FLIP phones are back, giving users a big screen that fits in your pocket.
Samsung’s Z Flip combines a cutting-edge flexible display with old-style “clamshell” design — although it’s not cheap, at £1,300.
Experts say the folding 6.7in screen is no gimmick.
Being folded offers the screen protection as well as making it ultra-portable.
The Z Flip’s rigid hinge can be opened and locked at other angles, so it can be placed on a table for hands-free video calls or selfies.
Foldable displays mark the biggest innovation in mobiles since touchscreens.
Ben Wood, of CCS Insight, says: “This will be hugely appealing, given how big flagship phones have become.”
A smaller screen on the Z Flip’s outside shows the time, app alerts apps and caller ID.
Clamshell flip phones were very popular in the mid-Noughties, including Samsung’s handsets and Motorola’s must-have Razr, which sold 130million units.
They had a small screen above the hinge and a keyboard below it.
Phones were much more basic, of course.
Like any modern smartphone, the Z Flip has a bright screen, high-end camera and countless apps.
A revamped Razr went on sale this month in the US but has been dogged by complaints it breaks easily.
It has not yet been released here but can be pre-ordered from EE.
Samsung has promised the Z Flip will be more robust.
Here, we examine how things have changed.
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