You might think they’re an expensive novelty, but a folding phone provides far more than mere bragging rights.
As a kid, foldable phones were a mere pipe dream, like working lightsabers, flying cars, and hoverboards (the proper kind, not the two-wheeled nonsense we have today). While you’re unlikely to be slicing things in half with a highly advanced crystal-powered laser sword any time soon, the age of folding phones is already well and truly upon us. From Motorola and Huawei, to Samsung’s third generation Galaxy Z Fold 3, the future has already arrived. Priced well outside the range of most gadget fans though, folding phones remain rare beasts in the wild. You might even be wondering what purpose they serve beyond the novelty factor, which might wear off after a week or two — which is why we’re here. Yes, you can get a tablet, but the beauty of a folding phone lies in its ability to blend the portability of a regular handset with the larger screen of a tablet. From watching movies to supercharged selfies and reliving retro Game Boy classics, we’ve rounded up some of the best things you can do with a folding phone. While some contorting handsets like the Galaxy Z Fold 2 have regular selfie cams on their inner folding screens, others take a different approach. The Huawei Mate X2, for example, makes up for its lack of a selfie cam by letting you use the full power of the main rear cameras by cleverly letting you see yourself on the front screen when it’s unfolded. It might be more impractical to hold a fully unfolded phone towards you, but that’s a small price to pay for looking your best for selfies and portrait shots. And because it works with video too, vloggers can see themselves while they’re filming, to ensure they’re in frame without blindly recording themselves. While you can run Game Boy (and other console) emulators on regular smartphones, the extra screen real estate offered by folding phones makes them an ideal choice for playing your favorite retro games, as the on-screen controls can be easily placed beneath the screen without sacrificing any visibility.
