Nearly 10 years in to foldables, and they still bring so many caveats. They are consistently worse for size, weight, shape, cameras, battery, robustness, and longevity. I don't think I'd ever recommend one.
On the other hand, the advantages are... an iPad like experience sometimes? Or a smaller phone for the flip form factor? The flip form factor certainly does not pay off. I'm honestly not sure who the trade-offs pay off for.
I feel like the average tech enthusiast just assumes that most people have computers, but they do not. Most people have a phone as a primary computing device. Tablets have gone up in popularity, but for a significant portion of people, their only device is a phone. Those people are buying phones on carrier financing or other deals, so they don't even see the full cost of their device at all. So for people doing this type of upgrade cycle, a folding phone is quite compelling: an expanded screen size for watching video, consuming content, or heck, even maybe productivity, while being effectively a marginal upgrade in cost on a monthly payment.
Also, just for the record, some carriers in Japan are offering financing that gives you the option of paying over 48 months and Apple offers 36 months. Is that quite absurd to most people? Absolutely, but for the average person who wants a bigger screen sometimes, the cost is not even going up much on a monthly basis.
For the record, especially in Japan, folio cases where you open your phone like a book are already the default. Effectively most people on the train have their phone open in some "Duo-ish" form-factor already. So the jump from a folio case to a folding phone is already substantially lower.
Obviously the gimmick nature of folding is not the compelling reason why people want folding phones. The question is more about tradeoffs, and I think that especially in asia, the demand for folding phones is quite obvious: upgrade your primary PC to have a huge display when you want it that way, otherwise it stays compact enough to be with you all the time.
I love my Pixel 10 Fold and can't imagine ever going back to a non-foldable now. The larger screen is great for productivity. Reviewing PRs on the larger screen is way more comfortable than a normal phone size. The built-in terminal app also works nicely with herdr and Tailscale to let me connect to my work machine. I can interact with my agents and get real work done on the go. I also have saved split views so I can quickly launch two apps side-by-side. I do mobile app development, so being able to have the app I'm developing open side by side with Slack or Linear to create issues or discuss with people is very convenient.
I don't know if terminal access is as easy on iPhones, but the utility is there for many work related use-cases. I do think the more square-like form factor of the Pixel to be better for productivity than the rectangular form of the Duo, but the latter is nicer for videos.
Interesting, reviewers (Joanna Stern) said that it was not great for productivity, more for consumption. Perhaps it works for your kind of tasks, but not hers/others.
I don't think this is a fair comparison, they are different markets – most people need a smartphone today, nobody really needs a PS5. A better comparison is to say that of smartphones sold in 2025 (~1.65bn), foldables represented ~1%. That's pretty niche.
A big iPhone is the wrong way to think about this, it is in fact a foldable iPad mini. An iPad Mini you can comfortably fit in your pocket and take on the go with an always on cellular connection that can take phone calls.
As someone who used to carry an iPad mini in his back jeans pocket (it barely fit), I am very much looking forward to my pre-order showing up.
My iPad mini gets multiple times more use than my iPhone, there have even been times where I’ve left my iPhone by the bedside table for days.
It’s mainly a consumption device, I got it initially for reading ebooks while on the train. It’s also a surprisingly good workhorse by itself, or as a second screen for a MacBook. I even make phone calls with it (via the iPhone) simply because it’s always in or near my hands.
So the Duo certainly piqued my interest when it was announced, until I learnt it doesn’t do iPad-y stuff like universal control or sidecar. I’ll wait for the next gen.
It felt wrong to me when they split iOS in two to make the iPad OS, and now it feels super wrong.
The whole selling point of this is that it’s an iPad mini in your pocket, IMO. It’s really a shame they couldn’t give it all of the iPad’s best features.
??? everyone I know who's gone fold hasn't gone back.
yes, battery & camera are a generation back and water/dustproof is even worse.
but productivity and fun are off the charts: slab phones feel pathetic once you've got a fold. Communication apps show you the list of conversations as well as the current one - or the current one and the details/multimedia. Google Maps shows the map and the listing details/reviews. Games and multimedia are delightful. Photos are full sized, and you can see what you're shooting in detail - if you shoot with a digital camera, remote shooting is amazing because there's enough space to show detailed focus.
Not to start an endless device debate but a good chunk of these use cases make more sense to do on an iPad or to just have a separate device in general.
