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I just don't understand who wants these foldable phones, especially at the $1799 price point. I guess a use case is wealthy frequent travelers who don't want a

I just don't understand who wants these foldable phones, especially at the $1799 price point. I guess a use case is wealthy frequent travelers who don't want a separate device with a larger screen to watch movies/videos on the go? Someone help me out here.

maxerickson 3y ago
At $1800, they aren't really pretending it isn't a niche product. I'd rather they were messing around trying to make a big screen in a small package than not.
- ncr100 3y ago
  They do discount it for Fi customers. On the site, if you use Google Fi Wireless, and you keep your service for 24 months, then they prorate $700 discount for each month.
baby 3y ago
Me! I want one so bad. I just can’t get out of Apple’s jail ecosystem :( I think if the next iPhone doesn’t come out with a fold model I’m finally going to switch back to Android. Why: I read a lot (pdf, not epubs) and I watch videos a lot.
atourgates 3y ago
It's more than the price of a nice smartphone, and a nice tablet. An iPhone 14 and iPad Pro are gonna' run you $1,600, and be more useful in most cases. I mean, sure, you're not going to fit an iPad in your pocket, but do you really need to? And when it's out, it's more productive to have a separate tablet and phone, than just one device that's trying to do it all. Folding phones are a neat idea, and as a technical achievement, this is impressive. But in terms of price and practicality? I don't really see the appeal or value.
- danwee 3y ago
  > Folding phones are a neat idea, and as a technical achievement, this is impressive. But in terms of price and practicality? I don't really see the appeal or value. I thought that was the consensus... It surprises me that Google is investing money on such a device. Weird.
  - manojlds 3y ago
    > Google is investing money Unlike other prudent decisions from Google in the last decade?
  - caddemon 3y ago
    The price is not going to be that high in 5 years, and when the price becomes comparable with the latest iPhone that's going to have the potential to flip a totally different market segment to Android than would've previously considered it. There are also multiple ways to use the folding screen tech, they can make phone with normal size unfolded screen and small folded form factor instead. Women's pocket sizes alone can sell a lot of those, and there's definitely a nostalgia market for e.g. the razr form factor too.
  - wildzzz 3y ago
    Folding phones have some good use cases like video/photo/music editing, desktop publishing, word processing, and probably some other things I can't think of. However, those are all great things to do on a tablet or laptop. The foldable phones seem to be the next evolution of the phablet design but those didn't exactly sell well. Although the reason those didn't sell well was because of how big they are, a foldable gives you the package of a phone but the screen size larger than a phablet. Do you need to do all of these editing/publishing tasks on the go and don't want to carry any more than a portable keyboard? A foldable might be for you. Google just doesn't want to miss out on the potential market. Will they continue to sell? Honestly who knows. Carrying around such an expensive device like you would your phone seems risky but I'm probably not the market for these devices. Google is just looking to make sure that Samsung doesn't corner the market even if its just a fad. With Apple bringing Final Cut and Logic to the iPad, they can cut further into the "creative on-the-go" market without having to bother creating a foldable and just leverage their existing tech.
- Jarwain 3y ago
  I've gotten a lot of value out of my fold 4, especially in spontaneous situations where I don't have a tablet or my notebook at hand. Pull out my phone, snap a picture, then annotate. Or just pull it out and draw to try and get a concept across. Reading or watching videos, sharing an image, or whatever. And I Always have it with me, because I always have my phone with me. I don't carry around my laptop everywhere, and I've never purchased a tablet. It's just remarkably convenient
- xanathar 3y ago
  I, on the other hand, can't see a single reason why somebody would want a tablet. We've had some, and they all ended up forgotten in a drawer. Either I'm in a place where I have whatever limited portability I can (so I use the phone) or I have a laptop with proper keyboard, applications and OS. On the other hand, I always have my phone with me and I'd definitely benefit for a larger screen when reading emails, websites, documents, planning trips or whatever. That said, I would never pay that kind of price, neither for a foldable, nor for an iPhone so I guess I'm out of that market niche anyway.
  - xnyanta 3y ago
    I have an iPad for note-taking at school and literally don't use it for anything else. In fact it's out of battery most of the time I pick it up. My Samsung fold is just so much more versatile and I hse it for media consumption most people without a foldable hse a tablet for.
  - scarface74 3y ago
    I travel a lot for both business and personal (nomadding 7 months a year). I never turn on the TV while I’m at the hotel on business by myself. I watch from my iPad. It’s my only “personal” computer. When I occasional need to be “productive”, I use my wireless mouse and keyboard from my computer and pair them to my iPad. Finally, it’s also part of my three monitor setup for my laptop. The other is a portable USB C powered monitor. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B095GG31KX https://www.amazon.com/dp/B095GG31KX
  - throwaway675309 3y ago
    Sigh, Really? You're obviously not an artist then, many of my friends and I have already replaced our Wacom dedicated tablets with an iPad with the pro pencil.
  - saagarjha 3y ago
    Tablets are great in bed.
    - alpaca128 3y ago
- kimbernator 3y ago
  These things always cost more at first, so I agree that it's "overpriced" for the value it brings. That said, I think the practicality is that it provides all of the value of a phone and a tablet in a single device that fits in your pocket. It's a fairly large leap in the ever-growing list of other devices that smartphones are replacing. I also like to think that long-term maybe they will have the ability to fold out along more than one dimension and potentially be dramatically larger than this, but that's just dreaming at this point.
- lmm 3y ago
  > And when it's out, it's more productive to have a separate tablet and phone, than just one device that's trying to do it all. Not convinced. Having to move back and forth between two devices is a pain. Just like how a powerful laptop with a docking station is much nicer than a cheap laptop and a desktop, even if the former costs more.
  - s1mon 3y ago
    > Having to move back and forth between two devices is a pain. I do that a couple times a day. Almost everything that I do with these devices stays in sync through various accounts/cloud in the background. Admittedly I'm just doing this at home, but when I travel, I pretty much always bring my iPad (in addition to the iPhone and my Apple Watch which are on me as long as I'm dressed and awake). I don't have it set this way at the moment, but you can even have any app that you install automatically get added to the other device. It's very different than a typical laptop/desktop situation since those are harder to sync (depending on what OS/apps/files/etc are involved). However if a lot of what you do is in the cloud, then maybe switching between laptop and desktop is more fluid.
- wiseowise 3y ago
  > An iPhone 14 and iPad Pro are gonna' run you $1,600, and be more useful in most cases. It’s 1600 for iPad Pro alone in Europe. > I mean, sure, you're not going to fit an iPad in your pocket, but do you really need to? Yes. > And when it's out, it's more productive to have a separate tablet and phone, than just one device that's trying to do it all. Majority of people care about convenience, not productivity.
gtop3 3y ago
If you use your phone an average of 5 hours a day for two years and then throw it in a junk drawer the hardware would cost less than 50cents per hour of use. I use my $800 iPhone about 30 minutes a day, keep it for 4 years, and spend about $1 per hour of use. I'd say the market is heavy cellphone users that use apps that benefit from the larger screen.
- sidfthec 3y ago
  > If you use your phone an average of 5 hours a day for two years and then throw it in a junk drawer the hardware would cost less than 50cents per hour of use. I don't understand this type of justification. My fridge would cost around $65k for a 15 year lifetime at $0.50/hour. It just seems like a completely meaningless way to judge the value of something.
  - manojlds 3y ago
    "At the price of one coffee cup" is another thing that gets me. I brew at home and it's 10p for me, is that what you mean?
    - _zoltan_ 3y ago
