Update, April 17, 2019 (5:00pm ET): Half of the currently broken review units comes from users who removed the plastic layer covering the display. According to Des Smith, Product Guy and Content Director for T-Mobile, the Galaxy Fold includes a warning on the plastic wrap that covers the device when it’s sealed in the retail packaging.
It does appear that the review units might not have come with this plastic wrap. According to Andrew Manganelli, a producer on MKBHD’s team, their review unit didn’t come with the warning. Hopefully, the warning is made extremely visible once retail units begin shipping.
Dear future #GalaxyFold owners, I know I always say “No one ever read the instructions”… PLEASE READ THIS ONE!!!
(This is the wrap over the screen of the Galaxy Fold) pic.twitter.com/LuQPRfDZIE
— Des (@askdes) April 17, 2019
Original article, April 17, 2019 (2:50pm ET): The very expensive Samsung Galaxy Fold is just now rolling out to online review sites. According to a few reports, though, the device isn’t holding up very well to regular use.
Over at The Verge, reviewer Dieter Bohn already has a broken interior display, which seems to have either been caused by a piece of debris or possibly a defect in the internal hinge mechanism. The display now has a white line running through it which certainly is a usability problem.
Meanwhile, Steve Kovach from CNBC posted to Twitter some photos and a GIF of his Samsung Galaxy Fold in a completely unusable state after what he claims is just one day of use:
After one day of use… pic.twitter.com/VjDlJI45C9
— Steve Kovach (@stevekovach) April 17, 2019
Mark Gurman from Bloomberg seems to be having similar issues as Steve Kovach with a totally unusable interior display. However, Gurman also found a very thin layer of film covering the foldable display — which he removed. On Twitter, he said that it seemed like the film was supposed to be removed, and only later did he find warnings from Samsung that users shouldn’t remove it. Gurman said that consumers also likely won’t know they are not supposed to remove this film.
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
We reached out to Samsung for a statement on these problems but didn’t hear back before press time.
Since the Samsung Galaxy Fold is a first-generation product, it’s inevitable that there will be some issues. However, for a nearly $2,000 device to break after only one day of normal usage — this is not sustainable. Samsung will have a serious problem on its hands if the general public faces breaks like these so quickly.
NEXT: Expecting water resistance from the Samsung Galaxy Fold is ridiculous