After it was officially unveiled at Samsung Galaxy Unpacked event in San Francisco a few months ago, Galaxy Fold is heading to consumers. With the US as one of the first markets to receive the new foldable device, it is rather natural that members of the media over there are already able to get their hands on review units.
However, things don’t seem to go well with the review unit though as multiple media members have reported that their Galaxy Fold is breaking up barely 2-3 days after using it. It is hard to say whether they are being mishandled or genuinely broken from design or manufacturing perspective but for some, it is because of this protective layer that is not supposed to be removed by users:
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
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
To their defence though, the review units apparently missing a warning label that would appear on retail units:
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
For some other media members though, their unit became malfunction without obvious reason:
https://twitter.com/backlon/status/1118573836226658304
https://twitter.com/robotodd/status/1118585937712250880
While it is quite possible that the issues above only affect a handful of early units, it is still a worrying sign for something that costs more than RM 8000. At the same time, we are not sure whether these malfunction issues will affect the actual consumer rollout of Galaxy Fold.
Samsung previously has a history of putting significant effort to make things right, as per what that took place during the Galaxy Note 7 battery issue. We surely do hope it able to do so for the Galaxy Fold as well, or else things could go awry for its first foldable phone which supposed to be a glorious moment for Samsung.
(Main image: Mark Gurman @ Bloomberg.)
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