Technology companies are constantly striving to create the next ‘big thing’ in the tech market- especially when it comes to our everyday devices like our smartphones. In the New York Times article by Brian X. Chen entitled “Foldable Phones Are Here. Do We Really Want Them?”, Chen discusses how some of these technology companies are experimenting with foldable smartphones.
Some of these companies include Samsung, Motorola, and Huawei. While the idea of a foldable smartphone is innovative and interesting, Chen points out that the reality of it is not as appealing.
For instance, Samsung’s first foldable phone, the Galaxy Fold, broke within days of use by tech reviewers when it was released last year. Though, just earlier this month, two new foldable phones have been announced: The Samsung Galaxy Z flip and Lenovo’s Motorola Razr.Both of these devices work by opening up to reveal a standard-size touch screen and then folding to a miniature screen that shows notifications.
When looking at the advantages and disadvantages of these foldable devices, Chen points out that the only advantage is that “you can enjoy a big screen that takes up less space in your pocket”. On the other hand, there’s a lot of disadvantages with these new products.
For starters, to achieve the bendableness of the screen, thinner plastic is used to layer on the screen which is much less durable than the usual glass on phone screens. According to the article, “There’s no protecting the foldable display in a real-world environment the way that consumers treat their smartphones,” said Raymond Soneira, the founder of DisplayMate.
Also, when you unfold the phone there is generally a design flaw- there is a visible crease, which is pretty unappealing to the eye compared to our current sleek smartphone screens. On top of everything, these foldable gadgets are pricey. The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip is $1,380 and Lenovo’s Motorola Razr is $1,500.
After reading my post, what is your opinion on these foldable phones. Do you think it is a good and useful idea, and more importantly, would you think about purchasing one?
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Folding/bending smart phones are a cool concept but truthfully, they are not necessary and there’s no way they are worth all of the trouble they cause. Not only are they too expensive for the standard buyer, but the amount of technical difficulties that arise just from using them when they are newly-purchased makes the investment worthless. The New York Times raised a good point when they said, is this something the consumers really want? There wasn’t particularly a high demand for a foldable/bendable smart phone to begin with, so manufacturing a product that there isn’t a high demand for makes very little sense. Again, I think the idea is very interesting but until tech companies can make a bendable/foldable phone that is durable and consistent in operation, investing a lot of money into the concept would be a mistake. The amount of people that take such good care of their devices that a foldable phone wouldn’t break is very small. The risk is simply not worth the reward in this day and age. Maybe in 10 years it’ll be different but until then, only the couple companies that have already invested a lot of money into it should continue doing so, and companies like Apple should not enter the market.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/11/technology/personaltech/foldable-phones-samsung.html
I find the idea of a foldable phone intriguing yet unconventional. While there are some pros such as saving space and being able to combine phone and tablet, there is no doubt that the cons far outweigh the pros. First, there is almost no way companies like Samsung will be able to protect the phone as well as a regular device, the screen can’t be strong glass, and they will have to create a whole new type of phone case that hasn’t been developed before. This only aids to the price build up; the phone itself is expensive as is, but when adding things like cases and protection plans, the price builds up super quickly. Dell, Apple and HP have all created tablet phone crossovers that fold up and expand into whatever you want, so the idea of a phone tablet crossover isn’t completely out of reach. The difference between the computer tablet crossover and the potential phone tablet crossover is that the computer/tablet has proved that it is reliable, which is what must consumers value in a product, especially in technology. In contrast, the foldable phone as only proved that it is very pricey and complicated. While I believe that the foldable phone could be a great idea and asset to people that travel often and need to save space but also have both type of technologies available to them, they are not worth purchasing right now at their current price and unreliability.
Source: https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/best-folding-phones/
Companies have been developing foldable smartphones for a long time. Though the concept that smartphones can be turned into a pocket device is pretty cool, there are still some problems with this invention. The first issue is that phones can break apart easily since the connection part between the two screens is fragile. When we tend to protect our phone, we usually place our phones in the phone case; however, for foldable smartphones, the phone case will not work since the bent smartphones can easily open up once it hit the ground. My personal thought is that if the smartphone companies can use a material that is soft and “real” bendable rather than use the hard connection part to connect screens, there will be more customers willing to buy the smartphones. In addition, the article I listed in the source points out that bendable smartphones can have two displays, which can able people to do multiple tasks at the same time. But the truth is that the Apple company has already achieved multitasking by dividing iPad screens into two parts, and the screens for smartphones are generally too small for multitasking. For instance, most people do not want to use smartphones as tablets when they are working on excel or word documents, that is not because they can not do work on their phone, but they are not willing to since the screen is too small. If the foldable smartphones really want to take the smartphone market, they must improve these problems and know what customers need. It is a great idea for companies to work on foldable devices, but there is still a long way to go.
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https://www.nextgyn.com/how-foldable-smartphones-work/