4mo ago

All Of Apple’s Foldable iPhone Prototypes Have Visible Creases, Which May Explain The Company’s Apprehension Towards A Launch

wccftech.com All Of Apple’s Foldable iPhone Prototypes Have Visible Creases, Which May Explain The Company’s Apprehension Towards A Launch

Apple’s design philosophy is all about perfection, which may explain why there is no foldable iPhone launch is due to their visible creases

Hardware @lemmy.world

Alphane Moon @lemmy.world

4mo ago

All Of Apple’s Foldable iPhone Prototypes Have Visible Creases, Which May Explain The Company’s Apprehension Towards A Launch

wccftech.com /all-apple-foldable-iphone-prototypes-have-creases/

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200 comments

All ~~Of Apple’s~~ Foldable iPhone ~~Prototypes~~ Have Visible Creases
- German renowned institute "Stiftung Warentest" just tested two foldables (both Samsung I think) and had them 50.000 times folded and unfolded (they build machines to ~~torture~~ test stuff) and reported no creases.
  50.000 times is over four years for 32 uses every day (twice every wake hour). Would be more than sufficient for a normal user think.
  
  Crease distortion occurs immediately, day 1, first fold, and it's a substantial distortion.... but does not necessarily get exponentially worse like normal fatiguing plastic, but instead just gets worse slowly. Yeah it'll last 50k folds but the crease distortion is definitely there in person.
- All ~~Of Apple’s~~ Foldable iPhon~~e Prototyp~~es Have Visible Creases
  ftfmocd
- I don't get the obsession over the crease, things that fold generally have creases. As long as it's not distorting things (which IME it doesn't and is hardly noticeable when in use anyways) it's fine
  
  This is Apple; they value different things than most people… sometimes warranted, results in offering a much better experience, and pushes everything forward (see MagSafe -> Qi2 for recent example), other times they’re just regarded as late adopters. The detraction of visual aesthetics from folding crease is apparently one of such things that they care about.
- Except Huawei Mate XS 2, Honor Magic V2, Oppo Find N.
  Edit: search engine link unreliable.
  
  So many links about creases.

I'm shocked that Apple didn't just make the crease more obvious and consider it a design element and advertise it as something the consumer wants.
- We invented the crease.
- I mean for all the things you can meme on Apple for, releasing products for the sake of releasing something isn’t something they’re known for. See Air Power.
  
  For every AirPower there's a $999 ProStand. Apple is just a greedy company, like everyone else in tech. They are just more picky on the bullshit they sell, but they still sell bullshit.
- Only Apple has the courage to give you a crease.
- ICrease
  
  That'll come out. Good thing I bough the optional $400 i...ron.
- Yeah just like the notch and dynamic island. They even brought the notch to Macbooks since Apple thinks it makes their brand look more uniform.
  
  And I hate every second of it on my work macbook. How one could think cutting out the middle from the space that has to house your applications menu(IntelliJs is huge for example) and your tray icons, which can be quite a lot too, and then not have a function to keep either of them from just disappearing behind that cutout is asinine.
  No No, I didn't need thos menu items anyway....
- Dynamic Valley

They are trying to make foldable iPhones because everyone else is making a foldable phone, but have they stopped and asked themselves if people want and need a foldable?
I have yet to see a real use case for something like a Samsung Z flip, and carrying a bulky Z fold phone in my pocket only to be able to have a tablet once in a while and watch a movie is not interesting enough.
- Do I need a foldable phone? No. Do I like the idea of owning a phone that is actually small enough to be used with one hand and can fit anywhere? Yes. Besides, closing it to end a call is very cool.
  
  The ones I have seen in stores are still too long to be used with one hand or fit comfortably into a pocket. My Pixel 7a is about the biggest I can use one-handed, and even then there is awkwardness.
- I have a Z flip and while it's far from perfect, foldable flip phones are great and I'd choose them over a same-spec regular phone every day. Much more convenient to carry in my pocket compared to a slab and basically having an included tripod for photos is pretty nice as well.
  
