Report: Apple is testing foldable iPhones, having the same problems as everyone else

My boomerang lasted many years though, I’ll give it that.

I just upgraded from the 6 Plus to the 12 Max like a year ago.

I know Lemmy hates Apple, but I love iOS. Probably because I started on it. My son almost has me convinced though. I might let him pick my next phone and put LineageOS on it.

Same reason you can't buy a new small pickup truck. They don't make them because the mass market isn't there

Because they don't sell.

If you ignore screen size (which people erroneously use as a metric for phone size, since it's an easily findable and easy to understand number) and instead look at actual phone dimensions, most phones now aren't actually dissimilar. Bezels have shrunk a lot.

• Galaxy S24, Jan 2024: 147mm x 70.6mm

• Galaxy S5, Feb 2014: 142mm x 72.5mm

S24 frontal area = 10,378mm²

S5 frontal area = 10,153mm²

The S24 is only 2% larger than its decade-old equivalent. Not something you'd even notice.

If you include the thickness of the device, then the S24 is actually 4% smaller than its decade old equivalent.

Now sure, there were smaller phones, especially if you go further back, like an iPhone 3G genuinely would be considered tiny now.

It's just worth noting that phones aren't actually growing each year anymore like people say they are, and they haven't for a while. Bezels shrinking is a huge change in design for TVs, monitors, laptops, phones.

People are just hearing things like "6.3 inch screen" and they think "wow, my old phone only had a 4.5 inch screen. This phone must be so much larger!"

I would really like to upgrade my 12 mini to an newer Mini model if they ever made one!

I have an iphone mini… you need smaller than that? Why? It’s pretty darn small already.

I can't speak for the flip, but the fold 4 is fantastic. I can't imagine going back to a slab

Removable batteries for sure, but I spent 20 years waiting for the clamshell design to make a comeback and I love my Flip (4). Phones need to fit in pockets and have a decent sized screen.

Doubt it will ever get back to how it was with how easily they could be removed but there may be steps towards it https://www.euronews.com/green/2023/06/22/new-eu-law-to-force-smartphone-makers-to-build-easily-replaceable-batteries

I would love a foldable phone if the other half you have a good hardware keyboard on it.

I'd rather have a unfoldable phone and a tablet than a foldable, which is literally just the worst of both worlds.

Did you say folding phone? Ew

I think you'll find it's the new iPhone 17 with dynamic flex technology and that Tim Cook will repeatedly say on stage that this has "never been done before".

They actually was first with folding smartphone though, remember iPhone 6 bending drama

It would be the height of stupidity to copy the bending screen fad. It would also cannibalise sales on their product lines.

Me too, because in spite of marketing garbage the product will probably be best in class or at least providing competition thereof.

For the love of god, yes. About half the time, I want a phone. The other I want a tablet. A foldable phone similar to the galaxy fold is exactly what I want.

But I’m locked into the Apple ecosystem for multiple reasons. And no, “just get two devices” isn’t that great an option. I don’t use them at the same time, why not just have them be the same device? Also helps with the fact that I might want to go back and forth between something in both modes.

Sales suggest, "Yes."

I live in Korea and I see the Samsung foldable phones in the hands of like every 5th person, so yeah I'd say they sell

Samsung is up to Fold 5, so at least someone keeps buying them. Though they are also up to Flip 5, a concept so dumb I honestly won't believe anyone wants or uses one, so who knows.

Yes. I have the fold 3 and will ask for another foldable when the time to upgrade comes.

Yes! Phones with small screens are not useful. Phones which don't fit in pockets are not useful. Flip phones solve the problem and I've been wanting one for twenty years.

Personally, I love fold phones. They give me portability and a big screen which are the two things I most want in a phone

Um... I started with a Fold 2 and currently on a fold 5. Maybe YOU don't want them, but it's hardly nobody.

Shit on Apple for a lot of things, but if they put out a foldable it’s not likely to be crap hardware. Just overpriced with an annoying OS.

I've had my fold3 for over 2 years and I absolutely love it. I don't think I can go back to a bar-phone now. Also, even if you really don't like folding phones, why fight creativity? Before this phones were getting so boring and completely lacking innovation. They still are in the non-folding market. Even if you don't like them, choice is never a bad thing.

Hard disagree, fold 4 gang.

I’d probably never buy one, but they are currently growing very quickly in China. They sold 1.2MM units in Q2 which is a 173% YoY growth rate.

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.

Most of the buyers think that touchscreens are very future and normal buttons are very past, because touchscreens are like magic, look! And because everybody uses them. And because more pixels. And because they don't have to reliably enter text most of the time. Especially not looking at the phone.

I think it all still gets down to people poking screens with their fingers thinking it looks smarter and more elegant (LOL). It has a lot to do with how it looks for others.

With a seam? I think I’d personally absolutely hate that.

Samsung briefly had an S4 like this. Oh, I so wanted it to come to market.