The folding screen said “the times have changed”, I used it for 14 days and found that it has not changed

Original link: https://www.ifanr.com/app/1489913

Michael Hundt, a master fencing master from Germany, wrote the paper titled “The New Illustrated Fencing Manual on the Rapier.” Have not heard? But you must know the last move in the thesis: In a sword fight, a short spear is better than a dagger. Because “Sir, times have changed”.

What made me feel that “the times have changed” recently is the replacement of the iPhone SE in my hand with a folding screen phone.

The folding screen has been launched for a few years, what is its strength?

The first time I was excited about the folding screen was when I saw a video of netizens playing Honor of Kings with Huawei’s folding screen on Weibo. The smooth switching between the small screen and the large screen made me feel that the future is today.

But traveling from the future back to today does not require a time machine, the second-hand market is enough for a price of tens of thousands of yuan—the folding screen is too early for my salary. But as a new mobile phone form exploration direction, from Samsung, Huawei to OPPO, vivo, any manufacturer’s new folding screen products will become the focus of that time.

Haven’t used a foldable screen, haven’t I seen the review yet?

But when we put aside what technology is used for the hinge of the folding screen, whether the creases of the inner screen are flat, and whether the product looks good or not, these are not directly related to the experience, as well as communications, images, chips, fast charging, system optimization, etc. After the candy bar phone also has functions, various evaluations seem to only be left with hovering, split screen and rear selfie.

Oh yes, and the 5 minutes that friends are rushing to experience when they go out to play.

When I got the folding screen, these three differences from the candy bar phone became the focus of the experience.

I use hover the most, especially hover to take pictures. Hovering allows me to experience the convenience of flipping the camera on my phone without having to twist myself with the phone when I shoot upside down.

When delaying and taking selfies, you can place the phone directly on the desktop or on the ground without worrying about shaking hands. It’s just that the external screen is in direct contact with the desktop, which is somewhat distressing.

As an old two-dimensional player, I also like the hover playback function. The half of the screen used as a stand can also play the role of playback control. It is a good choice for watching videos during lunch breaks.

However, since it is an old two-dimensional, the new program of station B naturally cannot meet my needs, and the hover function needs to be adapted by the manufacturer, so the experience of watching videos in the browser is not so good. Huawei’s mobile phone case with a stand, I hope every folding screen has it.

In the product details page of vivo X Fold, a hover input scenario is also proposed. This seemingly beautiful form, as long as you use it once, you will find how unreasonable it is. The folding screen is big, but not big enough for me to use its hover function to enter text.

However, the experience of expanding the internal screen, opening Atomic Notes, splitting the keyboard, and two-finger large-screen input is still good.

The split-screen and parallel-window functions are the biggest difference in experience between a foldable-screen phone and a candy bar phone. Although I didn’t realize how cumbersome it would be to switch between the two apps before, after the actual experience, I found that it’s more efficient to open them at the same time.

In addition to the split-screen small window and other functions, the larger screen of the folding screen also saves me the trouble of taking an extra tablet when doing presentations.

In terms of images, most of the folding screens will have the function of rear high-definition Selfie and external screen preview. The rear high-definition Selfie needs to look at the camera, and the eyes will always be a little erratic, but the external screen preview function is a straight man artifact, which makes you more A hint of confidence in confronting her girlfriend when she said, “Oh, can you take pictures?”

For example, with the external screen preview, when your girlfriend thinks you can’t take pictures, you can confidently tell her: “Don’t be angry, let’s take another picture.”

However, buying a folding screen is for use, not for evaluation. Daily use is not limited to the above functions, and the problems to be solved by the folding screen are not only creases and prices.

If you like watching dramas, games, and want a long battery life, I would recommend a large-screen mobile phone, but if I just want a communication tool that takes into account news browsing and portability, I would recommend a small-screen mobile phone. So under what circumstances would I recommend a folding screen phone?

I didn’t want to understand, so I decided to tell you with 14 days of experience.

2 weeks of changing phones, 14 days of worry

I believe that friends who know digital products have discovered that the folding screen I use is vivo X Fold, but this is not a review of vivo X Fold, just use this mobile phone to talk about the experience of folding screen.

Among the new folding screen phones recently released, I actually want to try the Huawei Mate Xs 2, because it has only one screen, which is more in line with my definition of a folding screen.

When it comes to folding screens, everyone will pay attention to thickness, weight and creases. It may be the Stockholm effect, but I don’t think these are the problems, just like when I choose a smartphone, I inevitably lose the feel of the physical buttons and the battery life of a week or two.

