Comment by ronsor

16 hours ago

I still don't get the fanfare over folding phones. They tend to be more fragile, and if I really need a larger screen, I'd much rather use a laptop or tablet.

10 comments

ronsor

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delecti  16 hours ago

There's totally valid criticism to be made about the durability, not to mention price, but the pitch is crystal clear, "your phone can be a tablet on-demand". You (the proverbial you, not necessarily every person) always have your phone with you, but often don't have a tablet or laptop.

  • xxs  3 hours ago

    >always have your phone with you, but often don't have a tablet or laptop.

    I cant do any work on a phone or tablet (emails dont count). Laptops are fine, of course. Comparing to laptops just makes too little sense. The thing is over 1cm tick when folded - making it extra difficult to put in any front pocket (or I will have get skinnier hips)

mostlysimilar  16 hours ago

For many people the phone is the only computing device they use. Keeping portability and offering a larger display is a compelling offering for those people.

I tend to agree with you.

  • bigfishrunning  16 hours ago

    > For many people the phone is the only computing device they use.

    I suspect the crossover area of the Venn diagram between people who spend what a foldable costs on a phone and people who have no other computing device is extremely small.

    • mostlysimilar  16 hours ago

      Why so? For most people a computer (in the traditional keyboard/mouse sense) isn't a leisure device, a phone is. They scroll social media feeds and watch YouTube or whatever.

      I'm sure most of us on HN use them for leisure, but for most people a computer is a device for work, not for play.

fishtoaster  16 hours ago

I quite like the idea of a tablet I can keep in my pocket. If there was some sort of first-party attachable keyboard (a la the iPad magic keyboard), I'd be strongly considering getting this. In the age of AI and increasingly-mature cloud agents, I can get a lot of my work done from a setup like that.

httpz  16 hours ago

Galaxy Fold is popular with older people who have trouble reading small text

  • lwkl  16 hours ago

    That’s a good point bigger text is possible on the iPhone but you can display less of it so it might be nice to have the bigger screen.