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- Hacker News
- I just don't see why you would spend more than double (almost 2K USD!) for the fold phones though. I have large screens in my home to watch high quality video content. I do like the Pixel Pro XL series with 6.8" screens though, but they are a lot cheaper.by preisschild
- While they are more expensive, if price is the only concern, you could get last year's Z Fold 7 for a price similar to the launch price of an iPhone 17 Pro Max.by user43928
- I have zero interest in folding phones and only read to kill time while eating, but this review is incredibly irritating. "This isn't exactly like another phone, with a bunch of subjective design differences, therefore it's dated and bad!" I hate this way of thinking so much. Products should be different. There should be small phones and large phones, thin phones and thick phones, rather than scoring them all against the latest fad in order to try to force the market to conform. I hear small phones don't sell well and that's why nobody makes them anymore, but I can't help but wonder if small phone sales are artificially deflated by shitty reviews like this one that punish companies for manufacturing outside the media's anointed design trend.
- Listen to each person who says he wants a small phone. Is he the kind of person who would even buy the smaller phone if it got released, rather than holding onto an old working phone? Is he also going to spend more money on apps, AirPods, etc, maybe a iPad too? Sometimes yeah, usually not. I'm in that group, I understand why Apple doesn't cater to me.
Also don't think anyone makes buying decisions based on these reviews. It's more entertainment than anything else.
by frollogaston - I didn't read the paywalled article, but this phone looks exactly like the Pixel 9 Pro Fold I used to own.
And that is to say that it looks dated and ugly, particularly compared to Samsung's square phones.
Google's design comes with larger bezels, more weight and thickness, and a bigger crease.
The rounded corners are subjective I guess.
by user43928 - Reviews like this like to exaggerate certain things in order to get a punchy headline ("feels like the end of an era") and to create a matching narrative for the article. To keep readers engaged. Pretty typical for The Verge.
But as far as reviews go, this one is just as bad as most. They didn't do any standardized measurements of the battery life including comparisons with similar phones, or performance benchmarks, or charging speed measurements, or any camera measurements that go beyond vibes. They are just reporting what anyone who bought the phone could also tell you: subjective impressions and a few out-of-context sample photos.
by cubefox - like all folding phones it is just too expensive for me to justify.by uberman
- Target is probably people only use phones, no note PCs. If you use note, its generally better to tether by phone and view and input from note.by anabis
- For me the biggest issue, frequently hearing and reading about broken inner screens, is that it makes the screen a consumable, which socks.by microtonal
- Yeah, you can almost buy two phones for that price. There you go, wireless foldableby gonzalohm
- I'm tempted to get one to replace my very cracked Pixel 9 Pro XL. With all the incentives Google offers for Google Fi customers it's not all that expensive. Comes out to about $1100 after trade-in and includes a free Pixel Watch 5.
I'm foldable-curious and Samsung just includes too much overlapping bloat "features". Gemini is bad enough, I don't need Bixby and whatever else. Not to mention I would have to pay full price.
by cpeth - just a heads up, the gpu is actually terrible. it is not even the actual gpu that is the issue but the softwareby nicman23
- I'm on fi and got the fold 8 through fi for a pretty steep discount. It was cash off immediately + fi credits. I can pull up exact details if you care but it was several hundred dollars off split pretty evenly between instant discount and fi credits. Coming from nearly 10 years of pixels/nexus the transition hasn't been that bad. I miss a couple pixel exclusives, but nearly all the samsung bloatware can be disabled or removed entirely. I haven't bumped into bixby once.
One genuine nice Samsung feature is DeX. Been using it + moonlight (when needed) to make the phone basically a secondary computer when hooked up to USB-C monitor. Honestly I think this phone may end up replacing several other devices - kindle, gaming portable (eg: steamdeck, replaced by phone + GameSir G8 + controller), laptop, tablet. I think it can only replace laptop in my use case because I can remote into my desktop from it if I need extra compute - so if you are laptop only I don't expect it to be a straight replacement.