Smartphones use vibration to simulate physical buttons, and use large batteries and optimization to improve battery life, but they cannot always reach the experience of the era of feature phones.

The same is true for the folding screen. Under the premise of ensuring the strength of the machine, the thickness and weight cannot be reduced too low. Although the crease has been greatly improved, it is still far from disappearing completely. Instead of struggling, enjoy the convenience of carrying a large screen with you—I really thought so until I clipped my phone to a tripod.

I can accept that the phone is thick, but the tripod says “I don’t”. Think about it carefully, not just tripods, selfie sticks, cooling back clips, mobile phone mounts, car mounts… All mobile phone accessories related to “clip mobile phones”, in front of the heavy folding screen, have to start thinking: Can I clip it? ?

As a dual-device party, I carry two mobile phones every day, and I am not too worried about the weight of the folding screen, but after getting started, I found that I have a mobile phone in my hand, a mobile phone in my pocket, and stacking the two mobile phones. There are still differences in what they are good at (of course, the folding screen is thinner than two mobile phones stacked together).

Thickness and weight also affect playing games. When playing King of Glory, switching equipment, and dragging the minimap, you will still feel a little discomfort caused by the thickness. As a small-handed man, I can bear the weight, but the thickness cannot be ignored.

In order to ensure the field of view, I will use the external screen to play the King of Glory. For games like Genshin Impact that do not require so much field of view, but the screen is more delicate (personal feeling), I will choose to use the internal screen to play. First, the big screen looks better, and secondly… When the temperature is high, you can hold it in another direction.

Before using the foldable screen, I longed for the stunning effect of switching to a large screen for playing games on a small screen, but after the actual experience, in more cases, I would decide which screen to use before using it instead of constantly switching between the two screens. .

To briefly summarize, WeChat, Weibo, Zhihu, Xiaohongshu and other apps based on sliding browsing, I like to use the external screen experience; Station B, WeChat reading, Atomic Notes, Alibaba Cloud Disk, etc. are on the same page for a long time. For the app, I will choose the internal screen – this is consistent with the logic of whether I choose to use a mobile phone or a tablet. The feature of “folding” is only used for hovering playback and occasional folding shooting.

The design of mobile apps basically conforms to the ratio of 16:9 or even longer. Nowadays, when large-screen adaptation is used, most of them stay on one screen to display two apps, or two levels of the same app. Compared with “split-screen cross-app function linkage”, developers’ adaptation in “jumping between apps” is actually more comprehensive.

However, I have a hard need to use split screen and that is commuting. Every morning, I will correct the morning newspaper of APPSO while waiting for the pit stop, and there will inevitably be a situation of jumping left and right between the health code and the preview of the WeChat public account. The folding screen solves this problem very well. One side of the health code is one side article, which is efficient and worry-free.

Having said that, correcting an article is somewhat productive, and screenshots, tags, and sharing that can be logically consistent with mobile phones seem a bit overkill on the big screen. When I use the internal screen to suggest revisions, when I use Atomic Notes for article outline writing, when a voice conference is hung in the small window, and a graphite document is opened in the front desk for recording, I always have an idea in my mind: if I had a stylus, I would How nice.

In the past, I used my mobile phone for less than 3 hours a day. It’s not that I don’t like playing digital products, but I just divided the time between iPad, Kindle and Switch. After using the folding screen, I almost idle them. A person who doesn’t feel anxious when using the iPhone SE suddenly understands everyone’s pursuit of fast charging and battery life: how can it be reassuring to look at a red battery every day?

Although the heavy feel cannot be ignored in daily use, I can even do some productivity work on the folding screen as an editor. If the external monitor can expand the desktop mode, the folding screen may be a feasible form of “all in one” for digital products.

In fact, there is only so much experience with folding screen mobile phones, but I am also very interested in one point, that is, the “precious service” of the exclusive folding screen.

Looking at it roughly, the manufacturers’ exclusive services for folding screens are generally concentrated in special personnel, door-to-door, maintenance discounts, etc. There are also many software discounts such as cloud disk space and platform membership. It happens that the inner screen film of the vivo X Fold in my hand is a little bit. It was damaged, so I decided to get it replaced.

Disclaimer in advance: This is my personal experience of changing the inner film of vivo X Fold. It cannot represent other cities, other brands, and others, but the problems I encountered may be encountered by all folding screen users.

