Shulou(Shulou.com)05/31 Report--

Large and expensive foldable phones, such as the 7.3in Galaxy Fold ($1980), can be interesting and noteworthy. But they are not what people want to buy. On the contrary, smaller and simpler collapsible designs may eventually be used by more people, at least when the category finds a foothold.

The $1500 collapsible Motorola Razr, for example, brings new energy and nostalgia to it. At the beginning of the 21st century, it attracted simple flip phones and foldable screens attracted people with more modern tastes. Then Samsung joked about flip design at the developer conference in October. There is a new rumor that the cost is only $850. What beats the two products in price is a $350 collapsible phone invented by the brother of the late King Pablo Escobar of Colombia.

Among Escobar Fold 1's affordable collapsible products, Roberto dejesssEscobar gaviria says the plastic screen is "unbreakable" and has the same specifications as expensive collapsible products, such as 7.8in AMOLED FHD Plus screens, dual 16 million-pixel and 20 million-pixel cameras and Snapdragon 8 series processors.

In the early days of the foldable phone market, cost could lead to all the differences between the foldable phones that people like to see and the ones they actually buy. While the price of all decorated high-end phones may reach $1000 or more, for many people, a $2000 folding device may just be a bridge. On that basis, coupled with expensive 5G connections, it's easy to see how the price of foldable phones will rise. With the exception of a few buyers, none of the other users can achieve a collapsible price.

For most well-known brands, cheaper foldable phones may be phones with fewer features and smaller sizes, at a price similar to that of top phones. Foldable phones like the Galaxy Fold- or Huawei Mate X, which cost half the price-or $2600-may find more loyal buyers even if their features are reduced.

Of course, this is a compromise. After launching the Motorola Razr at a price of $1500, we became interested in "cheaper" foldable phones. Razr will be launched on December 26th. Although you save $500 than Galaxy Fold, you also miss out on some high-value features, such as larger screens, more features, more camera options and storage space, which significantly increases the price. In many ways, the problems with Motorola's Raz and Galaxy folding have led to a false sense of saving. When it comes to how much people are willing to spend, these extra benefits may not matter.

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For this kind of fans, there is hope. Cheaper and simpler foldable designs can well meet people's needs for new mobile phones. Qualcomm, the world's largest mobile chipmaker, has just launched the Snapdragon 765, a new 5G chipset designed to make ultra-fast mid-range phones more affordable. But we can expect their prices to still be higher than those of today's 4G phones with the same features.

Mobile phone manufacturers such as TCL and Xiaomi are also experimenting with new foldable designs. In addition to TCL's huge 70% discount, the 8-inch tablet is a slim, flexible device that may one day wrap around your wrist. Lenovo, Motorola's parent company, put forward a similar concept a few years ago.

What makes foldable phones so exciting is not just the act of opening and closing hinges. Another fact is that at this early stage, foldable phones are as mobile and flexible as their curved screens: they can be large, small or-if they don't take root, they don't exist at all.

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