[OPINION] Why I think Foldable smartphones would fail!

The Mobile World Congress which is an annual event held in Barcelona, Spain saw some major advancements this year. Folding smartphones, 5G capable smartphones and much more were launched this time around and hence consumer interest is at an all-time high. In all of this, we have seen what might be a glimpse into the future of personal computing a.k.a Foldable smartphones.

But hear me out.

I don’t think Foldable smartphones are here to stay for long!

No, I don’t hate them. But simply put if you think from a real-world usability perspective a foldable phone isn’t practical for a person who has to do a multitude of activities throughout the day. If you think about how painful it would be to put a folding phone into your tight jeans then just take a look at the recently launched Samsung Galaxy Fold and the Huawei Mate X.

For me, the last really usable phone size for one-handed use was the iPhone SE. If only people could use that form factor with the full display then it would be smartphone heaven for people like me who love compact designs.

Foldable smartphones work on the basic premise that users want a really big screen device without compromising on single hand usage and at the same time want the power to consume more content from a device which can evolve into the future of personal computing.

It all sounds good on paper but the real problem arises when we talk about operability, handiness and ease of storage of a device like this.

Most of the people won’t have too much trouble with a bigger device as we have seen in the past trends of increasing device sizes. People lap up whatever they get and more media consumption on smartphones means that a lot of people increasingly look for bigger and bigger screens on their smartphones in order to boost their media consumption experience.

We have already reached a saturation point when it comes to increasing device sizes and hence the next war is for improving the screen to body ratio of phones. 100% screen to body ratio for any phone is impractical but achieving something close to this is the end goal for most of the smartphone manufacturers right now.

We saw one great example this year with the Vivo Apex 2019 which was a great concept phone. Though it’s still not in the production phase and not expected to work because Vivo hasn’t figured out what sort of camera setup they want to employ in the actual market version of this phone.

But Vivo has a separate Nex lineup which comes with all of the revolutionary changes that come to the Apex lineup. Hence it’s very much plausible that next year or maybe by the end of this year Vivo might come with a Nex 2 or Nex 3 which employs all of the radical design changes of their flagship product along with a new camera mechanism. Or they might even stick with the tried and tested pop up mechanism which was seen on their lot of phones and also the recently launched Vivo V15 Pro.

You can view our complete Vivo V15 Pro review down below.

This year’s upcoming OnePlus 7 is also expected to come with a pop-up camera mechanism. This means that they are also coming really close to the bezel-less future that we all envisioned a long time ago.

But to think of foldable phones as the pinnacle of smartphone technology or the final endpoint seems pretty flawed logic to me. No one wants a phone which breaks too easily.

Personally, I feel that an in-display front-facing camera might be the final evolution in the completely bezel-less smartphone design world. And this might happen sooner than expected as a lot of leaked patents from different smartphone companies paint a future where such a product might exist.

So guys what do you think? Do let us know in the comments section below!

Foldable vs Bezel-less? Who do you think would win?

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