Fans of folding phones, you might want to brace yourselves for more bad news on the Samsung Galaxy Fold front.
Samsung will reportedly cancel all pre-orders of the Samsung Galaxy Fold by May 31, unless it can confirm a shipping date by then. This looming self-imposed deadline could well be the final nail in the coffin of the innovative foldable phone (via Reuters).
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The Galaxy Fold was originally supposed to be released on April 26 in the US, and on May 3 in the UK. However, despite Samsung’s claims that it would survive 200,000 folds and unfolds, it still broke within days of arriving in the hands of tech reviewers.
Some of those reviewers had peeled back some essential film on the large internal OLED display. However, not all of them made this (very understandable) mistake.
Image Credit: @MKBHD/Twitter
It’s still not clear what went wrong in these cases, but it’s simply inexcusable for a smartphone that costs £1800 to break in 48 hours.
Despite the fanfare, Samsung’s device was not the first foldable on the market. The Royole FlexPai claimed that crown when it went on show at CES 2019, but when we tried it hands-on we were very disappointed with what we called the “terrible user experience”, christening it a “foldable flop”.
Huawei Mate X
Samsung’s bid to lead the fledgling foldables market could now be gazumped by the Huawei Mate X, which is scheduled to launch in June with a significantly different design.
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Whereas the Galaxy Fold has a small external screen and a separate tablet-like display when opened like a book, the Mate X has its whole display on the outside of the device when folded. This looks more attractive, but we’re yet to find out whether it will be more or less vulnerable to damage and dirt.
Did you pre-order the Samsung Galaxy Fold? What’s going through your mind now? Let us know on Twitter @TrustedReviews.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.