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Report: Apple is testing foldable iPhones, having the same problems as everyone else
(arstechnica.com)
this post was submitted on 08 Feb 2024
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Technology
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the problems:
so, why is this happening?
People keep buying them because they don't realize they are crap. We probably have another few years of this until the people with disposable money get tired of the crap phones.
I can't imagine their resale value is very good either. The screens are plastic (they have to be to bend), which means they scratch incredibly easily. Though, I guess that is a good thing if you want to try a scratched-to-hell one that somehow got a tiny bit of dirt in the joint.
They aren't crap at all, stop projecting your opinion as fact.
At worst they're niche, but provide tangible and easily understandable benefits that you might not care about that others love. That's like me hating on the newest Samsungs camera, just because I personally don't value mobile photography.
Your complaints about durabilitu are pretty tied these days, the technology has improved a lot and you can realistically be as careless as you can with any other cell phone. There are valid concerns , such as Samsungs issue with hairline cracking along the hinge, but you can stop parroting points addressed over the past 5 years now.
Hahahahaha... Right, right.
Something with a hinge can be treated the same as a bar where the glass is surrounded by plastic, say a Pixel? I don't think so.
"Realistically", something like this will always be a compromise on durability. There's simply no way for something that bends in half to be "realistically" as durable as something that doesn't.
Hell, I have different regular phones with massive durability differences (one is glass, titanium and ceramic, the other is all plastic), and none of them have a hinge (let alone a foldable screen). Which one of my phones is a folder as "realistically" durable as?
Let's see the testing from the screen manufacturer defining how many folds the screen can do before a crease becomes apparent, or a pixel is lost.
Now let's see the same test stats for a non-bending screen. Oh, yea, they don't have that kind of durability testing, because they don't have wear from bending.
You may wanna look up what "realistically" means.
Edit: so far ~~9~~ 11 morons have shown they don't know what realistically means
Had a fold 3 for almost 3 years and have had no issues at all. The screen is fine, with no scratches at all, heavy use. Dropped it multiple times. One time, i actually threw it because something made me jump whilst i was reading a map on it, and i just got a bit of a scratch on the metal frame from where it hit the tarmac.
No concerns about durability. If you are worried about that, then you have never used one.
Honesrly, I couldn't be happier with it. I won't be going back to non foldables any time soon. The loss of screen size would be too frustrating.
Come back when you have used one for as long as me and anyone else who has one before spouting this nonesense about durability. Because as the other comme ter said its a tired argument. It is only made by the uninformed.
And you might want to interact with the product you're bashing before you talk so much shit about it. I own a 4 year old Z Flip I bought secondhand two years ago and I love it. I work in a mechanic shop and this phone has been dropped on concrete many times, had tools dropped on top of it, had chemicals spilled near or on it, been caught in the rain, and besides all that I open and close the fold a couple dozen times a day most every day. I put the cheapest Amazon phone case I could find on it and to date, I have developed a nearly invisible hairline crack in the very center of the fold that you can only even notice when the screen is off, and one tiny crack in the corner of the front screen that doesn't fold. Whole phone is mint otherwise. It's been incredibly durable over the two years I've had it, far above and beyond what I even expected when I bought it. And being able to fold out the screen for reading or watching videos, or gaming, or comfortable texting, is excellent.
Your point is taken in that yes a flat screen phone won't have a folding hinge that will eventually wear out. But my phone has lasted me two years, after being bought used two years after its release, and I expect an easy 3 more before I end up replacing it so long as I don't drop anything too heavy on it. I consider that a fine lifespan for a modern smartphone. I'll probably never go back to a slab phone unless I don't get a choice when the time comes for a new one.