Im never going back to non-foldable. The ability to have a full sized phone take up half as much space in my pocket is amazing. Consistently more comfortable moving around.

Maybe half length, not sure half space.

Phones are already thin enough, I don't mind doubling the thickness. Length is the problem.

Yea the zfold style is the way to go

That’s because most Android phones are tablet sized. We could simply have smaller phones.

Until you use one

I tested the Samsung one in the store and that groove thing in the screen would drive me crazy

I have a google fold 9 for a year and I've never noticed it unless I look at the phone from the side. It's interesting that this is the criticism that comes up the most here where it's already been a solved issue

You think it’s solved - many people disagree.

Who havent used one

They have a nightmare of a crease. Every single one. Even slight warping causes me to recoil. No, I've used one, they are absolutely unusable for me.

You can't see the crease anymore. Source: I own a pixel folding 9 pro

If you hold it up to light to get a reflection, you are telling me there's zero perceptual warping of that reflection around the crease? None? It's as flat and perfect as a single sheet of glass?

I'd agree if there were fewer compromises required to pull it off.

What’s the main use case of this?

A pocketable tablet that is also your phone.

so what do you use on yours with more dexterity than without it?

watching videos and reading PDFs (whitepapers) are the two big upgrades, being able to take selfies and see yourself is often useful also

We're already in the trifold era. Check this video to see some useful features https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vp5i0jQggK4

It's great for watching shows on a stationary bike, reading manga, and as a drawing tablet. There's a bunch of artists that only use procreate.

It's a hard sell for curmudgeons like me with a laptop that does everything you listed and more.

Maybe I'm the idiot, but you won't catch me dead paying laptop money for a neuter-computer.

I don't think this is fair. Of the uses listed:

iPads are better for watching shows on a stationary bike, since they fit on the bike

iPads are better for reading manga, since you can hold them vertically

and iPads are clearly better for drawing--you can't draw on a laptop.

There are some hybrid laptops that do these things, but they're bad at them. Especially drawing, I've used enough HP convertibles with "stylus support" over the years to know that.

Hey good for you man. It's still one of the most popular drawing tablets on the market.

The sous vide is one of the most popular ways to prepare a steak. It still doesn't replace even a 10th of what my kitchen is capable of.

But an awful lot of people have a sous vide cooker in their kitchen.

This, especially nowadays that Mac OS has an ARM target, and there’s essentially (literally?) no difference between an iPad and MacBook hardware

> there’s essentially (literally?) no difference between an iPad and MacBook hardware

Form factor. Touch screen. GPS. Cellular. Circular polarization. These are all literal hardware differences between the iPad and MacBook, and every single one of them makes the iPad suitable for my use case (ForeFlight running on an iPad mounted to the yoke) where a MacBook would not be.

You can get a laptop with all those built-in, though. The only reason the Mac lacks those things is artificial market segmentation.

Also, can you give an example of a laptop (or non-Apple tablet) with a circularly polarized LCD? I've never been able to find one, but it's not a spec that's often published…

Sure, but none of them run ForeFlight, so…

Schools--for better or for worse, schools buy gobs of ipads.

i see one at basically every store or bar as an easily configurable POS

Are you serious? For anything that needs more screen estate - reading, browsing, photo/video watching/organizing, or simply if your sight is not as good anymore, it's so much better than phone. And with the pricetag around $350 that is amazing value.