      10p? based on p I think you're in the UK? what kinda coffee is that?here a 3rd wave coffee costs around 42-50 CHF for a kilo and you need 18g for an espresso, so 0.756-0.9 CHF per espresso if I calculate 0 for amortization of equipment.
      - ISL 3y ago
        I've never done this arithmetic before. With a massively inefficient usage of a french-press, I get something like three cups of coffee from a press and perhaps 7 fillings of the press from a bag from my local store. That coffee is $6 USD when it's on sale and $8 when it's not. Neglecting the cost of the $20 press, the water, the kettle, the rinse-water, the mug, and the heating of the water, that's about $0.33 USD / cup?
      - 3y ago
jamincan 3y ago
Who wants to watch a movie on a square screen though? I guess it would be better for browsing in most cases.
solveit 3y ago
For me it was something that I could read papers on while still (just) fitting in my pocket. Probably not the median use-case, but still.
- _boffin_ 3y ago
  I lug my iPad Pro 11 everywhere with me just so I can read, write and do notes when I have any down time. And yea, what you stated is why I want a foldable phone
pstanger 3y ago
hi, I want these folding phones. Though I took advantage of the ridiculous trade in offers that Samsung usually promotes with. Everything is just nicer on the bigger screen: messaging, browsing, videos, gaming. And that screen is always in my pocket. Can't read the QR code menu at the restaurant? Here, look at my pocket tablet. The technology is still in an awkward phase but I think slab phones will be obsolete in 5 years
- xnyanta 3y ago
  Totally agree, especially for the restaurant menu use case even if it's niche. I can have a regular phone walking around folded and just unfold whem I sit down and am ready to consume any kind of media.
- manojlds 3y ago
  I want folding phone too. Question is, at what price.
- CameronNemo 3y ago
  I don't want to have to lug a tablet everywhere, like some fulltime scribe.
  - skeaker 3y ago
    I think the idea behind the folding form factor is that you don't have to lug it around, since it's in the same shape as a regular phone whenever you're not using it (and I don't think people consider having a phone in their pocket "lugging it around").
  - imron 3y ago
    I don't want a crease in my screen, which I've seen on every single one of these used for any length of time.
    - coconut08 3y ago
      as a person who has daily driven a fold for almost 2 years the "crease" is a complete non-problem when you are using it. its mostly just people who havent actually used it that complain about it because they heard some influencer complaining about it or they saw a picture someone took of it with a studio light blasting down on it at the perfect angle.
xnyanta 3y ago
I'm posting this from my Galaxy Z Fold 3. I'm not particularly wealthy or a frequent traveler. I bought this phone used for 750 bucks in Canada and my main use case for the screen real-estate is reading manga on it, which it excels at. It also then serves as a phone and a media in bed machine. It is fragile and I take good care of it but it is absolutely the most innovative and exciting phone I've had the pleasure of using so far. I'm excited for the future of foldables and hope the next generation of the pixel fold will bring more serious competition to Samsung's lineup!
- manojlds 3y ago
  So you don't want it at $1800 right.
  - xnyanta 3y ago
    It's absolutely overpriced considering I think Samsung has better offerings at that price point (which I think are equally ovepriced). I think fierce competition will bring the price of this emerging form factor down in the long term. That said, I am loving the device and will not hesitate to pay some more to trade it in for a next gen device when they come out. I'm not interested in returning to a slab phone at the moment after habing gotten a taste of the Fold.
    - RajT88 3y ago
      Fierce competition, and dropping production costs for the tech. I am old enough to remember when your average laptop was several thousand dollars, much of the cost of which was due to the LCD display. My daily-driver laptop in college I bought used for like $900 in 2001 (a Toshiba Tecra 780-DVD), but originally all the kit I bought with it would have run close to $6,000.
- r00fus 3y ago
  I think you hit on something here - if you can get it for 750 (in any currency) it becomes interesting. If it's nearly 2k, it's a plaything for the rich that's both fragile and may have issues that are likely to be poorly supported by the vendor.
emacs28 3y ago
Personally I love my overpriced Samsung z fold, I don't use a laptop anymore (just a desktop), I can easily read double-column research articles wherever I am, it's great for drawing diagrams, and all of that without having to remember both your phone and a tablet everywhere you go.
jeroenhd 3y ago
I want one, but not while they're this expensive. I'll wait for the price to come down at least two thirds before I even consider buying one of these.
- ncr100 3y ago
  Check the Google Fi site for a $700 discount for customers who keep Fi service for 24 months.
  - jeroenhd 3y ago
    Google Fi doesnr exist in my country, but even still that's a steep price for a phone.
    - ncr100 3y ago
      AH yeah $1000 for a phone is bonkers. Like $250,000 USD for a car.... $400 is better. $175 is good. $50 is great - need subsidies from the carrier for this, IMO.
JohnFen 3y ago
> the $1799 price point The folding bit has no value to me, but even if it did, that price point is unacceptable. A phone is something I carry every day and don't treat like a delicate flower. If it costs so much that losing or breaking it would bring financial pain in addition to the pain of the loss of the phone, it's not suitable for my needs. That said, I'm being overly cautious because I've never actually lost or broken a phone.
- kelnos 3y ago
  That's the thing. My current phone (Pixel 4) was something like $700 when I first bought it, and the idea of breaking it was pretty scary for me, for something I carry around with me everywhere, every day. It's been a while since I've broken a phone, but it's happened, and my wallet was not pleased about the experience. I don't have a tablet and wouldn't want one as a dedicated device, but I could absolutely see myself using the tablet features of the Pixel Fold, given that I wouldn't be carrying around an extra device, and it's pocket-sized when folded up. (I usually read a book on my phone when on transit, for example, and would love to be able to do that on a larger screen.) But carrying around a $1800 device that's as easily breakable as a phone? I think I'd be too anxious for that.
gibspaulding 3y ago
I can't ever see buying one, but it would be nice for reading PDF's without constantly having to zoom and scroll around.
carlton_gauss 3y ago
Anyone who wants the functionality of tablets, but doesn't want to carry an extra thing everywhere. I'd pay easily $3000 for a foldable with a good pencil and a good CAD app. Right now, the only such device is the ipad with shapr3d.
micromacrofoot 3y ago
tech workers making $250k a year
ianbutler 3y ago
I'm never going back. I only type and respond to things unfolded, I have big hands and the split keyboard + bigger buttons are great. Outside of that I'm a fairly big reader and I enjoy reading both articles and books unfolded and have no interest in bringing a second device to do so. I also write notes with stylus on it which is practical unfolded. More real estate for video etc. And then I can just fold it and use it as a phone for calls.
- echelon 3y ago
  That sounds nice, but I want the same foldable form factor for entirely opposite reasons. I want a rough, minimalistic foldable like the old school Razr. Something that can take abuse. I want to be able to flick it open and close with the snap of my wrist and stuff the folded form factor back into my pocket without worry. I don't care if there's no screen covering the bezel. That'd make it less durable anyway. Two screens, similar to the Nintendo DS is fine. I'm sick of the smartphone slab and exposed glass. I want a wallet shaped device with a protective plastic or metal shell on the outside.
  - iknowstuff 3y ago
    Why. Put your slab in a protective case and a screen protectir and you get a much more durable device than flip phones ever were.
    - adastra22 3y ago
      And now it is a giant brick that doesn’t fit comfortably in your pocket.
      - dragonwriter 3y ago
        Get a bigger pocket.
        deleted 3y ago
        [deleted]
epolanski 3y ago
You answered your question, more real estate. The price is not appealing but to me any smartphone above 300$ is unappealing.
- sidibe 3y ago
  Yup. I definitely see the appeal of having your phone and tablet be the same thing. I'm sure these will get cheaper eventually if they work well. Not surprised at all by the cost it's a lot different product and very new. There's people paying 1K for normal phones.
VincentEvans 3y ago