  My z flip is hands down my favorite phone I've ever owned and I didn't get it expecting to like it much. I just needed a new phone and with Samsung's recycling program, my old near-tablet sized phone made the switch like barely 100 bucks.
  There are a lot of small advantages it provides that quickly add up to it being an overall superior experience. Now if only Bixby wasn't the worst fucking thing ever.
- I want a foldable phone.
  Phones have become larger abd flatter over the years, and they're just uncomfortable to have in my pocket. A foldable phone will solve this issue.
  I didn't buy one yet due to not believing the tech is there yet. Screens are very scratchable and the battery life is poor.
  
  I love my flip 6. I had a flip 5 which I abused with no case on it. Got a deal to trade it in broken as fuck for a 6 straight up. I would hate to go back to a regular phone. They are better in every way and the crease isn't even noticeable after using the phone for a couple days.
- I want a flip phone.
  I still think the Game boy Advance SP's design was peak. Lightweight, compact, and very distinct. It looked sleek enough to not look like a toy, where I was using it in the office and nobody would bat an eye.
  Give me that with a phone. Im not interested in being a first buyer or spending money for that novelty. But id happily use a foldable the moment they become as reliable as these tablet phones.
  
  The form factor is just really great for a pocketable device, and being able to close a GBA SP really feels satisfying to put away. Same with the (larger) DS.
  Personally I'd like a fingerprint reader notch on the back of a Z-fold style phone. Not a fan of the "in-screen" style. Tbh i probably should just not use biometrics unlocking to begin with.
- My wife loves her flip. I personally don't like them, yes there is crease right where it folds and over time it will make your phone stop working. We just replaced hers after months of her dealing with the phone glitching. But she does enjoy it and requested getting another flip phone.
  
  We just replaced hers after months of her dealing with the phone glitching. But she does enjoy it and requested getting another flip phone.
  Does not compute. My wife had her Flip 3 replaced two times, and now she bought a Fairphone. Unfortunately they seem to be unreliable, the phone was quite nice otherwise.
- Honestly a foldable smartphone should be 2 touchscreens with a hinge if there’s at all any risk of a bendy screen breaking more easily or otherwise being inferior to that.
  
  That's what the surface duo was. I still have my OG, and other than being fragile because its literally 2mm thicker than a USBC port on each half, its the perfect e-reader. Sadly for video consumption its not great with the boundary, but you can use it in a propped up mode which I much prefer.
  Its a great phone, but certainly not without comprises, just like any folding phone.
- carrying a bulky Z fold phone in my pocket only to be able to have a tablet once in a while and watch a movie is not interesting enough.
  It suits my needs perfectly though! You can take my folding phone out of my cold dead hands
- My wife loves her flip. She just upgraded from the 4 to the 6 and the creaae is barely visible when in use
  She uses it a lot for videocalls and she folds it to use it as a tripod, and also being able to use the good camera to take selfies is a great use case
  She also loves that it fits on most of her pants when folded, usually women's pants have very small pockets.
  That phone is not for me, but I can definitely attest to real use cases
- I want a flip design. Or women’s clothing with pockets large enough to fit my current phone. Whichever is easier. Seems to be the folding phone at this point.
- I agree the Flip and kiln are utterly pointless, just a big ol nostalgic rip imo.
  But book styles like Fold are pretty great, being able to go from phone to tablet whenever has been amazing! My Pixel 9 pro fold is my most used tablet ever, I've had a lot of tablets over the years and they all end up collecting dust in no time because they suffer from a fatal flaw. They're never near me when I need/want a tablet the most.
  
  I would have considered a folding book-style phone if I wanted a tablet. I agree that they're likely the only viable use case that isn't a complete gimmick.
  
