(upbeat music)
- So the phones, they fold now,
they fold like this and
they fold like this,
and they fold like this.
And they also fold like this.
So lots of different ways to fold,
but here's the question.
Why would you want that?
What I want to do in this video
is talk about all the different
kinds of folding phones
that are coming out right now,
and what their benefits really are.
Because look, folding
phones are super expensive.
You are not getting one of
these for less than 1300 bucks.
Unless we talk about this weird LG
with its extra screen case thing.
In general, folding
phones are more expensive.
They're usually more fragile,
and they're also usually
thicker than a regular phone
when they're folded up.
Plus on top of all that, every
single one of these phones
has its own particular software quirks.
That is all a lot of reasons
not to buy a folding phone.
And honestly, I don't think
you should buy a folding phone.
Not yet anyway.
But assume the price could come down
and the durability hit some
bar where it's good enough.
And that might take a while,
but assume all that happens,
then the question really is
why would you want one of
these folded the phones?
And the answer turns out to be different
for every single one of these phones.
Well, maybe some of them are
actually kind of like tablets.
They're computers?
No, we are not going into the
what's a computer question.
We're just gonna call
these Android devices.
Okay? (laughs) Done.
I put these Android devices
into four basic categories.
There are flip phones,
like the Galaxy Z Flip.
There are single screen folding phones,
like the Galaxy Fold.
There are dual screen folding phones,
like the Microsoft Duo.
And there's other, like this LG here.
You know what?
Let's just get other out of the way,
because other is where LG lives.
This is the LG velvet,
with a second screen
accessory case for it.
And it basically lets
you run two apps at once.
And I mean, it works sorta,
but the thing is just big
and thick, kind of fussy.
Other is also where LG
does other weird things
like the LG wing concept,
which rotates and shows a
second screen behind it.
I love you LG,
and you deserve to have one
of these ideas become a hit.
Just not there yet.
I just hope you keep
swinging for the fences.
So really all of the momentum right now
is behind these three ideas.
The flip phone, the
single fold folding phone
and the dual screen folding phone.
And each has its benefits and drawbacks.
And you know, just saying,
"Benefits and drawbacks,"
Is really cliche and it's easy to ignore.
So I'm gonna try and hit
this a little bit harder
because this is really important.
They are good at different things.
And what that really means is
they have different purposes.
And you should know what the purpose
of each device is going in
because that purpose is the answer
to the reason why you might wanna buy
one of these folding phones.
Now, there is one purpose
that all three of these phones share.
They're just cool.
They're cool, and they're
different, all right?
I mean, this is rad.
This is literal glass that folds in half.
I mean, come on, you can't
be cynical about this.
And the Duo is just beautiful.
Look how thin it is.
Just look at it. It's amazing.
Luxury tiers exist in pretty much
every major consumer product category.
And these are luxury products.
Phones aren't just about functionality,
they're also cultural artifacts,
just like any other thing.
There's luxury handbags, and
now you've got luxury phones.
There's this other benefit to these phones
that they all share that's a
little bit hard to quantify.
You close it, and your
phone stuff is shut,
it's done inside the phone.
You don't just set the phone down,
you physically change it's state.
It becomes an entity attentional act.
It says, "I am done with this."
And maybe that also is going to mean
that you need to make an
equally intentional act
to open it up and look at your phone.
And maybe that makes you
just a little bit less likely
to have all of your attention
dominated by your phone,
Android device, whatever.
So let's talk about
each of these categories
of folding Android devices
and what they're good at.
Theoretically anyway,
sometimes the execution
falls a little bit short.
The first and the simplest
category is the flip phone style.
This takes the phone shape
that you already know,
and maybe love, and then
you get to fold it in half
and get something smaller.
It is a little bit of a thicker package,
but it's a smaller one.
So it sits in your pocket
or your bag differently,
and I think better.
You get the physical benefit
of a more compact device,
like literally it's like a compact,
like here's my compact that
I use for makeup for video.
And it's like kind of similar in size.
Anyway, that's it.
It's a very cool luxury phone
that you can close and be done with,
that also maybe fits in your pocket
or your bag more easily.
Really that's enough.
The end on flip phones.
Okay, then there are the big boys,
the Galaxy Fold and this thing right here,
the Galaxy's Z Fold 2 5G.
Now I literally un-boxed
the Galaxy's Z fold 2 5G
just a couple of hours ago.
So I'm nowhere near
ready to review it yet.
But I could tell you that
I'm already impressed.
The build quality on this thing
is so much better than the first Fold.
This outer screen is actually usable,
and the inner screen is made out of glass
and it's way nicer 'cause it just has
a little hole punch camera
instead of a giant notch.
But this category
overall is really simple.
It gives you a phone that
turns into a small tablet.
So you get a bigger
screen when you want it,
and a smaller screen when you don't.
