It appears that Samsung has addressed the issues that caused the Galaxy Fold review units to fail as a South Korean publication says that the company is currently reviewing its launch schedule and might release the phone next month.
Within hours of getting their hands on Samsung’s first generation foldable phone, journalists from many media outlets experienced issues such as display breaks and bulges. To get to the bottom of the problem, Samsung recalled all the units and the company has apparently now come up with two solutions to make the phone more durable.
First off, Samsung has reportedly made the plastic layer on the phone non-removable. Since the film resembled a typical disposable screen protector, many reviewers had taken it off. The screen protector was an important part of the display’s structure, and thus its removal led to problems. The South Korean giant has now extended the protector so that it sits under the phone’s bezels. This will prevent consumers from peeling it off.
During the press conference for Galaxy Fold, Samsung had mentioned that the plastic layer must not be removed but since it wasn’t attached to the end of the frame around the display, some reviewers apparently confused it for a protector. Now that the layer will be under the bezel, there will hopefully be no confusion.
Other than that, Samsung has also presumably reduced the size of the hinge, so that it would be covered by the existing protective frame of the device. Apparently, the gap between the top and bottom parts of the hinge was a problem because the exposed area couldn’t prevent dust and debris from coming in and this proved detrimental to the OLED display.
Industry insiders claim that Samsung has already started testing the new revised units with carriers in South Korea. The company might announce a June release date for the Galaxy Fold this month. The phone will compete with Huawei’s Mate X and since it has received so much negative publicity already, it remains to be seen how it will perform at the market.
The Galaxy Fold was something of a mystery ever since it was first unveiled alongside the Galaxy S10 series. Members of the press were not given a chance to try out the device, raising all sorts of questions. Some media outlets even claimed that the internal display of the phone is creased, but as is common knowledge by now, the crease was just the tip of the iceberg.
Carrying a price tag of $1,980, the Galaxy Fold is no ordinary phone and is more of a luxury device. Although it appears that Samsung has fixed all the underlying issues, it is worth remembering that the company had the audacity to push out a half-baked product into the market, presumably to beat other vendors to the punch, and so, it remains to be seen if these fixes will actually work. When it comes to first generations products, Samsung doesn’t really have a good track record and maybe by the next two or three iterations, the company will finally get it right.