Back before smart phones I always preferred flip phones over "candy bars", the flip phone helps to protect the delicate screen and buttons while the phone is in your pocket/purse. You don't really need a case for a flip phone.

Modern smart phones tend to be more delicate than they should be across the board, but in theory, a flip phone puts the more delicate parts in a safer place.

carrying a bulky Z fold phone in my pocket only to be able to have a tablet once in a while and watch a movie is not interesting enough.

It suits my needs perfectly though! You can take my folding phone out of my cold dead hands

My biggest concern is durability. I keep my phones for a long time (5-6 years). I have serious concerns that folding phones wont hold up. Especially considering that they oldest amongst them are only just now reaching the age of my last phone that was a champ up until I retired it.

they stopped and asked themselves if people want and need a foldable?

Who wants a thin phone with a large screen? Nobody.

Honestly a foldable smartphone should be 2 touchscreens with a hinge if there’s at all any risk of a bendy screen breaking more easily or otherwise being inferior to that.

If I were on the verge of running a monopoly, I'd be spending my money on making anything that the competition is making, along with my usual product. Because if you let them run with it and it turns out to be the next big thing, you've just shot yourself in the leg. Microsoft is no longer just an OS maker. Google is no longer just a search engine company. Amazon is no longer a bookstore.

Diversify your assets.

I want a flip design. Or women’s clothing with pockets large enough to fit my current phone. Whichever is easier. Seems to be the folding phone at this point.

I want a flip phone.

I still think the Game boy Advance SP's design was peak. Lightweight, compact, and very distinct. It looked sleek enough to not look like a toy, where I was using it in the office and nobody would bat an eye.

Give me that with a phone. Im not interested in being a first buyer or spending money for that novelty. But id happily use a foldable the moment they become as reliable as these tablet phones.

I want a foldable phone.

Phones have become larger abd flatter over the years, and they're just uncomfortable to have in my pocket. A foldable phone will solve this issue.

I didn't buy one yet due to not believing the tech is there yet. Screens are very scratchable and the battery life is poor.

Do I need a foldable phone? No. Do I like the idea of owning a phone that is actually small enough to be used with one hand and can fit anywhere? Yes. Besides, closing it to end a call is very cool.

My wife loves her flip. She just upgraded from the 4 to the 6 and the creaae is barely visible when in use

She uses it a lot for videocalls and she folds it to use it as a tripod, and also being able to use the good camera to take selfies is a great use case

She also loves that it fits on most of her pants when folded, usually women's pants have very small pockets.

That phone is not for me, but I can definitely attest to real use cases

I have a Z flip and while it's far from perfect, foldable flip phones are great and I'd choose them over a same-spec regular phone every day. Much more convenient to carry in my pocket compared to a slab and basically having an included tripod for photos is pretty nice as well.

My wife loves her flip. I personally don't like them, yes there is crease right where it folds and over time it will make your phone stop working. We just replaced hers after months of her dealing with the phone glitching. But she does enjoy it and requested getting another flip phone.

I’d take a foldable over the current slabs any day of the week

I watch movies and read on my samsung fold and I enjoy it a lot

I agree the Flip and kiln are utterly pointless, just a big ol nostalgic rip imo.

But book styles like Fold are pretty great, being able to go from phone to tablet whenever has been amazing! My Pixel 9 pro fold is my most used tablet ever, I've had a lot of tablets over the years and they all end up collecting dust in no time because they suffer from a fatal flaw. They're never near me when I need/want a tablet the most.

I kind of want a flip phone for the compact size when folded so it will fit more easily into my tiny pockets. But I don't want a phone with a screen that likely need regular (and expensive) replacements if I want to keep using it long past the 2 year contract window like I do with most phones.

Meanwhile I want a tablet with phone call support. (Samsung Tabs with LTE/5G are carrier locked)

The use case is people who want pocketable, one handed phones. It doesn’t matter to me if they make another iPhone mini or an iPhone flip. Whichever one they release will be my next phone.

The last iPhone mini release was in 2021. I don’t want a near 7” pro max phone. 6.4” is too big in my opinion as well.

Nintendo DS emulation. That's about the one novelty use case.

Do people need foldables? Absolutely not, but I love mine. I went with the OnePlus Open mainly for the cameras, and the bigger screen is great for reviewing or sharing the photos with someone. Having two apps side by side is really nice but I don't really use that feature that often.

I think the bigger thing is having a screen that faces away from the main viewing side. Showing a live camera view or translating speech into text from another language are two good, but rare, use cases. I think what it really comes down to is how much do you use your phone and for what purpose?

I know a few people with foldables. They enjoy them, but I don't really have a need.