Don’t get stuck in the fold
Hell-bent on getting your hands on a foldable phone this year? David Court talks about the three best foldable smartphones in the world, right now.
Foldable phones aren’t fit for purpose yet. So, before we go any further with this feature, I feel duty-bound to make it unmistakably clear that I’m not advocating that you go out and buy a ‘‘foldable’’, ‘‘flexible’’, ‘‘bendy’’, ‘‘flip’’, ‘‘clamshell’’, or ‘‘whatever-able’’ smartphone that isn’t totally rigid.
Why?
Because they’re a lot more expensive than regular smartphones. And, until Huawei announced the Mate Xs earlier in the week (more on this later), all your money was seemingly going on the technology inside the bend/ fold/hinge, rather than areas of smartphones that actually matter. Like the camera, battery, chipset, display and other functional bits.
However, if you’re hell-bent (excuse the pun) on getting your hands on one this year. Here are the three best foldable smartphones in the world, right now.
Huawei Mate Xs – The only actual high-end foldable smartphone (but still no Google)
Last year, Huawei used the Mobile World Congress to show the world its first foldable phone, Mate X. I got to spend some time with last year’s device (while closely supervised by roughly a dozen Huawei employees) and thought it was a bit ‘‘meh’’.
In my mind, it was an OK phone, with OK specs. And it folded. That was it. This year, Huawei looks like it may have upped its game with the Mate Xs.
Here’s a foldable phone that has genuinely top-of-the-range specs. It also has a price tag to match, €2499 (NZ$4289) for the 512 gigabyte (GB) of storage and 8GB of random access memory (RAM) model.
But I still can’t recommend you buy this smartphone – even if you desperately want a ‘‘foldable’’ – because Huawei is still on Donald Trump’s naughty list, which means you’ll be buying a device without any Google services.
And that’s a real shame, because the Mate Xs looks like it could have been the first foldable phone that made sense for consumers (maybe).
I say ‘‘looks’’ because I haven’t spent any time with the Mate Xs yet. Coronavirus and the cancelling of this year’s MWC trade show forced Huawei – and other brands such as Oppo and Sony – to alter their handset launch and demo schedules.
However, the inclusion of the
Hisilicon Kirin 990 chipset that impressed in the Huawei Mate 30 Pro, an 8-inch 2200 x 2480 resolution (414ppi pixel density) display, a quad-camera system that borrows elements from the excellent camera setups on the P30 Pro and the Mate 30 Pro, and being a 5G-ready device, mean that it has all the attributes needed to be a great smartphone (on paper).
Motorola Razr – The bestlooking foldable device, with mid-range specs
While the Razr isn’t officially on sale here in New Zealand, it will obviously still work here. Which means if you have a US$1499 (NZ$2349) budget for a foldable, and you know someone travelling to the United States or Europe soon, there’s nothing stopping you inserting a local SIM and start using the Razr as your main phone.
But you really shouldn’t. This is an average phone, that folds. The
Snapdragon 710 processor and 6GB of RAM are uninspiring specs you’d expect to find in the middest of mid-range phones. The camera, with its 16-megapixel sensor, is bang average too. As is the battery life.
This is a fashion accessory, not a serious smartphone. But, if you’re happy paying over the odds for a mid-range phone that looks cute, the Razr is in a class of its own.
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip – The only foldable you should consider buying (right now)
I really like this folding phone. The clamshell design and smooth hinge action gives off a solid feel.
It’s the first foldable from Samsung, after last year’s disastrous debut, that makes me think Samsung involved a design team from start to finish (as previous Samsung folds have looked, and behaved, like design was an afterthought.)
The specs inside this device are decent, too. There’s a Snapdragon 855 Plus processor, 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, or in other words: the building blocks of a very good smartphone.
The device’s cameras – 2x 12 megapixel (MP) on the back and a single 10MP selfie camera on the front – are very good too, although they still fall short of the standard set by Samsung’s non-bendy flagship, the Galaxy S20.
To sum up, the Galaxy Z Flip is a phone that I feel I could actually use every day without wanting to snap it in half.
My problem with it is a predictable one though: the iPhone 11 (and several others) is still a much better smartphone. And it’s cheaper.
The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip ($2499) has no official release date here in New Zealand.