I think it’s probably the bigger screen size and an attempt to boost sales by offering something different because there’s not much to really motivate the regular person to buy a new phone unless theirs is just old and needs a refresh. Now that I say that it makes me think there might be a big market someday for refurbished older phones because they don’t have fucking AI in everything.

I’ve been a sammy Fold user since 2022, I’llnever go back to a typical phone. I don’t use the tablet mode too often, maybe 1-2 times per week, but it’s super handy during those situations. For me it’s mostly spreadsheets, navigating Canvas (school website), some email. I got just shy of 4 years out of my last one. Previous device died after 1 year… inner screen died, phone still worked of course, but replaced it under insurance. I’ve been in a chain of trade-ins that offset the cost of each new one device once I got past the initial cost of my first one from back in the day. I bring it up because the high pricetag is a major downside for people, but the high trade-in value is a benefit (my current device was $900 off). It’s definitely not for everybody, and definitely not something for the beach lol, but very useful to have a tablet available anytime.

Eh its luxury tech, you dont need one. Whilegenerally phones areborong tech I am pro niche products and trying things

Folding phones work great for selfies, you can use the front screen to compose the shot and and the quality of your rear camera.

I’d say they are slightly better in terms of watching videos. It really depends on the shape of the phone. Most of the time, the full screen is only slightly larger for widescreen content, but the big benefit is that there is a lot of dead space where you can hold the phone, or see captions without obscuring the video.

Folding phones are surprisingly much better for web browsing and reading. Larger views for web pages navigate much more easily, and the double-wide screen gives a lot of eye relief when reading e-books, and you spend less time turning pages, which does add up.

If you use any kind of remote desktop application from your phone, having the wide screen of a folder is a godsend. I do a lot of remote desktop shit on-call, and most of the time I just carry my phone with me instead of a full laptop.

Source : I use a Pixel 9 fold as my daily driver.

less damage. less chances of dropping and shattering or scratching the screen

Easy… I’ll give you the answer in one word…

NOSTALGIA

Us millennials thrive in the world of nostalgia and the market knows that.

I don’t understand. Do you not see that the screen doubles in size? It’s like a 2 in 1 phone/tablet. That’s the benefit.

Size and weight are the most important things for me.

I had one of these; and I think this was the pinnacle of smartphones.

It could do pretty much everything my current phone does and I had either a gameboy or super nintendo emulator on it as well. The cool part was it was a workhorse that was small unlike today’s tablets phones. Oh yeah and this was in the early 2000s.

Fits in my pocket

Flips are awesome, folds (opens on a vertical joint) are ass

My motorola razr 2025 is a flip smart phone, and as a lady, it actually fits in the pockets of all my pants. My old non-flip phone did not fit in my pockets. It is common for ladies pockets (if pants even have them) to be less than 1/2 the size of pockets found in mens pants.

Novelty.

This is middle tech. It is like walking is to speed walking then running. One fold is proof of concept when we get to 3 or 4 folds that’s where the magic happens. People watching a video without headphones out in public on a tiny screen, pretty annoying. We are three folds away from someone unfolding a 32" screen to watch their content anywhere also without headphones.

I often switch to my tablet for reading something on a bigger screen

If I wouldn’t have a tablet, a folding phone would be able to provide the bigger screen.

I wish they’d bring back slider phones with physical keyboards. Pre-smartphone days I used to have a phone (I don’t remember what it was) that was a full touch screen with a physical home and back button on the front and then you flipped it sideways and the back slid down and there was an entire physical keyboard for easy typing/texting. I’m not interested in a folding smartphone, but if they released a slider with an actual keyboard I’d buy it in a heartbeat. I loved that phone and I loved being able to type on the screen with a digital keyboard for quick stuff or flip the keyboard out and use actual keys when I wanted to type a novel of a text message.