What about book reading requires a large screen?

I find my phone much more comfortable to hold than a book. It fits my hand.

You only read one sentence at a time anyway. I rather scroll, keeping the current sentence in the middle of the screen than jump around with my eyes in an open book, and having to turn pages, or keeping them flat.

Am I missing something? (Real question. I read a lot!)

Too bad that when it comes to reading for pleasure, "all signs show a slump"...

https://www.arts.gov/stories/blog/2024/federal-data-reading-...

Though I agree with you that a larger reading screen would be very nice, I doubt such an experience on a device that offers endless digital distractions will reverse this downward trend - not that you said it would.

Kindles and their competitors have pretty much perfected the devices for this market. They are cheap, high quality, and last long. The few people who like to read do not mind carrying a dedicated reader. However a foldable eink reader would be interesting.

It could go both ways though. Phones get more heavy use, and foldables will probably always be more fragile than iPads, so they might wind up with more customers replacing a more expensive device more often. iPads last a really long time, which was talked about as a problem for Apple's revenue. Some day we might even get a foldable iPad.

Also I doubt that Apple's foldable phone will cost the same or less than Samsung's, as is suggested in the article...

> Plus, you no longer need to deal with buying and maintaining a separate device like an iPad!

I've found a much easier solution to this problem.

I actually use a single screen to read epubs using my folding phone, mostly use two screens for PDFs, mangas, and videos.

Exactly. Apple is adding so much to iPadOS 26 (e.g. new windowing features) that it resembles the Mac. The next foldable iPhone will be like the iPadOS prior to version 26, so that Apple can make sure iPadOS remains more powerful than iOS.

I agree with your first paragraph.

For your second, I think you don’t understand why people buy/use iPads. First off, I don’t really know anyone who uses an iPad mini for anything productive (other than as a test device). A 7-9” screen is just not useful compared to a 13” iPad for things like Sidecar or reading sheet music in live performances. The 7-9” screen being an unfolded phone doesn’t change this.

A folding iPhone could eat the iPad mini, but that’s never been a cash cow for Apple or something power users cared about - it’s more of an “iPod touch” for kids. (And frankly, the Switch 2 kind of obsoletes it.) The thing that would eat 13” iPads’ lunch is something more like Apple Vision.

I used to take notes on my Newton MessagePad back at a time when college professors would _not_ allow folks to use laptops for notetaking --- agree, in addition to folding, you pretty much need a stylus for note-taking (and for an Apple Pencil, I'd worry about the "tick" one gets each time it's touched to the screen).

That said, these days I use a Samsung Galaxy Note 10+, Amazon Kindle Scribe w/ Premium Pen, Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360, and when at a desk, a MacBook and Wacom One display, all with Wacom EMR --- no folding devices, since there doesn't yet seem to be one which uses the normal frequencies (most recent foldables used the same frequency for the stylus as is usually used for the eraser?!?).

I'd give a lot for a competitor to the Lenovo Yoga Book 9i which used a Wacom EMR stylus, or for a phone which used a standard Wacom EMR stylus.

I’d be tempted by a foldable iPhone if (and only if) they have a stylus, but I don’t expect them to.

The form factor doesn’t lend itself to storing a comfortably sized “pencil” along with the phone, and god forbid an Apple accessory exist that doesn’t feel perfectly integrated with the product it goes with.

Same thoughts.

I did try one, the Pixel 9 Pro Fold for 6 months before going back to iOS (I'm too deep on the ecosystem, but I like to try Android again every once in a while).

I think I only used it unfolded like three times. It was pretty much pointless for me.

Anything I need a bigger screen for, I almost always have either my laptop or iPad with me for that. I don't WANT to do things on my phone, I actually want to use it less - a foldable offers the alternative deal, where you want to and actively use your phone for more and more tasks forgoing other devices.

Not for me, probably never will be.

You probably are in the target market but it's hard to understand how life changing it is without having one for at least a day.

Imagine that you need to grab your laptop or your tablet because you need a larger screen, now you can just do that from a small movement

The Fold 7, new this year, is hardly clunky. It's less than 1mm thicker than an iPhone Pro when folded and is only 4.2mm when open where it has an 8" screen. It's surprisingly un-clunky.

I know less than ten people with foldable phones, but without fail they all claim that the screen is durable, but I have yet to see any foldable phone without a cracked screen after a few years.

I've had 2 Samsung fold phones, no dead pixels. They have been perfect, and very much not "clunky". "looks cheap"? How? It's probably the most well built phone I've ever had, and I've had all the brands, even an iPhone that didn't work well (remember "you're holding it wrong"?).

Screen is really good on the google folding 9. On the other hand my gf broke her iphone screen twice in one week (the second time a few days after getting an official repair...)

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