Another flagship foldable just landed, and the hype machine is already in overdrive.
The newest book-style phone promises a "barely visible" display crease, a slimmer hinge, and cameras that supposedly rival a $1,200 slab phone.
I've spent two weeks folding, unfolding, and dropping this thing on purpose to find out if any of it holds up.
Here's the part Samsung and Google don't put in the launch video: the crease never fully disappears.
Two weeks in, mine has a faint valley down the middle you can feel with a fingernail.
Every foldable on the market right now has it, and if a reviewer tells you theirs is flawless, check whether they actually used it for more than a weekend.
The experience has genuinely gotten better.
This generation's hinge is stiffer in a good way, the inner screen finally hits a brightness level you can read outdoors, and the multitasking splits apps without the stutter that plagued early models.
Opening it still feels like a small magic trick, even after hundreds of folds.
We're talking $1,800 before taxes, and that's for the base model.
Add a case, because you will absolutely need one, and you're staring down two grand.
For that money you could buy a flagship slab phone AND a decent laptop.
The math only works if you genuinely use that big inner screen every single day, not just to impress people at brunch.
Battery life is the sneaky problem nobody wants to talk about.
Powering two displays drains the cell fast, and heavy users are reporting they're hunting for a charger by late afternoon.
The outer screen is fine for quick replies, but the moment you lean on that inner panel for real work, the percentage starts falling like a rock in a pond.
Durability is the other elephant in the room.
The screen still hates dust, sand, and gritty pockets.
The factory screen protector is not optional, and peeling it off voids your warranty.
If you're the kind of person who tosses a phone into a bag full of keys and crumbs, this category is still playing Russian roulette with your wallet.
If you read documents, edit photos, or run two apps side by side on a daily basis, the form factor earns its keep and the convenience is real.
If you mostly scroll social media and text, you're paying a steep premium for a party trick that gets old in about a month.
The verdict: foldables have crossed from "novelty" into "legitimately useful," but they haven't crossed into "no-brainer." This one is the best version yet, and it's still a device for early adopters with deep pockets and careful hands.
Everyone else should wait one more generation, or at least until the price drops below $1,500. **The Bottom Line:** Foldables are finally good enough to recommend to the right person, and that's real progress.
But "good enough" and "$1,800" are two very different sentences, and only you know which one your bank account can handle.
Final Thoughts
If you buy one, treat it like the delicate piece of engineering it is, because it absolutely is one.