I didn't expect to want a folding iPhone
11 Sep 2026but I still won’t be buying this one
I’ve always seen Apple iPhone models as the lazy choice. I didn’t want to think too hard and I needed a phone so I got the same one as everyone on TV. I’ll deal with the excessive price, the middling specs, the frustrating UI, the lack of configurability. There are fewer decisions to make and the thinking is largely done for you.
This has been a successful approach for Apple because most people just don’t want to think about things like this. Most people aren’t interested in trying different solutions. They just want a device that gets out of the way and they can be sending pictures to friends and watching videos on the bus and thinking about other things. Or nothing! It’s okay to think about nothing sometimes.
Personally I had always used Android phones. I tried every launcher, every keyboard, all the ROMs even! I still have a lot of these devices in a box in the garage. HTC Desire, Nexus 6P, Moto G, Oneplus X.
A stack of some of my old phones.
The Nexus 6P was the conclusion of the Nexus line and in many ways the ultimate Android phone, with the metal unibody, camera visor design with various sensors and components which subsequently became the standard, the first cooperation between Google and a Chinese OEM for this sort of hardware. The Oneplus X developed the 1 and 2 models into something aimed beyond the geeks and replicating the design language of Apple and the emphasis on the physical experience of handling the phone.
Despite all this, last year I switched to Apple. It felt like the basic iPhone got it right with most of the decisions and compromises. What swung it for me was the resale value of these things. If you’re going to trade them in or sell them on then the total cost of ownership is greatly reduced.
It has been interesting! I get to use this phone like most people use their phones. Not knowing about most of the things it does, not understanding why sometimes it shows the quick toggles, sometimes it shows the notifications. Just doing the things I want to do and really not bothering to get the best out of it. I’m accepting the limitations and not being opinionated. I did turn off all the disgusting transparency effects. I am going slightly mad at the lack of a notification log. But basically it does the job, albeit in an infuriatingly basic way.
So yes I like the gadgety nature of phones. In 1999-2000 my school library had a subscription to a paper magazine called something like PDA and Smartphone Monthly and it was full of crazy futuristic things from Palm or the Nokia 9210. Imagine that! Young me was in awe.
The problem with folding phones seems pretty obvious to me. Various manufacturers were developing flexible displays but couldn’t work out what they were for. Phones were getting thinner year on year (instead of what everyone needed, sensible sized batteries and less fragile materials) but taller because a big bright display on a thin body is impressive in the store. Making phones more fragile, have less space for energy storage but more demand on batteries with bigger displays…it’s a recipe for misery. No thanks.
But I like to know what’s new, what’s going on with gadgets and tech and in particular consumer electronics so I watched the announcement. Then I sat there thinking “this looks rather nice?” There were no surprises in the looks really but it seems to be a very complete design, something I could visualise fitting in to my life. I was already daydreaming about carrying it.
It feels like it’s a well thought out device. You can see how solutions to problems become selling points. The matte coating on the interior screen makes the crease less visible, but let’s instead talk about how it’s nice for watching videos in a wide range of lighting conditions?
I like that the UI isn’t just a phone but stretched or jumping from the phone to iPad interface and back again but has had a light rethink to make good use of the form factor. The consideration for the various part folded orientations and also scenarios where you want to use both inside and outside screen show the kind of attention to detail that used to be the Apple signature, which I’m sure the new CEO wants to emphasise.
For a moment I thought “Maybe I want one of these?” I went and checked the trade-in prices for last year’s iphone. A big matte screen would be super for reading magazines or looking at the scans of my film photos, and it would be nice to put it down half folded like a tiny laptop.
In fact I could see it being a replacement for my laptop on some trips! Most of the day I am in a browser in one window and in an SSH to my testing workstation in another. I could do that on this phone easily. The battery life seems to be pretty great and even if I packed a little USB battery pack sometimes it’s still more convenient than a Macbook Pro in a bag.
I did love this Blackberry for work and play.
But there’s a reason I won’t be getting one that I didn’t spot immediately.
I always hold my phone in my left hand whenever I’m using it. I’m not left handed, though I did learn to write and to tie my shoelaces with just my left hand across the times I broke my right arm. I wasn’t sure if it would be a problem. Maybe you could have the phone upside down when closed except when taking pictures (usually a two-handed affair) and the UI could just work whichever way around? But apparently it does not. I feel like that is an obvious solution and so there must have been an active decision to reject that option.
Ultimately it’s the same reason I never bought the early Apple phones. They think they know best about how I would use the device. Sometimes there’s value in having opinionated design because it can guide a user towards good habits, good outcomes. Other times it just seems pig-headed and exclusionary. I’ll be sitting out the iPhone Duo, but perhaps eventually they will make a telephone I would spend £2000 to use.
