SYLVIA MCKEOWN: James Bond-like cool folding phones hit the mainstream — at knockout prices
After years of speculation and sneak peaks Samsung Fold and Huawei Mate X set bar higher with radical innovation
I fondly recall 1997, when James Bond sat in the back seat of his BMW 750IL with his tricked-out Ericsson JB988 phone flipped open, using it to drive his car away from generic bad guys. Flip phones were the height of dynamic and cool in those days. It was the time of the Moto Razer — still the world’s best phone to use if you want to hang up on someone — and that time Kelly Roland used Excel to text her boyfriend on her Nokia Communicator. Who knew it would take 22 years for us to circle back around and once again head in similar direction? It makes sense that after years of stagnant phone designs, of simply enlarging what we already have year in, year out, a drastic change was needed. You can expect that this is just the start of a new five-year-long journey, although unlike Bond’s 20,000V electric discharge this time around the only stun action these new folding phones have is their price point. After years of speculation, sneak peaks and digging through copyright patents, all rum...
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