Should I buy a foldable smartphone or wait?

Bringing a new technology to market is a careful process and not always as fast as many manufacturers and even users want. One of the most recent examples is the new era of foldable smartphone which started this year with big announcements like the Samsung Galaxy Fold and Huawei Mate X.

These devices attract attention in many ways, but mainly because of their high price. And that makes many people wonder if it's worth it to be in the pioneer group and buy a foldable smartphone now or if it is better to wait until the technology is consolidated.

There are some obstacles along the way, and companies need to overcome them all so that the novelty becomes something viable for the consumer in general.

More expensive in testing phases

Every innovation in the field of screens has to go through a long manufacturing process and, above all, testing. Therefore, the path from the laboratory to becoming a product fit for consumption ends up being slow and careful.

More expensive manufacturing processes, as well as more complex hardware, require a large investment, and therefore, for these companies to make a profit, initially the price of the final product is higher to balance this balance.

Care is also important, after all a panel with a dead pixel can no longer leave the factory for sales. That's what happened to the OLED technology, for example, which underwent a long period of testing and small-scale production until it became commercially viable.

Many companies were already testing the technology and when they started selling smartphones with this type of screen, they were more expensive at first. THE Samsung, for example, took years to lower the price of their smartphones with OLED to become competitive with the LCD.

more complex process

And the manufacture of foldable smartphone is, in fact, quite complex. although panels OLED with a flexible substrate have been used for some time, they were not made to be really bent by the consumer and therefore are protected in glass, as in the family appliances Galaxy S and iPhone.

Already in one foldable smartphone, this panel needs to be durable and tough without this protection. It needs to be able to be folded several times for a long time without showing any defect, which is why they are more difficult to produce.

An example is the Nubia Alpha, the wrist smartphone with a foldable screen, which needs a protective film with 11 Layers different.

limited production

Another factor that interferes with the final price of the product today is that its production is limited. Companies can't start selling multiple units at once on such new technology, and with that each unit ends up having to cost more for the gamble to pay off.

This also makes the companies that carry out the production of screens OLED folding machines cannot produce for many manufacturers at once. As a result, the options become more limited.

Companies want to get attention

What is quite remarkable with the arrival of these new devices is that companies want to have control of them as soon as possible and for as long as possible. That's why we have devices on the market that are the best they can be today, but are still imperfect.

In the end, the dispute is not about which device is the best technically speaking, but which company will get the most attention with them first.

That is, for now the foldable smartphones released fight for who has the best concept rather than who will be more successful in the future. Obviously they will be modified and improved considerably over the next few years until they become really competitive devices on the market.

selling exclusivity

So now the appeal of foldable smartphones it is not in its advantages and in the quality itself, but in the chance of exclusivity. Anyone who can and wants to buy one of the few copies that will be sold will be at the front of the race and try out a new technology before most people. Companies aren't really looking to sell on a large scale right now, which is why prices are higher.

nor the Samsung nor the Huawei they still know the real value of their new products as they are not being mass produced. The price placed on these devices is now one of the ways to take control over them, offer exclusivity and hold on to them a little longer until they are really ready.

When should I buy a foldable smartphone?

The CEO of Huawei, Richard Yu, stated that it will take more time for the foldable smartphone can be produced and sold for less than 1.000 euros. Second Yu, they would need at least two more years for that, and from that period onwards the price would still tend to fall further.

This means that with time, the technology will also reach devices with simpler specifications and not as absurdly powerful as the Galaxy fold, for example. That's because other companies are already starting to work with this type of screen as well, which means that over time there will also be more options, obviously.

In conclusion, it is possible to see that 2019 will be the year marked by the presentation of the foldable smartphone, but not its consolidation in the market. For that, the technology will still need a few more years and maybe around 2021 it will start to have a higher production with devices that cost less than an iPhone.

Source: Android Authority