Eventually all phones will be like that and the price point adjusted for inflation will be comparable to what normal phones cost now. So this is just a way for you to get a device from the future by paying a premium, or alternatively you can just wait. An iphone was also amazing unique and expensive when it first came out. But by todays standards - a $100 android phone is both more powerful and a lot cheaper.
screye 3y ago
I've a Galaxy Fold 3 and now 4 for about 2 years now. It is my biggest cellphone QOL improvement since the Pixel mainstreamed AI photography in the first pixel. Best extra $400 spent per year or so.
- emptysongglass 3y ago
  Can you go into detail on what specific improvements drive this value for you?
taeric 3y ago
Agreed on the high costs. That said, I am very happy with my flip. Smaller pocket footprint, and far fewer accidental unlocks now. (That is, my phone used to unlock with me just putting hands in pocket. Very annoying.) Also feels good to "close" the phone. In ways that locking doesn't quite reach.
coffeebeqn 3y ago
Yeah this costs as much as a MacBook Pro.. absurd
- eb0la 3y ago
  I don't feel it's absurd. For every product in the market there is a luxury version for people who's insensitive to price (hello LVHM!)... except for phones. If you have all the money in the world the most expensive / exclusive phone you can get is an iPhone, Samsung Fold, or this Pixel Fold.
  - resolutebat 3y ago
    Vertu has entered the chat: https://vertu.com/collections/signature https://vertu.com/collections/signature $118,500 for a diamond-encrusted dumbphone that's still running Symbian, anyone?
    - lotsofpulp 3y ago
      How is this company still in business?
      - deleted 3y ago
        [deleted]
      - stonogo 3y ago
        Wealth and judgment are unrelated.
        lotsofpulp 3y ago
        Just because you are wealthy, does not mean you want to be inconvenienced. Especially to the degree that not using a modern iOS/Android device would inconvenience you. There’s a million ways to show off you are rich that would not result in you wasting your time.
      - ben1040 3y ago
browningstreet 3y ago
My dream combo is a small iPhone with best camera and an updated iPhone mini. I’d still rather have those but that prices out similarly… so I get it.
- scarface74 3y ago
  My combo is an iPhone 12 Pro Max and a cellular Apple Watch. My phone isn’t on me when I want sone distraction free time - gym, running, watching TV with my wife, etc.
shmoogy 3y ago
It's "good" for everything on the go if you can handle the bulk of it folded. I've got an iPhone 14 pro and a Galaxy fold 3. It's roughly the size of an iPad mini when unfolded and is my favorite form factor. Small enough to carry around and enough real estate to RDP or SSH to get some actual work done if you need to. I don't like carrying a bag with my MacBook if I can avoid it
edandersen 3y ago
Until someone actually sells an 8 inch OLED tablet, these are the only options on the market today for a small tablet with a good screen.
- SoylentYellow 3y ago
  Only option right now is a Lenovo Y700. Not OLED, but it has a great looking 120 Hz screen, fast processor, and premium feel. However, it only comes in a Chinese version, so I ended up creating "unsecure" networks and accounts (Youtube, Reddit, etc) to use with it.
crossroadsguy 3y ago
I also don’t understand who would have wanted a 4 inch then a 5 inch then 6 then 7 and maybe 8 inches phones while their palms remained exactly of the same size. Sometimes I feel people just want weird shit. And yeah new things. Just “new” things - otherwise Apple’s non-upgrade upgrade phones will go unsold.
- 16bitvoid 3y ago
  I feel the trend to bigger phones is probably indicative of phones being the sole computing device for more and more people. Anecdotal, but one example is my parents. I've watched them go from having desktops to laptops to iPads while they kept getting the biggest iPhone available. Now, their phones are pretty much all they use (outside of a smart TV and an Amazon Echo).
  - walthamstow 3y ago
    My parents and all their peers (born early 60s or before) have the biggest phone they can buy because they have the font size set to the largest setting.
- wiseowise 3y ago
  Because palm size is what dictated size of original phones, not technological advancements allowing for bigger, affordable, higher quality phones?
- Levitz 3y ago
  Simple, Marketing creates demand. The vast majority of the population doesn't need the kind of computing beast they are using, but it is what gets sold to them. Everybody in society gets a phone and the vast majority of them are technologically illiterate, it's absurd to think that organic demand directs direction in the phone market.
x3n0ph3n3 3y ago
I love my Samsung ZFlip4, which feels much more like the old flip phones, but it also has a smaller screen on the outside with a few handy functions that keep my from having to unfold it. The form factor is just so comfortable and fits wonderfully in my pockets, including my breast pockets.
melling 3y ago
“I just don't understand who wants…” I’ve heard so many people make this comment about a variety of things. I recommend paying closer attention and learning. The best response is to let people figure out for themselves what they don’t get.
- bootlooped 3y ago
  But there have been cases of industries or companies pushing things that consumers aren't really interested in in any non-trivial numbers.
- ggm 3y ago
  It's sometimes a way to say "can somebody explain the pros and cons" -I don't get an air fryer (for instance) said so, and an aficionado explained the Ps and Cs to me. Now I just say "doesn't do anything for my style of cooking"
  - wiseowise 3y ago
    Most of the time it’s not. Usually it’s just a cheap indirection to “I don’t like this”.
- izacus 3y ago
  As per Ted Lasso: "Be curious, not judgemental."
komali2 3y ago
1. Nice to watch youtube videos on, which I do a lot. Both in portrait and landscape. I watch a lot of linus tech tips, photography videos, breadtube, and mandarin learning videos on it. I wouldn't buy it for this alone. 2. Really excellent emulation device. Powerful enough hardware and phenomenal screen. I use it as-is in portrait mode for the best possible DS emulation on-the-go. I can at least 4x the resolution in almost all games. I can also slap a gamesir controller thing on either side to turn it into a sort of switch-style emulation device. I play ps2, ds, 3ds, gba, gamecube, n64, snes, and nes games on it. 3. Good game streaming device. Mount the controllers on it and use moonlight or steam link to stream from my desktop PC, even if I'm not on local network. Or, use nvidia geforce now or whatever it's called. There's a separate link to servers here in Taiwan through taiwan dageda, so I get ridiculously good connection. 4. Pretty good note taking device with the stylus. This is the use case that drove me to purchase. I'm always experimenting with various ways of (handwritten) note taking, especially on books I read, and having all my notes right there on my phone is really, really nice. I never "forget my notebook" now. Well, unless I forget the stylus lol, or it falls out of my pocket, which has happened 3 times now, and the styluses are an absurd like 50$ or something, so, this device is not nearly ready for mainstream consumption. Similarly, it's great for banging out quick engineering diagrams or designs. I can export to image and throw directly on a ticketing system, or upload into slack. Nice flow, if I get a question from a junior when I'm on a train or whatever. 5. Reading books is very nice on it. 6. Using music-making apps, especially ones with piano rolls and keyboards, is phenomenal. I really wish it had an aux plug though. The jellyphone 2 has that and is the size of a pill bottle, and has dual sim and removable SD storage. No excuses. Although, my version of the galaxy fold 3 does have dual sim. 7. The width of the screen when folded is actually usable on my smaller hands. This was another big driver for getting it. Hilariously, my initial reason for looking for my next phone was, I was tired of big phones, and wanted one I could actually use one handed. Funnily enough the narrow width (that so many people complain about) of the galaxy zfold3 was a big selling point for me. 8. Using maps is really nice on it, and I'm doing this constantly because we're always exploring Taiwan. In all, I don't think I'm down to drop another 1.8k (1.4 for me because I got it on contract) on a phone any time in the near future. When this phone bites the bullet (and the inner screen is already "tightening" and reducing the flatness of the unfolded state, so one of these days I'm sure I'll overextend and crack the thing) I'm going to get a nice small android something, I heard the Asus zenfone 9 is a good size at a fair price. As cool as all the features are, it's not like I have all THAT much time to game or make music on my phone, and worse case, I can just toss the thing into my plane-toys bag when I have flights or whatever. The notes taking feature I still use occasionally, especially for diagrams, but I've since moved to a onyx boox e-ink tablet for that, mostly because this lets me hand-write annotate epubs, a feature I've wanted on a device for like, 15 years lol. So, after ~1 year of using the galaxy zfold 3, I can say, it was worth the money ONLY because it fulfilled like 8 usecases for me. Take away even a couple of those and there's no way it's worth it. A better alternative would be a jellyphone or pixel + a small affordable android tablet in the bag with a stylus. Spend the remaining on a previous version op1 or opz if you're really into music making, or a steam deck if you're really into gaming. Or shit both lmao, you're right that 1.8k is an insane amount of money. Edit: looking through the marketing material, I'm not seeing any stylus usage on the pixel version. Even if a stylus would technically work, if the responsiveness and sensitivity doesn't allow for note taking, this thing doesn't make any sense to me. On the samsung foldables, the responsiveness of note taking with the stylus beat out literally every other device I've ever tried it with. It is phenomenal.
