How’d you like to have a foldable iPhone or iPad? If you’re champing at the bit to bring one home, you’ll have to wait a while longer.
The first time I heard about companies developing phones and tablets you could actually fold in half, I just shook my head. Who’d want to do that? And how could the screen not be irreparably damaged? It might have seemed like a fad a couple of years ago. But now Apple is apparently developing a foldable iPhone and iPad.
A recent article from Apple Insider states rumors have it reaching the public by 2026.
I guess that means I have two years or so to get enthusiastic about a foldable iPhone. But frankly, I’m not going to hold my breath that I do so.
In fact, I doubt I’ll feel any different about foldable technology in 2026 than I do in 2024. Or, for that matter, than I did back in 2022.
Doug Aamoth wrote about his foldable phone back in December, after a year of owning it. One advantage, he says, is that his phone folds down to a square, making it “easily pocketable.” My rectangular iPhone doesn’t fold and it’s easily pocketable as it is. I can even easily retrieve it from my pocket while seated. I think it’d be less comfortable if it were smaller in length but double the thickness.
Flip or fold?
I confess that I’m not particularly familiar with Android options because I’m an Apple guy. But from what I’ve read, there are two types of foldable tech.
The first looks like two smaller screens that fold like a 1990s-style flip phone. The second is one screen that can literally be folded.
My problem with the former is that if I want to watch a video horizontally — the way videos are supposed to be watched — there’s a break between the two screens.
My problem with the latter is that the tension from folding a screen is inevitably going to wear out the screen.
Some say foldables are getting better as technology improves, and I’d like to think they’re right. For that kind of money, people ought to be able to expect them to last.
But this seems like the solution to a problem that never really existed. I think I’ll just stick with the rectangular screen I have now and just watch what I want without having to worry about any potential damage from bending the thing in half.
The choice seems pretty simple to me.