  I just got my pro fold, I haven't used it that much as a tablet to be honest. It is nice to do when I need it.
  Did you get the Google insurance thing that's quite pricey with it? I have a few days to get it.
- Back before smart phones I always preferred flip phones over "candy bars", the flip phone helps to protect the delicate screen and buttons while the phone is in your pocket/purse. You don't really need a case for a flip phone.
  Modern smart phones tend to be more delicate than they should be across the board, but in theory, a flip phone puts the more delicate parts in a safer place.
- I’d take a foldable over the current slabs any day of the week
  
  Why? What does it bring you? I’m genuinely curious
- The use case is people who want pocketable, one handed phones. It doesn’t matter to me if they make another iPhone mini or an iPhone flip. Whichever one they release will be my next phone.
  The last iPhone mini release was in 2021. I don’t want a near 7” pro max phone. 6.4” is too big in my opinion as well.
- I kind of want a flip phone for the compact size when folded so it will fit more easily into my tiny pockets. But I don't want a phone with a screen that likely need regular (and expensive) replacements if I want to keep using it long past the 2 year contract window like I do with most phones.
- I watch movies and read on my samsung fold and I enjoy it a lot
- Note: the latest pixel fold is about the same size and weight as the pixel 9 pro.
  It's actually kinda incredible that it is that light and thin while folding.
  
  I've got one on the way Best Buy screwed up the pre-order and didn't get enough stock in so I'm left waiting. But yea seems like by all accounts it's roughly the size of a regular phone plus you get a small tablet when you want.
- Nintendo DS emulation. That's about the one novelty use case.
- If I were on the verge of running a monopoly, I'd be spending my money on making anything that the competition is making, along with my usual product. Because if you let them run with it and it turns out to be the next big thing, you've just shot yourself in the leg. Microsoft is no longer just an OS maker. Google is no longer just a search engine company. Amazon is no longer a bookstore.
  Diversify your assets.
- Do people need foldables? Absolutely not, but I love mine. I went with the OnePlus Open mainly for the cameras, and the bigger screen is great for reviewing or sharing the photos with someone. Having two apps side by side is really nice but I don't really use that feature that often.
  I think the bigger thing is having a screen that faces away from the main viewing side. Showing a live camera view or translating speech into text from another language are two good, but rare, use cases. I think what it really comes down to is how much do you use your phone and for what purpose?
  
  Thanks for the insight! That’s not something I thought about
- they stopped and asked themselves if people want and need a foldable?
  Who wants a thin phone with a large screen? Nobody.
- Meanwhile I want a tablet with phone call support. (Samsung Tabs with LTE/5G are carrier locked)
- Most folds show movies at the same size as regular, non folding phones. That's not a valid use case unless you're streaming a 4:3 ratio video from the 30s.
- I know a few people with foldables. They enjoy them, but I don't really have a need.
- My biggest concern is durability. I keep my phones for a long time (5-6 years). I have serious concerns that folding phones wont hold up. Especially considering that they oldest amongst them are only just now reaching the age of my last phone that was a champ up until I retired it.
- I could allow that some people would rather carry a thicker but shorter object in their pocket than a thinner one with larger surface area. But I can’t think of much more than that. It bugs me that all foldable now ALSO have a miniature screen on the outside. Like they immediately admit that their primary feature is a nonstarter and add bulk to the phone when bulk is a primary issue with foldables.

There have been plenty of fads over the lifespan of the smartphone market. E.g. curved edge screens. I think curved screens are another and Apple is right to ignore it. There's too many compromises required for a foldable and not much benefit to be worth it.
- My personal theory for the curved edges is, that samsung just wanted to prevent cheap off brand replacement screens.
  
  Mine is that they wanted it to stand out, compared to all the other phones with flat screens at the time, especially with all the design clones.
  You would look at it and go "oh that phone looks funny, must be a Samsung".
  
  I think part of the reason was to look good in stores. If you have a non curved and curved phone next to each other playing the demo video, the curved looks waaay more futurostic.
  
