A defense of foldable mobiles
Question: I just want to say that I find it tiresome that every foldable phone review starts with a harangue about the pointlessness of a foldable phone. I absolutely do not agree. I have a Flip 5 which I enjoy very much. It is much more convenient to carry. It fits in most pockets without you noticing it’s there. I don’t know how many times I’ve lost other cell phones because they slip out of my pocket or because they’re just uncomfortable to carry around. The most common functions for me work perfectly on the small screen. This is a matter of taste, but to write that the folding function has no practical meaning is wrong.
Elias Nordling answers: Thank you for your feedback! It’s always nice to hear how people use their phones, and a good data point why people choose foldable phones. Personally, I rather think that a flip phone is less comfortable to have in your pocket, but that just shows that we have different preferences (or different pockets). Or at least I thought so before the Galaxy Z Flip 7, but the trend towards thinner foldables is really interesting.
A defense of foldable mobiles
Question: I just want to say that I find it tiresome that every foldable phone review starts with a harangue about the pointlessness of a foldable phone. I absolutely do not agree. I have a Flip 5 which I enjoy very much. It is much more convenient to carry. It fits in most pockets without you noticing it’s there. I don’t know how many times I’ve lost other cell phones because they slip out of my pocket or because they’re just uncomfortable to carry around. The most common functions for me work perfectly on the small screen. This is a matter of taste, but to write that the folding function has no practical meaning is wrong.
Elias Nordling answers: Thank you for your feedback! It’s always nice to hear how people use their phones, and a good data point why people choose foldable phones. Personally, I rather think that a flip phone is less comfortable to have in your pocket, but that just shows that we have different preferences (or different pockets). Or at least I thought so before the Galaxy Z Flip 7, but the trend towards thinner foldables is really interesting.
The foldable Flip phones have simply found their niche, and we will focus more on those advantages in our tests going forward.
Headset instead of hearing aid
Question: I wonder if there is mobile with hearing test/analysis and which (with pods) can be used instead of “regular” hearing aids?
Elias Nordling answers: Apple’s Iphone and their Airpods 2 or 3 have such a function, but I don’t know how good it is in relation to a hearing aid. So far, I haven’t seen any other manufacturer follow suit, but what Apple does tends to spread, and in this case it would even be desirable.
What happens to my saved SMS?
Question: I have read your article that Samsung Messenger will end in July. What happens to the Samsung Cloud where you have saved all the sms, will it also disappear? I personally have about 4 million text messages saved there and I wonder if Samsung ends support for their app and how it will work afterwards with all the saved text messages that are in the Samsung Cloud.
Elias Nordling answers: First, it must be said that the shutdown currently and officially only applies to the American market. Mobil has searched Samsung in Sweden to find out what applies here, without receiving an answer. But it doesn’t hurt to be prepared when it now seems that Samsung is in the process of discontinuing the service.
After all, Google Drive has a corresponding SMS backup option that is more future-proof. According to samsung in the US, when you switch SMS apps to Google, you will automatically get them transferred there, but according to them, it can take up to 24 hours depending on how many SMS you have. Once transferred, you can use Google’s own backup function to back up SMS, you can find it under Settings/Google/Manage Backup.
You can read Samsung’s information about the shutdown in the US here.
Free surf a marketing lie?
Question: I think you should review the term “Free surf” in the Swedish mobile market. Is it really free surfing, or is it just a marketing lie?
I myself use Chilimobil “Full speed”, but have discovered that in practice it is not unlimited. There is a daily limit which means that when you reach a certain limit, the speed is completely throttled. This means that you cannot, for example, finish watching a movie on Netflix without interruption. Calling this “free surfing” feels misleading to us consumers.
It would be interesting if you could make a report on how the operators use these daily blocks and if it can really be called “unlimited” when you are constantly blocked in the middle of use.
Elias Nordling answers: Hello! Yes, free surfing is a term like that which, like a lifetime guarantee, has in practice come to have its own meaning in a marketing context.
Every time a mobile operator has tried true unlimited surfing, it has resulted in a few users using up the entire capacity of the network, for example by downloading torrents around the clock. Therefore, all operators have a policy of limiting free surfing to reasonable use, and reserve the right to reduce the speed or otherwise affect the subscription if it is judged to be overusing it.
In the case of Chilimobil, they have set a limit of 25 GB per day in their “fair usage policy”. If you use more than that, the data speed is throttled as you noticed. If you watch Netflix, it takes up to 1 GB per hour in SD resolution, 3 GB per hour in HD and 7 GB per hour in 4K, so if you stream in 4K resolution, you can reach Chilimobil’s ceiling in a couple of hours. For comparison, we can take Tele2, which in its unlimited subscriptions allows 50 GB per day, but if you run out, you can send an SMS and get 5 GB an unlimited number of times, which still prevents automatic file downloads.
Free surfing means free in the sense that you don’t have to think about how much data pot you used and buy new if it runs out, but not free as in you can run maximum downloads around the clock.
Should the operators be more clear about this instead of hiding it in Q&A? Yes, they should.
Ask about the basis in OnePlus reporting
Question: Hi, I was reacting to the wording that OnePlus is effectively leaving Europe. I don’t see any official statement saying that, just that they are evaluating the business.
Can you clarify which sources are behind that conclusion?
Erik Mörner answers: That staff leave in large numbers without being replaced:
In recent days, a very large number of Oneplus employees in Europe have announced on Linkedin that they have just completed their last day at Oneplus. Among these the Nordic manager and many PR employees at the European level. This is also something that Mobil was able to report earlier. Oneplus’ closure in Sweden and Europe thus seems to be confirmed in practice, despite the company itself only saying that they are evaluating the business. Without employees, it is difficult to say the least to start it up again. OnePlus in Europe is a marketing and sales organization, which means that these roles are, or rather were, central.
Elias Nordling answers: To that can be added that they terminated their PR agency in Sweden without acquiring a new one, or any other means of communication at all, and that they have now had time to launch several major products that are not sold here in Sweden, for example Oneplus Nord 6 and a new Oneplus Watch.