Foldable phones have improved every year since their inception. But 2025 marked a turning point for them, improving in aspects that had always held them back. Thinner, lighter, and more durable.
Yet, it feels like foldables are just a step away from going mainstream. So, what’s still stopping them?
Foldables took a big leap forward in 2025
Vastly better hardware
In many ways, foldable phones took a big step towards becoming mainstream in 2025. Samsung, Oppo, Huawei, Honor, and others solved two of the biggest drawbacks with foldable phones this year: bulk and durability.
Surprisingly, even Samsung — which barely made any notable improvements to the Galaxy Z Fold lineup in the last few years — came out all guns blazing with the Z Fold 7 this year.
It’s one of the thinnest and lightest foldables around, with an 8.9mm sleek waistline when folded and weighing only 215 grams. That makes it only 0.7mm thicker than the Galaxy S25 Ultra, while being 3 grams lighter than it.
While the size and weight reduction might not seem like a big deal, it makes a huge difference in daily use. It makes the foldable much easier to carry around and use with one hand. No wonder the Galaxy Z Fold 7 has been selling like hot cakes in the US since its launch.
It’s not just about the thinness and lighter weight. Samsung made several other improvements to the Galaxy Z Fold 7 this year, including expanding the internal screen size and making the cover display wider.
It also redesigned the hinge to evenly distribute the load on the folding screen to reduce creases while also improving durability. Even the inner display got a big durability upgrade, with Samsung making the Ultra-Thin Glass (UTG) 50% thicker.
While Google did not put the Pixel 10 Pro Fold on a diet, it made other durability improvements to its foldable this year.
Like the Samsung, the Pixel 10 Pro Fold sports bigger inner and outer displays. The former is also more durable and now uses Ultra-Thin Glass along with two layers of anti-impact film for better drop protection.
More importantly, the Pixel 10 Pro Fold sports an IP68 rating, making it dust and water-resistant — a first for a foldable.
Other Android makers will likely jump on this bandwagon within the next generation or two, finally closing the durability gap between foldables and regular smartphones.
The challenges still holding foldables back
Durability, battery, and cost
Despite the major improvements this year, foldables are still not yet ready to fully replace smartphones. They fall short in several key aspects: durability, cameras, and battery life.
Durability is still a concern with modern foldables. Sure, the hinge, inner folding screen, and cover display are getting stronger with every passing generation. But the inner display needs more upgrades to better withstand long-term use.
With Android makers now packing in faster chips and promising up to seven years of OS updates, durability is a bigger concern than ever.
When it comes to cameras, even the best foldables fall short of flagship smartphones. The performance delta is too large to ignore, especially if, like me, you care about camera quality.
With the Galaxy Z Fold 7, Samsung introduced a 200MP primary shooter. It brings a decent improvement in image quality, but nothing radical.
While the S25 Ultra gets a decent 5x periscope shooter, the Z Fold 7 still uses an old 10MP 3x telephoto camera. The latter’s image quality and zoom range are nowhere close to what the S25 Ultra can achieve.
The Pixel 10 Pro Fold is on the same boat, retaining the same 48MP main, 10.8MP 5x telephoto, and 10.5MP ultrawide as its predecessor. Forget Ultra phones — it’s image quality can’t even match the regular Pixel 10 Pro.
Battery life is another Achilles’ heel of foldables, at least for the ones available in the US. Samsung improved upon every aspect of the Z Fold 7, barring its battery life by sticking to the same 4,400mAh cell as before.
With a more power-hungry chip and a bigger display, the tiny 4,400mAh cell cannot ensure all-day runtime under moderate to heavy load. And the slow 25W charging speed does not help either.
The Pixel 10 Pro Fold fares slightly better thanks to its considerably bigger 5015mAh battery. It can almost make it through a day of heavy use. Even if it does not, Qi2 and Pixelsnap support make topping up the foldable more convenient and easier.
Charging speed is another story, though, with Google’s foldable only supporting 30W wired charging speed and 15W wirelessly.
As mentioned above, the battery life and charging speed issues are more of a problem limited to foldables in the US.
The Oppo Find N5 is only 8.9mm slim when folded and weighs 229g. Yet, it packs a massive 5,600mAh cell, with 80W wired and 50W wireless charging support.
Here’s hoping Samsung and Google adopt silicon-carbon batteries and faster charging technologies sooner rather than later. This would solve two of the biggest pain points of today’s best foldables.
The biggest barrier: Pricing
High innovation, higher cost
Pricing is another big issue holding foldable phones back from going mainstream.
The best foldables cost $2,000 — nearly double that of a flagship smartphone. This puts them out of reach for the majority of potential customers. There’s little manufacturers can do about this right now.
However, as the technology matures and production scales up, component costs will drop — allowing future foldables, even mid-range ones, to pack better hardware without breaking the bank.
The excellent $700 Moto Razr 2025 is the best example of this, delivering a great flip phone experience at a relatively affordable price point.
Foldables are almost there
Folding phones have improved dramatically in the last few years. And, 2025 especially marked a key turning point, as they became sleeker, tougher, and more reliable than ever before.
They are still not good enough to replace slab phones. But at the pace they are improving, that future isn’t far off.
