Flip phones were supposed to be the fun side of foldables – but lately, they feel like the forgotten ones.
While the tech is undoubtedly getting more reliable, the sense of wonder that I felt with early flip-style foldables is being replaced by a nagging sense of deja vu. We’re seeing the same chassis, the same dimensions, and the same compromises year after year, and it feels like the industry has found a “good enough” template and decided to stick with it.
That leaves flip phones in a state of polished stagnation, while their larger, book-style siblings continue to push the form factor forward in meaningful ways – and nowhere is this more apparent than in the latest crop of foldables.
Motorola’s Razr 70 collection is new but familiar
On paper, Motorola’s Razr 70 collection sounds like a solid step forward. There’s a full range this time – the Razr 70, 70 Plus and the headline-grabbing 70 Ultra – each offering tweaks to performance, battery life and camera tech, alongside fresh colours and new material finishes.
The Ultra, in particular, is clearly the star. It packs a Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, a larger 5000mAh battery and speedy 68W charging, along with a familiar 4-inch external display that now supports live updates and video wallpapers. Motorola has also pushed its camera credentials with a new 50MP LOGIC main sensor that promises up to 6x better dynamic range, faster capture and improved efficiency.
But here’s the problem: it all feels very familiar.
Physically, the Razr 70 Ultra looks almost indistinguishable from the Razr 60 Ultra – and frankly not all that different from the Razr 50 Ultra before it. It’s not noticeably thinner or lighter – if it is, Motorola certainly isn’t advertising that fact – and that all-too-familiar screen crease is still present. Even the camera setup, despite new underlying sensor tech, hasn’t evolved much in terms of layout or versatility.
I know not every generation can offer a complete reinvention, but it feels like this trend of refinement has been going on a little too long.
Book-style foldables are having a moment
That sense of stagnation becomes even more obvious when you look at what’s happening on the other side of the foldable world.
Book-style foldables have seemingly entered a new phase defined by genuinely impressive hardware leaps rather than iterative updates. Foldables like the Oppo Find N6 and Honor Magic V5 are pushing hardware boundaries in ways that would’ve seemed unrealistic just a couple of years ago.
We’re talking seriously thin and light designs that rival traditional bar-style phones when folded, paired with expansive inner displays with increasingly unnoticeable creases, large batteries and increasingly capable camera systems. The gap between high-end foldables and traditional flagship phones is closing much faster than many expected.
What’s most baffling about all this is that both flip- and book-style foldables started in a similar place. Early Galaxy Z Flip and Z Fold devices followed the same pattern of small, incremental year-on-year updates, but while book-style foldables have accelerated, clamshells seem stuck in that earlier phase.
Samsung is just as guilty
If this were just a Motorola issue, it might be easier to brush off. But Samsung – the company that arguably defined the modern flip phone – isn’t doing much to move things forward either.
The Galaxy Z Flip 7 is a perfect example. It’s a polished device, no doubt, but one that feels extremely close to its predecessor in plenty of areas. The design is familiar, the improvements feel modest, and it lacks the kind of headline-grabbing upgrades we’ve seen in Samsung’s book-style Z Fold 7.
The Z Fold 7, on the other hand, made big strides forward in reducing overall thickness and weight, making it one of the thinnest, and the lightest, foldable in its category, complete with a wider cover screen and a reduced crease on its inner panel.
And that trend looks like it’ll continue, with rumours around the next-gen Z Flip 8 pointing towards the usual cycle of performance and battery bumps rather than anything transformative.
When will flip-style foldables get the same flow-up?
Book-style foldables are evolving quickly, becoming thinner, lighter and more practical with each generation, but flip-style phones are starting to feel static in comparison.
What’s particularly interesting is that flip phones aren’t exactly short of areas to improve. The display crease is still more visible than it should be on a lot of clamshells, they could be thinner and lighter, and battery life – while improving – still lags behind traditional flagships. There’s also the all-important durability, with most falling behind the improved IP ratings of foldables like the IP68-rated Pixel 10 Pro Fold.
Of course, there’s a practical argument to be made here; clamshell foldables have less internal space to work with, making it harder to squeeze in larger batteries or more advanced cooling systems – but that doesn’t fully explain the widening gap, especially when some book-style foldables are now surprisingly compact in their own right.
So, where does that leave flip phones?
Right now, they still serve a purpose; they’re stylish, compact and, for many, more approachable than the big-screen book-style counterparts. But the sense of momentum just isn’t there any more, and in a fast-moving category like foldables, that’s a bit of a problem.
The hope is that this is just a temporary slowdown rather than a long-term trend, because if flip-style foldables are going to keep pace, they don’t need iterative upgrades; they need their own glow-up.