Honestly, best phone I've ever used - but I hope next year either google gets off the sidelines and adopts passport form factor + gets its shit together on the crease, cpu and dex equivalent so I can get my pixel exclusives and vanilla OS back, or alternatively Samsung makes the wide form factor the "ultra" and gives us better cameras, speaker placement, s-pen and IP68.
by krisroadruck - > free Pixel Watch 5.
Personally, I find smart watches a gimmick but maybe I havnt looked into them enough.
by drop_star - >Comes out to about $1100 after trade-in and includes a free Pixel Watch 5.
Thats expensive :/
by free652 - Just be careful about what your actual use case is.
For example, this form factor of foldable doesn’t give you significantly more screen real estate for 16:9 video content since it’s such a square aspect ratio.
They also generally aren’t large enough to take advantage of tablet layouts, while tri-fold designs fold out to be almost identical to a tablet size.
You have to really want to use two apps side by side in my opinion.
by Grombobulous - If you run GrapeheneOS on it and use it as your full machine while wired to a display or three, sure.
Otherwise, in no world is $1100 for a cell phone anything but expensive.
Yes, iPhones are also expensive.
by DANmode - I'm on my last Samsung for this reason. Just way too much bloatware, need to agree to a new privacy policy once a week, and every time it updates I find a few new apps on my phone I didn't want.
Gonna hold out for the Motorola/Graphene phone though. One of the models is supposed to be a flagship foldable.
by daoboy - > Samsung just includes too much overlapping bloat "features"
Yep, that's a major drawback. My partner has a Samsung phone and seeing all of the included bloatware, plus the terrible updates and add even more, made me not even consider one of their devices last time I bought a phone.
by rurp - If you look at Google's Android phone market share (currently 1.1% according to https://www.appbrain.com/stats/top-manufacturers), and consider that the foldable version is probably the least popular model in this not-really-popular phone family, it becomes understandable that they're not investing heavily into R&D for it...by rob74
- I drop my phone a lot, I have a great case for it so not a scratch after 6 years. I am interested in getting the foldable but apparently the cases don't protect the hinge or let dirt get in? Anyone have experience with this? Maybe I'm not the right audience, too clumsyby belinder
- i like this one...and it does have _some_ hinge protection. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F498PG6P?ref=fed_asin_title&th=1by drunkonvinyl
- Among other manufacturers Spigen has cases that protect the hinge. I've owned a foldable for 3 years and never had anything get into the hinge thanks to that, though some amount of dust did gather inside the hinge cover over time.
But I would be nervous about spending that much on a phone if you expect to be dropping it a lot, honestly.
by kg - You can get covers that shield/protect the hingeby smashah
- The Google foldable seems to be the only one with dust and water protection. It has an IP68 rating. Which imo puts it above every other foldable.by Yokolos
- I think the clumsiness can be improved. I always make a conscious effort when I grab my phone or put it away, so that is is always secure. No "I thought it slid into my pocket but apparently it was still outside it and then dropped". I would grab my phone with both hands in a lot of situations that are risky etc.
It's a bunch of small habits to change, then you may be ready for a fragile foldable. Until then, yes, probably not the target audience!
by Orphis - The crease makes it look cheap and fragile, like with many of the foldable phones.
I'm curious what people need the huge screens for on phones? Is it mostly for watching videos?
by Archer6621 - No, these are shockingly bad at watching video. The video output is only slightly bigger than a regular phone due to the form factor. Big ole black bars on everything, and movies are worse.by preg_match
- I read PDFs on my foldable phone.by Yokolos
- Turns into a small tablet which is great for reading, for impromptu client demos, and for playing some games like puzzles.
It also enables multitasking by having applications side by side which can be very useful on a phone too.
You don't have to use it all the time, but it's nice when you need it.
by Orphis