• EleventhHour
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    252 months ago

    Foldable phones look and work like shit. Not a shock that Apple wants nothing to do with a silly fad— not until it’s worth it for them.

    • @PrincessKadath@ani.social
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      452 months ago

      I am on my second foldable phone, and on my fourth year using them. Not only does your statement is not true, you probably never even touched a single foldable.

      Looks? Subjective. I personally love the form factor. Works like shit? In your dreams.

      • @Elextra@literature.cafe
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        122 months ago

        I know a few people at work that have foldables. Both are not going back and the crease really isnt noticeable.

        One guy has the Google Pixel Fold. His kids share his phone to leave his wife’s phone alone when they are watching something. It makes it easier to share with his kids because its a larger screen. When it was smaller they fought more because they couldn’t all watch on a small screen. Hes reaping benefits too. Ive seen him have it open to watch NFL highlights lol.

        The other person I know is a manager and its just really nice.

        I don’t have one myself because its pretty $$$. If I valued phones I would pick one up myself. Year after year they have gotten significantly better with the crease and hardware. They’re often very beast with hardware features.

        • @legion02@lemmy.world
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          52 months ago

          Last time I looked, the aspect ratios for the unfolded screens were such that you didn’t actually get any more screen real estate than a normal smartphone so the kids analogy doesn’t make a ton of sense to me. For media it’s like you get the illusion of a bigger screen.

          • @cm0002@lemmy.world
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            22 months ago

            I’ve seen the same, but tbh in real world use on my Pixel 9 Pro Fold even with the big black bars on a full screen video it still feels like quite a large viewable area

            • @legion02@lemmy.world
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              22 months ago

              Doesn’t that “feeling” though kinda confirm that it’s an illusion of screen space when you can measure the diagonal image on a normal phone and see that it’s the same?

              • @cm0002@lemmy.world
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                12 months ago

                I just measured a couple videos with a tape measure lmao

                So the typical video Fullscreen is about 6.69 inches almost the size of the iPhone 15 Pro Max at 6.7, unfolded. I should have measured my PF1 the same way while I had it LMAO

                The irony is the old school squareish 4:3 videos are WAY bigger (just a hair over 7) so retro emulation is probably great on it LMAO

                So its not taking full advantage of the screen size, but you’re still able to enjoy media at a size that most can only enjoy on their phone if they can handle the absolute biggest phones

                That being said, that’s really one use case, for me the biggest reasons to unfold has been accessing remote desktops, reading, productivity and some gaming and “remotely remote working” lol

        • @PrincessKadath@ani.social
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          52 months ago

          Upgrading every three years is pretty normal, I’d say. I know people that change phones every new iteration of their fruity ones. Unless you were trying to be funny, for which it may have gone over my head.

            • @PrincessKadath@ani.social
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              32 months ago

              I spend extremely little on myself. I have a good salary and no vices, every bill and payment is taken care of, and my family is well taken care of between me and my partner.
              If I want to indulge myself with a new toy once every three years, I may very well do so without some guy having to complain about it. Sure, call me rich. I guess I’d live up that princess moniker I have on my nickname.

            • @cm0002@lemmy.world
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              32 months ago

              Nah, here in the US the majority of people buy through their carrier and typically put them on a 0% interest Equipment Installment Plan (EIP) that break the cost to a monthly payment typically spanning 2 years.

              The carriers also have an upgrade path, for me on T-Mobile when the phone is 50% paid (so once a year) I can turn in this phone and upgrade. The remaining balance gets wiped and replaced by the new phone. Other US carriers should be similar.

              I typically upgrade once a year

                • @cm0002@lemmy.world
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                  32 months ago

                  Depends on how you look at it, T-Mobile requires that all phones that are Jumped remain in good condition so that they can be resold at a good discount to others or shipped off to their phone insurance company to be issued out to people whose similar phone broke and they make a claim

                  So it’s not like they get shipped back and thrown away, and I do always have the option to just not return the phone and continue to make the payments on it and then I can pass it down to a family member or just keep it as a backup. Which I have done in the past.