If you are a vivo user, in the “vivo official website” app, you can see your membership privileges, including free film, replacement of mobile phone protective cover, mobile phone maintenance, etc. I admit that I didn’t do my homework well. After listening to my colleagues’ sharing, I went directly to the nearby vivo store, and then I was told that because the folding screen is special, it needs to be replaced after the sale.

The staff is very patient and professional. Not only suggested to call the after-sales service to confirm whether the film can be replaced, but also told me that the vivo X Fold can only replace the inner film once free of charge. Now the damage is relatively small, there is no need to replace it. I thanked her for her suggestion, and then I called vivo’s after-sales service. I called three or five times, but I couldn’t get through.

Later, I logged into vivo’s official website and made an appointment to a nearby after-sales outlet that supports the replacement of vivo X Fold’s inner screen film, which is indeed farther than the store. The next morning, vivo called me to confirm the after-sales needs, and re-emphasized that the inner screen film can only be replaced once free of charge.

When I arrived at the after-sale point, the staff saw the vivo X Fold in my hand and asked if I wanted to replace the inner screen film, which made me feel a touch of dignity in an instant. This sense of dignity did not last long, because the next sentence she said was that the master who can stick the inner film of the folding screen went to dinner and had to wait for a while.

About 5 minutes later, the master came back from dinner and quickly helped me clean the phone. During the process, he also asked me about my experience in detail and answered some questions about creases and weight, which was very professional. Then he said before starting the film: “This is the first time I actually hand-applied the film for the folding screen to the customer, but don’t worry, you will be satisfied.”

I suddenly realized: No wonder the staff knew that I was here to put on the inner screen film as soon as I entered the door, because this may be the first time this site has applied the inner screen film for the folding screen, and even the first time to serve the folding screen users.

Before and after the filming, the staff repeatedly emphasized that there is only one free filming opportunity, and also put forward a note that I did not find online: because the folding screen is relatively special, it must be left standing for 4 hours after the filming and cannot be folded.

I am looking forward to attracting the attention of the surrounding with the folding screen, but not by me holding it carefully and not daring to touch the screen.

According to the tracking report released by the market research agency Omdia, the cumulative global shipments of folding screens will reach 11.5 million units by the end of 2021, while the overall shipments of smartphones will exceed 1.3 billion. % market share doing too much. At least today, as a vivo X Fold user, I can’t even go to the store to change the film.

Finally, add two small points in the experience: Did I attract others with vivo X Fold? Have you encountered bugs while using vivo X Fold?

The first question, um… not counting the time I took it home, I did attract attention. Going for a drink on the weekend, the lady in the same seat was very curious when she saw the phone, but the curiosity lasted less than 5 minutes, and the remaining 1 hour and 55 minutes, the focus of their discussion was the handsome guy next door.

The second problem is that the interface display is incomplete, stuck, unable to switch between horizontal and vertical screens, the app is white, etc. I encountered a lot of bugs, and even took screenshots of various adaptation problems, ready to criticize. Later I found out that almost all of these problems appeared on WeChat. Hmm… okay.

The distance from early adopters to commonly used ones is not only separated by hardware and software

Creases, hovers, hinges, these are the places that every review and folding screen manufacturer will focus on, but when I actually used a folding screen phone, I found that these points did not seem to be that important.

Except for some special angles, it is difficult to notice the crease in daily use. You can really feel it when you swipe your finger, but whether you have a left or right split screen or a “parallel horizon”, there are not many operations that need to be crossed. Hovering does bring a lot of gameplay to the folding screen, but “how to play” is still a little too low-frequency in front of “usage” – it’s not worth it to spend a few thousand yuan to get a mobile phone stand.

As for hinges… do users really pay attention to what technology manufacturers use?

For manufacturers, after the screen ratio and screen quality of smartphones with similar forms are rolled, they need to use a new track to continue rolling. Do you want to be high-end? Folding screens are the only way for manufacturers.

But back on the consumer side — at least for me — a foldable screen isn’t an upgrade option. It is more like a member of the product form in which a hundred flowers bloom in the era of functional machines. It is an improvement, not an innovation. All the designs and ways of use that amaze me on the folding screen, in fact, almost all of them have turned into a “just this?”

If you feel that a certain manufacturer’s folding screen mobile phone is not easy to use, you may not blame the manufacturer, but you have not accepted the product form of the folding screen.

I wouldn’t put down the folding screen and switch to a non-full-screen iPhone SE, but I decided to use a full-screen phone first and watch “Let the Bullets Fly” again.

This article is reprinted from: https://www.ifanr.com/app/1489913
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