Samsung is reportedly retrieving all Galaxy Fold review units sent to publications to investigate widespread reports of display issues a day after the company officially postponed the phone's original April 26 launch date.
The South Korean electronics company delayed the scheduled release date after several journalists came up with breaks, bulges, and blinking displays just after days of using the device. Of those, a handful broke because users peeled off the foldable display's protective layer, which isn't meant to be removed. As for the rest, the cause is still unknown.
Samsung Recalling All Galaxy Fold Units In The Wild
As Reuters reports, Samsung is going to investigate those affected units by recalling all Galaxy Fold samples it sent out to reviewers. Samsung's initial findings showed the issues could be related to impact on exposed areas of the hinges. Samsung hasn't issued a new release date for its first foldable device yet.
Early Signs
Even before Galaxy Fold units made it to reviewers' hands, there was already suspicion over how strong its hinge mechanism would be. In late March, a leaked Galaxy Fold video showing "creasing" problems on the display surfaced online. A week later, Samsung released a video showing robots folding Galaxy Fold units 200,000 times as part of its durability test.
Foldable handsets are an entirely new category in the smartphone space, which is why initial problems shouldn't come as a surprise. As always with new technology, hiccups are to be expected as kinks are a crucial part of development — there must first be problems before coming up with solutions.
DJ Koh, Samsung's head of IT and mobile communications, has repeatedly argued that foldables are the future of smartphones. Time will tell whether Koh's claims are prophetic, of course. While it remains to be determined why Galaxy Fold units are breaking, it's safe to assume Samsung has a lot more to polish if it intends to pursue foldables moving forward.
Despite this potentially taking a toll on the reputation of foldable phones, Samsung's balance sheet likely won't suffer dents, but it sure does hurt Samsung's efforts to showcase itself as an innovative company.
Samsung has emailed those who preordered the phone, telling them their orders are still in place.
"We'll update you with more specific shipping information in two weeks."
Make sure to check back with Tech Times as we learn more. If you have any comments, feel free to sound them off in the comments section below!