  The curved edges were the precursor tech to having a foldable screen. No matter what is said about the Apple vs. Samsung debate, Samsung is still the one responsible for the praises on Apple's screens. They have tried with other manufacturers and providers but can't escape the fact that Samsung is still the major leader on displays as they dump a shit ton of money on R&D on all LED screen technologies, specially manufacturing at scale. If you want high end screens, you just go with Samsung, period. The alternatives are constantly playing catch up with them and they are actually experimenting and trying to come up with new and original stuff. LG and Sharp are also really good, but their screens aren't as premium as Apple wants them to be, though they are more affordable.
- Foldable at least has theoretical benefit, curved screens on a phone are fucking terrible
  
  What I don’t understand is why nobody makes a foldable phone where it’s just two flat screens with an invisible bezel along one edge so they fit seamlessly together when fully opened.
  It’s not like there’s a use case where you operate the phone half unfolded and require both halves of the screen to be seamlessly connected.
  If the flexing feature wasn’t a gimmick and there was an actual use case for a foldable pocket iPad, someone would have released a phone like the Kyocera Echo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyocera_Echo to commercial success.
  
  Hey! What did you just say about the Nexus 4?
  
  I have a foldable phone that also has a very slightly curved front screen (Honor Magic V2). It's perfect. You can barely see the curve, no weird reflections, it just feels very good in the hand, there are no sharp edges at all. Feels very smooth and nice to hold and use.

I’d tolerate a crease to have an ipad on my pocket
- I have an iPad mini and enormous pockets. I'm living the dream.
  
  Skirts with pockets= world peace, prolly
- From what we know, the folding iPhone will be a flip style foldable. So, just a regular size phone, it won't be huge when unfolded.
  
  Sad. My pocket would like a flat big phone rather than a cube shaped phone
- Only Apple product I care about. God, the Android tablet market is so shit. I miss the Nexus line 😞
  
  no stock Android on Tablets is really bad.
- If you want an iPad in your pocket just buy a Pro Max.
  
  Which isn't even close to an iPad in size, not even the iPad mini in terms of actual screen real estate.
  
  iPhone Pro Max screen area: 115.6cm²
  iPad Air 11" screen area: 357.6cm²
  iPad Air 13" screen area: 519.3cm²
  An iPad has between 3 and 4.5 times the screen space than the largest iPhone.
  
  The pro max is too small.

I'm pretty perfectionist about some things, but I honestly forget all of the time about this little crease in my phone. I thought I might give a shit before I bought a Motorola Razr last year, and now I often forget that it's a foldable. Imagine if you will, a phone that actually fucking fits in your jean pockets...it's worth the little (often invisible) crease.
- Imagine if you will, a phone that actually fucking fits in your jean pockets
  Size issue. My jean pockets can fit a whole tablet.
  
  I am indeed a short shit.
  
  Had a manager that somewhat creepily checked for people's phones, the look on her face when I pulled an entire box of cereal from my pocket they couldn't see was pretty good.
- I liked my jumbo iPhone for a while but it was too long to fit comfortably in my pocket. Making it foldable wouldn’t help though, because the main reason I got rid of it was I kept dropping it. Too big to use with one hand.
- My pockets' capacity is determined by the thickness of what I'm shoving in there, not the height. A folding phone is the worst possible thing as it doubles the thickness at the expense of height.
  
  Yeah I'm not sure for everyone but it solved my problems with the phone being too big to fit in my pockets. It even works in like pajama pants for when I'm walking the dog. Before, the phone tended to be too long and flop out.

Whatever they do, when they release it the have to call it the iFold!
- iMustProtest

I want a slide out keyboard like on my G1.
- Same. I'll never forget that thing...

They're all so desperate for an excuse to increase the price further, and I don't know anybody who wants this.
We're already at over 6 inch for phones. It's plenty big enough. If I want to see something on a bigger screen, I'll use a device with a bigger screen.
- As someone who reads a lot on the go folding phones are AMAZING My eyes never felt so good and my pockets so light. That being said it broke after three months of use when I dropped it face first while closed. If they where more durable or repairable I’d definitely go back
- The recent trifold phone prototype by some Chinese company was the only version that interested me. It actually expanded to true tablet size and the proportions and thickness while folded matched the standard phone proportions. That actually felt useful and I could get rid of my tablet, so I wouldn't mind the extra cost too much. The big issue obviously would be if it could have decent battery life, which I assume will be its critical flaw.

Soon we'll have tablet sized phones that fold multiple times. lol
Edit: Friends, i have bad news...
- Huawei Mate XT Ultimate
  
  Well, shit.
  
