Sure, but I wouldn't buy one even if it was in the same price range as phones I usually buy. For me, it will be useful rarely and cumbersome to use the rest of the time.
I picked up a folding phone a while back just to test it out, and honestly they're still pretty underwhelming.
The screen isn't really big enough or the right shape to feel like a real upgrade for movies, and a lot of apps just aren't built with foldables in mind. Most of the time it just feels like a weirdly shaped, less powerful, less durable tablet.
On top of that you're dealing with a visible crease across the screen, higher prices for something that's actually more fragile, and bulkier hardware with smaller or split batteries. The tech is cool in theory, but in practice it's a lot of compromises without a clear killer use case.
which phone was that? I bought the pixel folding 9 last year and it has basically replaced my ipad pro. I watch movies, shows, youtube videos, read PDFs on it, it's really good
Things have evolved a ton. I've got an Oppo Find N5. Thinner than iPhone Air when unfolded. Same size as iPhone 16 Pro Max when folded. 16GB Ram, fastest Snapdragon, okay cameras, the screen is magnificent, crease basically invisible in day to day use. Battery larger than any iPhone battery (thanks to Silicon Carbon)
Free with a plan just means you paid for it in installments without them breaking down how much of your monthly payment is going towards the device vs towards the network use. Had you opted for a cheaper device you could have got the same plan for less money. The phone is never actually free, just cleverly marketed to seem free.
I recently got one of these (Galaxy Z7 Fold) and I can't imagine ever going back to a regular phone. The big screen is what makes the phone finally begin to resemble actual productivity tool.
It was a prepaid plan that was the same price whether I got the phone or not. I guess you could say everyone who didn’t get the phone was subsidizing those who did, but there’s no way to opt for lower pricing if you BYOD. So no, in this case that’s not really true. If it were Verizon where you can pay less if you BYOD then sure but that’s not what I did.
