Previously on Lemmy:
Past Discussions:
Well, as promised, we are talking foldable this week. The excitement is palpable, and it looks like the rest of our mod team have already started the conversation here. Go check it out.
I honestly don’t know very much about foldable phones, so I’ll let the rest of our (very smart and knowledgeable) mod team handle this one this week. :)
Last thing for future reference at the end of the week, we also have a great thread discussing foldables here too, go check it out if you want more great discussions.
Honestly im considering buying one Just for the gimkick factor alone. I do like phones that have some gimmick. About the actual usefulness of said gimmick. Well i bought note once for the gimmick alone. Have i ever used the pencil. Only for solving nonograms. Nothing more. Folding phones gimmick on the other hand seems to be way better than the note gimkick, particualry the fold series, flips are questionable alghtough arguably they Look more cool. But the durability of both seems sketchy at Best, especialy since my notę 4 is still used in my family by my grandma and it still feels snapy to use.
So would i buy one. Not really. The thing with my old note 4 was that i managed to buy it used for a very reasonable price and im not sure i would touch used folding phone with a 3 feet pole, and a full priced 1000$ phones are a scam as far as i am concerned. If you want fun gimmick i Would honestly recomend rog phone 6 instead ( cool, should be reasonably priced, fun aestethic ) or a hopefully soon to be fairphone 5 (i never thought i would call removable battery a gimmick but here we are in 2023) . But If you swim in money by any means buy a flip or fold,why not.
I want to try a flip style foldable. Maybe moto or Samsung’s (good moto trade in when🙃). It’s been a while since I’ve seen a phone and go damn, that’s eye candy. There’ll probably be funky quirks no doubt, but a modern flip phone just looks awesome.
Love my Fold 4
Was this sent from your Fold 4?
I might buy a flip foldable in the future (so either the Samsung flip or the Motorola RAZR) because I like the idea of using my phone less if I can do at least some things on the outside screen + I like the idea of propping the phone up on itself for videos and photos. I really don’t need a book type foldable, but the clamshell just has something to it… In the future.
Don’t really see the appeal tbh. More fragile, more expensive, and for what? A bigger phone? I have big hands, and my Pixel 4a is about the max size that’s practical for me to use one handed.
I hopped off the “upgrade to a new phone every year or two” train about 6 years ago in favor of buying a cheaper phone outright and going prepaid. I don’t see any need to drop $1k+ on a phone, especially for what I view as a gimmick
I don’t trust it not to break.
Also they’re wildly expensive.
I felt the same but my wife got one over a year back and so far the only issue has been needing to replace the screen protector where it loses adhesion and starts to create a “bubble” towards the center of the device.
Bigger issue for me is that - unfolded - it’s a bit harder to protect with bumpers, and my experience with mechanical “clamshell” anything tends towards that part going over time
Currently typing this on my Fold 4 that I’ve had since launch. I don’t see myself ever going back to a normal slab style phone. I use it as a tablet that easily fits in my pocket, more often than not unfolding it for most uses. I also got a case that holds my stylus so I can draw on it when I want to. The stylus not being in the phone like in the S23 Ultra is my only complaint. Genuinely don’t notice the crease at all during use.
Oh, and price, of course. They’re so expensive. I got mine with a trade in and some heavy incentives, so I wound up with the phone, earbuds, and watch for ~$1300.
Personally I find the current range of phone options simply too huge. Having owned a Sony Z3 Compact followed by the XZ1 Compact, I didn’t have many choices. I ended up with the Asus Zenfone 8.
I really like the formfactor of the Oppo find N where in it’s folded form it’s a really usable size and I can unfold it if I need a bigger screen. I don’t mind the Samsung Flips or the Motorola Razrs but I think the outside screen can be bigger. There’s a market for the Samsung Folds but it’s not for me.
Tl;dr - my idea of a foldable should be a good sized phone which folds down to something very compact and pocketable.
As a woman with tiny pockets I’m considering switching from my (already small) S22 to a Flip-type foldable phone just to not have my phone poke into my hip bone every time I sit down.
I think they’ll be remembered a bit like 3D televisions in a few years… an interesting diversion, that ultimately went nowhere.
I use a Fold 4. I am autistic.