  Tankie Phone
- I saw an ad for a phone that folds in quarters

User error - you are all looking at it wrong

Apple is leaning into the criticism that all they do is copy Samsung tech. Nobody wants a folding iPhone.
- I absolutely do. Look at the Huawei Trifold for an example. It’s overly expensive, and has issues, which is why I wouldn’t get it. But the concept is decent. A phone that unfolds into an incredibly thin tablet. What’s not to like?
  
  I'd rather a simpler phone at this point. I don't think I've ever looked at my phone and felt that it's too small. I can think of other ways that I'd want phones to be more functional, like connecting to external peripherals and a monitor.
  Lots of people are excited about folding phones too though, so more power to them if companies are willing to go that way.
  
  It’s ugly and the fold is noticeable which is distracting when watching videos. Not to mention Huawei is banned in the US
- I do want one of those new flip phones. Since normal phones aren't getting any more portable, I'd rather have that than carrying around a brick. For me, the biggest problems with these at the moment are repairability, durability and price. Once those are solved, I will probably get one.

It's the iBump, it's a haptic invention gently letting you know you have passed to the other half of the screen. They also made it visible to give you a gentle cue as to where the middle is.
- put this verbatim in the ads and the fanboys will praise it as innovation™
  
  Like that time they made a giant hole in the screen and called it 'dynamic island' 😂

Fold the foil outside the hinge?

Not completely related to the foldable iphone(tho im sure it would slap because it would be a good execution of the idea) but its such a shame that apple has to be so bitchy with their software. If theyd just open up the software(or the eu forces them to) i would instantly buy one when custom os's are available. Imagine getting a linux iphone.
- Why do you need an iPhone to get a Linux phone?
  
  Similar to how you can buy a recently used MacBook Pro and install linux on it and have a fucking phenomenal device, that other person hopes the same could be done to their phones.
  
  I dont need an iphone for that, but the(in my opinion) good hardware of the iphone with free software would be nice. Most linux phones are pretty crap but seeing what asahilinux is on arm macs i would have hope in iphone linux if the hardware was open. Of course its possible people would just port android which isnt the best result as android in my opinion is basically a worse, mostly proprietary version of linux.

Foldable phones look and work like shit. Not a shock that Apple wants nothing to do with a silly fad— not until it’s worth it for them.
- I am on my second foldable phone, and on my fourth year using them. Not only does your statement is not true, you probably never even touched a single foldable.
  Looks? Subjective. I personally love the form factor. Works like shit? In your dreams.
  
  I know a few people at work that have foldables. Both are not going back and the crease really isnt noticeable.
  One guy has the Google Pixel Fold. His kids share his phone to leave his wife's phone alone when they are watching something. It makes it easier to share with his kids because its a larger screen. When it was smaller they fought more because they couldn't all watch on a small screen. Hes reaping benefits too. Ive seen him have it open to watch NFL highlights lol.
  The other person I know is a manager and its just really nice.
  I don't have one myself because its pretty $$$. If I valued phones I would pick one up myself. Year after year they have gotten significantly better with the crease and hardware. They're often very beast with hardware features.
  
  Which do you have? Genuinely curious, never used the modern ones, but assumed they’d be shit/very fragile
  
  Same here. Got in with he Fold 3 and I'm now on the Fold 6. They're fantastic and I can imagine going back. The convenience of having a mini tablet with you that you can annotate stuff on is too good to give up.
  
  You've been through two phones in just four years? That doesn't sound that great for them...
- But they're going on the AI fad now. Not like they are geniuses after all.
  
  They need to.
  Siri is basically unusable compared to ChatGPT.
- They'll wait for ~~the tech to mature~~ other manufacturers to figure it out, starve people for a few more years, then release it with a +400% markup and act like they came up with the idea. That's how it's always been.
  Although I don't see a future where bendable fucking glass screens become anything more than a gimmick.
  (edit) oh hey, the Apple zealots are awake!
  
  My bendable glass screen is the shit. I'm never going back. It's so small in my pocket.

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