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Flexible displays are more popular than ever – but which ones are worth bending over backwards for?
Once the stuff of science-fiction, the best foldable phones give you all the useful features of a giant screen, in a device that folds down into a handy and more pocket-friendly size.
Because they’re more complex than regular phones, and because you’re essentially getting two devices in one, foldables tend to cost considerably more. Samsung’s best folding phone, the Galaxy Z Fold 5, starts at £1,749. But as the tech becomes cheaper to manufacture, we’re beginning to see some excellent foldable phones for less than £1,000, such as the new clamshell-style Motorola Razr 40 Ultra.
Clamshell-style foldable phones are closer to the size of regular phones when fully unfolded, but fold down to half the size, so they can be slipped easily into a bag or pocket. Book-style folding phones are bigger, with an outer display that works like a normal phone until you want to use the big screen, at which point you can unfold it to the size of a small tablet.
All share some drawbacks, however. Because the screen physically bends around a hinge, there’s an unavoidable crease – which can be seen under bright lights, and felt beneath your fingertip when scrolling – across the display. Plus, as flexible displays use a combination of ultra-thin glass and plastic coating, they’re a lot more prone to being scratched.
Whichever style of foldable phone draws your attention, you’ve more choice than ever in 2024. Samsung’s series of Fold and Flip phones still lead the way, but the new Google Pixel Fold is an enticing proposition for fans of the search giant’s ecosystem of apps.
If you’re looking for a phone that stands out from the crowd of boring black rectangles, check out the best folding phones of 2024.
We tested each foldable phone for a number of weeks. Swapping them out for our regular devices, we used them for activities such as everyday web browsing and social media as well as more productivity-focused tasks.
We paid particular attention to each phone’s moving parts, to gauge how likely they were to collect dirt and dust around the hinge and under the folding screen, but as these phones are still so new, determining the longevity of these devices will take more long-term testing.
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The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 is a pocket-friendly flip phone that folds down to about the size of a Post-it note. Upgraded for 2023 with a new gapless design and a larger outer screen, it’s the best folding phone you can buy right now.
The clamshell design opens vertically at any angle, which allows for some fun camera tricks. When shooting a picture or video with the phone unfolded, your subject can see themselves on the cover screen’s viewfinder. Prop the phone open on a table for a group selfie and you can use the cover screen to more easily get everyone into frame. Software tricks such as raising your hand to trigger the shot round off a very polished camera experience.
The enlarged outer display makes the Galaxy Z Flip 5 a whole lot more useful when closed, with more information available at a glance, and the redesigned hinge gives the phone a neater, more finished appearance for 2023.
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 dealsGoogle’s first ever foldable exceeded all expectations, delivering an intuitive, wider-format design that gives the Galaxy Z Fold some serious competition. The Pixel Fold is a well-constructed piece of tech: a miniature tablet that folds down into a traditionally sized phone that’s just as useable when folded as it is unfolded.
As with all folding phones, there are the usual caveats. Google’s own apps are designed to work well with the larger screen, letting you drag and drop documents and pictures between multitasked windows, for example, but most third-party apps designed for regular phone screens don’t make use of the extra screen real-estate.
But if you’re willing to pay a premium for a luxury smartphone, the Pixel Fold is the best book-style foldable you’ll find, featuring great cameras, bright screens, Google Assistant smarts and an unbeatable software experience.
Google Pixel Fold dealsSamsung pioneered the first mainstream folding phone, with the original Samsung Galaxy Z Fold, in 2019. The first-generation iteration was predictably flawed, prone to damage and notorious for collecting debris between the flexible glass and the phone’s display. Four years and four phones later, Samsung has hit a comfortable stride with a foldable we can recommend to anyone interested in the form factor.
The 2023 model is the slimmest, lightest, brightest and fastest in the series, naturally enough. The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 is a powerful smartphone with a giant, impressive, unfolding screen. The opening and closing action feels sturdy, the camera is decent, the display looks amazing and is well-protected against dirt and damage.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 dealsWhen Motorola resurrected the Razr brand back in 2019, the all-screen flip phone was considered something of a kitsch retro novelty. Since then, the Razr phone has evolved and improved to become the main competitor to the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip series of clamshell-style folding phones.
The Razr 40 Ultra boasts a much bigger cover display than Samsung’s latest offering, with holepunch cutouts for the camera array allowing for an outer case that’s almost all screen. The processor is last-gen technology, but still fast enough that most users won’t spot the difference in speed. Battery life is excellent, build quality is sturdy, and the cameras perform well in a range of lighting conditions.
Unlike the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5, the Motorola Razr 40 Ultra isn’t rated as being able to survive a drop into water, but it is rated as dust-resistant – a more serious concern for folding phones, with all of their delicate moving parts.
Motorola Razr 40 Ultra dealsFoldable phones fall into two very different categories, the classic flip phone and the bigger, book-style foldables. If you’re after a compact foldable phone that slips neatly into your pocket, we recommend the Samsung Galazy Z Flip 5. A fashion-first Android phone, it doesn’t compromise on performance or functionality and is one of the best designed pieces of technology we’ve ever tested.
For power users who want a phone that expands out into a small tablet, we recommend the Pixel Fold. Google’s first ever foldable brings the Pixel series’ excellent camera features and software to bear on a smart-looking device that’s just as easy to use when folded as it is unfolded.
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