eg. acceleration/curve handling vs. top speed).
I'm just saying, there was a guy I was talking to who owned a Lambo and he's like "if it went up in flames I'd be fine", it's like I have to get to that headspace or maybe I'm not built that way not sure
But yeah I do go back and forward between wanting things/feeling guilty for being better off than others
Not that I don't fall in the same trap, but, y'know, it's an aspiration.
and personally I'd judge the hell out of someone who owned a lambo and didn't care about it going up in flames. We get it, they want people to think they're so rich that they don't care about their own possessions. All I hear is a person try to say certain things in order to make you find them impressive.
i think with agentic coding now my ideal setup would be to be able to walk away and remote in from my heavy desktop/laptop w/ just my phone and check in on stuff and do some light work, etc.
obviously i would still have my laptop but i wouldn't have to lug it around everywhere.
I considered buying a keyboard for this case. I then decided against it. Probably carrying a MacBook Air makes more sense if I want to get work done on the go.
That said, I'm happy with my new Pixel 9 PF. It's better than the iPhone 16 Pro Max.
I also own various Apple devices, but I can't say there's any ecosystem integration I particularly miss.
Instead of iCloud I just use Google Drive now. I can still do facetime calls on my Mac. Also I continue to use the Home app on the iPhone.
I recently tried an old industrial head-mounted display (Realwear HMT-1), but the display resolution is not good.
But honestly, now that I've played around with Samsungs offerings I get it. Back in the day phones had quite a bit of personality, and Samsung really nailed that aspect.
Interesting development though. Nice to see something that is both cool looking and, apparently, useful getting traction.
I get gadgetlust, sure, but is it more that that?
The other thing is that even if I wanted a folding display, it wouldn't be enough to get me to jump platforms.
But also that it's useful when you want a larger display surface in a more portable form. Like watching films on an airplane or reading documents without having to constantly swipe & zoom.
I agree with the other poster(s) that Apple is likely working on a folding model, even though it would sabotage sales of some iPad models.
So for quite a relevant segment it seems to become an enabling form factor. There are just people who seem to be basing everything on their own use case. I have neither interest nor need for a fold-able phone. But I can totally get why it is not only interesting, but actually useful to people in different circumstances.
If we look at Q3 and Q4 sales, I bet it shows Apple increasing its share of phones shipped.
Comparing one company’s share in a quarter where they launch new devices to another company’s share when that company launched no new devices is, frankly, stupid.
I love both devices for different things, I don’t want them smushed together.
I think they are pretty cool.
Haven’t seen many, though.
I’ve only seen one Samsung.
Samsung makes nice hardware, but their bloatware is infuriating. I spend a lot of time on every new device, using ADB to purge as many samsung apps as I can. I'm getting tired of doing it.
Once I can't sideload anymore on android, my next phone will be an iphone.
By the way, outside of core phone features like Phone (dialer,) Settings, Camera, etc. you can disable or uninstall everything else without sideloading anything.
And for those who do, Apple has been blocking sideloading for years.
The actual solution is to buy a phone that supports GrapheneOS. No bloatware, install what you want, and get top class security and privacy too.
Only thing (software wise) which has really been showed down my throat is Bixby and Gemini. No I don't want your stupid AI, get deleted. Other than that, I can't complain about anything.
I mean there's only Samsung and LG in the display space basically, one of them will solve it but...not quite yet.
It costs 2000 dollars and folds in half. So what? What's the difference?
A fad doesn't last this long. We are on year 7 of foldables available in the mainstream and sales and production are only increasing. Every major OEM has at least foldable or is releasing one soon. 3D TV's were fully dead in 7 years for context.
I guess you can unfold it to get a bigger 2-part screen? That's about it?
I'd imagine that having it be un-foldable compromises the battery life, overall thickness (when folded) and weight to at least some extent - plus it costs way more. Is the additional screen real-estate really worth that?
of course not knowing you or your uses I can't say if any of this should matter to you. Still it seems like a nice idia not a fad. Only time will tell if people really want it once the fad is over.
Not as much as you would think.
The Galaxy Fold 7 has a 6.5" outer screen (as compared to 6.3" screen in the iPhone 16 pro), is 8.9mm thick when folded (8.25mm in the iPhone 16 pro), has a 4400mAh battery (3,582 mAh in the iPhone 16 pro), and weighs 215g (199 grams for the iPhone 16 pro).
> plus it costs way more
The big downsides are price of $1999 launch price as compared to $999 launch price for the iphone 16 pro and durability. For durability, the foldable screens seem to be very soft making it easy to damage, say with a thumbnail.
My mom and uncles all use extremely large font sizes, they’re barely able to see a whole text at once and they check pictures by traversing them while highly zoomed.
See also: expensive mechanical watches, sports cars, bottles that hold temperature for 24 hours
You'd think that Apple would stop themselves after reinventing the 2013 Microsoft Surface. Then they reprised Hololens with Vision Pro - how was nobody paying attention to Microsoft's failures at Cupertino?
They brought floating windows, a menu bar, and more mouse and keyboard features but then took away the UX that made it a great touch tablet - no more slide over, and no more quick split view you have to drag the windows your self or tap the green dot and then choose your split ratio - too many extra clicks.
They managed to turn it from a great tablet to a shitty laptop to the point that now I don't even see a reason for owning one if you have a macbook air, unless you REALLY need the pencil.
Oh, but then it wouldn't be a special little club.