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Foldables have clearly split into two paths. On one side, you’ve got the flip phones—compact, fun, and pocketable. On the other hand, there’s the book-style foldables that unfold into something much bigger.
If you’ve read the case for flips, you know they’ve got alot going for them. But let’s flip the script.
Because while flip phones are all about shrinking things down, book-style foldables lean into going bigger. And depending on how you use your phone—or honestly, how much you use it—they might be the better choice.
Here’s why.
1They’re Two Devices in One
The biggest thing with book-style foldables is that you’re not just getting a phone. You’re getting something that can turn into a tablet whenever you need it.
Take the Galaxy Z Fold7. Folded up, it still works like a regular phone—tall and slim, but familiar. But the second you open it, you’re looking at a full 8-inch display. That’s plenty of room for reading, editing, gaming, watching, or just browsing the web without everything feeling cramped.
TheOnePlus Opendoes the same thing with a slightly different twist. It’s a bit wider when folded, which makes both the outer and inner screens feel more natural to use. Either way, the idea’s the same—you get a compact phone when you want it, and a bigger screen when you need it.
Flips are great if your priority is saving space. But books are better if your priority is gettingmore out of your phone.
2They’re Built for Real Multitasking
We’ve reached the point where even regular phones like the Galaxy S25 Ultra can multitask fairly well. You can split the screen, maybe float a video, and it works.
But it’s still not ideal for people who rely on their phones to do more than one thing at a time, all the time.
That’s where book-style foldables shift the experience. OnePlus introduced Open Canvas to let apps exist beyond the visible space, sliding in and out as needed. Samsung took a similar approach inOne UI 8, and Android 16 is on track to standardize that across the board.
It’s not just about opening three apps at once. It’s about working across them without feeling boxed in.
3They’re Better for Visual and Creative Work
That larger screen isn’t just about multitasking—it also makes a big difference if you do anything visual. Photo editing, reviewing designs, marking up slides, reading PDFs—it’s all just easier when your canvas isn’t squeezed into a narrow rectangle.
Even media consumption feels better. Watching a movie on the inside screen of a Fold7 or Open is miles ahead of doing it on a flip’s inner display. Comics, magazines, side-by-side document reviews—it all benefits from more real estate.
And if you’re someone who likes stylus input, there’s the Vivo X Fold5, which does support pen input and packs a seriously bright and sharp inner display.
It’s not officially available in the U.S., unfortunately, but it shows where the category is heading globally. Sadly, Samsung dropped stylus support on the Z Fold7, which still feels like a miss for anyone who used the S Pen on earlier models.
Still, even without a stylus, this form factor makes creative tasks far more comfortable.
4They Come With Top-Tier Internals
Book-style foldables usually sit at the top of the lineup. And you can tell. There’s more room inside, so brands tend to go all-out—bigger batteries, better cameras, better cooling solutions.
The Galaxy Z Fold7, for instance, uses Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 8 Elite chip, offers up to 1TB of UFS 4.0 storage, and borrows the same 200MP camera from theGalaxy S25 Ultra. It’s packing the best Samsung has to offer, just in a foldable form.
Same story with the OnePlus Open. You’re getting 16GB of RAM, a Hasselblad-tuned triple camera setup, and a gorgeous 7.8-inch AMOLED display that feels more like a tablet than a phone.
Even the Vivo X Fold5 pushes things further—6000mAh battery, Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip, Zeiss optics, and IP58 water and dust resistance.
Now, that’s not to say flip phones are cutting corners. The Z Flip7 is still a high-end device. It has to fit a lot of power into a much tighter space, and it does a good job of it. You still get a flagship Exynos chipset, solid build quality, and a usable cover display.
But there’s a trade-off. A smaller form factor means less room for things like large vapor chambers, massive sensors, or top-tier camera stacks. Unlike the Fold7, the Flip7 doesn’t get the 200MP camera. It’s not because it’s worse—it’s just working with less space.
So if you’re looking for the absolute best internals a brand can pack into a foldable, the book-style ones usually get that treatment first.
5They Feel Like the Future
Let’s be honest—flip phones are nostalgic. Book-style foldables are futuristic. If you want a phone that feels like it belongs to the next decade, this is the one. The way the display folds out into a tablet, the seamless switching between modes, the experimentation with form—it’s genuinely exciting.
And the innovation hasn’t stopped. Brands are already teasing tri-folds and rollables. Huawei’sMate XT Ultimateis proof that we’re heading toward even more radical form factors.
If you enjoy the feeling of having cutting-edge tech in your pocket, a book-style foldable delivers that.