I went into it assuming I would hate the crease. But decided the upsides outweighed that potential downside. But over a year in now and I don’t even hate the crease. Honestly the thing I find the most annoying would also be on most other phones; Fold 4 has an underscreen camera with lower pixel density in front of it. Bothers the shit out of me. I’ve taken to having a floating button for screenshots/video and place that button directly over the camera circle. So instead of whatever is in my game looking stupid and annoying in that spot, I can just pretend the icon for the camera button has a weird design.
The upside for me is having access to a nearly 4:3 aspect ratio. I do alot of emulation of older games, so it’s nice to have them be full screen again. Also the charging speed is pretty nice, can have the phone completely full from empty in just under an hour at max charging speed. Which means the 25% to 75% time is just nuts. Can plug it in and not get bored just from watching the percentage tick up. Lol.
I don’t really have much use for it in folded bar form though, using it like an actual phone is of course better in that shape, but I didn’t buy this phone because of how often I make or receive traditional phone calls. So it’s mostly just a fast, useful tablet that I can fold up and put in my pocket. Honestly if there was a version without the outside screen, I would probably get that one. The only thing I use the outside screen for is to hang up at the end of a call. And I’m sure there is an alternate option for that. Could just have a tiny little info screen that had hang-up and speaker buttons. But yeah, if the outside screen isn’t costing much to include, then whatever, I could take it or leave it.
I have the hand strap case directly from Samsung, I definitely recommend it. It’s got adhesive strips that stick to the phone, designed to be put on once and never removed. It doesn’t need to be cleaned under. Basically as minimal as possible while having the grip to the phone necessary to trust that strap with your $2000 phones life. Although I didn’t quite pay that much, I always look for an open box deal. I got it 40% off.
But yeah, the crease isn’t really annoying at all. At it’s worst, when looking at the phone from an uncentered angle, it is visibly darker along each side of the crease, but looking at it straight on, which you generally would be doing, you can’t even tell it’s there. You have to touch it to notice it, but it’s smooth enough that it doesn’t affect playing games or anything.
I was worried it was gonna be much worse when thinking about it before I got hands on. So when my sister got a used fold 3, I borrowed it for a couple hours to play some specific games I wanted to try out. And I wasn’t worried anymore about spending so much for a fold 4.
The weight was an issue originally, took about 2 weeks to get used to it, and then about a month later I got the strap case and it would have solved it anyway. It’s lighter than a hand-held gaming console, and I’m sure a few of us used to hold those for hours when we weren’t as strong as we are now. The original issue was mostly when trying to hold it one-handed from one side of it. Or gripping accross the phone in folded out mode. I have decently big hands, smaller hands would have made it more than a 2 week issue. But yeah, if my hands were smaller, the problem would have remained until I got the strap case, then you hold the phone from it’s center of weight and your hand is in a comfortable position while doing so. Or I just tuck one finger tip into the strap and two more on the outside of the strap and hold the phone from one side still. Comfortable and distributing the phones weight more evenly.
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no calyx no use
Foldable screens, to me, seem to be a recipe for disaster. Another point of failure.
Flip phones like from Star Trek are awesome though!
Not interested in expensive gimmicks. How does it improve the experience? Now a phone that is a snap bracelet. Lives on my wrist. Sign me up.
How does it improve the experience
On a Pixel Fold,
- I can browse two social media apps.
- I can play two idle games.
- I can play a game and watch a stream.
- I can play one game or use one app with a large screen.
I actually use the inside screen much more than I thought I would. Is it worth it? Probably not, but goddamn is it fun.
You can use a laptop or a tablet. A big phone doesn’t bring anything new to the table. It’s just a sub category. Most people don’t need a tablet a laptop a phone and a large phone. Some might get something from it.
Only situation I’d see would be watching on a larger screen and maybe gaming. However I’d never need that as I have a tv. So why would I use a small screen? I’m sure it’s fun but I can never see it as something worth dropping 2k on.
Gaming laptop or a TV for gaming on. I wouldn’t play on my phone as it’s just a massive downgrade. But each to their own. Now a screen projected on my glasses. Sure.
Why would you ever play two idle games ? Sounds like an awful thing to do.