I clicked on this, and it's immediately asking for my email. No big surprises there.
This however is the copy:
EXCLUSIVE
Unlock your surprise
Sign up to receive your surprise and start sleeping better today
With the big glowing confirm button labelled "Get my surprise" and the dark pattern barely visible skip link "I don't want a surprise".
I was aware of the existence of these things but had never paid them the slightest mind, this is just.. ick.
I have a plastic desk toy of this dumpster.
https://100soft.shop/products/dumpster-fire-vinyl-figure
Truly an object worthy to represent these troubled times.
In my extended circle of acquaintences and colleagues I know around eight people with folding phones. I have seen ONE of them ever use it open - even in situations where you'd think it'd be great, like sitting at the tables in the office kitchen at lunchtime browsing, almost never used unfolded.
It seems like it should be a great idea, but for the majority of people the majority of the time, it appears to be an otherwise normal phone that's just twice as thick as it needed to be. One of the owners of these devices - who had it bought for them rather than choosing it themself - made that exact complaint to me, in fact.
That said, don't let this put you off. If it's a thing you think you would like, the technology has definitely progressed to the point where the more glaring issues (of reliability, mostly) have been worked out. But definitely spend some time playing with one in a store before committing if you can.
I actually typo'd the original (corrected now), my 2nd was an XZP too. And also died of failed USB port.
I looked into how hard repairing it would be, and while parts were mostly available, having to take the entire phone apart (as the USB port assembly was the last piece to come out of the chassis) didn't thrill me.
Sony mostly pass the camera quality test†, the "fit and finish" test, and ship a relatively clean Android OS.
You also get options to have otherwise-long-forgotten features like 3.5mm headphone jacks and MicroSD slots, and Sony's waterproofing is second to none for phones that you wouldn't naturally describe as "ruggedised".
There are unavoidable issues around pricing (high) and availability (low), but by most of the metrics people would choose to measure phones' quality, features, performance, etc, they are actually doing a great job with their products (at least now that they also offer a respectable duration of OS updates and support).
If you are looking for it too, they tend to be at the upper end of manufacturers for open-source code and documentation availability: https://developerworld.wpp.developer.sony.com/open-source/aosp-on-xperia-open-devices, though with that said due to the relatively small audience for their products, availability of other people's custom ROMs will not necessarily be extensive.
I'm on my fourth of their phones (Z2 2014, XZ Premium 2017, 1ii 2020, 1vii 2025), every upgrade time I've looked around, and every time I've failed to find something I want to own more than another one.
† The caveat here is they're highly skewed toward operator control; you're very much expected to participate in the photo-taking process and I'm painfully aware that's not what most people want these days. Low assistance provided, basically zero "AI" processing, just lots of rope with which to hang yourself. It'll take beautiful pictures once you get accustomed to it though, whaddaya gonna do?
For everyone saying "I've seen this before"; yes, yes you have. It was released commercially back when optical disks were... relevant.
Released 23 years ago, discontinued 15 years ago: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DiscT@2
Pretty sure Technology Connections has a video that mentions it.
Looks like they hired the same artist who made the one of Cristiano Ronaldo.
In the woods, or???
As it's most often seen on news sites - where scrolling too far gives you another article - a handful of reasons.
One: there are frequently still links (think "about us" / "contact us" kind of pages) in the footer that you might need to access, which you can invariably now never reach, because as soon as they're in view they're replaced by more content.
Two: as the parent poster so accurately put it, "fucking with the browser history". It becomes entirely indeterminate whether the back button now returns to the previous site, or just goes back by one piece of content.
Three: the new content is almost certainly unrelated to the page I started on, and not of any interest to me.
It's distressing just how freaking similar the sales pitch is too.
What I'm loathed to even call the "real product": It’s time to stop flushing away valuable data.
The fake one: If I had information that could save your life or the life of your family members, would you flush that?
Just... wow
The vision: this, apparently.
The reality: watching dust accumulate in places you can't possibly clean.
Pass.
I rescued mine - an A3 colour laser with network and auto duplex, no less - from work's e-waste pile after "the purge" where they eliminated all single-user "personal" printers and moved to only shared printers with swipe card print release.
Have enough toner cartridges to last a lifetime too; its, or mine (either way).