Compare Flip phones in Australia

Phones that flip open have been a desirable idea ever since the Star Trek communicator was first revealed in the late 1960s. Technology wasn’t quite up to the task of major consumer delivery of actual flip phones until the late 1990s, with brands such as Nokia and Motorola producing dozens of highly desirable feature phones.

The advent of smartphones saw flip phones rather fade off into the distance for a while; never totally unavailable, but certainly only a tiny fragment of the market for a long while. That’s all changed in recent years with foldable smartphones becoming a reality – and with them, an ever-expanding range of available premium flip phone options.

So what can you get, and what’s worth getting excited about? Here’s what you should consider and compare, as well as the full range of available options in Australia for flip phone fanatics.

Flip Smartphones are very different devices to their feature phone counterparts – apart from making and taking calls on them, and most allowing you the satisfaction of finishing a call by snapping them shut, there’s really a gulf in terms of features offered.

On the plus side, most foldable/flip-capable smartphones make smart use of their external displays where most feature equivalents basically just offer clocks and maybe notification lights, especially on more up-to-date models like the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip5 or Motorola Razr 40 Ultra. You’re getting full Android app compatibility – to date, Apple hasn’t released any folding phones at all – on generally powerful units with solid cameras.

On the minus side, while prices have come down somewhat from their initial genuinely shocking highs, foldable flip phones still attract a price premium. It’s well worth considering what you can get for the same money in a more traditional flat smartphone when you’re purchasing. The nature of the folding mechanism also means that most foldable phones are less protected against water and especially dust ingress, and their folding screens do not typically take screen protectors well – or at all.

The most basic level of flip phone you can buy aren’t smartphones, but instead older school style feature phones with proper physical keyboards and a flip up action that reveals the keypad and primary screen. They’re a good match for anyone who actively doesn’t want a smartphone, either for reasons of complexity or for simply doing a little bit of digital detox.

However, they’re not powerful devices ever, with limited apps, generally terrible cameras and limited range of choices on offer. You can often get better functional smartphones for less money than the limited range of flip phones available in Australia, leaving the humble flip feature phone only for the truly dedicated – or the truly dedicated to hating smartphones.