I'm using a Z Fold 5 and a Surface Duo; Is there a place for folding and dual-screen phones in 2024, with Vision Pro on the way?

But here's where both the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Surface Duo crush it – web browsing and multitasking.

If you're like me, you're used to browsing the web on a laptop or a PC – you want those fully-featured, desktop sites. Well, both the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Surface Duo offer a screen large enough to accommodate the full desktop versions of websites pretty well, just like a modern tablet would.

In addition, reading e-books is absolutely phenomenal on both the Galaxy Z Fold 5, and especially the Surface Duo, as holding it, with its two screens held together by a thin hinge, is literally like holding a book. And because the Duo's screens are wide, you get quite a lot of text on each page.



The Z Fold 5 is narrower, but still fantastic for reading Stephen King novels to your nephew, who asked for a scary story but clearly isn't up for The Shining.

Multitasking? It's a dream, and both Samsung and Microsoft designed their respective folding-slash-dual-screen phones with that in mind. Both their hardware and software accommodate opening two apps on each screen flawlessly, and the Z Fold 5, being newer and running the far more polished OneUI, even supports three apps at a time, or even four, or five, or – you won't believe it – six!

But are those few benefits and bragging rights enough to overlook the drawbacks you have to deal with, when choosing the unusual smartphone form factor?

Folding vs. dual-screen, what's better in 2024?

Let's pretend the Surface Duo has 2024 hardware and software like the Galaxy Z Fold 5. From a strictly design standpoint – which form factor is better – it or the Z Fold 5?

Well… for me, it's the Surface Duo, and here's why.

We've already established that neither of these phones are as great for watching videos as one might think. They have other strengths, namely multitasking – having two apps open at the same time, one on each side of the phone.

The Surface Duo has a hinge between its two displays, separating them, but that's no drawback for using two apps. In fact, this dual-screen design, as opposed to using a single folding screen like the Z Fold, is what allows the Surface Duo to be vastly thinner, lighter, and most importantly – more durable.

Its two screens don't need to flex, so they're covered by traditional glass. Its hinge doesn't need to be super complex to make this work, so the result is extra thinness. If a Surface Duo 3 were to come out, sporting the same design as the original Duo, but without the bezels (and again – with a modern processor and software) – that would be the phone I'd rather get, than the Z Fold 5. Sue me.

But we don't live in this hypothetical la la land, do we? So – the Galaxy Z Fold 5 it is.

We didn't get rollable phones after all, and dual-screen phones like the Surface Duo didn't last. The Galaxy Z Fold 5 is an incredible feat of engineering, but because it's crammed with so much cutting edge technology, it has to be thicker, heavier, and less durable.

Its folding display can't actually fold if it were covered with traditional glass, obviously. Although its ambitious design (particularly the hinge) has been getting thinner with each generation, it's still nowhere near as impossibly thin as the Surface Duo.

The Z Fold 5 just has to be chonky, with its flexible screen, under-display camera, far larger rear cameras, and of course – a notably bigger battery (about 1000 mAh bigger, to be specific).

So what's better in 2024? Again, obviously the Galaxy Z Fold 5. If that hypothetical Surface Duo 3 were to come out this year, which it most definitely will not, that would be better in my opinion, but alas.

Is a folding phone better than a standard slab phone, though? That's a far more reasonable question to ask, and the answer is – nope. I use a folding phone, and wish it would be, but I'd be lying to you and myself if I claimed so.

Which brings me to another question that's been eating at me – will foldable phones even last? Because…

Apple Vision Pro is setting a new precedent – perhaps folding, dual-screen and rollable phones were never meant to become a thing

Apple won't come out and say it anytime soon, but its Vision Pro headset is meant to replace your iPhone someday. Sure, that day is pretty far into the future right now, as the technology needs to become significantly thinner, lighter, and more socially acceptable until then.

But it appears that this is where we're headed – to a world where everything your phone does for you becomes augmented in your reality. You won't need to stare at a slab phone, or even hold one. You won't need to buy foldable ones if you want extra screen space.

Because your apps, messages, videos, they'll be showing and playing all around you, overlaid in your vision. Hence, the Apple "Vision" Pro, I suppose. Apple considers it "Pro" when your vision includes 5 Tik Tok instances; who knows?

In any case – foldable phones and dual-screen phones were probably not meant to last, and that's becoming even more clear to me now in 2024.

They came out as a solution to a niche problem that will be obsolete when we all start using AR/VR headsets more and more, slowly forgetting a need for any phones.

Is this bad, or good? In this distant future, will you miss the slab phone form factor, or the unique designs we occasionally see, such as these folding and dual screen phones? Or are you excited for the time when you won't be using a phone at all?