The foldable phone and a perfect tech combo

For years, I have been searching for the prefect technology combination and I think foldable tech is going to be the answer. Just not for a while.

The other day, I saw a Galaxy Fold and got to play with it. It was pretty cool. Essentially a slim and quite thick phone that opens into a small tablet about the size of, say, a Kindle Paperwhite. My fingers are there for scale but bare in mind, I haven’t done a hard day’s work since I was around 21 and have particularly long and graceful fingers.

Was I tempted to buy it? Fuck no. Would I be overjoyed to be given one to review or something? Fuck yes! (If anyone at Samsung reads this, feel free to get in touch, I am happy to be utterly biased and will swear less.) But I think it is the sign of some awesome things ahead. Quite a bit ahead as technology and prices stand but that is fine. My current gadgets are all a couple of years old but nothing has changed in the last few years, so I will just keep with them until they grind to a halt.

I wrote recently about how my tech expenditure was slowing down. Which is a good thing. I dream of a world where devices are modular and build to last, where you can swap out elements at will. The current need for things, especially phones, to be so light and slender is a massive waste – especially given all the crap that goes into each one. Make them bigger – I just need them to fit in my front right pocket and would be completely fine with a model that had an ok screen and was heavy and larger due to the battery.

Or even better, one single device that does all. I write a lot of articles that require research and it is easier to do that by compiling all the facts, figures and quotes on one half of the screen and then write in the other. (In a proper OS.) For that, I need a 12 inch sized screen minimum. The iPad Pro and Microsoft Surface are this kind of size. In fact, the former is exactly the size of two normal iPads. So a 12 inch screen that folds in half would be a great size for all my writing and reading needs – although reading in landscape is actually pretty good on a large tablet. If that could be folded again, that would be perfect. Obviously that would be a huge and thick monstrosity the size of War and Peace and would weigh enough to rip through your pocket lining in a matter of weeks.

Which leads me to something even better – in Stephen Baxter books, loads of the characters have screens that roll up when needed, like a scroll. I’m up for that. Not sure it would fit in my pocket but man, it would be great. I could slot it in my bag or a hip holster and when I get a phone call, answer in tube mode. I guarantee it is coming, LG has already made a rolling TV.

Ok, I am getting carried away. I guess my point is that foldable tech is on its way. It will hopefully mean fewer devices and will fit around lifestyles a bit better than the variety of varying sized rectangles we have now. Plus a scroll would be cool. I will wait a few years though and get more excited then.