[xnyanta]

I'm posting this from my Galaxy Z Fold 3. I'm not particularly wealthy or a frequent traveler. I bought this phone used for 750 bucks in Canada and my main use case for the screen real-estate is reading manga on it, which it excels at. It also then serves as a phone and a media in bed machine. It is fragile and I take good care of it but it is absolutely the most innovative and exciting phone I've had the pleasure of using so far. I'm excited for the future of foldables and hope the next generation of the pixel fold will bring more serious competition to Samsung's lineup!

[r00fus]

I think you hit on something here - if you can get it for 750 (in any currency) it becomes interesting.

If it's nearly 2k, it's a plaything for the rich that's both fragile and may have issues that are likely to be poorly supported by the vendor.

[mlyle]

Early adopters always have this experience: expensive products, with issues preventing mass-adoption, with uncertain vendor support in the long term.

I'm not sure whether foldable phones will become what everyone uses, but this is typical for new products that have not started zipping up the S curve.

[caddemon]

Dunno if they'll become ubiquitous, but I think various foldable forms will at least stick around as a viable market segment. Most early-ish adopters I know from the zFold and zFlip 3 generation are planning to get another when it's time to upgrade. Granted that's a biased sample of like 5% of the people I know IRL, but still it's not too common to see that much agreement after a year+ of use for a product that's just a gimmick.

[User23]

Lots of great technology like indoor plumbing and electric lighting started as playthings for the rich. Early adopters serve a useful purpose for everyone.

[caddemon]

Not sure about the Fold 3, but the Flip 3 has been surprisingly durable for me. Dropped it multiple times getting out of Uber, fell off desk onto hardwood floor, etc. never with a case on and most recently without even the plastic screen protector.

I thought for sure when I first bought it I'd have to be super careful about the hinge but by now I'm constantly opening it and closing it during the day (though not quite jerked around like an old school flip phone).

I'm amazed at how perfectly it still works almost 2 years later for me, I made a point of keeping my old pixel phone instead of trading it in when I made the upgrade because I was so worried the Flip wouldn't last.

Definitely going to be getting another Flip when I do upgrade again, unless maybe Google launches its own version of that configuration.

[RajT88]

Can confirm that the screen real estate makes reading comics of all kind amazing.

I usually do so on my tablet, but before tablets were a thing, I was reading comics on my various touchscreen phones. Pinch to zoom: Mandatory.

I prefer cheaper android phones. My requirements for a general purpose computer in my pocket were long ago exceeded. Reading comics on the go is fine with a phone, better with a tablet (of which I have several, the most expensive one being still cheaper than the cost of the new Pixel Fold even when you add in the cost of my work phone and personal phones).

Computing power is so cheap these days, I am a big fan of just having one-off devices on the cheap. My new Kali Linux box? A $50 refurb Chromebook. Let's not screw with multi-boot shenanigans if we don't have to.

I really don't need a do-everything device. I think most people don't either, they just want one.

[manojlds]

So you don't want it at $1800 right.

[xnyanta]

It's absolutely overpriced considering I think Samsung has better offerings at that price point (which I think are equally ovepriced). I think fierce competition will bring the price of this emerging form factor down in the long term. That said, I am loving the device and will not hesitate to pay some more to trade it in for a next gen device when they come out. I'm not interested in returning to a slab phone at the moment after habing gotten a taste of the Fold.

[RajT88]

Fierce competition, and dropping production costs for the tech.

I am old enough to remember when your average laptop was several thousand dollars, much of the cost of which was due to the LCD display. My daily-driver laptop in college I bought used for like $900 in 2001 (a Toshiba Tecra 780-DVD), but originally all the kit I bought with it would have run close to $6,000.