I Switched to a Foldable Phone for 6 Months...

I stood in the Verizon store holding the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 for the first time in March 2024, mesmerized by the engineering marvel of a device that transformed from a normal-sized smartphone into a mini tablet with a single motion, and the sales representative was showing me how the apps automatically adjusted to the larger screen and how I could run three applications simultaneously side-by-side, and I was thinking about all the productivity gains and the reduced need to carry both a phone and a tablet, and within twenty minutes I had traded in my iPhone 14 Pro and walked out with this $1,799 piece of folding technology that I was convinced would revolutionize how I worked and consumed media. Six months later, as I sit writing this on my laptop while my Z Fold 5 sits closed on the desk beside me, I have thoughts about foldable phones that are significantly more nuanced than my initial enthusiasm, and while I do not regret the purchase, the experience has taught me lessons about the gap between impressive technology and practical daily usefulness that anyone considering a foldable phone needs to understand before spending nearly two thousand dollars on a device that in many ways is still a first-generation product category despite being Samsung's fifth iteration.

The first revelation came within the first week when I realized that the fundamental premise of foldable phones, that they would replace both your phone and your tablet, is not quite accurate because while the unfolded screen is larger than a normal phone screen, at 7.6 inches it is still significantly smaller than even the smallest dedicated tablets like the iPad Mini, and the aspect ratio when unfolded is almost square rather than the landscape rectangle of tablets, which means watching video requires either black bars on the sides or cropping that cuts off content, and reading articles or books in the unfolded mode often feels cramped compared to actual tablets where the larger screen provides more comfortable text layout. I found myself using the unfolded mode far less than I had anticipated, maybe thirty percent of my phone usage compared to the seventy percent I spent using it folded like a normal phone, and the situations where the larger screen genuinely provided advantage were more specific than I had expected, primarily when editing documents, reviewing spreadsheets, or comparing information across multiple apps simultaneously, tasks that represented maybe ten percent of my actual phone usage with the other ninety percent being messaging, social media, email, photography, and web browsing that worked perfectly fine on the smaller cover screen.

The cover screen on the Z Fold 5 is actually excellent at 6.2 inches, essentially the same size as a standard flagship phone, and Samsung has improved the aspect ratio from previous generation Fold devices making it less narrow and awkward to type on, and I discovered that I could do almost everything I needed on the cover screen without opening the device, which raised the question of why I was carrying around all the extra weight, thickness, and fragility of the folding mechanism if I was using it as a regular phone most of the time. The typing experience on the cover screen is good though not quite as comfortable as a standard phone due to the slightly unusual proportions, and the typing on the unfolded screen is also good when holding the device like a small tablet, but the keyboard in this mode takes up a huge portion of the screen and using it one-handed is essentially impossible, so I found myself often just using the cover screen for quick messages even when the phone was already unfolded for other tasks.

THE DURABILITY REALITY CHECK

The marketing materials for foldable phones emphasize the improved durability, the strengthened hinges, the more robust screens, but the reality is that these devices are fundamentally more fragile than traditional smartphones with glass slabs, and my anxiety about damaging the Z Fold 5 has been a constant companion since purchase, affecting how I carry it, where I set it down, and how comfortable I feel letting other people handle it to look at photos or videos. The inner folding screen uses ultra-thin glass covered with a plastic protective layer, and while Samsung claims it is durable, you can feel the slight give when you press on it, a flexibility that reminds you this is not the rigid glass of conventional phones, and the plastic layer attracts fingerprints and smudges far more than glass, requiring constant wiping to maintain the visual quality that makes the large screen appealing in the first place.

I developed a permanent crease down the center of the screen where it folds, visible as a slight ridge you can see when light hits the screen at certain angles and feel when you run your finger across it, and while Samsung says this is normal and does not affect functionality, it is distracting when watching video or reading, a constant reminder that this is not a seamless display but rather two screen halves joined by complex engineering. The hinge, which is the most critical and complex component of the entire device, has remained solid and smooth through six months of opening and closing, which Samsung claims the hinge is rated for 200,000 folds representing approximately five years of opening and closing the phone 100 times per day, but the long-term reliability of these mechanisms remains unknown, and I am conscious that if the hinge fails outside of warranty I am looking at repair costs that could exceed $500 or potentially a device that becomes unusable.

The waterproofing on the Z Fold 5 is IPX8 rated meaning it can survive water submersion but is not dust resistant, a limitation resulting from the impossibility of completely sealing a device that has a hinge and moving parts, and I have been extremely careful about keeping the phone away from dusty or sandy environments after reading horror stories online about particles getting into the hinge mechanism and damaging the folding screen. I bought a case, the official Samsung slim case that adds minimal bulk while providing basic protection, but even with the case the folded phone is noticeably thicker than a standard flagship at approximately 13mm compared to 8mm for most conventional phones, and this thickness makes it less comfortable in pockets and more noticeable when sitting down with the phone in your pocket, sometimes even becoming uncomfortable enough that I remove it and set it aside.

THE PRODUCTIVITY PROMISE VS. REALITY

Samsung markets the Z Fold 5 heavily on productivity features, the ability to run multiple apps simultaneously in split-screen or pop-up windows, the integration with Samsung DeX for desktop-like computing, the S Pen support for note-taking and drawing, and these features do work and when used are genuinely useful, but the question is how often you actually use them versus how often you think you will use them when making the purchase decision. The split-screen multitasking is impressive when demonstrating to friends, showing them how I can have email open on one side while taking notes on the other, or watching a video while browsing the web, but in practical daily use I found myself using this feature maybe once or twice a week rather than constantly, because most tasks on a phone are naturally sequential rather than parallel, I check email then respond then move to the next message, I watch a video then when it ends I do something else, and the cognitive overhead of managing multiple simultaneous apps on a small screen often outweighed the efficiency gains.

The S Pen support, which requires purchasing the S Pen separately for $100 because unlike the Galaxy S Ultra series it does not come with the Fold, is excellent when used for detailed photo editing, precise drawing, or annotating documents, but the pen has nowhere to store on the device itself meaning you have to carry it separately and remember to bring it, and the friction of this separate carrying meant I rarely had the pen with me when situations arose where it would have been useful, and eventually it ended up in a drawer at home rather than being part of my everyday carry. The Samsung DeX feature that turns the phone into a desktop computer when connected to a monitor is conceptually amazing and technically impressive, but I found that when I was somewhere with access to a monitor I usually also had access to my laptop which is vastly more powerful and functional than DeX mode, and the situations where DeX would be useful, having a monitor but no computer, were rare enough that I used it maybe three times in six months.