Ask a room full of phone buyers what they want and most will describe a thinner slab with a great camera and a battery that lasts two days. Foldables ask you to imagine something different: a device that behaves like a phone and, on occasion, like a mini tablet. Engineers have answered many of the early technical questions — lighter hinges, tougher ultra-thin glass, and brighter, more efficient panels — but the market still asks a harder one: why switch?
Hardware progress and persistent compromises
Manufacturers have made meaningful strides. Display innovations such as Samsung’s Color on Encapsulation (CoE) — which reduces layers like the polarizer and lets more light through — promise thinner, brighter panels that sip less power. Reports suggest Apple is evaluating similar advances as it prepares a first foldable iPhone, hoping to avoid the bulk and dimness that dog early entrants. Those material gains matter: they shave millimeters and give engineers wiggle room to balance battery, cameras and structural reinforcement.
Yet progress hasn’t erased the trade-offs. Foldables typically carry a "specs tax": bulkier chassis, smaller batteries relative to size, and cameras that sometimes lag slab flagships. Repair costs for inner displays remain high, and the folding crease — still visible on many models — is a visible, everyday reminder of compromise. Those are the exact friction points holding mainstream buyers back.
Why price and durability keep many buyers on the sidelines
This is not merely a hardware quibble. Price and perception collide to create a real adoption barrier. Premium book-style foldables routinely sit near luxury price bands, where they compete with very capable slabs that excel at photography, battery life and resilience. Meanwhile, long-term ownership risks — hinge longevity, dust ingress near moving parts, expensive screen replacements — make many shoppers hesitate. For a mainstream buyer, a durable $1,000 slab is a safer bet than a $1,800 experiment.
Software is part of the story, too. Android’s large-screen features and split-window tools are better than before, but many apps still only scale, rather than reimagine, the extra canvas. Without clear, day-to-day software benefits — beyond novelty multitasking demos — the larger screen becomes a nice-to-have, not a must-have.
Winners, rivals and a reshuffling market
The competitive landscape is changing. In China, one firm has surged to commanding share: IDC-linked numbers point to Huawei taking a dominant slice of the domestic foldable market. Meanwhile, clamshell-style flips — the compact, pocketable folding phones — keep growing in appeal because they feel less like a behavioral leap and more like a stylish convenience.
Samsung’s hardware leadership faces pressure from nimble challengers across China and beyond. Some designers are chasing near-slab thinness, improved crease control and better outer-screen utility. At the same time, not every experimental idea will stick: the category is unlikely to be defined by exotic tri-fold designs for consumers, a direction that looked exciting in prototypes but raises practical concerns for cost, durability and software optimization; those trade-offs are why many industry watchers view tri-folds as a niche curiosity rather than the next mainstream shape. See how manufacturers have teased bold folding concepts like Samsung's tri-fold prototype.
Apple’s looming entry changes the narrative — if it happens right
Apple’s rumored iPhone Fold is more than a product: it’s a potential legitimizer. Cupertino tends to wait until a category’s engineering rough edges are sanded before it commits. If Apple ships a foldable that feels as polished as its slab phones, it could reset consumer expectations and push developers to optimize for large, flexible canvases. The company is already moving on other fronts to shore up software and AI on devices — for example, its broader work with AI models that aim to improve Siri and on-device smarts — which suggests Apple would bring more than hardware to the party if it launches a foldable. (For context on Apple’s software partnerships and AI direction, consider its recent moves on voice and assistant tech like the integration of custom models.) See related developments in Apple’s AI strategy for Siri.
What mainstream adoption might actually look like
Rather than an overnight replacement for every pocket, mainstreaming will likely be gradual and segmented. Expect clamshells to continue pulling curious buyers into the category first; they offer novelty without demanding a full behavioral shift. Book-style devices will remain premium tools for creatives and productivity-minded users until price, battery life and camera parity improve.
Two practical thresholds must be crossed for foldables to feel inevitable:- A price bracket that feels accessible without heavy compromises (many analysts point to models near the $999 mark as a sweet spot).
- Durability and repair costs that no longer give buyers pause.
On the device front, thinness is a real battleground. Manufacturers such as Motorola (which has pushed ultra-thin designs) are showing that a thinner foldable can meaningfully change perceptions of pocketability and style. See an example in the rise of ultra-thin competitors like the Motorola Edge 70.
If you’re invested in the Apple ecosystem and watching this unfold, you’ll notice the company’s other products still anchor many users’ choices — from laptops to wearables. That ecosystem inertia (Macs, watches and services) will influence how quickly iPhone users consider a foldable idea; for many, the usual pairing with a MacBook remains the comfortable center of gravity.
The foldable moment is not a single event but a slow vector: incremental hardware wins, smarter software, price pressure and a few bold launches will nudge the category from enthusiast curiosity toward everyday utility. Whether that vector becomes mainstream in 2026 or 2027 depends less on a single breakthrough and more on the steady removal of the compromises that still make many consumers shrug and walk away.