- cross-posted to:
- hackernews@lemmy.bestiver.se
- cross-posted to:
- hackernews@lemmy.bestiver.se
The average American now holds onto their smartphone for 29 months, according to a recent survey by Reviews.org, and that cycle is getting longer. The average was around 22 months in 2016.
Well there’s no novelty in smartphone design anymore, all shaped like candy bars with multiple cameras, all the same. And the novelty that is out there (in folding screens), most consumers don’t want, and Apple isn’t doing it so it might as well not exist in the USA. Maybe once Apple makes a folding phone, people will start buying them.
They’re double the cost of regular phones, which are already too expensive.
You know if Apple makes one, it will sell like hotcakes though. iPhone Flex™, coming to an Apple store near you!
With the Samsung folding phones, the price of the Z Flip, the one with a normal sized phone screen on the inside and a mini cover screen, the price isn’t that bad by flagship smartphone standards, below 1000 USD (still extremely expensive), and you can use any app on the cover screen, which is cool for those who want a smaller phone. The Z Fold, the one that unfolds into a tablet, is ridiculous though. Price is just beyond anything remotely reasonable.
The problem with the Z Flip style is that often 2x as thick is a much bigger problem than being large. Clothes and bags are already made to accommodate full size phones. So I really don’t see the advantage of a thicker compact phone. The Z Fold seems like a great device (huge screen, fits in pocket). Maybe at half the price.
I got a OnePlus Open two years ago, my first ever flagship phone. The folding stuff is genuinely a game changer for both my job and my political organizing. And it’s now the phone I’ve owned the longest not because I loved replacing them before but because I constantly broke them. This one I’m dedicated to protecting and keeping for at least another two years because it was so fucking expensive.
The folding stuff is very cool, and I’d probably have a Samsung Z Flip/Motorola Razr if I could afford one. The cover screen on those would be a game changer for me, can use all the functions of the phone on a mini high quality screen.
Yeah, especially off-putting considering that from 2022 on the main “novelty” has been, almost exclusively, neural network hardware and software. The other big factor is that everyone’s been riding the inflation wagon, so they’re more expensive regardless of hardware. It’s just not worth it to have a new phone