If you were looking into spending $2000 on Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy Fold smartphone, then maybe wait until the next generation. A bunch of YouTubers and smartphone reviewers received devices a couple of days ago and they are breaking.
Reports are coming in from Twitter and YouTube showing the Samsung Galaxy Fold device display flickering, peeling off and even cracking to a point where there are holes in it. One user reports that the display even refreshes faster on one side of the fold than the other causing a refresh rate mismatch while in use.
RELATED: Hands-On With The Samsung Galaxy Fold – Love and Hate Relationship
My colleague opened the Galaxy Fold and it started doing this. So, long answer to your question @WilfredFrost, the hinge doesn’t seem very rugged after all. After two days: pic.twitter.com/Z1F8iwjURa
— Todd Haselton (@robotodd) April 17, 2019
The biggest problem seems to be the display which, after much use, begins to lift as if there is a screen protector on it. This film is the actual display and not a protector so once this starts, it begins damaging the entire display until it fails to turn on.
One Twitter user revealed that his review unit broke within two days of use. Another showed a giant black fold in the middle of his display where the hinge is.
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. pic.twitter.com/G0OHj3DQHw
— Mark Gurman (@markgurman) April 17, 2019
Samsung has replaced these review units with new ones and they have yet to comment on the state of the damage. I doubt everyone complaining about the issue just happened to receive a faulty unit. But until the device is available to consumers and this is made a widespread issue, we really cannot jump to conclusions saying this device is the “Samsung Galaxy Note 7 of 2019”.
PSA: There’s a layer that appears to be a screen protector on the Galaxy Fold’s display. It’s NOT a screen protector. Do NOT remove it.
I got this far peeling it off before the display spazzed and blacked out. Started over with a replacement. pic.twitter.com/ZhEG2Bqulr
— Marques Brownlee (@MKBHD) April 17, 2019
I went hands-on with the Samsung Galaxy Fold in February and the middle of the display already worried me. It seems that I was right to be concerned about how flimsy the device actually is. You can read my hands-on experience here. Samsung released this video a while back showing the fold tests being done on the device. Clearly, this was not the case.
[su_youtube url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McdgS3Popjk”]
