Apple Add Engadget on Google: Preferred Source Google Discover Technological advances often come with growing pains. The 1984 "brick" phone (DynaTAC 8000X) required users to carry over 1.7 pounds of weight for only half an hour of talk time, at a hefty price tag of $3,995.
What happened
This is no less true of phones. The 1984 "brick" phone (DynaTAC 8000X) required users to carry over 1. 7 pounds of weight for only half an hour of talk time, at a hefty price tag of $3,995. Foldable phones are not so troublesome, but I still struggled to fit the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 in my pocket when I first got it. What's more, the size of it kept prompting friends to ask why I was carrying two phones around. I wish I had been, for at least it would mean one would have a decent camera. Still, the moment when the phone unfolded and the screen adjusted to the larger size was as awe-inspiring back then as it is now.
Where the sources line up
Today, after having gotten my hands on some newer models, I have become very impressed by the lengths foldable technology has reached. Models including the Google Pixel 11 Pro Fold and the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 have propelled the technology forward. Even Apple has decided to enter the market, with the iPhone Duo launch that has everyone talking. Suddenly, the future uptake of foldable phones is almost a certainty. Apple might well end up having everything to do with this change, but it would not have been possible without the long list of breakthroughs — and failures — that came before it.
Practical impact for readers
Mario Tama/Getty Images Trend pieces declared 2019 the "year of the foldable. " It was not, though those 12 months did provide the first meaningful strides in the technology. The first device of this type to make a splash in the headlines was designed by an unknown Chinese display manufacturer: Royole. The company presented the FlexPai at CES 2019, with all the pomp and circumstance that "the world's first commercially available foldable smartphone" required. It was a feat of technology. It captivated the audience, if only momentarily. For all its charms, Engadget's reporters at the time found the Royole FlexPai to be " rough around the edges ," strangely sized and, overall, " janky .
Who should pay attention now
Later that year came a second attempt. Samsung's first Galaxy Fold was released in February 2019, kick-starting a series of unfortunate events for the phone manufacturer. If you were there, you might remember the influx of terrible reviews that followed. Despite a high price (just under $2,000), many reviewers complained that their phone screens had broken after little use, and it was revealed that most of them had peeled off a layer of plastic that was acting as a screen protector. The phone's fragility forced Samsung to delay the public launch and recall all units sent to reviewers so it could re-engineer the product. The new version was, however, only "somewhat" more sturdy.
What is still unclear
The next step showed the route not taken. Huawei's Mate X , presented at MWC 2019, folded outward instead of inward. It used a single high-resolution display that wrapped around the outside of the phone. The resulting design was extremely elegant. The problem? The screen could easily be scratched and damaged. On top of that, the phone was never sold in the United States due to the sanctions imposed by then-President Donald Trump on Chinese technologies. Still, for as striking as the Mate X was, the company's next foldable, the Mate X2, used the inward fold introduced by Royole and Samsung, showing that different does not necessarily mean better.
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