Will foldable screens take off?

Everything from the design to the features of mobiles has changed during the three decades of their existence. The initial 1980s phones were huge and brick-like, whereas the smartphones of today are thin and lightweight.

Equally we have gone from mobiles that were purely for calls to multimedia devices that people use to take photographs and watch movies on.

Is foldable the future?

Manufacturers are engaged in a kind of arms race to keep coming up with innovative new features that make customers want to upgrade – and now foldable phones are being touted as the next big tech advance.

Major smartphone manufacturers have invested a lot in this, with the likes of Huawei, Lenovo, Motorola and Samsung all rushing phones with foldable screens onto the market. These are not all the same, as some offer a tablet sized screen that folds in two to leave an outer touch screen, while others offer standard phone sized displays that fold up to leave the user with a mini one on the outside.

Picture 1 of Will foldable screens take off? Picture 1 of Will foldable screens take off?

However, beyond the size differences there is one problem that is common to them all: foldable is not durable. The screens of these phones are covered by plastic rather than glass, which gives them the flexibility, but also means that the cover can easily be broken and the screen ruined.

Given how often people accidentally drop their phones; it is questionable whether consumer demand really exists right now. This is especially true as the current prices are outrageous, with the cheapest foldable phones being over £1,000.

The biggest advantage of this tech is that enables the customer to have a big screen device that can be folded into something smaller that fits snugly in the pocket, but the question is whether that is enough.

Limited early impact

The earliest phones with foldable screens to hit the market, such as the Samsung Galaxy Fold and Z Flip, the Mate X from Huawei, and the Motorola Razr have had a fairly muted impact among customers. The fact that they are currently priced out of the reach of most people is one factor in that, but it is also questionable whether there was much demand for this particular feature to begin with.

None of that means that foldable phone tech is a definitive flop though, because prices will drop as these devices move into the mainstream and the manufacturers will work on the designs to improve durability and style. The smart consumer move might be to hold off until this happens.

Indeed some are speculating that, at a particular point, Apple will enter the market with a product that perfects the idea and popularises it with the public. After all, they managed to sell the tablet idea to them with the iPad.

Picture 2 of Will foldable screens take off? Picture 2 of Will foldable screens take off?

There is a long way to go before it can be said that mobile phones with foldable screens have taken off, but manufacturers are committed to the idea and will not give up easily.