Samsung’s $2,000 Foldable Phone Is Already Breaking


In 2016, Samsung became the butt of many fire jokes after their Galaxy Note 7 phones were exploding. The complete debacle forced Samsung to recall all Samsung Galaxy Note 7 phones and the South Korean company lost approximately $17 billion over the failed smartphone. Samsung has created a lot of buzz around their $2,000 foldable phone, but the current publicity around the Galaxy Fold phone isn’t necessarily the kind of notoriety that they want. There are Fold phones that are already breaking despite the phone not even being released yet.

Samsung’s folding handset has a release date of April 26 and will retail for $1,980, but the Fold phone is already breaking. There are Galaxy Fold units that have been given out to review, but there are complaints that the foldable phones are breaking. Journalists shared photos and videos of their Galaxy Fold phones not working properly and falling apart in some instances.

Mark Gurman from Bloomberg, shared photos of his trial folding phone which show the display not working and a tear near the hinge. In the tweet, Gurman wrote: “The screen on my Galaxy Fold review unit is completely broken and unusable just two days in. Hard to know if this is widespread or not.”

Dieter Bohn from The Verge shared an image of his Galaxy Fold that had a weird bulge in the crease of the bendable 7.3-inch screen. This is why you never buy the first type of something brand new, you wait for the second generation after all of the original kinks have been worked out.

The display on CNBC writer Todd Haselton’s foldable phone started to flicker.

On the bright side, at least none of the Galaxy Folds have exploded.

Samsung released a statement addressing the early issues.

A limited number of early Galaxy Fold samples were provided to media for review. We have received a few reports regarding the main display on the samples provided. We will thoroughly inspect these units in person to determine the cause of the matter.

Separately, a few reviewers reported having removed the top layer of the display causing damage to the screen. The main display on the Galaxy Fold features a top protective layer, which is part of the display structure designed to protect the screen from unintended scratches. Removing the protective layer or adding adhesives to the main display may cause damage. We will ensure this information is clearly delivered to our customers.

Samsung warned that the protective layer was removed by the users and that caused some of the broken phones. However, Gurman said that there was no warning or instructions for users to not remove the protective plastic.

YouTube reviewer Marques Brownlee also started to remove the plastic, which looks like any plastic covering that comes with a new smartphone, before the screen on his Fold started bugging out and eventually going dark.

However, there appears to be a warning in the instructions that say to not remove the screen protector.

On the bright side, at least none of the Galaxy Fold phones are exploding. So Samsung’s got that going for them, which is nice.

[CNBC]