A field guide on the wacky future of folding phones

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Remember when people joked that each new phone was the same rounded rectangle? These days are officially gone. Now, handset manufacturers are jostling each other with totally disproportionate designs, because you can build a phone in many different ways when you have foldable screens.

We have hardly seen the first wave of foldable phones, and there are almost as many different forms as there are handsets. How should we call them? Before each phone was actually a phablet, we had all kinds of categories: rocking phones, candy bars, sliders, swivels, original brick phones and, of course, the famous taco.

So we thought it was time to start this conversation. Here has The edgeWe have come together to make this 100% official list of the best absolutely faultless names you could use to describe each type of folding phone we've seen so far – and some that are not. . still exist.


Clearly, a server will bring us the note in one of them. Hoping that the small part of a credit card has not been broken yet.

Sample forms: Samsung Galaxy Fold

Something we could all agree to call it: a phone book


Salvador Dalí would be proud – or very confused.

Sample forms: Royole Flexpai, one of TCL's DragonHinge prototypes

Something we could all agree to call it: a folding shelf


I would like to have one of these at school rather than a three-ring binder filled with notes and homework. Besides, it would have been nice to have Google and Wikipedia and … am I old?

Sample forms: Huawei Mate X, the folding prototype of Oppo

Something we could all agree to call it: a phone of matches


For the disciple skillful.

Sample forms: Nubia Alpha

Something we could all agree to call it: a phone bracelet


Do not fix it if it is not broken.

Sample forms: Motorola RAZR-like patented image (the actual device may be totally different)

Something we could all agree to call it: a flip phone, of course


In a classic example of "eat your cake and eat it too," LG managed to be part of the conversation around folding the phone without actually announcing one. Since he announced this fancy folio, this adds a second screen to a normal phone. You can probably expect others to follow LG's example. Does LG have better ideas?

Sample forms: LG's dual screen for the LG G8 ThinQ

Something we could all agree to call it: not a foldable phone


Uh yes, that would be an affirmation. LG has better ideas. LG, take your awesome TV screens and build a scalable digital tablet the size of a newspaper right from the start Minority report, stat.

Sample forms: One of LG's patent images

Something we could all agree to call it: a roll-up shelf


The screens go inside to protect them with little or no space. It evokes good memories of the golden age of pocket games. Sold.

Sample forms: One of the patented images of LG, one of the prototypes of TCL, DragonHinge

Something we could all agree to call it: a book phone


Unlike the "Pip-Boy Mini", this one looks like a phone lying flat – a very long phone that does not fit in a pocket. But where you go, you do not need pockets.

Sample forms: Lenovo CPlus Prototype, one of TCL DragonHinge's prototypes

Something we could all agree to call it: a phone slap bracelet


We also took into account the criteria "money clip" and "scarf". In both cases, it is more of a status symbol than a practical phone.

Sample forms: One of TCL DragonHinge's prototypes

Something we could all agree to call it: not flexible enough to fit in a pocket


The screen stretches to become bigger. Humanity has barely managed to build flexible phones and, honestly, that does not seem so plausible with today's technology.

Sample forms: LG patent image for an expandable phone

Something we could all agree to call it: an accordion phone


OK, I'm pretty sure the screens can not do it yet. But if we dream, we might as well dream big. Say it's also a holographic screen? I imagine him projecting Aladdin and Jasmine over this magic carpet for the moment.

Sample form: One of LG's patent images

Something we could all agree to call it: a twistable phone

The honest truth? We could not find the exact name of the Xiaomi foldable phone prototype above. "The Konmari" arouses joy, but it is not quite correct. She first folds the clothes, yes, but she rolls too.

I guess it's an opportunity for you to contribute, dear reader. What you say?

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