At present, the cheapest folding screen mobile phone should be Motorola RAZR 40, the price is further reduced to 3699 yuan. What do you think? Compared with the previous folding screen mobile phone often tens of thousands of yuan, is it now close enough to the people?
The price of folding screen phones is indeed decreasing year by year. Previous Jingdong statistics show that the average starting price of large folding screen mobile phones (Fold) has dropped from 13239 yuan in 2021 to 10277 yuan in 2022; The average starting price of small folding screen mobile phones (Flip) dropped from 8294 yuan to 7097 yuan.
This year's downward trend is even more obvious, taking Huawei, which has a higher price in everyone's impression, as an example, the starting price of its folding screen mobile phone Pocket S has been controlled within 5,000 yuan; The newly released OPPO Find N3 Flip starts at 6799 yuan, which is at the same price level as its flagship Find X series.
Among the large folding screen mobile phones, the latest Xiaomi MIX Fold 3 still maintains the same starting price of 8999 yuan as the previous generation under the condition of comprehensive upgrades in various configurations; Earlier, Honor also launched the folding screen mobile phone Magic V2 and the cheaper Magic Vs at the same price...
Whether it is statistics or the actual starting price, it shows that the price of folding screen mobile phones has become closer and closer to a traditional high-end flagship mobile phone, in the case of price and use experience is enough to be equal to straight mobile phones, can the current folding screen mobile phone be bought with confidence?
That's not necessarily.
Changing screens is expensive
Imagine, we usually use the mobile phone will inevitably bump, if it is a folding screen mobile phone, then we have to be more careful when using it. Whether this is disturbing for the time being, more importantly, the folding screen mobile phone itself is more likely to bump into because of folding attributes, weight and other factors, and the probability of broken screen may be higher than that of ordinary straight mobile phones. In other words, even if you are careful when using it, it is still more likely to be damaged than the average phone.
So, what is the level of screen repair costs for folding screen mobile phones now? I deliberately checked the screen component prices of various brands of folding screen mobile phones and found that they did not show a downward trend like the price of mobile phones, which can still be described as high.
The official maintenance price of Xiaomi MIX Fold 3 has been announced: the most expensive maintenance cost is the display screen, the guidance price of external materials is 3650 yuan, which should be the price of the inner screen, plus labor costs 40 yuan, repairing a screen will cost 3690 yuan.
In comparison, the inner screen price of the previous generation MIX Fold 2 is 4139 yuan, which seems to be cheaper, but the inner screen of the first generation MIX Fold costs 3170 yuan, which is more expensive. Compared with the Xiaomi Mi 13 Ultra, the Xiaomi Mi MIX Fold 3 is enough for it to change the screen three times.
The highest cost of the inner screen component is Huawei Mate X3, which is 5199 yuan, and within one year of purchase, enjoy a discount of 3999 yuan for the price of the inner screen. In addition, there is an official special screen, but the price is not cheap, 2999 yuan.
What surprised me a little was that the asking price of the inner screen of vivo X Fold 2 was also so high, reaching 5080 yuan, like Huawei, it enjoyed a preferential price of 3810 yuan within a year of purchase. There is also the Honor Magic V2's 4379 yuan internal screen fee is also not cheap.
Big folds are so expensive, what about small folds? Looking at it, the official maintenance price of OPPO Find N3 Flip has not yet been announced, the inner screen component of the N2 Flip costs 2600 yuan, and the price of the N3 Flip may be above this; vivo X Flip inner screen components are still more expensive, 3,000 yuan, within one year of purchase, you can enjoy a 7% discount.
The screen replacement price of Huawei Pocket S is more expensive at 3319 yuan, and it will cost 2699 yuan after enjoying the event discount. The cheapest small folding Motorola RAZR 40 costs 1682 yuan to change the screen. It can be seen that the screen cost basically accounts for 40%~50% of the value of the mobile phone itself.
From the perspective of mobile phone warranty policy, manufacturers usually identify the bump in appearance as the direct cause of mobile phone screen problems, according to which it is believed that screen problems are human reasons and cannot be guaranteed. Changing the screen requires users to pay for it out of their own pockets. If it is broken twice, it is basically equivalent to buying a new phone.
