Now what is a foldable phone? The answer is pretty self-explanatory as you may think.
Foldable phones are nothing other than phones that can be folded vertically or horizontally in
half depending on the manufacturers’ model. These phones have been introduced in the market
recently and have sparked the excitement in many “tech nerds” around the world. It functions
just as a regular phone does, so you can navigate on the web, make phone calls, watch videos etc.
basically the same functionalities of a normal phone. Now one may ask how it is possible to have
a phone that folds in half. Well, engineers were able to birth this device through a hinge
mechanism that allows the phone to close up like a book or reverse the process by opening up the
device to 180 degrees or even more depending on the brand of the phone (e.g. surface duo).
Foldable phones are like iPads or tablets (fig. 1) that can fold in half but there are some
exceptions like the ones engineered by Motorola which fold vertically and almost resemble a flip
phone but with and touch screen body(fig. 2). Not only were the use of hinges necessary to build
such device but also plastic touch screens were needed in order to fold or bend the screens which
would not be possible with normal glass screens. Thanks to these two main components of the
device its folding mechanism can gracefully open and close the phone.
Foldable phones function by a flexible display technology, which is built around OLED
screens (organic light-emitting diode). Most screens use the LCD technology which are liquid
crystal displays, and the are usually built around a glass base. With OLED screens instead, the

part of the screen that emits light called pixels are built in the screen, so the LEDs are on the
screen itself rather than behind the glass like on LCD displays. With OLED screens what
happens is that the OLED screen technology is printed on a layer of plastic which will end up
being the screen for the phone. This is how the screen can bend or shape in various ways but
there is also a side effect to using plastic as screen material. As many of us know plastic is not as
durable as glass and the same principles apply to the phones. A little scratch on these folding
screens can shatter the whole screen making the device unusable. A demonstration of how easily
these special screens can be scratched can be seen by a pretty notorious YouTube content
creator, jerryrigeverything, who puts to test the durability of numerous devices by scratching
them and so forth. So yes, these phones need extra care due to how sensitive they are but that
does not take away the fact that it is still a marvel of engineering.
These phones are not cheap by any means and their prices range from $1500 up to a
staggering $2500+. They are not meant for everyone and even those that can afford this phone
would opt for regular phones because these folding phones are not mature yet and come with
compromises. Most folding screens are slightly worse than a normal phone because they come
with a crease where the phone bends (not too noticeable but enough to catch the eye) and also as
I mentioned they are not as durable as their stepbrothers. The risk of damaging your screen while
using are pretty high, even nails can scratch the phone. But the phone is still a beaty to use and
have. Although it is not in his prime, it works almost as good as any phone or tablets in some
scenarios. You can easily multitask on a phone that can open to be a tablet, you can enjoy movies
and videos much better with a bigger screen, and also have a more immersive experience while
gaming.

The question most people ask about these phones is why do we need a folding phone? A
straight answer cannot be given, and I believe this really comes down to preference. These
phones are not for everyone and as of today we do not know if these devices are going to fade or
if they are here to stay. Personally speaking I find them quite intriguing but I wouldn’t buy them
yet just because of how expensive they are which is understandable if we take a look at the work
engineers had to put on to birth a complexed device such as this. The folding mechanism and the
plastic are such incredible technologies which open up doors for a brighter future for the phone
industry. Only time will tell what is up to come.