Overall though, it's pretty thick.
And it's also not very
easy to carry around.
But maybe it's easier to carry around
than say like an iPad mini.
And actually the screen on the inside
is virtually the same
size as an iPad mini.
You know what?
I've reviewed the original
galaxy Fold last year, twice.
Once on the broken first design,
and then once again on the redesign.
And in those two reviews,
I really did figure out why
I think this form factor
is so interesting.
So I'm just gonna quote myself.
Think about this thing
that happens all the time
with your phone.
You pull it out to check something quick,
but then all of a sudden,
a half hour has gone by
while you were scrolling
Instagram or whatever.
It's a real problem.
But it's a problem I didn't really have
with the galaxy Fold,
because when I was just
using the tiny screen,
I wanted to get something done
and put it away really fast.
'Cause the tiny is not that good.
But then when I unfolded it and used it,
I was really using it. I
had to hold it in two hands,
it became an active thing
that I chose to be doing.
It required some intentionality.
So I ended up feeling better
about how I was using this phone
than I usually do when
I use a regular phone.
That is the reason to get a folding phone
that turns into a little tablet.
You have a big immersive
screen for phone apps
when you're using it intentionally,
and you keep everything
else short and quick
and to be done with it,
and you put it away.
Now, maybe this year, Samsung
and Google are going to wow
me with big improvements for
how Android works on tablets.
And we'll be talking about
using Android to to do tablety things
instead of just big
immersive phones things.
But that's gonna have to
wait for the full review.
My hunch right now though, is
mostly what we talking about
very big phone apps that feel immersive,
and then a lot of split-screen stuff.
Which leads me to the dual
screen idea of the Surface Duo.
Instead of folding glass,
you have two separate screens
and a big gap in the middle.
And by the way, you're probably wondering
why I don't show you the device
with the screen on
and the bezels and how big they are
and just show you how everything works.
Well, I can't.
Microsoft has set the
terms of this embargo
that lets me tell you everything I want
about the hardware itself,
but I can't give you
anything that I've learned
from turning the screen on
until the full review.
Which is a choice, I guess,
but wait for the full
review on this thing.
Besides we've already got
hands on with the Microsoft Duo
showing the screen and how
some of the software works.
Tom Warren got to look at
this almost a year ago.
Okay.
So why would you want a device
with two separate screens
in a three 60 hinge?
Well, a few reasons.
One, it has even more of that,
"I am done if I'm having to fold."
Because there's no screen
on the outside at all.
More importantly though,
is it can be really thin.
When it's opened up, it's less
than five millimeters thick.
It's actually like directly comparable
to my very super thin
Kindle Oasis e-reader.
Plus the screen flips
all the way around 360.
So then you can use it
one handed like a phone.
Well maybe not quite one handed,
look how wide this thing is.
You'll need your second hand.
Anyway, the screen in
phone mode is quite big.
You can also get a bunch of other modes,
like sort of a tablet with
a gap, and like 10th mode,
and a book mode.
And Microsoft calls these postures.
Postures?
Is hinge the posture?
'Cause that's my default posture,
is that hinge straight there?
Anyway.
The gap between the
screens actually tells you
everything you need to know
about what the Duo is about.
You're really not gonna
want to stretch stuff
across these two screens all that often,
except for maybe like Kindle books.
No.
What this thing is for is
running two apps side by side
and sometimes running one app
and then getting a big old
thumb keyboard at the bottom.
Mostly though it's about multitasking.
How often do you wish
that you had two windows
open on your phone?
Maybe you've never even thought of that,
but if you could,
maybe you would use your phone
a little bit differently.
And that is Microsoft's bet.
That you really do want to
have two apps open at once
more often than you realize.
Having it be two apps side-by-side
also gets around that whole Android apps
aren't great on tablets thing too,
since it's just two
phone apps side by side.
If you use the Duo like Microsoft intends,
I guess it really isn't
a tablet or a phone.
It's more like two
phones. Like dual phones.
Like a duo.
Got me.
So there you have it,
there are three main
categories of folding phone,
all of which are very cool.
All of which might help you
be just a little bit less
obsessed with your phone.
And all which honestly have
really different visions
for how to evolve Android
into our folding phone future.
And I don't know which
one is gonna win out.
Maybe all of them will stick around,
that's kind of what I'm hoping for,
but despite all these big ideas
and how fun these phones are to play with,
I do have a bet
for which one I think is
most likely to win out
over the long term.
And it's the one that ends up
costing less than 1000 bucks,
because while all these ideas are great,
they're all just still too damn expensive.
Hey, thanks for watching.
You probably wanna know
more about the Duo,
or maybe you wanna know
more about the Z Fold 2.
Well, I'm reviewing both of these phones,
so let me know what you want
to know down in the comments.
