GoKawiilDhruv Bhutani / Android Authority
There’s a lot to love about the current crop of foldables. Every time I pick up the Pixel 10 Pro Fold or the razor-thin Galaxy Z Fold 7, or the absolutely gorgeous OPPO Find N6 with its impossibly flat display, I feel like I am holding a piece of the future that has finally arrived. The hardware jank that defined the early years of the foldable category is officially dead, replaced by titanium frames and hinges so smooth they feel like precision-designed machinery. In fact, it is a testament to how far Samsung, Google, and OPPO have pushed the envelope while Apple has sat quietly on the sidelines biding its time.
Android foldables solved the hardware problem. They still haven't solved the experience.
But as a long-time tech and smartphone enthusiast, I have learned that hardware brilliance only gets you so far. After the initial wow factor of unfolding the Pixel 10 Pro Fold wears off, I am always left staring at the same old software inconsistencies and stretched phone apps that have plagued Android tablets for a decade. Even with the hardware solved, the experience feels like it is stuck in a perpetual beta. That is exactly why I’m eager to see Apple’s oft-rumored foldable come to fruition sometime later this year.
I am not waiting for Apple to invent the foldable; I am waiting for it to fix the software frictions that Android foldables, over half a decade in, still cannot seem to shake.
Are you satisfied with the current state of foldables? 7 votes Yes, they do everything I need. 57 % Yes, but the software could be better. 14 % No, the app ecosystem isn't wide enough to be productive. 29 % No, I'm waiting for Apple's take on a foldable. 0 %
Android foldables have solved the engineering problem
Ryan Haines / Android Authority
If you had told me three years ago that a book-style foldable would weigh just 215 grams, I would have called you an optimist. But that is exactly where the Galaxy Z Fold 7 sits today. Samsung also finally leaned into the ultra flagship branding for its foldable, equipping it with the same 200MP main sensor found in the S26 Ultra. The hinge is now so recessed that the gap is practically gone, and the titanium frame feels like a robust piece of engineering that won’t break down on a single fall. It is a far cry from the original Fold, which felt like a prototype.
Between titanium frames, IP68 ratings and creaseless displays, the hardware is no longer a problem.
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