The Flip Phone Is Back and It’s Not a Total Flop

Thanks to foldable screens, flip phones are back—and so are their satisfying sounds. WSJ's Joanna Stern attempts to make a song out of clicks and clacks that come from the new Razr and Galaxy Z Flip, and tests them along the way. Photo: Kenny Wassus / The Wall Street Journal

---

Once upon a time, before dinosaurs and selfies, humankind carried a tool called the flip phone. Cave drawings depict these contraptions as being primarily for something called a phone call—it’s akin to modern texting, only people used voices instead. 

These clamshells, as some called them, were eventually replaced by glowing glass rectangles, which promised new forms of entertainment and distraction. Their humble, collapsible predecessors all but went extinct. 

TO READ THE FULL STORY