Fidget toy

It’s so assholes on public transport or other public places with absolutely no sense of decency and narcissism that would rival the orange idiot can play videos, or music without headphones. Also, if you’re one of those people, fuck you

First off, hardly anyone under 50 uses a phone for calling any longer. It’s now a portable computer. I want a device in my pocket with a small footprint most of the time, but when I need a big screen for getting work done, I no longer need to carry around a tablet too. I can just unfold my phone and see a spreadsheet. Or take notes with a stylus. Or make some doodles. Or share a video with my wife or parents more easily that they can actually see.

So, it’s one device that has multiple functions in different forms. It also means I no longer need to have a ~$1200 phone and a ~$900 iPad mini, I can get both in a single $2000 device.

There are some companies making flip phones for the disconnected folks, if your primary need is a phone, go for it. The commodore one actually looks pretty cool.

My (adult) son has had a Samsung Fold for several years now and really likes it.

For him, it's basically a phone and tablet combined, and he no longer uses a separate tablet.

It's also good for running two apps side by side, and I see him doing that a lot (you can setup app groups that automatically launch together on each half of the inside screen).

Size and weight are the most important things for me.

I had one of these; and I think this was the pinnacle of smartphones.

It could do pretty much everything my current phone does and I had either a gameboy or super nintendo emulator on it as well. The cool part was it was a workhorse that was small unlike today's ~~tablets~~ phones. Oh yeah and this was in the early 2000s.

They break faster than non-folding phones, giving manufacturers an endless source of new revenue.

I own a Motorola razer 2020, absolutely love this phone! It's five years old. Love that it folds and fits in my hand, pockets, cup holders and the like. When I'm ready I will most definitely get the new Razor.

As someone who's used one before. I can see the benefit. But in order to be useful, it would need to replace something. Right now, the main thing it replaces is tablets. Me personally, I dont care for tablets and its also why i dont like folding phones. Either I do whatever I need to do on my phone or my laptop.

But the more interesting idea is it replacing the laptop. The idea of a singular device being able to run both desktop and mobile apps, makes it a little more intriguing. The closest you can get to this right now is Samsung dex (and I think android 17?). Hopefully in the future though, Linux phones will become more stable and useable. That'd genuinely be amazing.

Untill the tech improves, nothing.

I've seen three foldey phones in the wild, and they all had a smattering of problems; dead pixels along the foldey bits, cracked plastic along the foldey bits, scratches on the non-foldey bits because shrapnel gets in between the screens, ect...

If we had just kept working on the keyboard slidey phones, we'd have pocket terminals by now, but the keyboard died and was replaced with software...

Edit: typos

Well I have one for the removable battery

this sounds like one of those "i don't like this book even though i haven't read it" kind of things.

Surely you can't so lack in imagination to understand expended screen real estate on a pocketable. computer is something people might think is a benefit?

I'd be lucky to make a call a month on my Moto Flip (50 ultra),

When i fold it down it's tiny and easily pocketable and when i flip it open on the 2 hr high speed train ride I just took, it's a great size. for catching up with a couple videos. It's unfolded now, the bigger screen at the top of the on screen kb is nice I got this one for an excellent price, 50% of rrp and had $200 in nearly expired vouchers but the screen isn't that much higher then a slab phone but is 1/2 the size in my pocket and I can do a fair bit on the outside screen re messages etc

I'd like a Samsung Fold 8 but can't justify the price, also when i travel i think I wouldn't need a laptop at all, a small foldable kb and mouse because it's really a pocket computer.

Because I can’t fit a tablet in my pocket

Sometimes you want a larger screen for media or multitasking.

Or in the case of the flip-phone form factor, you want a phone that you can put away or fit in a smaller pocket/purse.