                • @Teils13@lemmy.eco.br
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                  12 months ago

                  (Most) North Americans are the epitome of wasteful consumerism, even more than their economic kin in other global north countries (but sadly not by that much). They succumb like flies to company deals and propaganda that incentivizes throwing away functional stuff and replacing it with new shiny thing XYZ in ever decreasing intervals. Vance Packard’s 1960s book still being to the point. If environmental preservation is a concern to you or other reader, don’t incentivize an unnecessary tech and use your smartphone (that is a necessity) until it breaks beyond repair or usability (and buy an actually strong protection to increase the interval). I still use an iPhone 6S, and it works perfectly well for smartphone tasks (there is even functioning bank apps. security updates still appear once in a while, and bank apps are protected by the banks anyways. if you feel unsafe using banks in an old smartphone, create a 2nd bank as a ‘‘street bank’’ for daily tasks keeping only a low amount of money, and keep the money in a primary bank to be used via internet).

                  Imagine if we could just flash a functional android ROM on it, that hardware still is great and could last decades (replacing pieces once in a while). Anyway, the mainstream tech industry is definitely an enemy of sustainability, don’t ‘buy’ the green-washing.

            • @roscoe@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              2 months ago

              The large U.S. carriers have plans that are, I think, $20-30 a month and you get the newest phone as soon as it comes out, apple or Samsung. They also partner with manufacturers for discounts and trade-in deals, especially when a new model comes out. My last phone was 2 years old but when they offered me the newest one for something like $120 after trade-in (I think that was almost $1100 off, I don’t remember all the details) I upgraded everyone on my plan. I think they did the same thing this year but even with those discounts the pain in the ass of upgrading plus the price, even though it’s low, wasn’t worth the small year over year change. Probably next year or the year after. Assuming similar deals, that makes it $40-$60 a year to get a new phone every 2-3 years.

              Edit: You do have to stay with the carrier though. If you leave in less than 24 months you have to pay back a prorated part of the discount. Or at least the part that comes from the carrier, I think you keep the enhanced trade-in from the manufacturer.

              • @EngineerGaming@feddit.nl
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                22 months ago

                To each their own. I would prefer to stick to my $3/mo plan with no extras. And said $120 are, while a good deal for a premium phone, are still $120 I would rather spend on better things (or if they’re this throwaway - donate to a charity). A phone after 2-3 years is still very much functional, I don’t see the point to get a new shiny thing just because you can.

      • @derg@lemmy.world
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        42 months ago

        Which do you have? Genuinely curious, never used the modern ones, but assumed they’d be shit/very fragile

        • @GeekySalsa@lemmy.world
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          112 months ago

          Not op, but I have the galaxy fold 3 and it’s amazing. I’ve had it for 3 years and I can’t go back to normal phones. And I’ve heard the same from many others that got their first foldable.

        • Echo Dot
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          52 months ago

          I’ve had both the Samsung Fold 2 and now the Pixel Fold

          N cer had any issues with them

        • @bdonvr@thelemmy.club
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          32 months ago

          The screens are pretty fragile, however they’re protected when folded. Just don’t drop them onto anything while open…

          Other than that they’re surprisingly robust. I’ve had 2 Moto Razr models and a Samsung Z Fold. First Razr did break the screen by leaving it open in a stupidly precarious position and it hit a piece of metal below directly on the folding screen when it fell. But day to day use I never worried about it.

      • @pycorax@lemmy.world
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        22 months ago

        Same here. Got in with he Fold 3 and I’m now on the Fold 6. They’re fantastic and I can imagine going back. The convenience of having a mini tablet with you that you can annotate stuff on is too good to give up.

    • @rtxn@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      They’ll wait for the tech to mature other manufacturers to figure it out, starve people for a few more years, then release it with a +400% markup and act like they came up with the idea. That’s how it’s always been.

      Although I don’t see a future where bendable fucking glass screens become anything more than a gimmick.

      (edit) oh hey, the Apple zealots are awake!

    • Lucy :3
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      102 months ago

      But they’re going on the AI fad now. Not like they are geniuses after all.

      • ms.lane
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        42 months ago

        They need to.

        Siri is basically unusable compared to ChatGPT.