Foldable phones are among the top device trends at the moment, with many discussions going on about them. They’ve been generating a lot of buzz, and there’s a lot of hype about them as the future of smartphone design, but these phones are far from being perfect. Here are some common issues with this crop of devices.
One of the biggest issues with foldable phones is the ‘crease’ created by the phone’s major feature. Although the screen display is incredible, it’s hard to overlook the fact that the screen covering is made of plastic. This can be a problem, especially if you’re used to pristine screens with Gorilla Glass as the screens of foldable phones crease. There’s just no getting around the crease when you fold a screen in half, which means you will have to struggle again and again to focus on what you’re looking at at the moment as the crease can be visually distracting.
Despite the unique features and numerous advantages of foldable phones, the sheer size will always be an issue. Let’s face it; we all want our phones to be small and portable enough to fit into our hands or pockets. Although Samsung and Huawei claim that their phones are thin, there is no getting around the fact they’re bigger than ‘normal’ phones. Because of their weight, it’s unlikely that you will also be able to use the phones for a long time.
Apart from the hype and frenzy, there’s no good motivation to get a foldable phone. What exactly can foldable phones do that can’t be done on other devices? For instance, if you wanted a bigger screen, you could easily get a tablet. The ads say that foldable phones can serve as tablets on the go ahead, but that doesn’t add up as you’re unlikely to have a tablet emergency.
Foldable devices are prone to a variety of durability issues like the crease mentioned above. Additionally, these phones rely on hinges to fold without causing any damage. These hinges are susceptible to wear and tear as manufacturers state that there is a limit to how many times these phones can fold comfortably. And what about the case? How will it work on a foldable phone?
Foldable phones are a new frontier in Android devices, so their software is not yet ready. Although multi-window works, sometimes you just want one app to fill the screen properly rather than updating three live apps simultaneously. Developers are already occupied with designing apps for thousands of screen sizes and aspect ratios, and it’s unlikely that they will do it all over again for foldable phones.
The foldable phones being very newly introduced to us makes them more susceptible to errors that even manufacturers may not have thought of. Like every other tech innovation, errors are not uncommon at the early stage, and it will take a while for manufacturers to perfect their folding devices.
Foldable devices are ridiculously expensive. For instance, the Galaxy Fold 3 goes for about 1,800 US dollars, which is at least double what most people spend to get a top-tier smartphone or tablet. That is an insane amount of money and what makes it worse is that the extra cost cannot be justified, as shown in the previous points.
Foldable phones might be here to stay, but it will take a while for manufacturers to surpass the challenges they present. Plus, we can expect the prices to drop considerably in the coming years.