TechPhonesAndroid PhonesHonor is coming for the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Z Flip 4Some of the best folding phones are only available in China – but Honor’s next generation is coming to the EU and the US tooWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
TechPhonesAndroid PhonesHonor is coming for the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Z Flip 4Some of the best folding phones are only available in China – but Honor’s next generation is coming to the EU and the US tooWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
Some of the best folding phones are only available in China – but Honor’s next generation is coming to the EU and the US too
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: Honor)
(Image credit: Honor)
If you’re a phone fan, China’s the place to be right now: some of thebest phonesin the world, especially thebest folding phones, are only available in the Chinese market. But Honor plans to change that with the next generation of its folding phones, so while the brilliant Honor Magic V isn’t coming to western markets its successor will. Speaking toThe Verge, Honor said that the next Honor Magic folding phone will be going global in early 2023.
That’s enormously exciting, because while theSamsung Galaxy Z Fold 4andGalaxy Z Flip 4are really great folding phones their Chinese rivals are really interesting devices too, and many of them are relatively affordable. But while Motorola’sthird generation Razr, the Oppo Find N and models from the likes ofHuaweiand others are all very impressive, you can’t buy them here.
That’s a shame, not least because it means there’s less pressure onSamsung: if there’s one thing we know about the smartphone market, it’s that fierce competition drives innovation and also drives down prices. So 2023 could well be the year of the fold as well as the year of the Rabbit.
More folding phones is good news for everyone
Honor isn’t the only big name working on its own folding phones for the US and EU markets.Googleis too, although the rumoured 2022 release for itsGoogle Pixel Foldphone is looking increasingly unlikely. And while Apple’s keeping characteristically schtum about its own plans, we’re pretty certain that afolding iPhoneis in the labs at Apple Park even if any release date is still some years away.
I’ve written a lot about my love of folding devices, whether that’s folding phones or fancy laptops such as the wonderfully cleverT3 IFA award-winning Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Fold Gen 2, which manages to cram a 16-inch display into a 12-inch laptop: they solve the problem of portability when you don’t want a microscopically tiny device but you don’t want one that takes up loads of room either. And the more folding phones we see, the better the engineering and the better the quality: as with other areas of tech, good ideas spread.
I very much doubt theiPhone 15is going to fold, but I’m very sure that a folding phone is in my not-too-distant future. I think Honor’s decision is the beginning of something good, with more firms making more phones for more people outside their home markets. Better phones with better prices too? Count me in.
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