Once a gimmick, flip phones are finally proving their worth

23 Dec 2025, 13:00 by Ben Khalesi · Android Police

The smartphone industry has spent the better part of a decade fighting over shrinking bezel sizes and adding extra megapixels here and there.

The industry hit a wall until the flip phone returned to shake things up.

Early on, flip phones were treated like a Y2K nostalgia joke. A way for manufacturers to slap a four-figure price on something new.

And on top of that, everyone assumed they’d fall apart in a week.

Against expectations, they’ve turned into genuinely capable machines. You can’t deny they’re head-turners, but there’s a lot more going on here than a cool look.

I test 40 smartphones a year, and the Motorola Razr Ultra is the one to buy for $900

The one that winds up in my pocket most often

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By Stephen Radochia

The cover screen creates healthier boundaries with your phone

The anti-doomscroll screen

Gen Z is leading a serious push toward boring phones that can’t run addictive algorithms. They want to escape the doom scroll and data tracking.

But let’s be real. Trying to survive 2025 without a smartphone is a lot harder than it looks. Between two-factor authentication, QR menus, and apps like Uber, we’re more connected to our tech than ever.

Flip phones are a middle ground. They give you a boring phone experience on your own terms.

The issue with slab phones is that they’re all or nothing.

The second you unlock it to check a notification, you’re at the mercy of every addictive app you own. It’s almost impossible to check a text without falling into a twenty-minute rabbit hole.

On a flip phone, your messages pop up on the little cover screen. You get to peek and decide if it’s worth opening.

Got a work emergency or a text from your partner? Open and get to it. But if it’s just a newsletter or a random social media like, you can ignore it.

Physically unfolding the flip phone slows you down just enough to think, “Do I really need to be on my phone right now?”

This friction is what’s needed to snap out of those endless dopamine loops apps love to create.

Flip phones stretch battery life despite smaller cells

Every percent counts

There’s a technical benefit to the cover screen.

Most flagship phones pack 120Hz screens with high pixel density. Waking up a giant screen just to read a text is a waste of power.

Using the smaller outer display to handle the basics is much smarter.

This matters because flip phones have to work with less. The hinge takes up a lot of space, so their batteries are usually smaller than those in slab phones.

Flex modes unlock new hands-free shooting styles

Stable by default

We’ve all tried to lean our phones against a water bottle to get the right angle. Flip phones finally ended that problem.

Thanks to Flex Mode, the phone has its own stand, and tripods are officially retired for the casual creator.

The L shape’s stability opens up all kinds of possibilities for night shots.

You can leave the shutter open long enough to capture astrophotography or soft light trails. These are shots that normally come out as a blurry mess if you were holding the phone.

Using the main camera sensors upgrades selfie quality

Your best selfie camera

If you’re tired of grainy selfies, get a flip phone.

Instead of a blind gamble where you point the rear cameras at yourself and hope for the best, you can use the cover screen to frame high-res selfies.

You also get to use the 50MP sensor and wide-angle lenses for much better lighting and background blur that a tiny front camera can’t attain.

Pocketability as a forgotten pillar of phone design

Size matters

Modern smartphones and women’s clothing don’t mix well. Women’s pockets are too small or purely decorative, so carrying a 6.7-inch ultra phone is impossible.

Even men’s pockets aren’t deep enough for these glass bricks anymore.

You’re basically forced to carry a purse or bag to keep your phone on you. Flip phones fix this design flaw perfectly.

Folding a 6.7-inch screen into a tiny 3.4-inch square means it finally fits into pockets and tight jeans.

Form factor no longer limits serious work

Office in your jeans

People love to frame flip phones as hipsters. That take made sense years ago, less so now that the hardware and software are genuinely powerful.

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That tiny square in your coin pocket is a legitimate computer.

Flip phones already support tools like Samsung DeX, and things will only get better when Android’s native desktop mode matures.

After you hook up a monitor and keyboard, you get a taskbar and windowed apps just like a PC. You can actually knock out spreadsheets and browse the full web.

It’s unbelievable that you can run a whole office setup from a device that disappears into your jeans.

The rational choice for the bored consumer

If you think the flip phone’s comeback is a regression, you’re missing the point. It’s a progression.

Now, if you’re a pixel-peeper who needs a 100× zoom or a mobile gamer who depends on serious thermal headroom, slab-style ultra phones still make sense.

But for people who text, email, scroll Instagram, and want a phone that actually fits in a pocket, the flip phone is now the better form factor.

I just wish the pricing were more reasonable.