Would you buy a foldable Google Pixel phone? I’m not sure I would.

Opinion post by

Eric Zeman

Foldable is in the news again this week and it made me think, would anyone buy these potential new folding phones? Which of them, other than the folding form factor, will naturally make it attractive to consumers? Is there one approach or design that is better than another? Let’s talk.

Huawei kicked things off with the Mate X2. The X2 is a major shift for Huawei. The original Huawei Mate X features a screen wrapped around the front and back of the phone. However, the X2 drops this approach for a more traditional foldable laptop style that opens up similar to Samsung’s Galaxy Fold line. Based on my experiences with the Mate X and the Galaxy Fold, Huawei has made the right move here. The Mate X2 has an 8-inch main screen and a separate exterior panel that allows the phone to be used when locked. Unfortunately, this phone will only be sold in China.

Then came a rumor that Samsung was making folding displays for a handful of phone manufacturers, including Google, Oppo and Xiaomi. Google and Xiaomi are looking at the Galaxy Fold-style screen, while Oppo is more interested in a design similar to the Galaxy Z Flip. This report corroborates a 2019 story in which it is said that Google is interested in folding phones.

‘We are definitely prototyping the technology. We’re been doing this for a long time, ”said Mario Queiroz, then Google’s chief executive. CNET. However, Queiroz added a qualifier: “I do not think there is a clear use case yet.”

The phones may not sell well, or at least not sell well.

With the rounding up of the fresh foldable feed, Samsung has launched a new offering that allows people to try a folding phone – either the Galaxy Fold 2 or the Galaxy Flip 5G – before buying it. The idea is to entice people to try a form factor that they can otherwise convey.

It is this last story that really sticks with me. Earlier in February, Samsung cut the price of the Galaxy Z Flip 5G by $ 250. Similarly, Motorola and Verizon Wireless are reducing the cost of the Razr by as much as $ 500. Now Samsung is hoping that a free trial will help users with the fold-in phone life. Why? The phones may not sell well, or at least not sell well. Heck, that Wall Street Journal declared foldable to a flop in September 2020.

Let’s address the elephant in the room first: cost. Huawei’s new Mate X2 costs nearly $ 3,000, the Galaxy Fold 2 costs nearly $ 2,000, and the Z Flip and Razr-style foldable products cost about $ 1,400, depending on promotions. These prices are not in line with current consumer spending on smartphones. Clearly, prices need to fall below the $ 1000 mark before most people weigh a fold. It is not yet clear whether new foldable items from Google, Oppo or Xiaomi would fall under the dollar amount. This is beyond doubt.

Foldable prices are not in line with current spending on consumer smartphones.

Then there is the use case of foldable. The two main camps are in a laptop style and a browser phone style, with the former having more stature and cost. A phone like the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 is for power users who want a large, tablet-like screen when the device is unlocked. Meanwhile, a phone like the Moto Razr is a more fashionable choice for those who want to reduce the phone print. Each of these is a legitimate reason why you want a fold, but it is likely that its higher cost outweighs it.

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Trust is an issue. Performance is important, and both Samsung and Motorola have weak points in the division. The original Samsung Galaxy Fold failed remarkably and the first generation Moto Razr also experienced hinge issues. These problems were largely corrected in the subsequent designs, but we wonder if the first folding manufacturers – Google, Oppo, Xiaomi – could fix it with their initial products.

Given the long list of Google Pixel series hardware peculiarities over the years, it’s hard to get faith together. For now, folding phones are too expensive and unreliable. While the idea of ​​a fold-out phone from Google is appealing at a basic level, there are serious hurdles for the Pixel maker to resolve.