These Are the 5 Worst Parts About Using a Folding Phone (After 6 Months)

I’ve been using a foldable phone as my primary computing device for over six months now. That means I’ve logged several hours on my phone, and while I love my Galaxy Z Fold 5, there are still downsides to foldables that are impossible to ignore.

1 Foldables Are Less Durable

My phone feels rock solid. I’m not going to deny that. I’ve dropped it numerous times, and it’s just fine. It feels as strong as any other phone I’ve owned.

Yet the fact remains that when moving parts are involved, more things can break. Down the road, something can go wrong with the hinge. If you look for images of damaged folding phones, you’ll typically find streaks of black, malfunctioning pixels along the crease of the folding screen.

Foldables also have lower IP ratings than slab phones. My phone can handle being submerged in water, but it’s not prepared for dust and sand. As great as the inner screen is for reading ebooks, a book-style foldable might not be the best way to read books at the beach.

2 You Have to Pay More

Since folding phones have an outer cover screen and a giant inner screen for unmatched screen real estate, they’re more expensive than traditional slab phones. Many of us expected the price to have gone down by now, but for the time being, foldables continue to hover at close to two grand in the US.

That said, there are ways around this. The Galaxy Z Fold, the Pixel Pro Fold, and the OnePlus Open all launched with trade-in deals. The second-hand market is even more enticing. I bought my Z Fold 5 unused, open-box unit for under a grand.

With a foldable, walking into a carrier store or Best Buy isn’t your best option. Their prices are too high for most of us. Do your research and hunt around for the best deal instead.

3 Awkward Button Placement

I don’t have this problem with my Z Fold 5 since the buttons on it feel just right. That said, I did use the Moto Razr (2024) for a while. After unboxing that device, I found button placement to be one of the downsides of flip foldables I didn’t expect.

What was the issue? The power and volume buttons are both placed higher up on the side of the device than they are on most phones. The buttons either have to go above or below the hinge. There’s no way around it, but it’s awkward nonetheless.

4 Unconventional Aspect Ratio

All book-style folding phones have uncommon screen shapes, but it’s particularly prominent on the Galaxy Z Fold series, where the cover screen is narrower than slab phones. As a result, whether I’m using the inner or outer display, the screen isn’t quite the aspect ratio that most apps expect.

Frankly, this isn’t an issue most of the time; apps generally adapt well, particularly on Samsung phones, because the One UI software scales apps to any size. It’s when watching videos and playing games that the aspect ratio feels weird.

While you may think the larger screen would be better for video, that’s only the case for videos with a 4:3 aspect ratio. Standard 16:9 videos (like movies and TV shows) appear only slightly larger than on slab phones, with thick black bars on the top and bottom.

Some games scale to any aspect ratio, but many don’t. A number of games have issues on an unconventional display, which I’ve experienced when trying to play Iron Marines (certain UI elements expand off-screen). Other games run in the letterbox format, just like movies. Overall, it’s not a great experience.

5 Inferior Cameras

Despite having a higher MSRP, the Galaxy Z Fold 5 (and 6) has less-capable camera hardware than the lower-priced Galaxy S23 and S24 Ultra. That’s because there isn’t as much room for powerful camera hardware in a phone with two halves that need to be thinner than your typical phone when unfolded. Since folding phones tend to be thicker when folded, it’s not ideal to slap a massive camera bump on the back, either.

While the technical challenge makes sense, it stings to pay more money and not get the absolute best camera hardware a smartphone maker provides.

Do I think the other perks of a folding phone outweigh the ding of having a weaker camera? For me, absolutely. After all, the Z Fold and other book-style foldables still take better pictures than most Android phones out there. They only fall short compared to the best flagship Android phones out there.

All that aside, I still enjoy using my foldable. None of its flaws are deal-breakers for me. For the time being, the advantages folding phones offer make it hard for me to go back to a slab phone.