raincole 3y ago
There are plenty of people who don't use a (desktop/laptop) computer outside of their jobs. If you're on HN, you're probably not one of them, so it can be difficult to imagine their behaviours. For example, in Japan, 36.6% of teenagers say they don't use PC at home [1]. It's also a country where people read a lot of comics. Now these foldable screens make more sense, right. [1]: https://news.yahoo.co.jp/byline/fuwaraizo/20201021-00203217 https://news.yahoo.co.jp/byline/fuwaraizo/20201021-00203217
- throwaway675309 3y ago
  Apparently Japanese teenagers also have a lot more disposable income to drop nearly two grand on a cell phone.
  - raincole 3y ago
    Some of them do, of course. iPhone's market share is ~65% in Japan. If they successfully marketed it as an "iPhone + iPad in your pocket", $2k would not be an unimaginable price. And there will be more affordable foldable phones when they're more adopted. But of course this one is from Google so it doesn't enjoy Apple's branding premium.
- ggm 3y ago
  I'm on HN mostly on a samsung 10" tablet but in my day job I work on my mac. If I tried harder DeX might work for me.
- rjh29 3y ago
  Comics are actually changing to suit phones rather than the opposite! Newer web comics show one panel at a time in a long vertical strip. And tablets are still a thing, you can just use them for comics instead of spending $1800 on a phone.
SMAAART 3y ago
People love to buy things they don't need, with money they don't have, to impress people they don't like.
- wiseowise 3y ago
  People love empty quotes that don’t mean anything, but sound deeply philosophical.
  - SMAAART 3y ago
    But it's true.
gmerc 3y ago
Eyesight. Hard to imagine for someone under 35 but ya, it’s a game changer.
oatmeal1 3y ago
In addition to being very expensive, it also seems like you can't get a case on it. And they probably don't have much texture on the outside to give a good grip. Bad grip + bad protection = keep some savings in case you wreck it.
LegitShady 3y ago
I want the foldable, but at that price point I don't.
hndamien 3y ago
When Apple makes a foldable phone a bunch of people will want them, if for no other reason than to just stop scratches.
_heimdall 3y ago
I bought an original Surface Duo last year for $350. For the price it was a really investing phone. The proper dual screen is actually really handy, I don't think I'd find it nearly as useful with a single foldable display that is effectively a worse tablet.
shp0ngle 3y ago
I like to read comics and I’m too lazy to bring tablet with me. I am thinking about buying foldable. That said, not at this price point and with Pixels not known for their hardware quality. Maybe I’ll wait for when Apple inevitably does their foldable.
- theodric 3y ago
  The inevitable Apple foldable will come with the inevitable Apple price. I'd say $2000.
  - wiseowise 3y ago
    2,5k for 1TB model.
  - shp0ngle 3y ago
    Good point.
  - teekert 3y ago
    If it has an M3 chip and stuff like iMovie seems to work fine. Or it's the only driver for the VR glasses that are coming, or wirelessly connect to certain monitors.. It may be a "new class" of device. I mean not new for humanity, but for Apple.
wraptile 3y ago
I'm really perplexed too especially since the crease is still so visibile and the build quality so weak. I feel like carrying small phone and a tablet/laptop is still a significantly better value any way you look at it unless you travel a lot without any storage on your human. I found the most ergonomic travel setup for me is a Lenovo Yoga laptop and the small samsung s22. Both of which can be bought for less than 1800$.
- fomine3 3y ago
  I had bought a tablet but I rarely bring it outside of home except longer trip. Even if I bring it, it's annoying to take out from my bag for a short time use. I finally bought Fold3 and I put it on my pocket everyday. Having it 100% of time is too useful for everything. Crease is too minor problem than that.
mFixman 3y ago
You could say the same thing about any >$200 phone, or any new device at all: gadgets are luxury devices, and there's no upper price for the luxury sector. Besides, if this lasts at least 4 years then the amortised price is more reasonable.
izacus 3y ago
"Who wants this expensive camera on a phone when you can buy a cheap phone and a Nikon DSLR?" Turns out... Plenty. Just like foldables. Samsung has been doubling shipments every year.
- alpaca128 3y ago
  I just don't see any value in this feature while the OS is so limited. For now I'll stay with my foldable that comes with a keyboard.
  - abhinavk 3y ago
    That's why Google doing this is important. If they don't do, the app and OS situation will remain as it is.
michelb 3y ago
I may consider them at a much lower price-point and if they were much thinner, so not anytime soon :) My ideal is the Westworld style tablet, but that's sci-fi.
Wildgoose 3y ago
I have a Surface Duo phone. Using both screens together is like using a tablet, but it folds up and fits in my pocket. I can have the keyboard on one screen and have a full display on the other. I can look something up on one screen while using something else on the other screen. By comparison, the standard of "splitting" a single screen results in something that is often too small and awkward to use and with too little screen space for comfortable viewing.
- dsq 3y ago
  What keyboard do tou use for text input?
  - Wildgoose 3y ago
    Application dependent. Usually Microsoft Swiftkey, but Hacker's Keyboard when I am programming (or similar).
    - dsq 3y ago
      Great. How does Hacker's keyboard work with the surface duo? Do you have any insights/pros/cons for using this keyboard with a folding phone?
leokennis 3y ago
I am currently carrying an iPhone and an iPad Mini. The iPad is to read the newspaper, to watch photo/video, and in cases I need to do real multitasking (i.e. make notes about a PDF, so I want both on my screen at once). If I could have both in one device, that'd be awesome. So far however (besides the fact that only Android has foldables), the very visible crease is a dealbreaker for me.
- sofixa 3y ago
  > the very visible crease is a dealbreaker for me. That's what I thought too, but after speaking with a Samsung Fold something owner, and testing it for some time, it's mostly visible only in some angles. Also I imagine it's like notches and holes, you get used and forget about them.
o1y32 3y ago
Just like many people still don't understand why people have Kindles. They would think -- you can read books on phones, many of which are as large as 6.7 inches? Or Why not get an iPad or iPad mini, and you can do so many more things on it? So on and on. (I have two kindles and I don't personally know anyone who has a kindle. But that is fine.)
- GGroen 3y ago
  Eye strain
asah 3y ago
Never going back. Maps, video, even messages are all way better. With the fold open, you get overview and details.
rakoo 3y ago
You could have said the same about the transition from featurephones to smartphones, why would people pay 3 times the price for a battery that barely lasts a day, my 2" screen is more than enough to read my texts, etc... And yet here we are
shaftway 3y ago
I carried one of these when I was at Google (needed it for my job there). When I was using it by myself casually I almost never unfolded it. But when I wanted to see more detail in a photo or wanted to show someone a YouTube video it was invaluable to be able to unfold it for the temporary larger screen.
w0m 3y ago
I'd happily use a Fold if it cost ~half as much. Size doesn't matter that much in pocket for me; and it looks convenient when actually using the device.
lannisterstark 3y ago
>I just don't understand who wants these foldable phones The problem is that they're using the wrong fold. I want my screen to EXTEND outwards. I don't want to go from one screen to open yet another screen. I want it to intuitively either extend, or allow me to fold OUT my content, not in.
bebna 3y ago
The new Sony 1 V will cost 1.4kEUR, not much less. Phones in general got expansive. (The Samsung Fold 4 is at 1.3 to 1.2kEUR)

