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Foldables are sort of boring now — and that’s great news for Apple
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For engineers working on mobile hardware or software, foldables are transitioning from experimental novelty to viable mainstream form factor. The improvement in durability ratings (IP68, IP69), near-invisible creases, and silicon-carbon battery designs means foldables are approaching the reliability thresholds that standard slab phones already meet, though they still only represent 1.6 percent of the smartphone market.
Written by elseif from the cluster below · every claim links back to a sourceThe three things worth knowing
Early foldables from Samsung, Huawei, and Royole suffered from severe durability problems, but subsequent generations have improved to the point where devices now carry IP68 and IP69 ratings and are barely thicker than standard phones when closed.
New form factors beyond standard flip and book-style designs are emerging, including trifold devices from Huawei and Samsung, and wider flip phones like the Pura X Max.
Cameras remain the one area where foldables still lag behind slab flagships due to cost and design constraints, and foldables still represent only 1.6 percent of the smartphone market as of 2025.
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