I Want a Foldable iPhone
I just saw Samsung’s new Galaxy Fold smartphone and all I’ve got to say is “Well done Samsung, well done”.
Up until now, I’ve never felt envious of anything that Samsung customers had available to them that we on the iOS side didn’t have. Samsung had bigger screens, but the text was fuzzy and the screens were dim. Samsung was first to 4G but it took a horrendous toll on battery life. Samsung cameras were good but presented outrageously distorted colors with no option of getting more natural color balance. Samsung’s TouchID sucked and to this day their FaceID doesn’t work right. This company has been a comedy of errors for going on ten years.
And then there was the biggest doozy of them all. Samsung invented the curved sides that in my view were a horrible ergonomic disaster. I stand by my assessment that curved sides were the smartphone equivalent of spinner rims. They were visually interesting but offered little value. And lo and behold, Samsung is now back to mostly flat screens so I feel all the more justified with my past criticism.
But the new Galaxy Fold is amazing. Sure it’s thick but look how far we’ve come from the days of the Nintendo 3DS which was released 8 years ago. The Galaxy Fold is way thinner than a 3DS and the screens are not divided. There have been precious few moments in the past 20 years where I’ve been so spellbound at a new piece of tech that it takes my breath away. This was one of those moments.
I don’t see the new Galaxy Fold as a phone that can get big. I see it as finally being able to take my tablet with me in my pocket. As I wrote only a few months ago, I’ve been torn like never before when it came to owning either the 11” iPad Pro or the larger 13”. If I had a phone like the Galaxy Fold the decision would be easy. I would buy the largest tablet I could get since I would have my smaller tablet with me at all times.
I find the complaints from the media about how they don’t want to carry such a thick phone in their pocket a bit too late. That train left the station years ago. To me, all phones thicker and heavier than the iPhone 6 are already too large. Yes, my iPhone XS is too thick and heavy but it offers a nice compromise between pocket-ability and screen size. I’m not willing to carry a phone in my pocket larger than the iPhone XS for another 7 tenths of an inch of screen. But for a screen well over 7?” Now we’re back into acceptable compromise territory. Plus, foldable phones in the future will be even slimmer.
There is practical value in having a larger screen. That’s why so many of us love our iPads. This isn’t a gimmick on par with the curved sides.
I was seriously impressed by the new Samsung Galaxy Fold. It was like seeing something out of a good science fiction movie that doesn’t seem possible to exist.
And then there was the biggest doozy of them all. Samsung invented the curved sides that in my view were a horrible ergonomic disaster. I stand by my assessment that curved sides were the smartphone equivalent of spinner rims. They were visually interesting but offered little value. And lo and behold, Samsung is now back to mostly flat screens so I feel all the more justified with my past criticism.
But the new Galaxy Fold is amazing. Sure it’s thick but look how far we’ve come from the days of the Nintendo 3DS which was released 8 years ago. The Galaxy Fold is way thinner than a 3DS and the screens are not divided. There have been precious few moments in the past 20 years where I’ve been so spellbound at a new piece of tech that it takes my breath away. This was one of those moments.
I don’t see the new Galaxy Fold as a phone that can get big. I see it as finally being able to take my tablet with me in my pocket. As I wrote only a few months ago, I’ve been torn like never before when it came to owning either the 11” iPad Pro or the larger 13”. If I had a phone like the Galaxy Fold the decision would be easy. I would buy the largest tablet I could get since I would have my smaller tablet with me at all times.
I find the complaints from the media about how they don’t want to carry such a thick phone in their pocket a bit too late. That train left the station years ago. To me, all phones thicker and heavier than the iPhone 6 are already too large. Yes, my iPhone XS is too thick and heavy but it offers a nice compromise between pocket-ability and screen size. I’m not willing to carry a phone in my pocket larger than the iPhone XS for another 7 tenths of an inch of screen. But for a screen well over 7?” Now we’re back into acceptable compromise territory. Plus, foldable phones in the future will be even slimmer.
There is practical value in having a larger screen. That’s why so many of us love our iPads. This isn’t a gimmick on par with the curved sides.
I was seriously impressed by the new Samsung Galaxy Fold. It was like seeing something out of a good science fiction movie that doesn’t seem possible to exist.
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