Mobile phones with folding screen, one year later

• Gallery: The Galaxy Z Flip, in pictures
• First impressions. Contact: we fold the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip

If the trend of this edition of the Mobile World Congress were cancellations, last year's were folding phones. Samsung presented its Galaxy Fold shortly before the Barcelona fair and Huawei showed its Mate X. There was as much expectation as doubts about its future. One year - of so-called failures - later, it seems that the first may begin to be imposed on the latter.

To get to this point, new terminals (mainly, the Galaxy Z Flip and the Motorola Razr) had to be reached, which broke with the previous ones. Or, rather, they did not break like the previous ones.

Everything in Galaxy Fold was shipwreck . A few days after announcing, Mate X was introduced, a new folding with a much superior design and much more attractive. The 2,000 euros it cost seemed impossible to justify, especially when it came to what looked like a prototype of something that had two years of meetings left before reaching the market. But it arrived. With delay, yes.

Just a few days before the official launch, with the reservation campaign already underway, several media that had been able to test the device for a few days began to publish that their test units were broken. In some cases it happened after removing what looked like a plastic screen protector; in others, because dust entered under the screen and roughness formed on the panel.

Samsung was forced to suspend its sale, which did not begin until after several months. By the time he arrived, the surprise had passed and there was only an ugly phone, which nobody trusted and that no specialized media recommended. The company has not announced plans to launch a new Fold model.

For its part, Mate X did not even leave China, partly because he was affected by the war between Huawei and Donald Trump, but also partly because the neighbor's beards were on fire. At the moment it is not known if the Chinese company plans to launch a successor that would have to make a dent, this time, without the possibility of using Google's applications and ecosystem.

In this context, the Galaxy Z Flip appeared, a phone that renounces - fortunately - to the redundant exterior screen and looks like a finished product, something that the Fold could not say without his voice trembling. There is a fold, yes, but it is much more subtle, and Samsung has achieved a very attractive design on a device that manages to be striking, elegant and delicate at the same time.

We said at the beginning that there were still doubts that made up against the expectation. Actually there are only two, but bulky: the price is still very high (1,500 euros) and the screen, supposedly glass, can be scratched with a nail. Separately they would be two important problems, but solvable; together, they become a logic Megazord that fights - shouting "don't do it" - viciously against the urge to buy it.

If we are going to spend 1,500 euros on something it is because it has four walls, four wheels or, at least, four hours of plane and four nights of hotel with its four breakfasts included. And even if it costs us the liver we would try to amortize them based on pancakes and bacon.

This does not mean that the Galaxy Z Flip is not worth that money; only that it is not for everyone. There will be those who spend it - in Spain the purple model sold out within a few hours of being put up for sale, something that may also have influenced that there were not many units available - and will make you happy. It will not be so much when you discover that the Infinity Flex Display with Ultra Thin Glass technology is, on paper, impossible to distinguish from plastic.

Any other component of this device is commendable, even when it is not a top of the range, so it is difficult to fit it into such a particular design. However, we expect panels to resist at least one fall while still being what they were inside, however much they have lost their appearance. Sooner or later, Z Flip is going to be scratched with daily use by much talk that Samsung puts in between.

It is crystal, yes, but it is behind a layer of plastic and is so thin - if not, it would be impossible to bend it, which is almost as if it were not there. And at the same time, it has to be there. In a way it is as if someone says they have abs, no matter how much they are behind a layer of fat: they are there and they fulfill their function, but in reality it will be much closer to the torrezno than Mister Olympia.

The glass of a telephone should be like an Italian central of the eighties: impenetrable, robust, forceful, of Sicily - although born in Milan - with more elbows than legs and with more stomach than heart. He should withstand kicks, punches and even a shot, if necessary, and continue playing and rallying the striker he has just executed. And, of course, his name will never evoke "ultrathin glass", but it will be something like Asassini , Carnigliero or Il collezionista di rotule .

But it is the time we have lived. The centrals raise the ball and the phones fold. In return, we have Messi and a technology sector that, like Leo, sometimes seems closer to magic than to science. Galaxy Z Flip also has that point that enchants and, although it will not mark an era, it seems that it can start it. One year after the folding phones, finally the folding phones arrive.

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