Report: Apple is testing foldable iPhones, having the same problems as everyone else::Don’t expect these clamshell-style foldables in 2024 or 2025 or maybe ever.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Apple is purportedly working on a foldable iPhone internally, according to “a person with direct knowledge of the situation” speaking to The Information.
The report has a long list of design challenges that Apple has faced in developing foldable phones: they’re too thick when folded up; they’re easily broken; they would cost more than non-foldable versions; the seam in the middle of the display tends to be both visible and feel-able; and the hinge on an iPad-sized device would prevent the device from sitting flat on a table (though this concern hasn’t stopped Apple from introducing substantial camera bumps on many of its tablets and all of its phones).
If many of those challenges sound familiar, it’s because it’s a detailed list of virtually every bad thing you could say about current foldable Android phones, even after multiple hardware generations.
Our first Pixel Fold didn’t even survive the pre-release review period, and those well-earned durability concerns plus the relatively high cost have limited foldable phones to roughly 1.6 percent of all smartphone sales, according to recent analyst estimates.
It makes sense that Apple would be testing some big swings as it thinks about the next era of iPhone design; our iPhone 15 review called them the iPhone’s “final form,” insofar as it feels like there’s not much room to continue to improve on the iPhone X-style full-screen design that Apple has been iterating on since 2017.
It sounds like foldable phones will only be in Apple’s future if the company can manage to overcome the same issues that have tripped up other foldables—though to be fair, the company does have a pretty good decadeslong track record on that front.
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Did anyone ask for folding phones?
For the love of god, yes. About half the time, I want a phone. The other I want a tablet. A foldable phone similar to the galaxy fold is exactly what I want.
But I’m locked into the Apple ecosystem for multiple reasons. And no, “just get two devices” isn’t that great an option. I don’t use them at the same time, why not just have them be the same device? Also helps with the fact that I might want to go back and forth between something in both modes.
Samsung is up to Fold 5, so at least someone keeps buying them. Though they are also up to Flip 5, a concept so dumb I honestly won’t believe anyone wants or uses one, so who knows.
I have seen 1 Fold in the wild, and even then, the guy’s screen was having issues.
I live in Korea and I see the Samsung foldable phones in the hands of like every 5th person, so yeah I’d say they sell
Interesting. Seattle, Washington pretty tech centric city, I’ve only seen the one guy. Mostly a 80/20 split between Iphone/Samsung flagship phones.
Yes! Phones with small screens are not useful. Phones which don’t fit in pockets are not useful. Flip phones solve the problem and I’ve been wanting one for twenty years.
the problems:
- they’re crap
- they break easily because they’re crap
- they’re expensive and have a high cost of ownership because they’re crap
- NOBODY FUCKING WANTS THEM
so, why is this happening?
People keep buying them because they don’t realize they are crap. We probably have another few years of this until the people with disposable money get tired of the crap phones.
I can’t imagine their resale value is very good either. The screens are plastic (they have to be to bend), which means they scratch incredibly easily. Though, I guess that is a good thing if you want to try a scratched-to-hell one that somehow got a tiny bit of dirt in the joint.
They aren’t crap at all, stop projecting your opinion as fact.
At worst they’re niche, but provide tangible and easily understandable benefits that you might not care about that others love. That’s like me hating on the newest Samsungs camera, just because I personally don’t value mobile photography.
Your complaints about durabilitu are pretty tied these days, the technology has improved a lot and you can realistically be as careless as you can with any other cell phone. There are valid concerns , such as Samsungs issue with hairline cracking along the hinge, but you can stop parroting points addressed over the past 5 years now.
you can realistically be as careless as you can with any other cell phone.
Hahahahaha… Right, right.
Something with a hinge can be treated the same as a bar where the glass is surrounded by plastic, say a Pixel? I don’t think so.
“Realistically”, something like this will always be a compromise on durability. There’s simply no way for something that bends in half to be “realistically” as durable as something that doesn’t.
Hell, I have different regular phones with massive durability differences (one is glass, titanium and ceramic, the other is all plastic), and none of them have a hinge (let alone a foldable screen). Which one of my phones is a folder as “realistically” durable as?
Let’s see the testing from the screen manufacturer defining how many folds the screen can do before a crease becomes apparent, or a pixel is lost.
