Ahead of the Galaxy Fold's launch later this month, Samsung handed out units to select members of the tech press to help get the word out about the device. Unfortunately for Samsung, several of those devices have now had major issues.
Many Galaxy Fold units that are in the wild right now have malfunctioning displays. Images and videos posted to day show that Galaxy Folds being used by Bloomberg, CNBC, and The Verge are all breaking, with half or more of the display flickering or simply staying black.
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
It's unclear what's causing the problem. Some folks peeled off a protective film on top of the Galaxy Fold's display, not knowing that Samsung doesn't actually want you to peel that off. As you can see in the tweet below from YouTuber MKBHD, the Galaxy Fold's display blacked out when he started peeling this film off. However, that may not be the cause of these issues, as both CNBC and The Verge say that they never touched this protective layer and their Galaxy Fold's screen still broke.
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
Samsung hasn't yet issued a statement on these Galaxy Fold issues, but we'll update you if it does.
While the Galaxy Fold hasn't yet launched to the public, these phones breaking is still a problem for Samsung. Not only is the Galaxy Fold an expensive smartphone, priced at $1,980, but these units have only been in the hands of reviewers for a day or two. Some of these issues are surely being caused by that protective layer being removed, and Samsung should make it more clear to consumers that this film should not be removed, but some Galaxy Folds are having display problems even with that film intact, so there's another issue here. Stay tuned.
