MrMobile: 'Not surprised, just disappointed' that his Galaxy Fold is defective

By Daniel Bader
last updated

It's harder when it hits one of your own. Here are Mobile Nations, between our three Galaxy Fold review units, we thought we'd escaped unscathed — none of our units had developed the issues we'd been seeing all over the place for the last few days.

Until now.

See more

Our own Michael Fisher, AKA MrMobile, seems to have a piece of debris under his display. The same piece of debris that found its way into Dieter Bohn's unit over at The Verge. (Well, probably not the same piece of debris, but one equally ruinous.)

Doesn't matter, though: Samsung's collecting all the review units and inspecting them for defects, a consequence of the indefinite delay the company issued earlier this week as it tries to dig into why this trouble unfolded in the first place. Then it has to fix the problem, likely by plugging the exposed parts of the hinge, which iFixit believes is the culprit of this mess.

While it's figuring out that little problem, Samsung will likely make it much more difficult for the average person to remove the not-exactly-a-screen-protector that ostensibly keeps the plastic display underneath from sustaining too much damage. It also hopes to do all this before the inevitable release of the Huawei Mate X, which is expected to start selling sometime in June. According to AT&T, the Galaxy Fold could go back on sale June 13, but that may be a placeholder.

Samsung's also in the unenviable position of needing to salvage a now-damaged phone launch while also convincing consumers that, despite its $2000 price tag, the Fold and phones like it are indeed the future.

No pressure.

See more

As for me, I really like the Fold. It's got some really good ideas and, despite a few rocky implementations of said ideas, a solid foundation. There's plenty to like here, and most of the time I don't see the compromises — I just see the incredible versatility of having a tablet display in a phone's body.

But we can't all agree, can we?

Daniel Bader
Daniel Bader

Daniel Bader was a former Android Central Editor-in-Chief and Executive Editor for iMore and Windows Central. 

26 Comments
  • There's a fat gap between the housing and the display. There is no real life situation where this device will last two years, unless you keep it in a zip lock baggy.
  • I'm pretty sure Huawei and Xiaomi stol Samsung's foldable tech. 11 people were charged in Korea with selling the foldable tech to 2 yet unnamed Chinese companies for 14 million. So regardless if Huawei's or Xiaomi's foldable phones are good or not, I don't want to support China's increasing theft of intellectual property.
  • Apple seem to do just fine stealing everyone's ideas and making them better?
  • Usually not even done better, just marketed better.
  • That smells of BS to me. Not only does Huawei's device fold totally differently than Samsung's, it's not like there's some magical fold chip that makes it work. It's just a flexible panel and a hinge.
  • It's the flexible screen tech that was stolen not the hinge design. Samsung has been working on that for how many years now and all of sudden Huawei just miracoulously comes out with a foldable screen is pretty suspicious. Whether its Huawei or it's screen supplier I'm pretty sure that screen is or based off that stolen flexible screen tech from Samsung along with those other Chinese companies like Royale or something that rushed theirs out to be first with a Foldable screen phone. If it's just a foldable panel why hasn't LG the other big screen supplier competitor to Samsung come out with one?
  • That holds more water, i can believe they stole the screen technology. It's still conjecture though... Do we even know that Huawei didn't buy the screens from Samsung, let alone developed it themselves? There's a lot of hate towards Chinese companies, but they're very capable of developing technology themselves. The reason LG isn't trying a foldable should be pretty obvious if you've been paying attention to their mobile division. They can't sell regular phones, they've realised this and don't mess around with new technology anymore.
  • Weren't some Samsung execs arrested for selling screen tech to competitors?
  • Mate X screen isn't Samsung-made, it's BOE-made.
  • Given these problems, another company maybe actually should beta-test their devices with actual customers. Given the prize of $2000+, being offered a part of a limited release with a hefty price cut might actually drive sales up. Still, paying even $1200 to beta-test a device might still be a bit too much for most. But could be less of a PR nightmare for the company.
  • They keep showing off machines folding and unfolding the thing, but that's all in a controlled environment. If they'd given out 100 test units for people to use in the wild, this would have been found earlier and resulted in less embarrassment.
  • Why haven't people learnt never to buy the first incarnation of something.....
  • Because the majority of people in this world are idiots...
  • Well, nobody's actually out a single penny on this thing yet, so there's that.
  • The 1st iphone was amazing compared to what was available at the time.
  • That's because it wasn't a first generation product lol. It was apple's first phone, but despite what people like to believe there wasn't really any new technology in it.
  • Wasn't any new technology in it? There was no other phone on the market like it that did what it did. So yeah it brought something new that changed the smartphone industry for good
  • Go on then, what technology was there in the iPhone that hasn't been used before in something else? Sure it was executed very well. It was a revolutionary product that didn't contain any revolutionary technology.
  • You do know the original iPhone was an ipod touch with a mic and speaker.
  • Alot more went into it than just a simple iPod touch with a mic and speaker. Apple’s Secret iPhone Launch Team: The Event That Began It All
    https://youtu.be/xxBc1c3uAJw
  • Both are only 10mins iPhone 10 Years Later: The phone that almost wasn't
    https://youtu.be/FfXuxiO_Iqg
  • Given this latest example, and what we've learned from iFixit, it's hard to imagine seeing this device ever released in its current form. 4th quarter at the earliest for the design changes that need to happen. I wonder if Huawei is going to change its tune about their June ship date. That screen is a disaster waiting to happen.
  • I love the idea of the Fold, but I was never going to buy one, especially a first generation model, and especially at that price. When they have perfected them enough to get them down to $600, it'll be a buy. Until then, it's just another Betamax.
  • All else notwithstanding, I still think $2k (or even $1k) is an obscenely unacceptable price for a phone.
  • Has any review unit NOT had an issue at this point? Great QC there Samsung...
  • Brought to you by the same makers that shipped the exploding Note phones.