maxerickson 3y ago

At $1800, they aren't really pretending it isn't a niche product. I'd rather they were messing around trying to make a big screen in a small package than not.

ncr100 3y ago
They do discount it for Fi customers. On the site, if you use Google Fi Wireless, and you keep your service for 24 months, then they prorate $700 discount for each month.

baby 3y ago

Me! I want one so bad. I just can’t get out of Apple’s jail ecosystem :( I think if the next iPhone doesn’t come out with a fold model I’m finally going to switch back to Android. Why: I read a lot (pdf, not epubs) and I watch videos a lot.

atourgates 3y ago

It's more than the price of a nice smartphone, and a nice tablet. An iPhone 14 and iPad Pro are gonna' run you $1,600, and be more useful in most cases. I mean, sure, you're not going to fit an iPad in your pocket, but do you really need to? And when it's out, it's more productive to have a separate tablet and phone, than just one device that's trying to do it all. Folding phones are a neat idea, and as a technical achievement, this is impressive. But in terms of price and practicality? I don't really see the appeal or value.

danwee 3y ago
> Folding phones are a neat idea, and as a technical achievement, this is impressive. But in terms of price and practicality? I don't really see the appeal or value. I thought that was the consensus... It surprises me that Google is investing money on such a device. Weird.
- manojlds 3y ago
  > Google is investing money Unlike other prudent decisions from Google in the last decade?
- caddemon 3y ago
  The price is not going to be that high in 5 years, and when the price becomes comparable with the latest iPhone that's going to have the potential to flip a totally different market segment to Android than would've previously considered it. There are also multiple ways to use the folding screen tech, they can make phone with normal size unfolded screen and small folded form factor instead. Women's pocket sizes alone can sell a lot of those, and there's definitely a nostalgia market for e.g. the razr form factor too.
- wildzzz 3y ago
  Folding phones have some good use cases like video/photo/music editing, desktop publishing, word processing, and probably some other things I can't think of. However, those are all great things to do on a tablet or laptop. The foldable phones seem to be the next evolution of the phablet design but those didn't exactly sell well. Although the reason those didn't sell well was because of how big they are, a foldable gives you the package of a phone but the screen size larger than a phablet. Do you need to do all of these editing/publishing tasks on the go and don't want to carry any more than a portable keyboard? A foldable might be for you. Google just doesn't want to miss out on the potential market. Will they continue to sell? Honestly who knows. Carrying around such an expensive device like you would your phone seems risky but I'm probably not the market for these devices. Google is just looking to make sure that Samsung doesn't corner the market even if its just a fad. With Apple bringing Final Cut and Logic to the iPad, they can cut further into the "creative on-the-go" market without having to bother creating a foldable and just leverage their existing tech.
Jarwain 3y ago
I've gotten a lot of value out of my fold 4, especially in spontaneous situations where I don't have a tablet or my notebook at hand. Pull out my phone, snap a picture, then annotate. Or just pull it out and draw to try and get a concept across. Reading or watching videos, sharing an image, or whatever. And I Always have it with me, because I always have my phone with me. I don't carry around my laptop everywhere, and I've never purchased a tablet. It's just remarkably convenient
xanathar 3y ago
I, on the other hand, can't see a single reason why somebody would want a tablet. We've had some, and they all ended up forgotten in a drawer. Either I'm in a place where I have whatever limited portability I can (so I use the phone) or I have a laptop with proper keyboard, applications and OS. On the other hand, I always have my phone with me and I'd definitely benefit for a larger screen when reading emails, websites, documents, planning trips or whatever. That said, I would never pay that kind of price, neither for a foldable, nor for an iPhone so I guess I'm out of that market niche anyway.
- xnyanta 3y ago
  I have an iPad for note-taking at school and literally don't use it for anything else. In fact it's out of battery most of the time I pick it up. My Samsung fold is just so much more versatile and I hse it for media consumption most people without a foldable hse a tablet for.
- scarface74 3y ago
  I travel a lot for both business and personal (nomadding 7 months a year). I never turn on the TV while I’m at the hotel on business by myself. I watch from my iPad. It’s my only “personal” computer. When I occasional need to be “productive”, I use my wireless mouse and keyboard from my computer and pair them to my iPad. Finally, it’s also part of my three monitor setup for my laptop. The other is a portable USB C powered monitor. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B095GG31KX https://www.amazon.com/dp/B095GG31KX
- throwaway675309 3y ago
  Sigh, Really? You're obviously not an artist then, many of my friends and I have already replaced our Wacom dedicated tablets with an iPad with the pro pencil.
- saagarjha 3y ago
  Tablets are great in bed.
  - alpaca128 3y ago
kimbernator 3y ago
These things always cost more at first, so I agree that it's "overpriced" for the value it brings. That said, I think the practicality is that it provides all of the value of a phone and a tablet in a single device that fits in your pocket. It's a fairly large leap in the ever-growing list of other devices that smartphones are replacing. I also like to think that long-term maybe they will have the ability to fold out along more than one dimension and potentially be dramatically larger than this, but that's just dreaming at this point.
lmm 3y ago
> And when it's out, it's more productive to have a separate tablet and phone, than just one device that's trying to do it all. Not convinced. Having to move back and forth between two devices is a pain. Just like how a powerful laptop with a docking station is much nicer than a cheap laptop and a desktop, even if the former costs more.
- s1mon 3y ago
  > Having to move back and forth between two devices is a pain. I do that a couple times a day. Almost everything that I do with these devices stays in sync through various accounts/cloud in the background. Admittedly I'm just doing this at home, but when I travel, I pretty much always bring my iPad (in addition to the iPhone and my Apple Watch which are on me as long as I'm dressed and awake). I don't have it set this way at the moment, but you can even have any app that you install automatically get added to the other device. It's very different than a typical laptop/desktop situation since those are harder to sync (depending on what OS/apps/files/etc are involved). However if a lot of what you do is in the cloud, then maybe switching between laptop and desktop is more fluid.
wiseowise 3y ago
> An iPhone 14 and iPad Pro are gonna' run you $1,600, and be more useful in most cases. It’s 1600 for iPad Pro alone in Europe. > I mean, sure, you're not going to fit an iPad in your pocket, but do you really need to? Yes. > And when it's out, it's more productive to have a separate tablet and phone, than just one device that's trying to do it all. Majority of people care about convenience, not productivity.

gtop3 3y ago

If you use your phone an average of 5 hours a day for two years and then throw it in a junk drawer the hardware would cost less than 50cents per hour of use. I use my $800 iPhone about 30 minutes a day, keep it for 4 years, and spend about $1 per hour of use. I'd say the market is heavy cellphone users that use apps that benefit from the larger screen.

sidfthec 3y ago
> If you use your phone an average of 5 hours a day for two years and then throw it in a junk drawer the hardware would cost less than 50cents per hour of use. I don't understand this type of justification. My fridge would cost around $65k for a 15 year lifetime at $0.50/hour. It just seems like a completely meaningless way to judge the value of something.
- manojlds 3y ago
  "At the price of one coffee cup" is another thing that gets me. I brew at home and it's 10p for me, is that what you mean?
  - _zoltan_ 3y ago
    10p? based on p I think you're in the UK? what kinda coffee is that?here a 3rd wave coffee costs around 42-50 CHF for a kilo and you need 18g for an espresso, so 0.756-0.9 CHF per espresso if I calculate 0 for amortization of equipment.
    - ISL 3y ago
      I've never done this arithmetic before. With a massively inefficient usage of a french-press, I get something like three cups of coffee from a press and perhaps 7 fillings of the press from a bag from my local store. That coffee is $6 USD when it's on sale and $8 when it's not. Neglecting the cost of the $20 press, the water, the kettle, the rinse-water, the mug, and the heating of the water, that's about $0.33 USD / cup?
    - 3y ago

jamincan 3y ago

Who wants to watch a movie on a square screen though? I guess it would be better for browsing in most cases.

solveit 3y ago

For me it was something that I could read papers on while still (just) fitting in my pocket. Probably not the median use-case, but still.

