With internship money coming in soon, and my devices starting to show their age, I figured that I’m due for an upgrade. And after about 5 minutes,
I decided it was time to switch to Android. I’ve always liked Android more than iOS. However, when it came time to decide on a phone, there were a
LOT of choices. A very normal thing with Android. But something was different this time. Instead of the typical Samsung slab vs Google slab, now
you have foldable phones. Ok cool. I guess it’s for people who want to combine a tablet and a phone. What a multitasking powerhouse! I’m sure there
are no serious durability issues that are unavoidable due to the phone’s nature!
So I decided to “settle” on the Pixel 10 Pro. I figured that it’d be the natural choice from a 13 Pro. It’d still be a slab phone, but I have no need for a tablet.
I lowkey have to stretch for use cases. And the problem is that I haven’t mentioned a single thing that’s pissed me off yet. Everything seems pretty good.
What could POSSIBLY be the issue?
When the Light Phone first released in 2017, the butterfly effect resulted in people wanting phones that are different from regular phones. So then
foldable phones were invented. Now your phone is a tablet. And a phone. But not everyone wants a phone that does more phone things. So then we got
dumb phones. Pay more for the novelty of saying your phone does less! Would you rather buy a $700 iPhone that not only has the social status of being
an iPhone, but also the functionality of, oh I don’t know, a modern phone, or a glorified 2008 SMS communicator with 5G?
Then people realized that was...well dumb, and somehow we got regular phones that fold in half into a tiny pocket. Because the first thing I thought
of when I saw a book-style foldable was a regular phone with a fragile screen that costs more and has worse cameras and battery life because it looks
awesome. Now you too can fold your phone into a square! Let's hope that the main screen that you’ll always be using doesn’t break!
And then we got to 2026. The age where Blackberry was right: physical keyboards are awesome. Don’t get me wrong, I love Mr. Mobile, but who are these
people who will care so much about having a keyboard communicator phone that they will shell out $500 for it AS A SECONDARY COMMUNICATOR?? Maybe as a
primary, but even that seems inconvenient at some point! WHY. CAN’T. YOU. JUST. USE. THE DAMN. PHONE?
On a serious note, I do actually love these innovations in mobile hardware, but I get so angry about the purpose because every company is acting like
they’re giving consumers the be-all-end-all solution to their problems. The book style foldables give you improved productivity! The keyboard phones
limit your phone’s functionality to only what you need! I’ve seen more people use the Unihertz Titan 2 Elite to…code on their phone? Ok I guess.
Because I wanted to get a phone that does less…to do something that 90% of users don’t do. I’ve seen many people say that the inner-screen of a
book-style foldable becomes useless after a point. But it was worth $2000?
To put it bluntly, I love how these phones encourage users to think about how they go about getting a device that meets their needs, but these
companies need to stop acting like they’re making the final solution to the pesky problem that comes with a definitive form of a phone. People use
these devices in many different ways, and giving them news ways to use them is good! But this pursuit for innovation should not be at the detriment
of walking backwards with the technological progress we've made in the field.