I used to love foldable phones. Now, I can't stand them

Just as they have with their inner screens, foldables have divided the user base into two camps — either you find regular phones too simplistic to go back to, or you just don’t want to see your phone fold in half anymore. There is no other realization you have after living with a foldable. And the title must’ve given away that I fall under the second category.

I used to be a book-style foldable die-hard, but as the novelty wore off, its flaws became glaring by the day. And no, I’m not concerned by foldables coming with one less rear camera or a more fragile exterior. My problem is more fundamental. I just can’t fathom the very idea of a device deploying complicated and delicate (not to mention expensive) mechanics to do two things at once when I’m not convinced it excels at either.

One device for everything is a stale formula

The concept of smartphones began as a way to consolidate multiple devices into one. It could save you from carrying ten different tools and lighten your pocket, both figuratively and literally. That made sense when we had a phone that couldn’t do much beyond calling and texting, a dedicated music player with dangling earphones, a digital camera, and whatnot. But over the past 20 years, our problems have evolved too (more on that later).

Foldables take that idea further by combining a phone and a tablet into one. Whenever you feel the need, you can prop it open and run multiple apps at once, touted as productivity powerhouses. I was swayed by the idea too, but after the novelty wore off, I found myself needing to open two or more apps at most just a couple of times a month, if not just for the sake of it.

And yes, foldables are actually convenient for people who specifically want that combination. My problem is that those productivity spurts were so far apart and so few that they didn’t justify the compromises for me. It’s not 2010 anymore, and I’m not optimizing my setup just around convenience anymore — it goes a layer deeper than hardware compromises.

Real digital wellbeing is switching devices

Your phone keeps buzzing with notifications from Instagram or an active WhatsApp group chat while you’re trying to tackle work on a busy Tuesday. Or maybe your overseas team gets active on Slack while you’re trying to wind down by reading a book in bed. These occurrences are far too frequent in my life. Morphing work, play, and rest into a single device has exacted a real mental toll, especially when I become so dependent on it that I can’t leave it behind, even briefly.

I have experimented with every digital wellbeing tool at my disposal across platforms to work around that, but the best strategy for me has been more screens, not fewer. Yep, you read that right.

When you shut down your work laptop, it signals that work hours are over and your mind needs to shift to whatever’s next in your personal life. That shift is stronger when you physically switch devices rather than rely on software features that your fingers quickly build muscle memory to bypass. The very friction modern gadgets are trying so hard to eliminate is what has actually kept me sane when I have to be surrounded by devices for work and otherwise.

That’s why I restarted wearing a smartwatch, adding a friction point with its tiny display that is useless for almost everything except notifications and minor interactions. It helps me leave my phone behind and only pick it up when something requires my immediate attention. The same goes for entertainment. My tablet is dedicated to games, movies, magazines, and ebooks without work or social media apps on it. Yes, I am trying to use my phone less by adding more screens to the mix. It’s exactly like how you feel nicer and more productive by watching a two-hour movie on a TV rather than spending the same time mindlessly doomscrolling on TikTok.

I call this compartmentalized computing. The idea is to deliberately create enough compartments that you aren’t compulsively relying on a single device for everything.

Time for purpose-oriented tech

Foldable phones have intensified the feeling that the device is using me more than I’m using it. We have forgotten that phones are tools we should use when we need them, rather than them calling us in ingenious ways to pick them up and using psychological tricks to keep us hooked.

Going away from foldables, I’ve started treating my devices more like appliances with specialized purposes. And I know I’m not alone because there is a growing wave of niche products, from minimalist phones and dedicated music players to dedicated cameras and screenless fitness trackers.

Just to be clear, I don’t want every device to do exactly one thing; that would go in the opposite direction to the point of being counterproductive. My phone still handles quite a few tasks, and I want it to stay exactly there instead of taking on a tablet’s duties as well. I have created a setup that gives each device enough purposes that I consciously choose for myself.

My multi-screen setup

I have made peace with the fact that we will be surrounded by screens, no matter what. They have become a way of life now, so I won’t fight them anymore. The idea now is to give myself enough opportunities to put the phone down. Like my smartwatch, which lets me leave the phone behind during lunchtime without worrying about missing any important notifications — or my tablet, which has become my exclusive mobile entertainment center.

I know I may come off as a foldable hater, but I would actually allow flip phones, which save space without being too far from a regular slab phone. In fact, the minimal outer display is a decent well-being feature for things like glancing at notifications and controlling media (replacing the smartwatch for those purposes). They would perfectly fit the bill for my growing fondness for compact phones if not for their poorer battery performance compared to a standard handset.

Then there is my desk setup with a laptop connected to a monitor. My brain is now trained to know this is where work happens; neither do I play games nor do I watch anything here. And I use it for tasks too important for a small screen, like booking a flight — I’m old-school that way.

The way I see it now, book-style foldables have no place in my setup. They neither lie here nor there and just sit awkwardly in a compromised gray area. And that’s the opposite of what I want when I’m being intentional with my gadgets.

To each their own

What works for me won’t necessarily work for you, and I am all for personalization. If you want to travel light while having the convenience of using two devices, book-style foldables are custom-built for that specific use case. They are, in fact, worth spending more on if they make your life that much easier.

As for me, I fail to stick to my digital boundaries more often than I’d like to admit. And that’s the reason I am trying to be more conscious of how I use my devices and for what purposes. These physical divisions have helped minimize these lapses much more efficiently than when I was using a multipurpose foldable phone. The new multi-device setup has proven so robust that, no matter how often I get to play with newer folding handsets, they sure aren’t where my main SIM is going.