I know, I know, that’s not as portable, that’s not a device you have with you all the time like a phone.
But we’ve seen pretty mixed results on the “combine devices into one” playbook. Sometimes it’s a huge hit, sometimes not so much.
Well, besides the software, which is very much not laptop-like.
I think the main thing is that for this kind of money you have a lot of options. You could even buy a GPD device that is an actual full blown pouch sized laptop and buy a regular iPhone for the same price.
Huge screen that's pocketable and also your primary device (not a 2nd device you need to choose to carry in addition to your phone, and have a bag for) and ability to have 2 apps at once on iOS is in fact highly valuable for many.
I had a flip phone and I got it for this reason, but it honestly just sucked. The outer screens are too small to be useful, or in the case of Samsung, just don't have the right feature set to be useful. That means the phone ends up just being a full size smartphone with more steps to be able to use it.
Spending thousands of dollars on hardware I don't own is not for me, but foldable touchscreen phones are, objectively, pretty freaking cool pieces of engineering work. Very cool breakdown of the hardware.
Maybe 2027 will be the year of the Linux desktop (thanks to AI), but meanwhile, I 'll just pay the $100/yr Apple tax to run my code on my device, and get on with my life.
ive been really enjoying my iPhone duo so far, its hard to imagine going back to a normal phone. it makes it so much more fun to schedule appointments, read blog posts, vibe code, update my calendar before a trip, watch movies, etc...
I felt this way since the first Pixel Fold. Now I have Pixel Fold 10 and a Duo. I need work-personal separation thus two devices, but it is a little much with two foldables.
You know how on a computer screen you can just drag any corner of a window to resize it? I had a dream once where I had a phone that worked that way. Want a bigger screen? Just drag one of the corners of the phone. Shove all the corners together and drop it in your pocket.
I used the hell out of that phone all night. Then I woke up and spent about an hour trying to figure out how to build one. I think I could do it in one dimension (i.e. make the phone wider) by rolling the screen around a tiny roller in the edge of the case, and having the case telescope. But that won't work in two dimensions at once. I never figured out how to do it in two dimensions.
I noticed a race among social media to teardown or literally tear down the iphone duo this time. Bendgate is always a classic one to do for views, scratchgate is another one content makers love as they can wear an expensive watch while they carve shapes into their expensive purchase while poor people from around the world clutch pearls. The folding design is a great opportunity for content makers to target for views, but my question is why the content makers never invent something, design it, market it, pay large amounts for iso safety testing certification, then make teardown content on what they created a la banksy love is in the bin
I'm sure the 5T multinational corporation is glad you're defending it against the small-time content creators bullying it, but you might notice that the people behind this teardown do in fact sell products they've designed. So do other popular creators in the teardown category like jerryrigeverything.
They can't do teardowns of their own products though. Anything interesting they'd find in a teardown should have been caught at the design stage, and they're hardly unbiased about their own products. At most they can do design decision videos, which many do. For opinionated testing they'll send their products to another creator instead.
Why does it matter if its 5 or 5T? The teardown or tear down is what is important. I invented something a few years ago in my backyard workshop while on welfare and it got tore down which made me realise something odd is going on
nah they're right, legit teardowns with microscopes & CTs & chip identification are interesting; most 'teardowns' are little more than destruction porn. jerryrig at least gives some info (scratch test) but even he quickly devolves into uninteresting destruction.
It's nothing new - is will it blend still a thing? - but man it seems like they're everywhere now
Nearly 10 years in to foldables, and they still bring so many caveats. They are consistently worse for size, weight, shape, cameras, battery, robustness, and longevity. I don't think I'd ever recommend one.
On the other hand, the advantages are... an iPad like experience sometimes? Or a smaller phone for the flip form factor? The flip form factor certainly does not pay off. I'm honestly not sure who the trade-offs pay off for.
I feel like the average tech enthusiast just assumes that most people have computers, but they do not. Most people have a phone as a primary computing device. Tablets have gone up in popularity, but for a significant portion of people, their only device is a phone. Those people are buying phones on carrier financing or other deals, so they don't even see the full cost of their device at all. So for people doing this type of upgrade cycle, a folding phone is quite compelling: an expanded screen size for watching video, consuming content, or heck, even maybe productivity, while being effectively a marginal upgrade in cost on a monthly payment.