_boffin_ 3y ago
I lug my iPad Pro 11 everywhere with me just so I can read, write and do notes when I have any down time. And yea, what you stated is why I want a foldable phone

pstanger 3y ago

hi, I want these folding phones. Though I took advantage of the ridiculous trade in offers that Samsung usually promotes with. Everything is just nicer on the bigger screen: messaging, browsing, videos, gaming. And that screen is always in my pocket. Can't read the QR code menu at the restaurant? Here, look at my pocket tablet. The technology is still in an awkward phase but I think slab phones will be obsolete in 5 years

xnyanta 3y ago
Totally agree, especially for the restaurant menu use case even if it's niche. I can have a regular phone walking around folded and just unfold whem I sit down and am ready to consume any kind of media.
manojlds 3y ago
I want folding phone too. Question is, at what price.
CameronNemo 3y ago
I don't want to have to lug a tablet everywhere, like some fulltime scribe.
- skeaker 3y ago
  I think the idea behind the folding form factor is that you don't have to lug it around, since it's in the same shape as a regular phone whenever you're not using it (and I don't think people consider having a phone in their pocket "lugging it around").
- imron 3y ago
  I don't want a crease in my screen, which I've seen on every single one of these used for any length of time.
  - coconut08 3y ago
    as a person who has daily driven a fold for almost 2 years the "crease" is a complete non-problem when you are using it. its mostly just people who havent actually used it that complain about it because they heard some influencer complaining about it or they saw a picture someone took of it with a studio light blasting down on it at the perfect angle.

xnyanta 3y ago

I'm posting this from my Galaxy Z Fold 3. I'm not particularly wealthy or a frequent traveler. I bought this phone used for 750 bucks in Canada and my main use case for the screen real-estate is reading manga on it, which it excels at. It also then serves as a phone and a media in bed machine. It is fragile and I take good care of it but it is absolutely the most innovative and exciting phone I've had the pleasure of using so far. I'm excited for the future of foldables and hope the next generation of the pixel fold will bring more serious competition to Samsung's lineup!

manojlds 3y ago
So you don't want it at $1800 right.
- xnyanta 3y ago
  It's absolutely overpriced considering I think Samsung has better offerings at that price point (which I think are equally ovepriced). I think fierce competition will bring the price of this emerging form factor down in the long term. That said, I am loving the device and will not hesitate to pay some more to trade it in for a next gen device when they come out. I'm not interested in returning to a slab phone at the moment after habing gotten a taste of the Fold.
  - RajT88 3y ago
    Fierce competition, and dropping production costs for the tech. I am old enough to remember when your average laptop was several thousand dollars, much of the cost of which was due to the LCD display. My daily-driver laptop in college I bought used for like $900 in 2001 (a Toshiba Tecra 780-DVD), but originally all the kit I bought with it would have run close to $6,000.
r00fus 3y ago
I think you hit on something here - if you can get it for 750 (in any currency) it becomes interesting. If it's nearly 2k, it's a plaything for the rich that's both fragile and may have issues that are likely to be poorly supported by the vendor.

emacs28 3y ago

Personally I love my overpriced Samsung z fold, I don't use a laptop anymore (just a desktop), I can easily read double-column research articles wherever I am, it's great for drawing diagrams, and all of that without having to remember both your phone and a tablet everywhere you go.

jeroenhd 3y ago

I want one, but not while they're this expensive. I'll wait for the price to come down at least two thirds before I even consider buying one of these.

ncr100 3y ago
Check the Google Fi site for a $700 discount for customers who keep Fi service for 24 months.
- jeroenhd 3y ago
  Google Fi doesnr exist in my country, but even still that's a steep price for a phone.
  - ncr100 3y ago
    AH yeah $1000 for a phone is bonkers. Like $250,000 USD for a car.... $400 is better. $175 is good. $50 is great - need subsidies from the carrier for this, IMO.

JohnFen 3y ago

> the $1799 price point The folding bit has no value to me, but even if it did, that price point is unacceptable. A phone is something I carry every day and don't treat like a delicate flower. If it costs so much that losing or breaking it would bring financial pain in addition to the pain of the loss of the phone, it's not suitable for my needs. That said, I'm being overly cautious because I've never actually lost or broken a phone.

kelnos 3y ago
That's the thing. My current phone (Pixel 4) was something like $700 when I first bought it, and the idea of breaking it was pretty scary for me, for something I carry around with me everywhere, every day. It's been a while since I've broken a phone, but it's happened, and my wallet was not pleased about the experience. I don't have a tablet and wouldn't want one as a dedicated device, but I could absolutely see myself using the tablet features of the Pixel Fold, given that I wouldn't be carrying around an extra device, and it's pocket-sized when folded up. (I usually read a book on my phone when on transit, for example, and would love to be able to do that on a larger screen.) But carrying around a $1800 device that's as easily breakable as a phone? I think I'd be too anxious for that.

gibspaulding 3y ago

I can't ever see buying one, but it would be nice for reading PDF's without constantly having to zoom and scroll around.

carlton_gauss 3y ago

Anyone who wants the functionality of tablets, but doesn't want to carry an extra thing everywhere. I'd pay easily $3000 for a foldable with a good pencil and a good CAD app. Right now, the only such device is the ipad with shapr3d.

micromacrofoot 3y ago

tech workers making $250k a year

ianbutler 3y ago

I'm never going back. I only type and respond to things unfolded, I have big hands and the split keyboard + bigger buttons are great. Outside of that I'm a fairly big reader and I enjoy reading both articles and books unfolded and have no interest in bringing a second device to do so. I also write notes with stylus on it which is practical unfolded. More real estate for video etc. And then I can just fold it and use it as a phone for calls.

echelon 3y ago
That sounds nice, but I want the same foldable form factor for entirely opposite reasons. I want a rough, minimalistic foldable like the old school Razr. Something that can take abuse. I want to be able to flick it open and close with the snap of my wrist and stuff the folded form factor back into my pocket without worry. I don't care if there's no screen covering the bezel. That'd make it less durable anyway. Two screens, similar to the Nintendo DS is fine. I'm sick of the smartphone slab and exposed glass. I want a wallet shaped device with a protective plastic or metal shell on the outside.
- iknowstuff 3y ago
  Why. Put your slab in a protective case and a screen protectir and you get a much more durable device than flip phones ever were.
  - adastra22 3y ago
    And now it is a giant brick that doesn’t fit comfortably in your pocket.
    - dragonwriter 3y ago
      Get a bigger pocket.
      - deleted 3y ago
        [deleted]

epolanski 3y ago

You answered your question, more real estate. The price is not appealing but to me any smartphone above 300$ is unappealing.

sidibe 3y ago
Yup. I definitely see the appeal of having your phone and tablet be the same thing. I'm sure these will get cheaper eventually if they work well. Not surprised at all by the cost it's a lot different product and very new. There's people paying 1K for normal phones.