It is highly recommended to purchase a broken screensaver
To put it bluntly, falling may be the biggest obstacle for many users to get into folding screen mobile phones. For this problem, the manufacturer actually gave a solution - broken screensaver.
The official broken screen saver service of the mobile phone brand has appeared very early, and the users who have purchased the broken screen saver, within one year, if there is a broken screen, leakage, brokenness, etc., they can replace the original screen components for free, and the original warranty service of the mobile phone will not be affected after replacement. This is also the biggest advantage of the official broken screensaver compared to the third-party broken screensaver.
The price of broken screensavers is proportional to the cost of the screen itself, about 2,000 yuan of mid-range models, its broken screensaver is usually about 100 yuan, five or six thousand yuan of flagship machines, such as Xiaomi 13 Ultra, Huawei Mate50, broken screensaver price of three or four hundred yuan.
When it comes to folding screen mobile phones, the price of broken screen savers is the same as the maintenance cost, and it is also rising exponentially. The higher price is still Huawei and vivo, Huawei Mate X3 broken screen service treasure is priced at 1299 yuan, and the replacement of the inner screen will also charge 499 yuan service fee; Vivo's unexpected treasure for the X Fold2 is priced at 1699 yuan, and the broken screensaver price of the Xiaomi MIX Fold 3 also reaches 1399 yuan.
In contrast, the price of OPPO, Samsung, and Honor's broken screensaver is within a thousand yuan, which is relatively lower. However, what is somewhat surprising is that the Motorola RAZR 40 of more than 3,000 yuan, the broken screen insurance asking price is 999 yuan, combined with the aforementioned screen replacement fee, it is not worth it.
The cheapest broken screen saver is the higher price of Samsung, Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5 starting at 12999 yuan, a year discount screen replacement service 699 yuan, if only replace the inner screen, only need to pay another 280 yuan, adding up to less than 1000 yuan. In addition, the OPPO Find N3 Flip directly uses the broken screen saver as a gift for the first purchase, which is equivalent to a discount of about 1,000 yuan, which is still very cost-effective.
In fact, behind the price of broken screensavers, manufacturers must have a cost probability calculation. If the product sales are high, it means that there are more people to share the maintenance cost, and the price of broken screen savers can generally be lower. Take Samsung, broken screensavers can be cheaper than others, and the scale and industrial chain effect play a role behind it. Although Motorola's mobile phone itself is cheap, sales and production costs are there, and the price of broken screensavers is low, which will have a greater impact on its profits.
Although the price of broken screen savers of folding machines is generally high, it is still necessary to buy broken screen savers for folding screen users. At the same time, wearing a shell is also a basic exercise. As for those who usually do not like to use protective cases, or often drop mobile phones, whether they buy a broken screen saver or not, it is not recommended to buy a folding screen mobile phone at this stage.
The market will only improve when it really breaks out
Of course, the future folding screen mobile phone must be towards higher reliability development, the current brands in the release of new folding screen mobile phones, will emphasize its breakthroughs in screen technology, material technology, hinge technology and other aspects, to put it bluntly, is to solve the crease, reliability and other problems and other issues.
For example, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5 uses an armored aluminum bezel to reduce the risk of screen shattering when dropped. Xiaomi MIX Fold
3 self-developed dragon scale fiber, which is sandwiched by two layers of aramid fiber and a layer of ceramic fiber, which is 36 times stronger than glass-ceramic, providing stronger impact resistance.
In addition, the price factor also plays a decisive role in the sales of folding screen mobile phones, once the price falls, the market will immediately have a sensitive reaction. For example, when the price of Samsung small folding mobile phones was reduced to about 6,000 yuan, sales immediately climbed. The reason why OPPO can stand out in the Chinese folding screen mobile phone market is largely due to the pricing strategy of OPPO Find N2 series that was significantly lower than that of friendly companies.
It is foreseeable that with the release of OLED panel production capacity and the improvement of the industrial chain, the price of folding screen mobile phones will be more close to the people, and the cost of screens is expected to be further reduced, which also means that the maintenance cost of folding screens will also be reduced. Especially when the market sales increase, the cost of changing the screen, broken screen saver will also come to a lower level, for folding screen mobile phones can afford, the problem of not repairing can be greatly alleviated, then may be the real market outbreak time of folding screen mobile phones.
Source: Witty Cat