Also, just for the record, some carriers in Japan are offering financing that gives you the option of paying over 48 months and Apple offers 36 months. Is that quite absurd to most people? Absolutely, but for the average person who wants a bigger screen sometimes, the cost is not even going up much on a monthly basis.
For the record, especially in Japan, folio cases where you open your phone like a book are already the default. Effectively most people on the train have their phone open in some "Duo-ish" form-factor already. So the jump from a folio case to a folding phone is already substantially lower.
Obviously the gimmick nature of folding is not the compelling reason why people want folding phones. The question is more about tradeoffs, and I think that especially in asia, the demand for folding phones is quite obvious: upgrade your primary PC to have a huge display when you want it that way, otherwise it stays compact enough to be with you all the time.
I love my Pixel 10 Fold and can't imagine ever going back to a non-foldable now. The larger screen is great for productivity. Reviewing PRs on the larger screen is way more comfortable than a normal phone size. The built-in terminal app also works nicely with herdr and Tailscale to let me connect to my work machine. I can interact with my agents and get real work done on the go. I also have saved split views so I can quickly launch two apps side-by-side. I do mobile app development, so being able to have the app I'm developing open side by side with Slack or Linear to create issues or discuss with people is very convenient.
I don't know if terminal access is as easy on iPhones, but the utility is there for many work related use-cases. I do think the more square-like form factor of the Pixel to be better for productivity than the rectangular form of the Duo, but the latter is nicer for videos.
> The larger screen is great for productivity.
Interesting, reviewers (Joanna Stern) said that it was not great for productivity, more for consumption. Perhaps it works for your kind of tasks, but not hers/others.
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Yeah don't listen to the original commenter, I absolutely love my foldable too.
18-20 million foldable phones were sold in 2025. About 10 million PS5 consoles were sold in that same period. So there's definitely a bit of interest.
Why does it have to be an all-or-nothing fight for the final smartphone form? Can't it just be a semi-niche product that some people buy?
I don't think this is a fair comparison, they are different markets – most people need a smartphone today, nobody really needs a PS5. A better comparison is to say that of smartphones sold in 2025 (~1.65bn), foldables represented ~1%. That's pretty niche.
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Some countries, like China, LOVE foldable phones. It’s fun to see how cultural it is.
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> Can't it just be a semi-niche product that some people buy?
As a fan of smaller smartphones (the likes of which aren’t made anymore), I thought the answer to this was supposedly a resounding no.
I mean, Apple sold millions of iPhones mini but we were told that wasn’t a viable product.
A big iPhone is the wrong way to think about this, it is in fact a foldable iPad mini. An iPad Mini you can comfortably fit in your pocket and take on the go with an always on cellular connection that can take phone calls.
As someone who used to carry an iPad mini in his back jeans pocket (it barely fit), I am very much looking forward to my pre-order showing up.
I like the flip ones for pocket-ability. The camera trade-off is even worst unless you get the expensive galaxy one.
My iPad mini gets multiple times more use than my iPhone, there have even been times where I’ve left my iPhone by the bedside table for days.
It’s mainly a consumption device, I got it initially for reading ebooks while on the train. It’s also a surprisingly good workhorse by itself, or as a second screen for a MacBook. I even make phone calls with it (via the iPhone) simply because it’s always in or near my hands.
So the Duo certainly piqued my interest when it was announced, until I learnt it doesn’t do iPad-y stuff like universal control or sidecar. I’ll wait for the next gen.
It felt wrong to me when they split iOS in two to make the iPad OS, and now it feels super wrong.
The whole selling point of this is that it’s an iPad mini in your pocket, IMO. It’s really a shame they couldn’t give it all of the iPad’s best features.
Phones have gotten bigger and bigger and yet you can't fathom folks want a big screen?
??? everyone I know who's gone fold hasn't gone back.
yes, battery & camera are a generation back and water/dustproof is even worse.
but productivity and fun are off the charts: slab phones feel pathetic once you've got a fold. Communication apps show you the list of conversations as well as the current one - or the current one and the details/multimedia. Google Maps shows the map and the listing details/reviews. Games and multimedia are delightful. Photos are full sized, and you can see what you're shooting in detail - if you shoot with a digital camera, remote shooting is amazing because there's enough space to show detailed focus.
Not to start an endless device debate but a good chunk of these use cases make more sense to do on an iPad or to just have a separate device in general.
I know, I know, that’s not as portable, that’s not a device you have with you all the time like a phone.
