1996
The first phone that folded shut.
Motorola's StarTAC popularized the clamshell design: a phone that closed to protect its keypad and opened to answer a call. It became one of the best-selling phones of its decade and set the template every flip phone after it would copy.
2019
Samsung brought the fold back.
Touchscreen slabs had pushed flip phones out of the market for a decade. Samsung's Galaxy Fold reintroduced folding in 2019, this time with a flexible screen instead of a hinge and a keypad. It wasn't perfect at launch, but it proved the idea still had a future.
2026
This year, Apple folded too.
The iPhone Duo is Apple's first foldable, arriving years after its rivals. It's the newest phone in this guide, and proof the fold has gone from experiment to expectation.
Apple A20 Pro · 7.6-inch Super Retina XDR · $1,999
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Samsung and Apple aren't the only ones folding.
Google, Motorola, Oppo, Huawei, and Xiaomi all build foldables worth knowing about, across four different shapes.
Never miss the next fold.
New foldables land every few months. Get a heads-up the moment one's added to the guide, no spam, just new phones.
