Up until recently, I haven’t spent much time using foldable phones. However, after trying out Motorola’s 2024 Razr+ clamshell foldable for a couple of weeks, I’m more certain than ever that foldables are mostly a gimmick.
That’s not to say the Razr+ is a bad phone. Not by any stretch — I actually really like it. But I can’t help thinking I’d like it a little more if it didn’t fold. Increasingly, the ‘folding’ nature of the phone feels more like a hindrance than a feature and I have a hard time thinking of any meaningful improvement that comes from folding.
Before I go much further, I want to note that this isn’t a review — we already reviewed the Razr+ and don’t really need to rehash that. Instead, I’m going to focus just on the foldable experience and my thoughts after trying it out.
I’ve always had a somewhat negative view of foldables, even before I reviewed Microsoft’s Surface Duo and Duo 2 several years ago. The Duo phones are foldables in a very different way from what’s available on the market today, but they suffer from the same core issue: sacrificing the convenience of a standard smartphone form factor for the “benefits of a foldable.” But for me, the benefits don’t stack up.
The main advantages I saw with the Duo phones, and see with more modern foldables like the Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Pixel 10 Pro Fold, are that you have constant access to a larger display. At a base level, this is somewhat compelling. You have a small computer in your pocket, and as needed, you can expand the display size. I see why people are interested in foldables.
But what do you actually use the big screen for? I haven’t figured that part out yet. Could I use it to watch videos? Sure, but most videos aren’t designed for the weird aspect ratio of most foldable displays. And even though it’s bigger than a typical phone screen, it’s still not a big display. Most of the time, I’d rather just watch on my (much, much larger) TV.
I could use the foldable screen to play games. But again, few games take advantage of that screen size. And there are better options for gaming, even if you want to game on the go. What else is there? Multitasking? That’s basically just letting you use two, maybe three apps simultaneously. Scrolling TikTok and Twitter at the same time, just what I always wanted.
Seriously though, foldable makers seem to push productivity use cases in their marketing, but I’ve never found that compelling. If I actually want to get something done, I get my computer. Again, it is exceedingly rare that I need to do work and also don’t have access to my laptop to do said work.
And all of the above mostly applies to book-style foldables like the Fold 7 and Pixel Fold. Clamshell-style foldables like the Razr+ are in an even worse spot. The unfolded screen is just a taller phone screen, and it’s not enough to enable effective multitasking. Instead, the main benefit of this type of foldable is that it gets smaller, and thus takes up less space in your pocket. Sure, it’s about half the height of the average smartphone, but it’s also twice as thick, so it doesn’t feel like I’m saving all that much space. What else is there?
When it comes to using the Razr+, there isn’t really a good way to do it. The small front screen is handy for quickly checking notifications, firing off short texts, or setting timers, but that’s about it. If I’m writing more than a couple words, the keyboard on the front screen feels too cramped and I have to open the thing up to do what I want to do.
In fact, the constant need to ‘open’ the foldable to be able to do something useful is what ultimately turned me off of the Razr+. It added considerable friction to even simple phone tasks and it got to the point where if I wasn’t putting the phone in my pocket, I’d just leave it unfolded. For me, the benefits of this type of foldable couldn’t justify the friction of using it. Once the novelty wore off, it was just annoying to use.
Couple that with the downsides of foldables — the higher price, the reduced durability, the visible crease and the plasticy internal screen, to name a few things — and for me, it’s a non-starter. Obviously, not everyone will agree with me, nor do I think everyone should. If foldables — be it book-style or clamshell — work for you, that’s great! I hope you continue to enjoy using them. But this little experiment confirmed for me that foldables aren’t for me.
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