The first foldable phone will likely be Samsung’s Galaxy Fold, but the phones are also breaking for overseas reviewers. Is it still destined for Australia?
If you’ve been clambering for one of those new “foldable” phones since they were hinted at last year, you may want to rethink your position, at least for the next year or so. Early signs are that they may not be quite as impressive as you had hoped.
While the idea of a foldable screen suggests we could all give up on the tablet and just carry a phone that does double duty, the first reviewers of such a device over in America aren’t exactly having the best of times.
Samsung is ready with its Galaxy Fold foldable phone first, and the news isn’t amazing, as they seem to be breaking.
Reviewers at several publications have been seeing their phones breaking after a short usage period, including The Verge’s Dieter Bohn and CNBC’s Steve Kovach:
https://twitter.com/stevekovach/status/1118571414934753280?s=21
That’s a troubling sign, and while it’s not as much of a problem as the Note 7 drama that caused Samsung to rethink its approach to smartphone batteries, the Galaxy Fold breaks have apparently affected Samsung’s share price, CNBC reports.
Locally, WhistleOut’s Alex Choros heard from Samsung on the matter, learning that part of the display features a protective layer that can see damage to simply by removing it:
Samsung's statement on the Galaxy Fold drama pic.twitter.com/kIX8SqzsC5
— Alex Choros (@a_choros) April 18, 2019
In a way, it’s like Samsung has built a screen protector in. However, if you try to take this away, it appears to break the screen, a curious addition, and the sort of thing people may not expect on a new phone, let alone a new type of phone.
However, you don’t usually expect to be forced to keep a protective film in place, not if you don’t want it there, and the whole thing may just need that little bit more finish applied before the foldable phone becomes a real object people will want to part ways with for so much money.
The Samsung Galaxy Fold isn’t the only foldable phone likely to see launch locally, with Huawei announcing a model of its own this year, the Huawei Mate X, though there’s no expected date or pricing for that yet.
In Australia, Samsung hasn’t quite provided actual pricing for its foldable phone, though last week told journalists Australian pricing and availability would be available by the end of April.
Hopefully this means the phone isn’t far away, though also hopefully we see a version of the Galaxy Fold less prone to breaking. You can bet that if any journalist sees that layer, they’re probably going to tug on it just to see what happens.
