Another year, another foldable phone that costs more than a used Honda Civic, and another round of tech reviewers pretending a crease is a personality trait.
Samsung's latest book-style foldable just dropped, and if you've been waiting for a reason to set nearly two grand on fire, boy, do I have news for you.
It folds open into a tablet, it folds shut into a phone, and somewhere in between it folds into a very expensive sandwich.
The screen crease is still there, still visible if you tilt it toward a light source, and still something Samsung's marketing team wants you to describe as "barely noticeable" while you're actively noticing it.
The hinge is genuinely improved, I'll give them that.
It snaps shut with a satisfying little thunk that you'll play with roughly four hundred times in the first week before the novelty wears off and you realize you've been fidgeting with a device that costs more than most people's rent.
Everything is fine, which is a weird thing to say about a flagship that costs as much as a decent laptop plus a decent phone combined.
Multitasking is where it's supposed to shine, and sure, splitting apps across that big inner screen is cool for about three days.
Then you remember that you mostly scroll Reddit and answer texts, and you could do both of those on a $400 phone that doesn't require a case the size of a paperback to survive a pocket.
The durability question hangs over all of this like a bad smell.
Foldables have gotten tougher, no doubt, but a screen that bends is still a screen that bends, and repair costs on these things are the kind of number that makes you sit down.
If you drop it wrong, you're not looking at a cracked corner, you're looking at a whole new mortgage payment.
Early adopters with disposable income, people who want the newest thing at the airport, and that one guy in your office who needs everyone to know he has a foldable.
For everyone else, the math just doesn't math.
You're paying a massive premium for a party trick that stops being a party trick the moment you stop showing it to people.
Don't get me wrong, the tech is impressive.
Folding glass is genuinely wild engineering, and I'm glad someone is out here pushing the envelope.
But "impressive" and "worth buying" are two very different sentences, and only one of them should be in your cart right now.
The Verdict: If you've got cash to burn and a deep need to feel like you're living in the future, knock yourself out.
Final Thoughts
For the other 95% of us, wait two or three generations, when the price drops and the crease becomes someone else's problem.