Foldable phone battle takes new shape: Flip phones vs. tablet design - CNET

Motorola Razr Foldable Flip 

James Martin/CNET

It's only been a few months since Samsung launched its 7.3-inch Galaxy Fold, but the conversation is already changing, not away from foldable phone designs that open to reveal double the screen, but from the dimensions of the device itself. A new energy is coalescing around tall, skinny foldable phones that take up less space in your pocket than the large phone you carry around now.

Take, for example, the foldable Motorola Razr, which brings flip phones into the modern world. The Razr's reveal in part sparked nostalgia for the simple flip phones of the early 2000s, while also appealing to a futurist point of view. Then there's the clamshell design that Samsung teased at its own developer conference in October. Now, a new rumor suggests that this vertically folding phone could cost as little as $850, a sharp discount from the $1,980 Galaxy Fold.

At this early stage in the foldable phone landscape, cost could make the difference between a foldable phone that people like to look at and one they might actually buy. At a time when premium phones with all the frills can cost $1,000 or more, a $2,000 foldable device could, for many, be a bridge too far. Add expensive 5G connectivity on top of that, and it's easy to see how foldable phone prices could climb right out of the realm of attainability for all but a small margin of buyers.

Now playing: Watch this: Motorola Razr vs. Galaxy Fold: Foldable phone specs compared

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Now imagine a cheaper, lighter-powered device that combines a fancy folding screen in a smaller package for around the price you might pay for a top-notch phone. For half the price of the Galaxy Fold -- and $2,600 Huawei Mate X -- this class of foldable phone might find more committed buyers, even when cutting back on features.

We've already seen interest in "cheaper" foldable phones from the $1,500 Motorola Razr launch -- the Razr goes on sale Dec. 26. Although you save $500 compared to the Galaxy Fold, you also miss out on high-value features such as a much larger screen with more functionality, many more camera options and significantly greater storage for the price. In many ways, the question of Motorola Razr versus the Galaxy Fold presents a false sense of savings. When it comes to what people are willing to spend money on, extra benefits might not matter. 

TCL's trifold phone is on the bigger side of the foldable spectrum.

CNET

For this type of enthusiast, there's hope. Simpler foldable designs that cost less could very well feed the hunger for a new category of phone. Qualcomm, the world's largest mobile chip-maker, just announced the Snapdragon 765, a new 5G chipset that aims to make ultrafast, midrange phones more affordable. But we can expect them to still cost more than today's 4G phones with the same features.

Phone-makers such as TCL and Xiaomi are also experimenting with new foldable designs. Alongside TCL's mammoth tri-fold, which opens into a 8-inch tablet, is a slim, flexible device that could one day wrap around a wrist. Motorola's parent company, Lenovo, worked up a similar concept years ago that actually did.

What makes foldable phones so exciting isn't only the act of opening and closing the hinged device. It's also the fact that at this early stage, foldable phones are as fluid and flexible as their bending screens: They could be big, small or -- if they ultimately fail to take root -- nothing at all.

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https://www.cnet.com/news/foldable-phone-battle-takes-new-shape-flip-phones-vs-tablet-design/

2019-12-04 12:00:09Z
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