Are Foldable Phones the Future?

 

History of Foldable Phones:

In 2007 when apple announced the original Iphone followed by the announcement of the HTC dream which was the first android phone smartphones manufacturers always seemed to innovate with their next project and Samsung was the front and center in this yearly innovation. In 2013 when it was basically a few year into the smartphone boom in the world Samsung introduced the Samsung Galaxy Round (shown below) which was basically their first of many attempts to make non flat displays. Although it performed poorly on the market and sold less than a 100,000 units world wide, it opened the gate for Samsung and other companies to keep innovating until they get a perfect result.

After this experiment Samsung again experimented with the Samsung Galaxy Note Edge which had a display with a curved edge and this got them comparatively good reviews compared to the galaxy round and it was a step in the right direction for Samsung. After this Samsung began to release edge variants of their flagship phones with the galaxy S6 and galaxy S7 and after that every Samsung phone had some sort of curved edges and other companies followed soon with the Vivo Nex 3 and Huawei Mate 30 pro having some of the aggressive edges in the smartphone industry

All of these things indicated to one thing, like curved displays Samsung would be the first company to introduce a foldable phone. Well this time Samsung got beaten and it became the second company to introduce a folding phone. The first company to do that was Royale flexpie. They introduced the first ever foldable phone, although the phone was far from a complete foldable phone as it had many software issues and was just not usable for any common man and at 1400$ it was just not worth anybodies time and money. Samsung then came along with the Samsung Galaxy Fold and it quickly got famous as the first usable folding phone with made the idea of a tablet folding into a smartphone and actually being usable a reality and just to put it politely, it was a success.

Huawei then entered into the Tablet folding into a phone gig and released the Huawei Mate X. This was in my opinion the best folding phone ever created by any company. Although it was not durable, its form factor was almpost perfect. It had the latest specs and when folded was  a full 7 inch display smartphone which was not the case for either Royale flexpie and Samsung galaxy fold and when opened it was a full sized tablet having the latest specs and features and it also had the best software for a folding phone till date. Although it was priced at a stagerring 2700$ it was clear that heawei had not made this to be used by an average person but a rare luxury tech item that few people in the world could afford.

After that Motorolla entered the folding phone game with the 2020 version of the iconic Moto Razr that was smartphone that could be folded into a smaller smartphone with a smaller display on the outside when the phone was closed. It was more of a flip phone than a folding phone but it was usable but it was sold at 1400$ and it contained very old chipset and hardware. Because of that large price point of a flagship but having the specs of a mid-range phone it did not perform very good in terms of sale and revenue. Samsung again came into the mix launching the Samsung Galaxy Z flip and it to simple put, it was a better, more refined version of the moto razr but it also contained relatively old specs and priced at 1400$ which was even more than Samsung flagship phones like the galaxy S20 and S20 plus. However people liked it, as it was a unique form factor for a smartphone done to perfection.

Are Foldable phones here to stay:

After all these experiments from Sasmung and other companies regarding foldable phones in different form factors and companies like TCL showing off their concpet triple fold devices and rolling devices, there is one question rising in the minds of a lot of people. Are foldable phones here to stay? The answer to that question is. Yes.

Foldable phones are without a doubt a technology of the future. Although we have a long way to go in terms of the perfect hardware and software that is both durable for normal use and priced at a range that a normal person can buy. Current rectangular slab smartphones are without a doubt the perfect shape for a smartphone to have and it is easy to used and is also very durable. The concept of a big tablet that folds into a normal smartphone and then again opens up to be a full sized tablet is just the direction in which every smartphone company is either going or is striving to improve its technology to give the world the perfect folding phone for every common man to use as right now it is only a technological item of luxury that only few people can afford and people who even have like 3000$ right now opt to go for an Iphone or a Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra. But I have no doubt that in the very near future folding phones will become as common as the rectangular glass slab of today.