Foldable phones are now a firmly entrenched pillar in Samsung's smartphone lineup. The Galaxy Z Flip 4 and Fold 4, just announced, look as amazing as their predecessors. The new phones are more powerful, of course, and represent the moderate type of upgrade we'd expect from any annual phone refresh. They're also every bit as expensive as last year’s phones, with the Flip 4 featuring a $999 price tag and the Fold 4 going for $1,799. Ouch.
Sadly, those high dollar figures are going to continue to be the norm for foldable phone pricing. This isn't necessarily an issue for Samsung’s premium brand, as the Korean giant can charge just about whatever it wants and get away with it. However, the flexible-yet-durable screen technology, which makes foldable phones possible, is still too expensive to incorporate in affordable devices. And that is, simply, a huge bummer.
I was sold on the idea of foldable phones the instant Motorola announced its 2020 Razr. At $1,500, however, and with mediocre specs and a finicky hinge, it wasn't a real contender for a daily driver. Then Samsung rolled out its finely crafted Fold and Flip phones—and improved them in stages over four generations to the point where they're actually pretty good now.
Despite these improvements, I'm still waiting. Surely we'll see a solid foldable phone for well under the $1,000 mark at some point. But don't expect it to be anytime soon.
No One Is Making Cheap Folding Phones
If you're holding out for a Google folding phone that's priced closer to Google's affordable Pixel devices than Samsung's high-end flagships, you might want to buy a regular smartphone while you wait. The rumored foldable Google Pixel phone hasn't been confirmed yet, and we’re looking at an October announcement at the earliest. According to TechRadar, leaks, rumors, and scraped code point to a Google foldable phone coming out near the end of the year—or early 2023—but even that's pretty uncertain.
Worse, this "Google Notepad" (as it might be called) will probably cost around $1,400. So, again, ouch.
Meanwhile, OnePlus, TCL, and other Android phone manufacturers appear to be sitting on their collective hands. Oppo had a foldable phone, the Find N, that wasn't released in the US, and Oppo stablemate OnePlus doesn't seem to be working on its own just yet.
TCL has showed off a number of foldable concept phones over the years, including one that both unfolds and unrolls. The word "concept" is the key here: TCL likely won't offer a foldable phone this year (and if it does, it might not come to the US).
Then there's Apple. The company might be known in part for its bold design choices, but since breaking ground with the iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch, it has become very conservative when it comes to stepping into new spaces or introducing new form factors. Rumors about Apple TVs (actual televisions, not media streamers) and Apple VR headsets circulate every year, but those products never materialize. Apple won't introduce its own foldable phone until the technological groundwork has been laid, paved, and equipped with sidewalks and streetlamps. No one should expect a folding iPhone soon. And if and when we do see one, it almost certainly won't be cheap.
This leaves us (potentially) years away from seeing folding phones slip under the $1,000 price point. The necessary folding display and hinge technology exists, but it isn't cheap and that means it will remain relegated to premium devices for some time.
What OLED Can Teach Us About the Future of Foldables
I'm reminded of organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technology in TVs. For a time, OLED was wildly more expensive than the standard LCD. Eventually, OLED became simply more expensive than LCD, rather than wildly so, which has led to OLED's growth in the TV market.
It took time for OLED TVs to come within the financial reach of regular consumers, and the same will be true for folding smartphones. It's expensive to make screens that can bend without shattering, after all. And it's going to keep being expensive until we see years of technical evolution and perhaps a breakthrough or two.
Once costs go down and yields rise, bending phones might cost less than the Galaxy Z Fold 4's painful $1,799. Until then, my phone will sadly remain flat.