Samsung delayed the launch of its Galaxy Fold shortly after a handful of reviewers demonstrated that the screen was breaking, bulging, and even flickering for no apparent cause. Many things remain unanswered — why are the screens malfunctioning? What will Samsung do to mitigate this potential disaster?
More importantly for those who've already preordered — when are they going to get their phone now that the original April 26 launch is out of the question?
AT&T Knows When The Galaxy Fold Will Be Released
It seems AT&T, not Samsung, has the answer — June 13. The carrier has apparently been emailing customers about the new release date, as screenshots posted on Twitter and Reddit show.
To be clear, Samsung has not announced any updates on a new release date. Chances are the June 13 date is merely a placeholder. Perhaps AT&T's systems required some specific date to keep the preorders live. This is a typical occurrence, especially in the case of unreleased video games. What happens is that retailers need to input a placeholder date into their system to legitimize preorders, which is why games without exact release dates but are sure to come sometime within the year might be marked for "Dec. 31, 2019."
Why Do This?
June 13, on the other hand, seems oddly specific. The Verge speculates that it might just be a guess on the part of AT&T, which if true seems irresponsibly executed considering Samsung itself has yet to provide any updates regarding the shipping date. It's also a pretty bad look for AT&T to have sent emails to a bunch of customers without giving ample context.
Granted, AT&T may have just been following federal law that requires carriers to inform customers about new release dates and have them accept, but the company still could have provided a bit more information. Some customers might not be aware of what's happening with the Galaxy Fold and its screen, after all.
Samsung is allegedly collecting all Galaxy Fold units sent for review to investigate the reported issues, according to Reuters. It's a wise move as it'll give Samsung the opportunity to inspect actual affected units and also forestall any further reports of display issues. It's not clear just how widespread the issues are, especially since only a handful of units have been sent to the wild. Whether or not Samsung is facing something as bad as the Note 7 fiasco from a few years ago remains to be seen.
