Days after the first lot of Samsung Galaxy Fold reviews painted a seemingly positive picture of the landmark device, reports of broken screens are now flooding in from across the world.
[jwplayer u4AeGU7l]
Some of them are flickering, some are completely blacked out in areas, and others are copping permanent dents from what reviewers describe as normal use.
https://twitter.com/stevekovach/status/1118571414934753280
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
When I tap the screen as well with the top of my finger and the fingernail hits it (very common), it also leaves a seemingly permanent indent. Samsung is going to send a replacement and I’ll share updates.
— Mark Gurman (@markgurman) April 17, 2019
No one experiencing the problems can figure out for certain why it’s happening, but some of the issues may be a result of removing the thin plastic sheet on the inner screen, which is meant to stay on the deceive. Allegedly, this fact isn’t made very clear.
The phone comes with this protective layer/film. Samsung says you are not supposed to remove it. I removed it, not knowing you’re not supposed to (consumers won’t know either). It appeared removable in the left corner, so I took it off. I believe this contributed to the problem. pic.twitter.com/fU646D2zpY
— Mark Gurman (@markgurman) April 17, 2019
Samsung has since told The Verge writer, Dieter Bohn, that it will issue an official statement on the matter soon.
https://twitter.com/backlon/status/1118573836226658304
Others have not spotted any problems at all, so this could just be a first-run production issue rather than a baked-in fault. Either way, it’ll likely be resolved before any kind of mass rollout.
https://twitter.com/geoffreyfowler/status/1118586892042158080
The thing is, the Galaxy Fold is a US $2,000 phone, which means it’ll cost upwards of $2,700 here in Australia, so durability is a massive concern at a price like that. This sort of thing isn’t uncommon with brand new technology, so there’s always gonna be a kink somewhere. Despite these recent issues, the Fold was always going to be a device for early adopters.
When it works, however, the feedback seems to be pretty good.