VincentEvans 3y ago

Eventually all phones will be like that and the price point adjusted for inflation will be comparable to what normal phones cost now. So this is just a way for you to get a device from the future by paying a premium, or alternatively you can just wait. An iphone was also amazing unique and expensive when it first came out. But by todays standards - a $100 android phone is both more powerful and a lot cheaper.

screye 3y ago

I've a Galaxy Fold 3 and now 4 for about 2 years now. It is my biggest cellphone QOL improvement since the Pixel mainstreamed AI photography in the first pixel. Best extra $400 spent per year or so.

emptysongglass 3y ago
Can you go into detail on what specific improvements drive this value for you?

taeric 3y ago

Agreed on the high costs. That said, I am very happy with my flip. Smaller pocket footprint, and far fewer accidental unlocks now. (That is, my phone used to unlock with me just putting hands in pocket. Very annoying.) Also feels good to "close" the phone. In ways that locking doesn't quite reach.

coffeebeqn 3y ago

Yeah this costs as much as a MacBook Pro.. absurd

eb0la 3y ago
I don't feel it's absurd. For every product in the market there is a luxury version for people who's insensitive to price (hello LVHM!)... except for phones. If you have all the money in the world the most expensive / exclusive phone you can get is an iPhone, Samsung Fold, or this Pixel Fold.
- resolutebat 3y ago
  Vertu has entered the chat: https://vertu.com/collections/signature https://vertu.com/collections/signature $118,500 for a diamond-encrusted dumbphone that's still running Symbian, anyone?
  - lotsofpulp 3y ago
    How is this company still in business?
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
    - stonogo 3y ago
      Wealth and judgment are unrelated.
      - lotsofpulp 3y ago
        Just because you are wealthy, does not mean you want to be inconvenienced. Especially to the degree that not using a modern iOS/Android device would inconvenience you. There’s a million ways to show off you are rich that would not result in you wasting your time.
    - ben1040 3y ago

browningstreet 3y ago

My dream combo is a small iPhone with best camera and an updated iPhone mini. I’d still rather have those but that prices out similarly… so I get it.

scarface74 3y ago
My combo is an iPhone 12 Pro Max and a cellular Apple Watch. My phone isn’t on me when I want sone distraction free time - gym, running, watching TV with my wife, etc.

shmoogy 3y ago

It's "good" for everything on the go if you can handle the bulk of it folded. I've got an iPhone 14 pro and a Galaxy fold 3. It's roughly the size of an iPad mini when unfolded and is my favorite form factor. Small enough to carry around and enough real estate to RDP or SSH to get some actual work done if you need to. I don't like carrying a bag with my MacBook if I can avoid it

edandersen 3y ago

Until someone actually sells an 8 inch OLED tablet, these are the only options on the market today for a small tablet with a good screen.

SoylentYellow 3y ago
Only option right now is a Lenovo Y700. Not OLED, but it has a great looking 120 Hz screen, fast processor, and premium feel. However, it only comes in a Chinese version, so I ended up creating "unsecure" networks and accounts (Youtube, Reddit, etc) to use with it.

crossroadsguy 3y ago

I also don’t understand who would have wanted a 4 inch then a 5 inch then 6 then 7 and maybe 8 inches phones while their palms remained exactly of the same size. Sometimes I feel people just want weird shit. And yeah new things. Just “new” things - otherwise Apple’s non-upgrade upgrade phones will go unsold.

16bitvoid 3y ago
I feel the trend to bigger phones is probably indicative of phones being the sole computing device for more and more people. Anecdotal, but one example is my parents. I've watched them go from having desktops to laptops to iPads while they kept getting the biggest iPhone available. Now, their phones are pretty much all they use (outside of a smart TV and an Amazon Echo).
- walthamstow 3y ago
  My parents and all their peers (born early 60s or before) have the biggest phone they can buy because they have the font size set to the largest setting.
wiseowise 3y ago
Because palm size is what dictated size of original phones, not technological advancements allowing for bigger, affordable, higher quality phones?
Levitz 3y ago
Simple, Marketing creates demand. The vast majority of the population doesn't need the kind of computing beast they are using, but it is what gets sold to them. Everybody in society gets a phone and the vast majority of them are technologically illiterate, it's absurd to think that organic demand directs direction in the phone market.

x3n0ph3n3 3y ago

I love my Samsung ZFlip4, which feels much more like the old flip phones, but it also has a smaller screen on the outside with a few handy functions that keep my from having to unfold it. The form factor is just so comfortable and fits wonderfully in my pockets, including my breast pockets.

melling 3y ago

“I just don't understand who wants…” I’ve heard so many people make this comment about a variety of things. I recommend paying closer attention and learning. The best response is to let people figure out for themselves what they don’t get.

bootlooped 3y ago
But there have been cases of industries or companies pushing things that consumers aren't really interested in in any non-trivial numbers.
ggm 3y ago
It's sometimes a way to say "can somebody explain the pros and cons" -I don't get an air fryer (for instance) said so, and an aficionado explained the Ps and Cs to me. Now I just say "doesn't do anything for my style of cooking"
- wiseowise 3y ago
  Most of the time it’s not. Usually it’s just a cheap indirection to “I don’t like this”.
izacus 3y ago
As per Ted Lasso: "Be curious, not judgemental."

komali2 3y ago

1. Nice to watch youtube videos on, which I do a lot. Both in portrait and landscape. I watch a lot of linus tech tips, photography videos, breadtube, and mandarin learning videos on it. I wouldn't buy it for this alone. 2. Really excellent emulation device. Powerful enough hardware and phenomenal screen. I use it as-is in portrait mode for the best possible DS emulation on-the-go. I can at least 4x the resolution in almost all games. I can also slap a gamesir controller thing on either side to turn it into a sort of switch-style emulation device. I play ps2, ds, 3ds, gba, gamecube, n64, snes, and nes games on it. 3. Good game streaming device. Mount the controllers on it and use moonlight or steam link to stream from my desktop PC, even if I'm not on local network. Or, use nvidia geforce now or whatever it's called. There's a separate link to servers here in Taiwan through taiwan dageda, so I get ridiculously good connection. 4. Pretty good note taking device with the stylus. This is the use case that drove me to purchase. I'm always experimenting with various ways of (handwritten) note taking, especially on books I read, and having all my notes right there on my phone is really, really nice. I never "forget my notebook" now. Well, unless I forget the stylus lol, or it falls out of my pocket, which has happened 3 times now, and the styluses are an absurd like 50$ or something, so, this device is not nearly ready for mainstream consumption. Similarly, it's great for banging out quick engineering diagrams or designs. I can export to image and throw directly on a ticketing system, or upload into slack. Nice flow, if I get a question from a junior when I'm on a train or whatever. 5. Reading books is very nice on it. 6. Using music-making apps, especially ones with piano rolls and keyboards, is phenomenal. I really wish it had an aux plug though. The jellyphone 2 has that and is the size of a pill bottle, and has dual sim and removable SD storage. No excuses. Although, my version of the galaxy fold 3 does have dual sim. 7. The width of the screen when folded is actually usable on my smaller hands. This was another big driver for getting it. Hilariously, my initial reason for looking for my next phone was, I was tired of big phones, and wanted one I could actually use one handed. Funnily enough the narrow width (that so many people complain about) of the galaxy zfold3 was a big selling point for me. 8. Using maps is really nice on it, and I'm doing this constantly because we're always exploring Taiwan. In all, I don't think I'm down to drop another 1.8k (1.4 for me because I got it on contract) on a phone any time in the near future. When this phone bites the bullet (and the inner screen is already "tightening" and reducing the flatness of the unfolded state, so one of these days I'm sure I'll overextend and crack the thing) I'm going to get a nice small android something, I heard the Asus zenfone 9 is a good size at a fair price. As cool as all the features are, it's not like I have all THAT much time to game or make music on my phone, and worse case, I can just toss the thing into my plane-toys bag when I have flights or whatever. The notes taking feature I still use occasionally, especially for diagrams, but I've since moved to a onyx boox e-ink tablet for that, mostly because this lets me hand-write annotate epubs, a feature I've wanted on a device for like, 15 years lol. So, after ~1 year of using the galaxy zfold 3, I can say, it was worth the money ONLY because it fulfilled like 8 usecases for me. Take away even a couple of those and there's no way it's worth it. A better alternative would be a jellyphone or pixel + a small affordable android tablet in the bag with a stylus. Spend the remaining on a previous version op1 or opz if you're really into music making, or a steam deck if you're really into gaming. Or shit both lmao, you're right that 1.8k is an insane amount of money. Edit: looking through the marketing material, I'm not seeing any stylus usage on the pixel version. Even if a stylus would technically work, if the responsiveness and sensitivity doesn't allow for note taking, this thing doesn't make any sense to me. On the samsung foldables, the responsiveness of note taking with the stylus beat out literally every other device I've ever tried it with. It is phenomenal.

