When you open it, it becomes a tablet not a phone. And therein lays your answer.

That might explain my naivety here, I've never really gotten into using tablets for anything.

My mother uses it for everything. The small phone screen is hard for her eyes, she doesn't really need a laptop and the tablet is just right. She still carries a phone with her but I can imagine if she replaced both tablet and phone with a single foldable she'd be happy. On the other hand, she'd want it to last 5+ years and she'd never spend €1800+ on it.

And I've never gotten into using my phone for anything outside of calls messages and navigation. The web is the worst on tiny vertical screens.

I am a tablet user but crease is a non starter. However I know people who like foldables in different ways, like financial stuff, they don't care

For most, if not all users, the crease is not something one notices during regular use. You just forget it's there when you look at content.

That said, with the Pixel's enormous crease you feel it if you touch the middle of the screen.

Depends on your use. If you draw or want high quality display with no weird reflections from your tablet then it's a non starter.

Yep! Having just got the Pixel Fold 10. I've been wanting a tablet for casual browsing and video watching but I knew I wouldn't use it because it's not my phone. The apps data would be different logins are annoying. If I'm getting another device out I'll just get my laptop. This thing is great though. There can't be a more seamless transition. The multitasking is pretty good and with coding agents it's actually turned out fairly production to have two apps side by side.

a tablet with a crease right in the middle of a screen (FTFY)

You really don't notice it while you're using a folding phone.

someone said "tablet". When I use a tablet I personally don't just notice it, I literally can't stand any uneven surface under stylus or uneven reflections.

So the unfolded state of the folded phone is not a "tablet" to me. Maybe a tablet with a glaring defect... definitely not a tablet I could use as an actual tablet.

I can't tell if you've actually tried a finding phone or not, but that would help understand and place your comments better.

I have, I have a friend with a folding phone

What a strange question. I guess we no longer need monitors because a phone display is all anyone should need? Why do I need two devices when one would do? I get we are not there yet but I can certainly imagine having just one device and virtual displays in my glasses / contacts. Those displays will not be phone sized

Also, bad eye site, large fonts, suck in small screens

Well, the way I use a device with a monitor is a different kind of UX though. Usually it involves a keyboard and mouse, not a touch screen, and I can do certain things better through that kind of input. For that reason I personally like having different devices that are specific to different use cases, as I can express myself better then through the mechanical intuition that I have built up, instead of shoehorning one generic way to do everything. Phones I mostly use to quickly check things such as news, sometimes to watch videos, and messaging/calling, I don't need a large screen for that because at some point it compromises my ability to hold and operate the phone with one hand. Having a virtual environment that responds to your body/hands of course allows you to emulate all types of things, when it gets to that point I think I agree that having one device is the future.

Bad eye sight is a good one, but I don't think it explains the popularity of large screens fully, are there really so many with bad eye sight to the point that they need a larger screen?

>are there really so many with bad eye sight

ROTFL! I can't wait until you kids get old enough to have to put readers on to use your devices like most older people do. And while I am yelling at the kids on my lawn, let me add every UI/UX person at apple - the idiotic and unnecessary choices they make for the sake of "cool design" infuriate me on a daily basis.

I actually develop software on my phone with Termux. I want the biggest screen that still fits in my pocket.

Makes it easier to use enterprisey management console type UIs on the go. Also nice for reading large diffs.

Turns into a small tablet which is great for reading, for impromptu client demos, and for playing some games like puzzles.

It also enables multitasking by having applications side by side which can be very useful on a phone too.

You don't have to use it all the time, but it's nice when you need it.

I read PDFs on my foldable phone.

No, these are shockingly bad at watching video. The video output is only slightly bigger than a regular phone due to the form factor. Big ole black bars on everything, and movies are worse.