I love the clamshell form factor, but it should be two screens, not one delicate one stretched such that it will always show a crease and will fail after a year…
So, the first one I had (1st gen DS) fell of a table on the hinge and broke. I eventually got a new case from China and got it working. Second one, 3DS XL, I was playing around with a katana and struck my leg, but I had a 3DS in a baggy pocket so I hit that instead, right on the hinge. It survived though, just has a small battle scar now.
I took this as a sign to not use foldable electronics.
Edit: Now that I think about it… My GBA SP didn’t get any of its hinges hurt while in my possession… so 2/3 I suppose.
I’ve owned GBA, NDS, 3DS, and my brother had the DS Lite. Every Gen 1 DS I’ve seen has had its hinge break eventually. All the others on this list seem more durable. My GBA in particular went through some rough spots.
But yeah, adding moving parts is always going to add more points of failure.
Yeah, man. Look at how well-protected those screens are when you flip it closed! I don’t care what version of Gorilla Glass+++ you have, no one’s throwing a smartphone in a backpack or laptop bag without good screen protection…
Folding up like that is potentially very robust if it’s done right, keeps your screen safe. Personally I’d also go for a screen+keyboard combo (wow I just invented the laptop). A thin keyboard that doubles up as a screen protector, that should be a thing
Ridiculously cool, you basically transform into James Bond if you’re using one of those. It was actually quite practical as well. But what I think would be a good modern take on that would be essentially a phone case that’s a keyboard, so you keep the basic smartphone design intact, with the processor battery etc behind the screen. No reason for it not to be removable either. There’s some generic large versions of that but if that was part of the phone design you could do it very compact and cute.
Yeah and no one bought it because two screens is actually a terrible idea. The whole point of a foldable screen is a tablet in your pocket, would two screens you can’t do that.
The two screen folding phone is literally useless product category which is why only Microsoft made it, everyone else could see it was a stupid idea and didn’t bother.
I love the clamshell form factor, but it should be two screens, not one delicate one stretched such that it will always show a crease and will fail after a year…
So, the first one I had (1st gen DS) fell of a table on the hinge and broke. I eventually got a new case from China and got it working. Second one, 3DS XL, I was playing around with a katana and struck my leg, but I had a 3DS in a baggy pocket so I hit that instead, right on the hinge. It survived though, just has a small battle scar now.
I took this as a sign to not use foldable electronics.
Edit: Now that I think about it… My GBA SP didn’t get any of its hinges hurt while in my possession… so 2/3 I suppose.
I’ve owned GBA, NDS, 3DS, and my brother had the DS Lite. Every Gen 1 DS I’ve seen has had its hinge break eventually. All the others on this list seem more durable. My GBA in particular went through some rough spots.
But yeah, adding moving parts is always going to add more points of failure.
Laptops work pretty well in that regard. Sure, I saw a few with broken hinges over the years, but saying that hinges don’t work is overblown IMO.
(And I say this as an owner of a 1st gen DS with broken hinge. That was probably a design error.)
Yeah, man. Look at how well-protected those screens are when you flip it closed! I don’t care what version of Gorilla Glass+++ you have, no one’s throwing a smartphone in a backpack or laptop bag without good screen protection…
I mean, yes, but DS hinges are actually pretty prone to cracking.
But at least you can replace the shell if it happens.
Folding up like that is potentially very robust if it’s done right, keeps your screen safe. Personally I’d also go for a screen+keyboard combo (wow I just invented the laptop). A thin keyboard that doubles up as a screen protector, that should be a thing
We used to have a few designs like that.
The outsides were just basic phone, so they were durable
One of my favorite phones I ever owned.
I used to own one of these bad boys
Ridiculously cool, you basically transform into James Bond if you’re using one of those. It was actually quite practical as well. But what I think would be a good modern take on that would be essentially a phone case that’s a keyboard, so you keep the basic smartphone design intact, with the processor battery etc behind the screen. No reason for it not to be removable either. There’s some generic large versions of that but if that was part of the phone design you could do it very compact and cute.
Have you used a phone like this for a while or are you saying how you think you’ll feel?
Wasn’t the Surface Duo actually 2 seperate screens?
Yeah and no one bought it because two screens is actually a terrible idea. The whole point of a foldable screen is a tablet in your pocket, would two screens you can’t do that.
The two screen folding phone is literally useless product category which is why only Microsoft made it, everyone else could see it was a stupid idea and didn’t bother.
i was hoping for a vertical iphone flip phone so it would be smaller oh well