its just a tablet that u can fold and make calls with. why is it so much more expensive than tablets?
What's The Point of Fold Phones?
Gerry H on 11/03/2019 - 15:04
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There are enough youtube reviewers now that creating overpriced novelty products will sell to said reviewers.
why is it so much more expensive than tablets?
You have to pay off the costs of research and development somehow.
Foldable screens sounds easy but in practice, you have to engineer a LCD display that's going to be folded continuously thousands of times without breaking or developing a permanent crease (think of what happens when you fold a sheet of plastic too many times),
Plus: also maintaining all the aspects of a typical smartphone display — you still need a touch digitizer layer on top, it needs to have very high pixel density and viewing angles / brightness / Colour accuracy while also being durable.
The innovation in phone design has almost reached the limit if not already for single screen models. You can only make the screen so big for your hand that it becomes difficult to handle. Hence why they were changing the aspect ratio to make them taller.
Screen real estate is important as it allows for more applications to be used at the same time and also makes it clearer to view single apps. I have a mobile and a ipad mini. Having a device that does both makes sense as it gets rid of 1 of the devices to carry around. Without seeing any of these fold models they seem to look like they may be bulky when folded. So still not really ideal. Say in another few generations if they can get it thinner when folded then it may become more common. For the pricing at the moment its a tad steep. IMO.
And here I am thinking I should go pixel 4 not-XL when the time comes.
The same realisation will come 2-3 years after the adoption of foldables… I'd pay more if I don't have to fold. Wait, I just buy the cheaper model. Done.
So dumb people with too much money can show that they’re dumb people with too much money.
I think it could work. Imagine having an iPhone that can become an iPad mini?
The issue is, we are seeing generation 1.
I'd rather see a little matchbook fold out into an iphone tbh. If this stuff gets used to make things smaller that'd be great.
But the way things have been going we'll probably end up carrying around ipads that unfold into broadsheet newspapers
ummmm how would you build a folding screen?
Crumple zones for when they bump into things.
What's the point of anything, really?
Samsung is once again trying to copy Apple, this time with phones you can bend.
.#BendGate
To Fold them
The point is that you can have two devices in one. There was a low take up of early smart phones, but eventually the right product was conceived and consumer demand took off.
It's so much more expensive because it is literally brand new technology with massive sunk cost. Do you remember the cost of the early plasma screens?
Whether or not this is the product for you at this point in time and this price point appears as obvious "no" from your question … but that is a very separate question from the two above.
They fold
You can use it as a phone, the unfold it and use it as a tablet. I've never owned or even used a tablet, but even I can see how that could be really useful. Not now of course, in the future when they're the same price as phones now.
It’s a gimmik to make
idiotspeople buy a new phone.Right now there is no point. People are not meant to buy it because it's basically an expensive prototype.
In the future when technology becomes cheap enough and good enough, it could be the dominant form factor.
To go with your AMG.
It’s more expensive than a tablet because you CAN fold it and put it in your pocket. It’s using screen tech that is currently not in mass production and there would have been a lot of R&D which pushes the price up. And they can price it at a premium because they know there are 10’s of thousands of people out there who can afford it and want the latest tech.
If the technology proves reliable then surely within 2-5 years the price will drop heavily.
At AU$4200 or whatever I saw the price listed at yesterday, I won’t be a buyer, but thousands of people will.
My prediction is it will go the way of 3D tvs. Initial novelty factor then people realise they are useless.