UPDATE 4/17/19 4:00PM CST: Well that didn’t take long at all. Reviewers that got their devices before release are already running into MULTIPLE kinds of issues relating to the hinge in the center of the device. Screen flickering, hinge protruding into the display from behind, and a permanent screen protector that is not meant to be removed but is not labeled as such.
At first glance, I thought that the Galaxy Fold was going to be a FLOP. I thought that it would be plagued with people who thought that the device was impressive to see from a distance but would be disgusted and dissuaded whenever they got their hands on the device. The first batch of videos about the device dropped today (I guess that the NDA said that today was the day to upload the unboxing and first impressions videos) and I am oddly surprised. It still has a plastic screen on the inside, can’t fold flat, costs almost $2,000 dollars, and runs an operating system that acts as a data harvesting platform developed by an advertising company, but it looks better than I thought it would.
Yes, the inner screen is plastic and the phone looks ridiculous to use on a day to day basis but I don’t think this device is the one that excites me because I want one. It excites me because it marks a line in the sand for the smartphone market. I love my iPhone as much as everyone else. I love my iPad as much as most people that own them do as well. I might even love those devices more than the average user! That makes the the target audience for a device like this. A phone that can also be a(n) (almost) full tablet.
There are big hurdles that a device like this needs to cross for me to decide to jump on the hype train. The hinge creates a bump in the center of the tablet screen that makes it inferior to a normal slate-shaped tablet. The phone-mode/folded screen has GIGANTIC bezels on the top and bottom that make the device unwieldy to put in the pocket. Those bezels seriously make the iPhone 6-8+ line of phones look like they are almost without bezels. The point is that these flaws are really hard to get over and I will not be picking up this phone but in time, there will be feats of engineering that will make this device (or similar devices from competitors) respond to the feedback of this early attempt.
I see myself having a device like this in about 5 years or so. I would need it to run iOS (so Apple would have to make it) but it doesn’t need to fold. I just want a device that is my iPad and my iPhone as one product. Bonus points for making it a dockable device like in the early smartphone days and having it run full macOS.
The smartphone market and its consumers are starting to have cool ideas again, and I love it. Lets see more weird devices that the early adopters of the world can beta test! I look forward to a polished version coming down the road significantly after that. ;P
Joseph Blog 