There Are Two Types of Folding Phones - But Only One of Them Makes Sense

The first time I saw a folding phone was back in 2019 at MWC. Samsung unveiled the original “Galaxy Fold”, and Huawei revealed the Mate X. It was a big year for weird ideas with questionable hinges. The Fold looked like someone slapped a tablet and a Game Boy together and called it a phone. The Mate X, to its credit, looked genuinely cool - but when I got to try it, the first thing the rep said was “Please don’t fold it.” Which feels like a red flag when the entire point of the device is folding.

Fast forward a few years, and we’ve now arrived at two very real, very polished options: the Galaxy Fold and the Galaxy Flip. And while other companies have tossed their hats into the ring - shoutout to Motorola’s endless quest to make the Razr relevant again - it’s Samsung who defined the categories. So let’s stick with their naming.

The Fold is a regular smartphone that unfolds into a mini tablet. The Flip is a regular smartphone that folds down into a smaller square that fits in your pocket like a 2002 compact mirror. Having lived with both for extended periods of time, I can confidently say: the Flip is brilliant, and the Fold is a flex. And not in a good way.

The Fold is for people who want you to notice they have a foldable phone. The kind of people who say, “Let me just open my device” with that smug look that dares you to ask about it. It’s not for utility. It’s for vibes. Expensive, awkward vibes.

The Flip, on the other hand, is for people who actually want their phone to be smaller. It folds in half not to turn into a tablet, but to become more pocketable. It makes sense in a way that feels almost… humble? I know. Weird word for a smartphone. But it solves an actual problem: phones got too big, and now they’re too hard to carry. So someone said, “What if we just fold it in half like we used to?” Genius.

Let me get one thing straight: there’s nothing wrong with the current form factor of the modern smartphone. It’s pretty much perfect. That’s why every phone looks the same now. It’s the right shape, the right size, the right weight. You don’t fix what isn’t broken. You just maybe make it less annoying to carry around.

The only way to improve that perfect slab isn’t by making it bigger. It’s by making it smaller when you’re not using it. That’s what the Flip does. That’s the whole idea. Shrink it when it’s idle. Unfold it when it’s time to doomscroll. Simple.

Now, I’ll admit, I never felt like my phone was taking up too much space in my pocket - but that’s because I have reasonable-sized pockets. The fashion industry has been out here actively trolling women for decades by giving them jeans with fake pockets or ones that barely fit a Tic Tac. Why does the fashion industry hate women so much?. GIVE. THEM. POCKETS.

So yeah, if you’ve got normal pockets, a Flip is just a cool upgrade. But if you’ve spent your whole life playing Tetris with your phone and keys, the Flip might actually be a revelation.

Meanwhile, the Fold just… gets bigger. Congrats? You now have a device that’s slightly heavier, slightly more awkward to hold, and still too small to replace your iPad. Why?

It’s not even that the Fold is bad - it’s just that it doesn’t fix anything. It creates new problems for the sake of novelty. It’s the Segway of phones: technically impressive, but functionally pointless unless you’re trying to impress tourists at Epcot.

So the next time someone tells you folding phones are the future, ask them: which kind? Because one of them is the future. The other one is just a really expensive way to carry around your own smugness.

Let’s not act like we’re all desperate for mini-tablets that live in our pockets. We’re not. But a phone that folds down into a neat little square and still does everything a normal phone does? That’s a future I can actually fit into my jeans.