Foldable smartphone

A foldable smartphone (also called a foldable phone or simply foldable) is a smartphone with a folding form factor. While folding designs have been used previously in clamshell or "flip phone" models, the term "foldable" now generally refers to a newer style featuring flexible displays. Some variants of the concept instead use multiple touchscreen panels connected by a hinge. Concepts for such devices date back as early as Nokia's "Morph" concept in 2008 and a concept presented by Samsung Electronics in 2013, which was part of a broader set of ideas using flexible OLED displays.

The first commercially available folding smartphones with OLED displays began to appear in 2018. Some devices fold on a vertical axis into a wider, tablet-like form while remaining usable in a smaller, folded state. The display may either wrap around to the back of the device when folded, as seen with the Royole FlexPai and Huawei Mate X, or use a booklet-style design, where the larger, folded screen is located inside and a smaller screen on the cover allows interaction without opening the device, as with the Samsung Galaxy Fold series. Horizontally folding smartphones have also been produced, typically using a clamshell form factor.

The first generation of commercially released foldable smartphones faced concerns over durability and their high prices, and they are largely regarded as a gimmick. In 2023, only around 1% of worldwide smartphone ownership were foldable smartphones.