But we’ve seen pretty mixed results on the “combine devices into one” playbook. Sometimes it’s a huge hit, sometimes not so much.
1 reply →
you are severely underestimating the value of a pocketable ipad. this comment isn’t the type that age well
A foldable phone + split keyboards = a mini laptop fit inside your pouch
Well, besides the software, which is very much not laptop-like.
I think the main thing is that for this kind of money you have a lot of options. You could even buy a GPD device that is an actual full blown pouch sized laptop and buy a regular iPhone for the same price.
3 replies →
Huge screen that's pocketable and also your primary device (not a 2nd device you need to choose to carry in addition to your phone, and have a bag for) and ability to have 2 apps at once on iOS is in fact highly valuable for many.
For flip phones the payoff is that its small.
We've been asking for a small phone for so long now
And then now we have one. But its too costly. I'm waiting for the cost to come down
For foldable phones the factor is that you have a phone and a small tab all in one.
I had a flip phone and I got it for this reason, but it honestly just sucked. The outer screens are too small to be useful, or in the case of Samsung, just don't have the right feature set to be useful. That means the phone ends up just being a full size smartphone with more steps to be able to use it.
2 replies →
Spending thousands of dollars on hardware I don't own is not for me, but foldable touchscreen phones are, objectively, pretty freaking cool pieces of engineering work. Very cool breakdown of the hardware.
Maybe 2027 will be the year of the Linux desktop (thanks to AI), but meanwhile, I 'll just pay the $100/yr Apple tax to run my code on my device, and get on with my life.
Webapps were always the way.
ive been really enjoying my iPhone duo so far, its hard to imagine going back to a normal phone. it makes it so much more fun to schedule appointments, read blog posts, vibe code, update my calendar before a trip, watch movies, etc...
I felt this way since the first Pixel Fold. Now I have Pixel Fold 10 and a Duo. I need work-personal separation thus two devices, but it is a little much with two foldables.
I have the same experience with 2 phones. Can't imagine having one phone anymore. No risk of screen damage either..
Try phone + foldable
> This is the most repairable foldable we've ever taken apart. But that's not saying much.
I wish they'd go back to text and images for the teardowns.
I, too, preferred the internet when it was just text!
You know how on a computer screen you can just drag any corner of a window to resize it? I had a dream once where I had a phone that worked that way. Want a bigger screen? Just drag one of the corners of the phone. Shove all the corners together and drop it in your pocket.
I used the hell out of that phone all night. Then I woke up and spent about an hour trying to figure out how to build one. I think I could do it in one dimension (i.e. make the phone wider) by rolling the screen around a tiny roller in the edge of the case, and having the case telescope. But that won't work in two dimensions at once. I never figured out how to do it in two dimensions.
When somebody builds one of these, I'll buy one.
Storage upgrade: https://youtu.be/AwVfVjbcjJk?is=yF4CMII4PhSJSk1d
What a thorough breakdown! Must be fun working at IFixIt!
You think that's fun, there's a team of engineers at Apple that got to make the thing!
I noticed a race among social media to teardown or literally tear down the iphone duo this time. Bendgate is always a classic one to do for views, scratchgate is another one content makers love as they can wear an expensive watch while they carve shapes into their expensive purchase while poor people from around the world clutch pearls. The folding design is a great opportunity for content makers to target for views, but my question is why the content makers never invent something, design it, market it, pay large amounts for iso safety testing certification, then make teardown content on what they created a la banksy love is in the bin
I'm sure the 5T multinational corporation is glad you're defending it against the small-time content creators bullying it, but you might notice that the people behind this teardown do in fact sell products they've designed. So do other popular creators in the teardown category like jerryrigeverything.
They can't do teardowns of their own products though. Anything interesting they'd find in a teardown should have been caught at the design stage, and they're hardly unbiased about their own products. At most they can do design decision videos, which many do. For opinionated testing they'll send their products to another creator instead.
Why does it matter if its 5 or 5T? The teardown or tear down is what is important. I invented something a few years ago in my backyard workshop while on welfare and it got tore down which made me realise something odd is going on
nah they're right, legit teardowns with microscopes & CTs & chip identification are interesting; most 'teardowns' are little more than destruction porn. jerryrig at least gives some info (scratch test) but even he quickly devolves into uninteresting destruction.
It's nothing new - is will it blend still a thing? - but man it seems like they're everywhere now
Related:
The first broken iPhone Duos are here
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50189055
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