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Global foldable smartphone shipments increased by just 2.9% YoY in 2024, and shipments are expected to decline by about 4% YoY in 2025.
(www.counterpointresearch.com)
this post was submitted on 31 Mar 2025
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Technology
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I've never seen the point of a folding phone other than as a gimmick you show off to your friends.
The flip style ones are pretty useless other than getting a preview on the main cameras.
The fold style, especially a trifold, seems pretty useful, and lets you basically carry around a decent size tablet in your pocket.
I definitely wouldn't call it a gimmick, although the price and durability tradeoffs are nowhere near worth it for 99% of people.
As someone who had a Samsung Flip3, I miss how easy it was to carry it around. It didn't feel like a brick that I had to take out of my pocket every time I needed to check my notifications. It was also surprisingly durable. Price is the main downside of these phones.
There's a fair chance I'll buy another one in the future if I have enough money when switching phones.
When you need to read a Wikipedia table but it's way too big for the phone screen without scrolling sideways or zooming so far you can't read it
just like the curved screen gimmick, newer models have abandoned it largely, because the cost of fixxing one that is prone to breaking, plus screen protectors have a hard time cover the curved areas.
Linus tech tips did an Android 30 day challenge trying to convert apple users and one of them said the foldable phone was nice because it actually fit in their pockets and belongings. Eventually they still stuck with their iphone because they're too dependent on the ecosystem though.