Concepts And Concepts And Concepts
Years ago, screens weren’t flexible. Screens were flat and that was enough for the people. But there has always been an acknowledgment that screens that can bend or extend are futuristic — display-like newspapers from Minority Report (2002), the Global Link from Earth: Final Conflict (1997), and even more accurately: those foldable devices from Westworld (2016).
For years, flexible OLED displays graced the showrooms of the Consumer Electronics Show, with big players like Samsung, Sony, and LG showing off impressive (for the time) prototypes. Remember phones like the Samsung Galaxy Note Edge, the Galaxy Round, and the LG G Flex? Those demonstrated the flexible display tech available at the time but they were still far from being actively folded by the actual consumer.
Concepts continued to be developed, and in 2015 and 2016, whispers of foldable devices started to be heard.
The First Of Their Name: Flexible Royalty
Those whispers were loud, but the first foldable phone didn’t launch in 2015, 2016, or 2017. It almost looked like the case would be the same for 2018, until in November, the first foldable smartphone launched. So, who got to the finish line first? Was it Samsung? LG? Huawei?
None of the above. It was Royole.
Who? That was the same thing we all asked.
Even now, it’s still pretty head-scratching to hear that. But yes, the very first commercially available foldable smartphone was the Royole Flexpai. It was an Android phone running on a Snapdragon 855 with a 1440p 7.8-inch display that could be folded in two, with the screen on the outside.
Honestly, it wasn’t a very compelling device beyond being a pioneer. It wasn’t pretty either. It closed to a large wedge shape, the (double) crease in the center of the screen was massive and very noticeable, and the whole package felt far from premium. But it was “foldable” first, and it will be engraved in the sands of time thanks to that. The Royole Flexpai 2 eventually came out in late 2020, and it was much better.
Foldables With Big Names Attached
A few months after the Royole Flexpai launched, two smartphone giants unveiled their first foldables. Both Samsung and Huawei came to the Mobile World Congress in February 2019 to show off their devices — the Galaxy Fold and the Mate X. The Mate X folded to keep the screen on the outside, while the Fold tucked it inside with a second display to use when closed. I can still see the constant debates over which was the superior design.
However, both companies hit snags before their launches to market. The Fold had the more embarrassing time of the two (especially after the Note 7 debacle), as several reviewers experienced screen failures, protective layers being peeled off, and debris slipping through the hinge under the display. These failures made Huawei take its sweet time to reassess its product.
Eventually, the Galaxy Fold launched in September 2019, and the Huawei Mate X in November of the same year. November also saw Motorola enter the arena, with a familiar name coming back into the limelight…
The Flip Phone Says, “I’ll Be Back”
November 2019. The Royole Flexpai, Samsung Galaxy Fold, and Huawei Mate X established the phone-to-tablet foldable form factor and that seemed good enough. Well, at least until Motorola unveiled the rebooted Razr line, literally a day before the Mate X went to market. This foldable closed just like a flip phone of old, going from a squarish profile (with a display on the lid) to a regular-sized phone when opened.
After that came the Galaxy Z Flip, launched alongside the Galaxy S20 series in February 2020. It had the same idea, though it only had a tiny notification window in place of a larger screen. That changed drastically with subsequent models.
In 2022, Oppo released the Find N2 Flip to join the growing legion of modern flip phones. One of my favorite phones ever was the Samsung S3600, so needless to say, I was — and am — more than pleased to see the resurgence of the flip form factor, but now incredibly modern.
Refinement: Foldables Polished To A Mirror Finish
In 2018, the first foldable was clunky and unattractive but did what it said it could on the box. A year later, we already had small foldables like the Motorola Razr and multiple big foldables like the Galaxy Fold. A year after that, in 2020, the Royole Flexpai 2, Galaxy Z Fold 2, and Motorola Razr 5G launched, each better than its predecessor. If there’s one thing that’s characteristic of the smartphone market, it is refinement.
Now that we’re in 2024, the foldable segment has come a huge way, improving on the complaints that we all had with the previous generations. For example:
- Those massive creases in earlier foldables were a dealbreaker for many, including myself. They’re yet to be fully eliminated, but they are less noticeable than ever.
- Do you like foldables, but don’t want a device that’s as thick as a brick when closed? Foldables are crazy thin now: the Honor Magic V2 measures just under 10 mm when folded, making it the slimmest foldable as of now (and thinner than the Asus ROG Phone 7).
- The tech is advanced, but they cost way too much. The Galaxy Fold launched at $1,980, making it one of the most expensive (non-limited production) smartphones ever. The Z Fold 5 launched at $1,799, cutting off $200, showing that the prices are bound to get more affordable. On the lowest end of the price spectrum, the Motorola Razr 2023 costs $699, which is less than a modern flagship.
- Spec-wise, foldables used to cut corners somewhere on the spec sheet, and the cameras were usually the first victims. Now, there are several foldables available with proper flagship-grade specs. If you’re paying that much, you deserve to get the very best hardware after all.
- Water-resistant foldables were once just a dream, but the Google Pixel Fold and the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold both have IPX8 water resistance, and options like the Oppo N3 Fold and the OnePlus Open have IPX4 splash resistance.
- And now, they all fold completely flat! Say bye to wedge-shaped foldables!
The Future: A Blank Space Yet To Be Filled
You’ve seen how foldables went from a sci-fi concept to real-world prototypes to rough first production models and now to a fully fleshed-out smartphone market segment. In late 2018, I wouldn’t have imagined foldables becoming so refined. But here we are.
What are we going to see when foldables celebrate their tenth anniversary? Will they get ultra-thin? Will a new, more durable material emerge to replace those plastic screens? Or will we watch extendable screens take their place?
I don’t know the answers, but I’m excited to find out, and I hope you are too.
