Apple’s long-rumoured foldable iPhone could finally become a reality if a recently awarded patent is any indication. This patent hints at a revolutionary self-healing screen.

      • snownyte@kbin.social
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        6 months ago

        I just want phones to be fun again. There’s a YouTube series literally called ‘When Phones were Fun’. Where a guy presents all of these models from different manufacturers in the 2000s that all had these crazy but unique phone designs.

        Small phones, sliding keyboard phones, compacting phones, media device phones .etc that just had character to them.

        But no, we’ve been living in an era of phones where they’re just a series of degrees of rectangular shapes. This one is tall, this one is a little wider and it’s just boring. Flipping the phone inward of itself isn’t really that interesting because it’s just a flip phone now with a screen that can do it.

        • TimeSquirrel@kbin.social
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          6 months ago

          Full market saturation. They’re washing machines now. We shouldn’t be caring so hard about them anymore. We’re pretty much at the peak of mobile telephony the way we know it. Let’s come up with something totally new and focus on other tech. It’s like still being excited over mass-distributed electricity 40 years after its rollout.

        • PseudorandomNoise@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          Most of those other types of phones aren’t around anymore because nobody bought them. Sure, small phones are great and I even had a 13 mini, but I’m one of like 20 people who bought it. I’ve never ever seen a sliding keyboard phone in the wild, just on YouTube. Same for those other more eclectic devices. The market has spoken, and it said “giant slabs of glass please”.

        • Jesus@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          The other problem is that only a small, but loud, group buys them. They don’t sell as well.

        • NoisyFlake@lemm.ee
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          6 months ago

          That’s not my experience. I’ve got a 13 mini for 2 years now and I can go one day easily. I charge every night anyway, so it’s more than enough for me. On low power mode, it’s probably more like 2 days.

      • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
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        6 months ago

        It does seem pretty dumb that Apple ditched the mini form factor after the 12

        Edit: it was the 13, my bad. But still, why did they have to kill it?

        • TheRealKuni@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          13, and it just wasn’t worth it. They weren’t selling well enough to justify the manufacturing cost.

          I do love the iPhone Mini though. My sister has one, and every time I see it I’m delighted by how tiny it is compared to my Pro Max.

    • Solivine@sopuli.xyz
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      6 months ago

      No, being able to change size is practical and convenient, there’s a reason people buy them despite the technology being so new

        • ben@lemmy.zip
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          6 months ago

          I think the idea is that the tech will improve. The flaws aren’t features, they’re problems to work out.

          • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
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            6 months ago

            They’ve had these things for like 6-8 years or so now and it’s the same problem

            Edit: please explain to me how “it still has the same problem” conflicts with “it’s gotten a lot better”? I know it’s gotten better. That’s neat. It’s still not solved.

            My point is that I personally consider the simple existence of the issue to disqualify it as something I’d buy. I would consider it if it is no longer a problem. Not improved - eliminated. You’re not going to negotiate, debate, or downvote me into changing my mind on that. It’s a physical defect that’s an artifact of the design and the current technology used to satisfy that design.

            • priapus@sh.itjust.works
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              6 months ago

              The same problem, but is has dramatically improved. Comparing the visibility and feel of the ridge on foldable phones from even two years ago to today is night and day. My roommate has the newest Samsung Flip and even coming directly from my phone its hardly noticeable.

        • kevincox@lemmy.ml
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          6 months ago

          So then don’t buy a folding phone until they make that better.

          No one is saying that everyone should having a folding phone. But it seems obvious that the ability to have a large screen that fits in your pocket is a great feature that many people value. There are downsides, but for some people the upsides outweigh them. For other people (like you) they don’t and you can continue to get a non-folding phone.

        • Chee_Koala@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          Yeah but folding screens though. I was never that interested, but then I held one with my own eyes and I instant got the merit if it. I don’t need one, but if I had Beyonce money I would for sure want one.

          • M500@lemmy.ml
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            6 months ago

            If you had Beyonce money, you wouldn’t even have a phone. You would have a team of people who deal with phones for you.

    • jwiggler@sh.itjust.works
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      6 months ago

      I kinda like the idea of a phone that is usually small, but I can make big by unfolding it if I want to. But I do agree that the fewer moving parts, the sturdier and more BIFL. It’s just that BIFL is not really attainable anyways in the current state of the phone market due to software support obsoletion.

      I’d like to see a small eink phone or the tiny matchbook from Her.

    • sucricdrawkcab@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      After almost a year with mine I don’t think I’ll go back to a normal phone. Having a small phone that fits in the palm of my hand and I can make full size works for me personally. If I didn’t have the external screen and it was a full sized phone that opened I’d probably agree.

      • Pra@sh.itjust.works
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        6 months ago

        I’ve had the z fold 3, 4, 5 and pixel fold, right there with you. I mostly hear the complaints about people thinking folding phones are dumb from sites where people are more likely to have serious opinions on what phone you should buy, like here and reddit. To be honest everytime someone sees my phone for the first time they’re super interested in it and could see themselves buying one; the real issue is the price. As soon as I mention that it’s probably 3x the price of their current phone, that’s the end of that lol. Hopefully they can get the price down to regular slab phones. Once they do I think they’ll start to seriously compete because I think this form factor is incredible.

    • BearOfaTime@lemm.ee
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      6 months ago

      I wouldn’t mind a fold like the S4 Fold (which never made production) (or whatever it wa about 2015).

      I’d rather it be two phones joined in the middle like that with a minimal/no bezel there, rather than a folding screen.

    • Bogasse@lemmy.ml
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      6 months ago

      I think except for the camera phones have stopped being pragmatic for quite a while.

        • Bogasse@lemmy.ml
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          6 months ago

          You mean that having N+1 sensors every other year is redundant. My phone is 4 years old and had already a quite bad camera at that time so I wouldn’t know.

          Seeing photos from other people it’s obvious how good phones have become (even if there might be some overengineering), on the other hand my phone also had a bad CPU / RAM / Battery / Screen for the time and people who have phones with more computing power than my laptop do the exact same things as I do.