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# Folding Phones Are the Worst Thing to Happen to Smartphones
- URL: https://techlore.tech/folding-phones-are-the-worst-thing-to-happen-to-smartphones/
- Published: 2026-08-30T01:33:03.000Z
- Updated: 2026-08-30T02:02:18.000Z
- Description: Folding phones are the most fragile, least repairable, most expensive phones ever made.
- Author: Henry Fisher
- Tags: Blog

It wasn't that long ago that you could buy a quality, midrange smartphone below the *$400* mark. The Google Pixel 4a started at *$349*, and in just 3 years the new starting price of the Pixel 7a was *$499*. Similarly, the iPhone SE was *$399* in 2020 and Apple completely killed the line in 2025, replacing it with the iPhone 16e which started at *$599*. The days when major manufacturers competed to deliver a high-quality budget phone are gone. That attention has moved to the opposite end of the lineup—premium folding phones.

### What Are Folding Phones

![person holding black android smartphone](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1628744404730-5e143358539b?crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&fit=max&fm=jpg&ixid=M3wxMTc3M3wwfDF8c2VhcmNofDV8fGZvbGRpbmclMjBwaG9uZXxlbnwwfHx8fDE3ODgwNDY1OTl8MA&ixlib=rb-4.1.0&q=80&w=2000)

Photo by [Onur Binay](https://unsplash.com/@onurbinay) / [Unsplash](https://unsplash.com/?utm%5Fsource=ghost&utm%5Fmedium=referral&utm%5Fcampaign=api-credit)

For those unfamiliar, a folding phone looks like your typical smartphone at first glance, until it opens like a book, presenting a dual screen inside. This enables you to choose between a typical smartphone experience using only the outer screen, or opening it up for the more tablet-like experience. 

### The Drawbacks

The tech in these phones is impressive, and I'm not here to claim there are absolutely no use cases for them. But the downsides are very real:

- **Dust & Sand will destroy the hinges.** No, seriously. Take one to the beach, get sand in the hinge, and it's [permanently fucked](https://youtu.be/rHCpgtc5nzs?t=252). Even the newer Pixel's IP68 claim [is questionable.](https://youtu.be/jUT3rUZGqLA?t=378)
- **The inner screens are *extremely* fragile.** A [fingernail](https://youtu.be/jUT3rUZGqLA?t=109) will scratch them**.**
- Not only are they the most fragile smartphones on the market, but they are **about as anti-repair as phones can get.** Heavy use of adhesive and complexity of the hardware make them a largely unrepairable device for the average person.
- **The cost.** The Pixel 11 Pro Fold starts at *$1899*. The Galaxy Z Fold8 starts at *$1899*, with the Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra starting at *$2,099*. The rumored Apple folding iPhone is expected to come in between *$1,999* and *$2,400*.

Add it up: two to three times the price for a phone that breaks easier and can't be fixed. In any other product category that's an obvious downgrade and we'd charge less for it.

### So Who Are Folding Phones For?

As someone who runs, lifts, sweats on my devices, takes my phone near sand, and shoots photo and video on it—I can't comprehend what the demographic for these phones is other than entertainment junkies watching Netflix on-the-go, or the top 1% of busy executives actually using the inner screens for niche workflows to optimize their time.

And economically that's where things seem to point. Remember, people: The real cost of your hardware isn't just the sticker price. It's: `sticker price / length of time you own the hardware` 

**For example:** If you buy a Fairphone for *$600* and it lasts *5 years, t*hat's a *$10/month* smartphone. If you buy a *$1900* folding phone that only makes it *2 years* because you took it to the beach, it's about *$80/month*.

For perspective on how insane these prices are:

- **A Full Apple Ecosystem:** An **iPhone 17 Pro** ($1,099) + a **MacBook Neo** ($799) = **$1,898**
- **A Second Apple Ecosystem Option:** A **regular base-model iPhone 17** \+ **base MacBook Air** \= **$1,798**
- **The Ultimate Living Room Setup:** A **75-inch LG OLED 4K TV** ($1,200) + a **PlayStation 5 Pro** ($699) = **$1,899**
- **Three Years of Coffee:** A daily **$1.75 drip coffee** from a local cafe every single day for **3 entire years** \= **$1,916**
- **A MacBook Pro: $1,999**

So who are these devices for? I've stopped believing that's the question being asked by the phone companies. They seem built to be the new flagship, the thing every other phone in the lineup gets priced against. You don't have to buy one to pay for it. The whole lineup moves up to meet it.

### The Hidden Cost Of Folding Phones

Beyond just raw price, when I look at the folding trend, I see what's dying alongside it:

- **Budget Phones.** As I discussed earlier, much of the attention from phone manufacturers has shifted from the low-end to the ultra-premium. Apple is a perfect example of this, literally killing their SE budget lineup while preparing to introduce an ultra-premium foldable one.
- **Small Phones.** Apple gave up with the 13 Mini, Google gave up with the smaller 'a' series devices, and Asus gave up with the Zenfone. One argument I've seen for folding phones is that they're the next attempt at a "small" phone, since when it's not opened up it's a pocketable device that's easy to carry with good battery life. There's some legitimacy here, but it ultimately just proves it was *always* possible to build a small device with decent battery life. And now small phones are dead.
- **Normalizing Ultra-Premium.** Remember when Apple decided to cross the $1k mark with the iPhone X in 2017? It was a controversy! How do you think people would've reacted in 2017 if someone told them that within two years Samsung would ship a $2,000 folding phone, and that a decade later most new development in phone tech would revolve around that price? Subconsciously, these price points normalize even the starting price for the new iPhone 17 Pro ($1099).
- **Normalizing Fragility.** What happened to my friends & family complaining to me about planned obsolescence in the 2010s when their iPhone screen would break from a drop in the grass? It's like everyone's skepticism radars were fine-tuned then. Now, these phone companies are using the 'coolness' of folding to override people's expectations for a phone *built to last*. Remember: These things will *not* handle an unfortunate trip to the beach, nor a *fingernail* on the inner screen. Meanwhile Apple made the iPhone 17 Pro tougher and thicker, so they know what a phone built to last looks like, and it isn't the one that folds.

Because of these consequences, I don't see folding phones as 'just another piece of technology'. I see them as the death of budget phones, small phones, and eventually durable phones. And I fear if we keep enabling it, we may end up with the least functional smartphones we've ever had.

### Final Thoughts

I recently posted my take about this on [Mastodon](https://social.lol/@hen/117179067662304034) and I accidentally rage-baited one of my good friends who daily-drives a folding phone. So he messaged me on Signal passionately defending it. He finds it useful as a phone + iPad Mini replacement, especially since he bought his used for $400\. I really don't think that's the problem, the problem is the person handing a company $2000 for an inferior product that doesn't enable function for an active person. For a device that's fragile. For a device that isn't repairable.

At a time when people are struggling all around the world. When buying a home feels impossible for millions. When gas prices are on the mind. When grocery bills go up every week. When memory prices are high and people are struggling to afford tech. The people laughing all the way to the bank are the tech companies rolling out multi-thousand-dollar Vision Pros and multi-thousand-dollar folding phones for the few who are able to afford them. All while misdirecting attention away from the truly budget experiences that used to be valued and loved by many.

Cheap, durable, repairable phones didn't fail in the market. They were abandoned because the margins were better somewhere else. And until we vote with our wallets, I fear this ultra-premium trend will only worsen as the years go on.