The concept of a foldable device was unfathomable until very recently when Samsung showed off the Galaxy Fold to the world. We didn’t know a lot about it as Samsung had kept the device well-shielded, away from prying eyes (and hands.) Recently, a few people finally managed to get their hands on one and the results are less than fascinating. A correspondent from The Verge claims that his Galaxy Fold broke just a day after he laid hands on it. It turns out, he isn’t the only one. A lot of other influencers have run into troubles with the $2,000 tablet, and things are not looking good.
After one day of use… pic.twitter.com/VjDlJI45C9
— Steve Kovach (@stevekovach) April 17, 2019
Steve Kovach of CNBC has half of his screen go belly up just after a day of use. Similarly, Mark Gruman of Bloomberg messed up the screen on his unit by peeling a ‘protective layer’ that wasn’t supposed to be removed. UPDATE: It mentions it clearly in the documentation that you shouldn’t peel the protective layer. The end result, well, a horrible looking contraption. You can witness it in its full glory below.
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
Popular YouTube influencer Marques Brownlee aka MKBHD also met a similar fate when he peeled what he thought was a ‘screen protector’.
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
Isolated incidents or glaring design flaw? Only time will tell
It is hard to pin the blame on any one party for this whole fiasco. Samsung didn’t do enough in the way of telling users not to peel the “screen protector” off the tablet. Now, one shouldn’t go about peeling layers off things at random either, but a warning would be nice. The Verge’s Dieter Bohn’s unit also appears to have a defective hinge with a “small bulge” that he can feel that’s causing the screen to “slightly distort.” According to Deiter, the issue was likely due to a piece of debris that somehow made its way inside the tablet.
It’s still too early to jump to conclusions about the tablet. Yes, a $2,000 device shouldn’t fail one day into its life cycle, regardless of what users do to it. [UPDATE] Was it too hard for people to read Samsung’s “DO NOT PEEL” sticker on the tablet? It’ll be interesting to see how the device fares in the coming week. If all it takes to break the tablet is a piece of debris, then we have a lot more to worry about than random stickers that may or may not be screen protectors. Or, Samsung could double down and tell users that they’re folding it wrong.
UPDATE: Some more Tweets
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
Calling it now: The Galaxy Fold has a jelly scrolling problem. The left side of the screen refreshes slightly faster than the right side leading to text that looks like it’s rising and falling whenever you scroll. It’s subtle and not that distracting but it’s definitely there.
— Daniel Bader (@journeydan) April 17, 2019
