Foldable phones have come a long way—from fragile prototypes to sleek, futuristic devices that promise the best of both worlds: a compact phone and a tablet-sized screen, both packed into one.
But despite the hype, they still haven’t become mainstream. But why?It’s not just the price. There’s a deeper issue that no one seems to talk about enough—the shape of the screen.In order to perform well as a standard phone, foldables are designed tall and narrow when closed. That part works. But the real draw is when you unfold it. Suddenly, you get a nearly square display. And that’s where the excitement fades a bit.
The problem lies in what most of us use our phones for—watching videos, scrolling through social media, gaming, or even browsing. All of these activities are optimised for rectangular, displays with wider screens. A square display doesn’t enhance that experience.
In fact, it often results in awkward letterboxing for videos or wasted space in apps. You expect more screen real estate, but what you actually get is an unusual shape that doesn’t feel optimised.
One of the biggest selling points of foldables is the ability to multitask like a pro: running multiple apps side by side, dragging and dropping files, or even previewing emails while editing documents.
But let’s be honest—how many of us really do that on our phones? For most users, that kind of productivity still happens on laptops and tablets.Foldables have the potential, but they’re catering to a very niche set of power users.
Until foldable phones can solve the shape problem—either by adopting more versatile aspect ratios or better app optimisations—they’ll likely be stuck in the “cool but not essential” category.
Right now, you’re paying a premium for a screen that’s underwhelming in the way most people actually use their phones.So yes, foldables are exciting. But until they make better use of that extra screen, they’re just not worth the hype—for now.
