All phones are foldable. But some are foldable only once.
android phone · 6 comments · 700 words
I want a new phone! I went to a wedding and everyone0 had one of those new folding phones. Social marketing has done a number on me and inveigled its way into my brain. Hey, I make decent money, perhaps I'll buy one. How much could they possibly cost?
About £1,700 for a Pixel Fold or a Galaxy Fold.
WHAT THE JUDDERING FUCK!?
That's over twice the cost of my laptop. Over 4x the cost of my large 4K TV. The same cost as a PS5 and twenty-five games. It would be the single most expensive object I own. I would be terrified of it getting dropped, cracked, lost, or stolen. Look, I don't condone thievery, but if you saw someone walking down the street with over a grand in cash held loosely in their hands you wouldn't be surprised if a scrote on a bike grabbed it, would you?
I don't think I could psychologically cope with holding something that expensive and worrying constantly about keeping it safe.
When I worked for a mobile network, I got a new phone every few months. Mostly demo models and mostly for free or heavily discounted. When I left the industry, I paid full price for my own phone for the very first time in over a decade.
Six years ago I spent £470 on a OnePlus 5T. Adjusted for inflation, that's about £600. Was that worth it?
Undoubtedly yes. Amortised over time, it's the equivalent of paying £80 per year (or about £100 in today's money). Even accounting for a new battery at £30, I have received substantial value. Even today the 5T is able to run all the apps and services I want. With LineageOS I'm getting the latest Android experience and security patches. The only things it is missing are 5G, a better camera, and some financial services apps because it is rooted.
I honestly don't feel like I'm missing anything substantial from a new device. Except the geeky pleasure of a foldable screen.
Assuming my phone died tomorrow, and I wanted the same sort of value for money, I have a choice:
- Buy a phone every year for about £100.
- Buy a refurbished foldable for about £600.
The eco-nerd in me balks at the levels of e-waste created by buying a new phone every year. OK, I'd probably buy 2nd hand, but that's still a bit irresponsible. And, at that price point, I'm not sure I'd receive much of an improvement over my current device. It isn't like exciting new features are launched that often. Literally the only cool think I want is magic bendable OLED.
What about buying a foldable? It's possible to buy a refurbed Samsung Fold for about £600. But do I think it'd last 6 years? Right now, I'd be worried about it lasting 6 months!
I can afford a foldable - either new or refurbished - but I can't justify it. I know all tech can break at any point. I'm probably very lucky that it has been over a decade since I last smashed a phone. Can I keep playing those odds?
Perhaps the middle-ground is buying a semi-decent phone for £300 and hoping it lasts 3 years?
Or getting the Fairphone for £500 and hoping replacement parts can keep it alive or upgraded over time?
But neither of those gets me to the techy nirvana of a foldable.
As I said in Wired several years ago, phones have reached a plateau. The black rectangle is close to the platonic ideal. Very little other than incremental upgrades have happened in the market for ages. Things like Apple's lidar are interesting, but not exactly killer features.
Perhaps that's why I want a foldable? To recapture the magic of my youth where every new phone was an exciting leap in innovation.
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OK, like, five people. But they were cool people. ↩︎
@Edent@mastodon.social I ended up taking the middle route that you mention - I got a Grade A refurbished iPhone SE for about £300, a little over 2 years ago.
Honestly, don't regret the decision - it's been a solid phone so far, holds up well, and because it was Grade A it was pretty much brand-new anyway (even the warranty information showed it had only been activated a month before I bought it)
@Edent I’ve yet to see a folding screen phone in the wild that hasn’t already broken.
mike says:
Have you considered the Samsung Flip? It's a lot cheaper than the Fold new, and via CEX. And even though it's called Flip not Fold, the Flip folds. I've no idea about longevity, your concerns about lasting six months may well apply to the Flip.
@edent says:
I thought about it - but it is the MASSIVE bendy screen I crave. I have big pockets, so I don't need a flip phone.
@Edent £1700 is daft money for a phone unless it's going to last five years+ -- and there's absolutely no way that any of the current generation of folding phones will last that long. I have an iPhone 13 Pro Max whatever-it-is and when I replace that in 2-3 time, it will be for a Fairphone. I'm just fed up with being on the treadmill of throw-away electronics.
@Edent For 90% of adults, a Redmi Note 12 for 180 euro is more than enough. I say adults because today’s teenagers would probably start a hunger strike if they didn’t get an iPhone.
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