Tyler Hayes Suggests Trying a Flip-Style Foldable If You Want a Smaller Phone

Tyler Hayes, writing for This Week The Trend:

The Razr+ 2024 model measures 3.46 inches tall, but still has a 4-inch diagonal screen size. For comparison, the smallest modern (2021) iPhone is the 13 mini, and that one is 5.18 inches tall. The Razr foldable is a legitimately small phone that can easily be held in one hand. It slips into a front pocket. It’s 0.60 inches thick. That might sound bulky, but in practice, it isn’t any bigger than using an iPhone with a case on it.

For anyone unfamiliar with this style of folding phone, the front screen isn’t just a novelty. It’s completely usable in the same way the larger internal screen is. By the way, the full-sized screen opens up to 6.9 inches.

I remain completely dubious of this form factor. Hayes compares the naked folded Razr+ to an iPhone in case, thickness-wise, but one of the problems inherent to this form factor is that most people adhere to a religious belief that they somehow need to put their phone in a case. They sell cases for these flip-style foldables but that just makes them even thicker. Comparing an un-cased foldable to an encased regular phone is bogus.

Worse, I dispute the notion that these phones are “completely usable” from the front screen alone. Reviews of these phones, including Hayes’s, tend to avoid including photographs of what they look like when the on-screen keyboard is showing. The keyboard basically takes up the entire screen (source), and it’s awkwardly positioned an inch from the bottom, to sit above the camera lenses. Technically usable, but no one is going to type more than a few words like this. If you have to unfold the phone just to text or email, why not buy a phone that doesn’t fold at all?

Book-style foldables seem like a maybe to me. Flip-style foldables just seem dumb. And the only “perfect solution” for anyone who wants a smaller phone would be for Apple to bring back the Mini size.

★ Friday, 7 November 2025