Foldable smartphones have reached their fifth major generation, as heralded by Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip 5 and Fold 5…
For me it’s definitely the durability concerns. I’ve valued my phone’s water and dust resistance since getting an ip67 phone years and years ago. My brother had a flip and a grain of sand in his pocket got under the display; when he closed the phone the display died. And they expect me to pay more for the privilege.
I have a galaxy flip. It is a great phone. I do though, have many creases in the center fold which have developed over about a year and a half’s use. They don’t generally inhibit any aspect of its functionality, but as unsightly. When the screen is lit with bright content they are not really visible if I’m not looking for them. If it is dark content I see them and it is bothersome. I have the phone because I want the smallest form factor in my pocket. I’ll probably have to upgrade soon as the creases get worse. I will probably try to get a phone without a folding function. Possibly a dumb-phone so further scale down the size of my mobile device. Increasingly phones have become avenues for direct advertisement instead of functional use. I no longer need a device that buzzes every ten minutes with some esoteric notification. Folding was novel and useful in size, but it highlighted my motivation was to reduce use.
I have the s22 regular for the same reason of wanting a really small phone. The size of the iPad mini would be my perfect phone but I also want the option to take notes these days so I may choose a larger phone in a few years.