Folding Smartphones- Practical or Problematic?

In the last few years, consumers have grown to desire a higher screen-to-body ratio in their personal phones. One of the main issues with increased screen-size is the obvious increase in overall size of the phones. Folding smartphones hope to remedy this issue by giving consumers the screen size of a small tablet in the compactness of a typical smartphone.

There is a limited selection of foldable smartphones currently in the market. But some big name companies have already released consumer prototypes. Samsung released their Galaxy Note Fold at the end of February. The Fold features two AMOLED screens, one to be utilized while the phone is compact and the other, a flexible screen, to be used when unfolded. Huawei has also released the Mate X, which opts for the single screen that is folded down the center and can be used in either the closed or open position. Other less well-known companies like Xiaomi, Royale, Oppo, and TCL have all expressed plans to create their own foldable smartphones to be released within the near future.

Samsung Galaxy Fold

(http://fortune.com/2019/02/20/samsung-galaxy-fold-live-event/)

Huawei Mate X 

(https://www.cnet.com/pictures/mate-x-foldable-phone-heres-what-its-really-like-to-use/)

Most folding smartphones have not officially reached production but many prototypes have been released. While some may be intrigued by the novelty of a foldable phone, some critics remain skeptic. The criticisms include everything from price (nearly $2000 for the Samsung Galaxy Fold) to the bulkiness that most modern foldable phones possess; these phones can be anywhere from two to three times as thick as conventional smartphones. However, as technology advances, phones like these will continue to become cheaper to produce and will undoubtedly begin to slim down to sizes comparable to our current phones.