raincole 3y ago

There are plenty of people who don't use a (desktop/laptop) computer outside of their jobs. If you're on HN, you're probably not one of them, so it can be difficult to imagine their behaviours. For example, in Japan, 36.6% of teenagers say they don't use PC at home [1]. It's also a country where people read a lot of comics. Now these foldable screens make more sense, right. [1]: https://news.yahoo.co.jp/byline/fuwaraizo/20201021-00203217 https://news.yahoo.co.jp/byline/fuwaraizo/20201021-00203217

throwaway675309 3y ago
Apparently Japanese teenagers also have a lot more disposable income to drop nearly two grand on a cell phone.
- raincole 3y ago
  Some of them do, of course. iPhone's market share is ~65% in Japan. If they successfully marketed it as an "iPhone + iPad in your pocket", $2k would not be an unimaginable price. And there will be more affordable foldable phones when they're more adopted. But of course this one is from Google so it doesn't enjoy Apple's branding premium.
ggm 3y ago
I'm on HN mostly on a samsung 10" tablet but in my day job I work on my mac. If I tried harder DeX might work for me.
rjh29 3y ago
Comics are actually changing to suit phones rather than the opposite! Newer web comics show one panel at a time in a long vertical strip. And tablets are still a thing, you can just use them for comics instead of spending $1800 on a phone.

SMAAART 3y ago

People love to buy things they don't need, with money they don't have, to impress people they don't like.

wiseowise 3y ago
People love empty quotes that don’t mean anything, but sound deeply philosophical.
- SMAAART 3y ago
  But it's true.

gmerc 3y ago

Eyesight. Hard to imagine for someone under 35 but ya, it’s a game changer.

oatmeal1 3y ago

In addition to being very expensive, it also seems like you can't get a case on it. And they probably don't have much texture on the outside to give a good grip. Bad grip + bad protection = keep some savings in case you wreck it.

LegitShady 3y ago

I want the foldable, but at that price point I don't.

hndamien 3y ago

When Apple makes a foldable phone a bunch of people will want them, if for no other reason than to just stop scratches.

_heimdall 3y ago

I bought an original Surface Duo last year for $350. For the price it was a really investing phone. The proper dual screen is actually really handy, I don't think I'd find it nearly as useful with a single foldable display that is effectively a worse tablet.

shp0ngle 3y ago

I like to read comics and I’m too lazy to bring tablet with me. I am thinking about buying foldable. That said, not at this price point and with Pixels not known for their hardware quality. Maybe I’ll wait for when Apple inevitably does their foldable.

theodric 3y ago
The inevitable Apple foldable will come with the inevitable Apple price. I'd say $2000.
- wiseowise 3y ago
  2,5k for 1TB model.
- shp0ngle 3y ago
  Good point.
- teekert 3y ago
  If it has an M3 chip and stuff like iMovie seems to work fine. Or it's the only driver for the VR glasses that are coming, or wirelessly connect to certain monitors.. It may be a "new class" of device. I mean not new for humanity, but for Apple.

wraptile 3y ago

I'm really perplexed too especially since the crease is still so visibile and the build quality so weak. I feel like carrying small phone and a tablet/laptop is still a significantly better value any way you look at it unless you travel a lot without any storage on your human. I found the most ergonomic travel setup for me is a Lenovo Yoga laptop and the small samsung s22. Both of which can be bought for less than 1800$.

fomine3 3y ago
I had bought a tablet but I rarely bring it outside of home except longer trip. Even if I bring it, it's annoying to take out from my bag for a short time use. I finally bought Fold3 and I put it on my pocket everyday. Having it 100% of time is too useful for everything. Crease is too minor problem than that.

mFixman 3y ago

You could say the same thing about any >$200 phone, or any new device at all: gadgets are luxury devices, and there's no upper price for the luxury sector. Besides, if this lasts at least 4 years then the amortised price is more reasonable.

izacus 3y ago

"Who wants this expensive camera on a phone when you can buy a cheap phone and a Nikon DSLR?" Turns out... Plenty. Just like foldables. Samsung has been doubling shipments every year.

alpaca128 3y ago
I just don't see any value in this feature while the OS is so limited. For now I'll stay with my foldable that comes with a keyboard.
- abhinavk 3y ago
  That's why Google doing this is important. If they don't do, the app and OS situation will remain as it is.

michelb 3y ago

I may consider them at a much lower price-point and if they were much thinner, so not anytime soon :) My ideal is the Westworld style tablet, but that's sci-fi.

Wildgoose 3y ago

I have a Surface Duo phone. Using both screens together is like using a tablet, but it folds up and fits in my pocket. I can have the keyboard on one screen and have a full display on the other. I can look something up on one screen while using something else on the other screen. By comparison, the standard of "splitting" a single screen results in something that is often too small and awkward to use and with too little screen space for comfortable viewing.

dsq 3y ago
What keyboard do tou use for text input?
- Wildgoose 3y ago
  Application dependent. Usually Microsoft Swiftkey, but Hacker's Keyboard when I am programming (or similar).
  - dsq 3y ago
    Great. How does Hacker's keyboard work with the surface duo? Do you have any insights/pros/cons for using this keyboard with a folding phone?

leokennis 3y ago

I am currently carrying an iPhone and an iPad Mini. The iPad is to read the newspaper, to watch photo/video, and in cases I need to do real multitasking (i.e. make notes about a PDF, so I want both on my screen at once). If I could have both in one device, that'd be awesome. So far however (besides the fact that only Android has foldables), the very visible crease is a dealbreaker for me.

sofixa 3y ago
> the very visible crease is a dealbreaker for me. That's what I thought too, but after speaking with a Samsung Fold something owner, and testing it for some time, it's mostly visible only in some angles. Also I imagine it's like notches and holes, you get used and forget about them.

o1y32 3y ago

Just like many people still don't understand why people have Kindles. They would think -- you can read books on phones, many of which are as large as 6.7 inches? Or Why not get an iPad or iPad mini, and you can do so many more things on it? So on and on. (I have two kindles and I don't personally know anyone who has a kindle. But that is fine.)

GGroen 3y ago
Eye strain

asah 3y ago

Never going back. Maps, video, even messages are all way better. With the fold open, you get overview and details.

rakoo 3y ago

You could have said the same about the transition from featurephones to smartphones, why would people pay 3 times the price for a battery that barely lasts a day, my 2" screen is more than enough to read my texts, etc... And yet here we are

shaftway 3y ago

I carried one of these when I was at Google (needed it for my job there). When I was using it by myself casually I almost never unfolded it. But when I wanted to see more detail in a photo or wanted to show someone a YouTube video it was invaluable to be able to unfold it for the temporary larger screen.

w0m 3y ago

I'd happily use a Fold if it cost ~half as much. Size doesn't matter that much in pocket for me; and it looks convenient when actually using the device.

lannisterstark 3y ago

>I just don't understand who wants these foldable phones The problem is that they're using the wrong fold. I want my screen to EXTEND outwards. I don't want to go from one screen to open yet another screen. I want it to intuitively either extend, or allow me to fold OUT my content, not in.

bebna 3y ago

The new Sony 1 V will cost 1.4kEUR, not much less. Phones in general got expansive. (The Samsung Fold 4 is at 1.3 to 1.2kEUR)