Now let’s see the same test stats for a non-bending screen. Oh, yea, they don’t have that kind of durability testing, because they don’t have wear from bending.
You may wanna look up what “realistically” means.
Edit: so far 9 11 morons have shown they don’t know what realistically means
Their screen is glass under the screen protector and OLED display. So like most phones out there with a screen protector.
As for durability, I have washed and dried my phone in the laundry and dropped my phone going 60mph out of my pocket while riding my motorcycle. Granted I have a case, but still. I’m currently using it to reply to your incorrect message.
Shit on Apple for a lot of things, but if they put out a foldable it’s not likely to be crap hardware. Just overpriced with an annoying OS.
I get that Apple’s version would be the swankiest version, but I’m not there for it.
Like… they’d “do it right”, but the cost combined with whatever sacrifices they’d have to make for it to be “quality”… I dunno. Let’s see what they come up with.
You think Samsung hardware compares with Apple hardware? O.o
Don’t get me wrong, they don’t tend to put out shit. But they’ve also had a track record of issues like cracking screens and exploding batteries.
Apple tends to only put out the most polished version of something possible, assuming it ever sees the light of day. Their entire reputation is built around that point. If they release a foldable, the hardware will likely be on point.
That’s not to say it will be perfect, it’ll still be running their overly locked down walled garden POS software. But you’re telling me if Apple released a foldable that could have Android installed you wouldn’t be interested?
Personally, I love fold phones. They give me portability and a big screen which are the two things I most want in a phone
Yeah I totally believe that they break easily and are way too expensive. But that applies to any cutting edge product ever. Assuming the flaws can be engineered out, the fundamental benefit of having a large screen on a small/portable phone is definitely a killer feature.
I’ve had my fold3 for over 2 years and I absolutely love it. I don’t think I can go back to a bar-phone now. Also, even if you really don’t like folding phones, why fight creativity? Before this phones were getting so boring and completely lacking innovation. They still are in the non-folding market. Even if you don’t like them, choice is never a bad thing.
The only improvement I care about is bringing back physical buttons. Touch screens suck ass. I don’t give a fuck about cameras. I don’t give a fuck about folding bullshit. All I want is an interface that doesn’t blow dick. Apple is garbage along with the rest of them. Clueless fucking morons.
Most of the buyers think that touchscreens are very future and normal buttons are very past, because touchscreens are like magic, look! And because everybody uses them. And because more pixels. And because they don’t have to reliably enter text most of the time. Especially not looking at the phone.
I think it all still gets down to people poking screens with their fingers thinking it looks smarter and more elegant (LOL). It has a lot to do with how it looks for others.
I remember hearing something a few years ago about some companies working on better tactile feedback on touch screen buttons, making them more “clicky” and feeling more like real physical buttons. Sounded complicated and I don’t think anyone really did anything with it except for Samsung making the home button super clicky on my old Galaxy. I wonder if that will ever resurface, it seemed like a good compromise for folks who wanted real buttons.
Nope. It’s still a touch screen. The issue isn’t tactile feedback or a lack of it because with touch screens you can miss the button you’re trying to hit.
A miss is still a miss regardless of the touch screen vibrating or whatever the hell it’s doing to give you “tactile feedback”.
Nothing will change how shitty touch screens are and how easy it is to fat finger. I never had any of these problems on my old phone that had a physical keyboard.
It’s not about feedback only, also clear tactile button separation, not registering touches.
Repurposable physical buttons - maybe.
The more expensive way is with them being transparent and having their own small displays or being above the matrix, and has some similarities with what you say, the less expensive way is like Sony controllers.
BTW, PSP Slim was the most usable pocket computer I’ve touched. Text input was slow, but compared to touchscreens - more comfortable.
It’s more the fact that hardware buttons take away from screen real estate. Yeah, the touch method kinda sucks, but when you’re done with the keyboard it poofs away into more screen.
If you try to put a keyboard on a recent phone for example, and you don’t try to minimize it into oblivion, you’re losing about 4/5ths of the screen. That isn’t a crazy amount, but when you’re playing a game or watching a video, that loses out on quite a bit of space.
Not to mention the aspect ratio would be off for so many things.
Only folding phone I’ll accept is a Surface Duo type setup. Don’t fold the panel itself, just have a different panel.
