When many people consider ebooks, we consider an Amazon Kindle eReader. However lately, there’s one other transportable piece of tech that’s actually formed like a e-book—the book-style foldable telephone. I carry one in my pocket, and I am now studying greater than ever.


A Ebook-Formed Telephone Feels Like Holding a Ebook

Reading a book on a Galaxy Z Fold 5.
Bertel King / How-To Geek


We frequently use tech to re-imagine how issues may be. If we are able to carry round a light-weight digital slate, textual content can take any form we wish. On e-ink eReaders like either a Kindle or Kobo, we do not flip pages. Once we swipe, the textual content merely vanishes, immediately changed by new phrases.

But there’s something each acquainted and comforting in regards to the form of a e-book. Holding a tome in two arms and turning a web page indicators to our brains that we aren’t studying a webpage or digesting an electronic mail. We’re studying a e-book.


Participating with a novel, a biography, or a group of poems is completely different from inhaling a weblog put up or scrolling by way of a social media feed. One thing is misplaced after we flatten all media to the purpose the place they more and more really feel—bodily—the identical.

Extra Moveable Than Any Kindle

A Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 with an S Pen Fold Edition.
Bertel King / How-To Geek

I’ve owned a Nook Easy Contact and a Nook Shade. I’ve had a number of Boox tablets, just like the Boox Tab Ultra C. They have been all doomed for a similar cause: once I wished to learn a e-book, I did not have them on me.

In concept, carrying round an eReader is not that completely different from carrying round a bodily e-book. They’re related in dimension, in any case. If something, the portability of an eReader is one reason to read ebooks over physical books. However an eReader is an digital gadget, considerably delicate and too beneficial to be as carefree with.


I do not need to carry an costly pill in my arms as I transfer by way of the world, inserting it down on tables or on the seat beside me as a result of it would not slot in my pocket. Even an inexpensive eReader prices greater than most books, and value apart, there’s one thing dangerous about dropping books or notes that I personally choose to not sync to the cloud. So I solely really feel snug carrying it in a bag, a bag I do not need to seize each time I go away the home.

The interior display of my Galaxy Z Fold 5 is comparable in dimension to that of an eReader, but it is as transportable as some other smartphone. It slips into my pocket when not in use, invisible to the world. It is a massive a part of why I now prefer reading ebooks on my phone over an eReader.

View Two Pages or Columns at As soon as

A slightly open Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 on a bookshelf.
Bertel King / How-To Geek


eReaders are inclined to solely show a single column or web page of textual content at a time. That is very true on typical telephones, with their tall and slim side ratios. If you open up a foldable, you will have the choice to view two pages at a time.

Some book-shaped telephones are higher for this than others. Whereas I by no means owned one, the Microsoft Floor Duo regarded excellent for the job. So does the unique Pixel Fold. But even on my Z Fold 5, whose comparatively tall and slim form makes every half look extra like a column of newspaper textual content than a web page in a novel, the expertise remains to be a step up. That is helped by the Z Fold’s minimalist exterior feeling extra like a e-book than different choices, like the OnePlus Open with its giant camera bump.

Marking Up an eBook Feels Nice (With out Damaging Your Ebook)

Highlighting text in a PDF on a Galaxy Z Fold 5 with an S Pen.
Bertel King / How-To Geek


The Z Fold would not simply really feel like a small paperback; it feels much more like carrying a Moleskin pocket book. After I pull out my S Pen (which I use all the time), it really looks like I am writing one thing down.

This sense transfers over to marking up a e-book. Highlighting textual content can really really feel like dragging a highlighter over textual content. Studying a e-book (saved as a PDF) in Samsung Notes permits me to each write within the margins and circle vital passages.

Nonetheless, my favourite factor about this function is true of some other eReader, which is the truth that I am not marking up my e-book within the course of. You’ll be able to say {that a} telephone with the ability to fold makes no distinction in anyway right here, and you’d be proper. But, for me, there’s one thing about opening and shutting a tool like a journal that makes me extra inclined to be aware of the elements of texts that make my coronary heart sing.

Multitasking Can Be Much less Distracting


One of many nice issues about foldables is that they make multitasking easier. This is applicable to studying, too. If somebody’s texting you when you’re in a e-book, you do not have to place the gadget right down to go test on the dialog. You’ll be able to shift the book over to the facet of the display, open the chat on the opposite half, and preserve studying whereas the typing indicator continues to bounce away.

Does this nonetheless have the potential to distract you from a e-book? Completely. You are making it simpler to speak when you learn. On the flip facet, you are additionally making it simpler to learn when you discuss.

Plus, there’s something to be stated for the convenience of wanting one thing up with out dropping your house. That is one thing I really feel the urge to do when studying non-fiction books that reference or suggest different books.


Is doing all of this when you learn a superb observe? I do not know. Maybe it is higher to maintain a notepad by your facet to write down down issues to do later quite than doing them proper this second. I’ve tried to develop such a behavior up to now, and kudos to you if it sticks. Recently, I’ve determined to embrace the comfort of a tool that makes it quicker to do, quite than resist, all of the tech duties that beckon. Then I can shortly get again to the duty at hand.


Is having a book-shaped telephone a gimmick? I’m not a fan of that term, because it’s typically used to dismiss something new or area of interest that won’t achieve mass adoption.

I like that this sort of gadget exists, and I hope it continues to. Whereas some may be more excited about tri-fold phones, I do not suppose packing a bigger display inherently makes them higher. There’s one thing to understand a few gadget being formed like a e-book, particularly if, like me, you are somebody who actually enjoys books. And for those who favor comics and manga, a book-style foldable is perfect for those, too.


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