When Samsung first launched a folding phone, the device quickly made a splash and many believed it would soon become mainstream. However, why until now folding phones are not popular?
Up to now, most Android device manufacturers have launched their own versions of folding phones, such as Samsung Z Fold4, Oppo Find N2 Flip, vivo X Fold, Xiaomi Mix Fold 2, Huawei Mate X2… All of this seems to suggest that folding phones might be the new standard.
However, there are still a number of reasons why folding phones may not be as popular as expected.
1. Price
Except for the ability to expand the display, most folding phones cost the same as a regular flagship chip, even more than double.
For example, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 when it was first launched was priced at 1.800 USD (nearly 41 million VND in the Vietnamese market). Even Google's (coming soon) foldable Pixel phone is said to be priced similarly.
Why folding phones have not become a trend yet? Photo: Tieu MINH
Of course, we cannot blame the manufacturers for the price. Folding screen technology is still quite new, so production costs and components are relatively expensive. Besides, if users aren't willing to pay for a folding phone, then companies like Samsung will have no reason to manufacture them on a large enough scale to keep costs down.
2. Rapid depreciation
The second reason is that folding phones often depreciate very quickly. Fold4 is currently being sold for only about 29 million VND (not including some discount offers), down more than 10 million VND compared to the time of launch.
This is because folding phones are not like regular (fixed form) phones, the internal parts of the phone are not easy to recycle and re-apply in subsequent versions. So they will become obsolete faster, becoming e-waste.
Folding phones tend to depreciate quickly. Photo: Tieu MINH
3. The form factor isn't for everyone
Price aside, another reason folding phones haven't become the new standard is because of its design. The idea of a phone that turns into a tablet sounds great, but does everyone need it?
Also, the display aspect ratio of a folding screen is different from that of a tablet, which means that in some cases tablets are actually better suited for things like watching movies, Edit photos or videos.
That's not to say that folding phones are completely useless. The fact that more and more manufacturers are entering this race shows that there is demand for such devices (to a certain extent).
Even if folding phones don't become the norm, we can still see its technology applied to future devices, such as wearables, computer monitors, laptops, and cars. …
According to plo.vn
