galaxy fold
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Five months later, Samsung’s Galaxy Fold arrives this week
There’s fashionably late and then there’s the Galaxy Fold. Initially scheduled for an April 22 launch, the device was delayed after multiple reviews returned broken devices. Samsung was quick to blame users, only to ultimately go back to the drawing board.
A few months later, the company offered a broad September time frame. Samsung hit the mark with time to spare in its native South Korea, launching the device a few weeks back. Now it’s time to do the same here in North America. The company’s first foldable (and, really, for that matter, the first “commercially viable” foldable) arrives this Friday, September 27.
The handset will be available as a carrier-branded version through AT&T stores or unlocked through Best Buy and other retail locations. As noted, the company’s also offering a “Galaxy Fold Premier Service” — apparently part of the reason it canceled the original round of pre-orders. Basically the company wants to personally help users who buy the $2,000 foldable device.
Notably and somewhat humorously (albeit unintentionally so), the company recently issued a “Caring for your Galaxy Fold” video, which highlights how to not break the expensive new device. Samsung appears somewhat resigned to the fact that, although the device has been improved over the first attempt at going to market, the product is still more fragile than what we’ve come to expect from our smartphones.
To quote Samsung, “Just use a light touch.” That comes with the somewhat redundant, “Do not apply excessive pressure” footnote. Not exactly the sort of thing that inspires confidence in a product’s durability.
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After announcing Galaxy Fold release date, Samsung cancels older preorders
The good news: Samsung says it has addressed the early problems with the Galaxy Fold and finally has a release date (in Korea at least). The bad news: The company is canceling the first round of U.S. pre-orders. The gooder news: If you were among those early adopters, the company is giving you a $250 in-house credit to keep you in its good graces.
Shortly after announcing that its first foldable handset is set to start shipping to customers in South Korea on September 6, Samsung sent out a note to customers stating that it would be “taking the time to rethink the customer experience.” That involves, among other things, canceling existing pre-orders. “While not an easy decision to make,” the company writes, “we believe that this is the right thing to do.”
So Samsung canceled my pre-order for the Samsung Galaxy Fold…at least they gave me a $250 credit for anything on their store. That is admittantly quite generous.
I guess I should rejoin the pre-order queue. pic.twitter.com/Nv7OAIMxnN
— M. Brandon Lee | THIS IS TECH TODAY (@thisistechtoday) September 5, 2019
TechCrunch has confirmed the news with Samsung, though the company is letting the email to customers speak for itself. The letter also notes that the company is launching a “new Galaxy Fold Premier Service” for those who opt to pick up the newly rejiggered version of the phone. After the first version of the handset ran into some issues with reviews, Samsung no doubt wants to be the first line of defense should consumers run into any problems with the new $2,000 phone.
The company has yet to confirm a release date for the rest of the world, though it notes that the Fold will be coming to markets, including the U.S., in “coming weeks,” which is on track with the earlier September time frame.
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Samsung’s Galaxy Fold arrives in Korea September 6, US in ‘coming weeks’
Five months after its planned launch, the Samsung Galaxy Fold is finally here. Well, almost. After offering a broad September time frame a few months back, the electronics giant just announced that the foldable phone will be arriving in its native South Korea on September 6. Customers in the U.S. will have to wait a bit longer, with the device arriving in “coming weeks.” Ditto for France, Germany, Singapore and the U.K.
The handset will be available in both black and silver options, along with a 5G version of the handset in “select countries,” marking the third Samsung device to offer up the next-gen wireless technology.
If you follow the mobile space at all, you’re no doubt familiar with the saga. The company was targeting a spring time frame for the launch of what is ostensibly the first consumer folding phone. The future, however, didn’t arrive as quickly as Samsung was hoping. Multiple review devices returned to the company broken. After initially blaming reviewers for the problems, the company ultimately accepted responsibility and went back to the drawing board for the 7.3-inch device.
“During the past several months, Samsung has been refining the Galaxy Fold to ensure it delivers the best possible experience,” the company explains. “Not only did we improved the Galaxy Fold’s design and construction, but also took the time to rethink the entire consumer journey.”
The company’s clearly spinning this as an “opportunity,” and certainly it dodged a bullet by addressing these problems before releasing the product to consumers. Samsung has already discussed the fixes in previous announcements. The screen protector has been extended to under the bezels, so consumers don’t break the display by mistaking it for a removable laminate. Also, the gaps in the folding mechanism have been tightened, so particles can’t fall behind the screen.
The foldable starts at $2,000 and can currently be pre-ordered through Samsung’s site.
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Samsung readies Galaxy Fold for September launch
When it was unveiled on stage, the Galaxy Fold was heralded as the next big thing. Samsung seeded units to reviews and prepared for launch. And then a funny thing happened on the way to a smartphone paradigm shift: it started breaking. Multiple review units were sent back to Samsung with busted screens.
It was a small sample size, to be sure. First Samsung blamed reviewers themselves. Ultimately, however, there was enough concern to cause the company to pump the breaks entirely. Now, nearly three months to the day after the device was set for release, Samsung’s finally got concrete information on the long delayed foldable. The company just announced a September (of 2019, presumably) launch date for the device. No concrete date just yet — but at least that’s better than the “coming weeks” line we’ve been hearing about timeframe for a few months now.
The fixes are pretty much what we’ve expected from the outset, but here’s the full breakdown straight from the company,
- The top protective layer of the Infinity Flex Display has been extended beyond the bezel, making it apparent that it is an integral part of the display structure and not meant to be removed.
- Galaxy Fold features additional reinforcements to better protect the device from external particles while maintaining its signature foldable experience:
- The top and bottom of the hinge area have been strengthened with newly added protection caps
- Additional metal layers underneath the Infinity Flex Display have been included to reinforce the protection of the display
- The space between the hinge and body of Galaxy Fold has been reduced.
The first bullet point is a direct response to those reviewers who peeled off the protective layer, thinking it was temporary. Again, Samsung put the onus on reviewers there, but ultimately shouldered the blame from a top layer that looked almost exactly like the laminate Galaxy devices ship with to avoid scratching. This fix hides those corners — and the temptation to peel them.
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Samsung CEO calls Galaxy Fold mishap ‘embarrassing’
In a meeting with a group of journalists in South Korea, Samsung Electronics CEO DJ Koh candidly addressed the company’s latest hardware mishap. “It was embarrassing,” he told reporters, as quoted by The Independent. “I pushed it through before it was ready.”
That last bit no one can debate, really. After years of preamble, Samsung still managed to jump the gun with the Galaxy Fold. The company was eager to be the first major manufacturer to market with the category’s most radical redesign in a decade. Ultimately, however, the company ended up pumping the breaks after multiple reviewers reported problems with their units.
Samsung was quick to place the blame at the hands of reviewers, but eventually shifted course after realizing that problems were more widespread. More than two months after the handset was initially expected to hit retail, we’re still very much in a holding pattern with Samsung’s first foldable — though the company has promised a more concrete date for some time.
Samsung has been quick to deny any rumors that the phone has been altogether canceled, and Koh reiterated that the Fold is still being put through its paces. “I do admit I missed something on the foldable phone, but we are in the process of recovery,” the executive told the press. “At the moment, more than 2,000 devices are being tested right now in all aspects. We defined all the issues. Some issues we didn’t even think about, but thanks to our reviewers, mass volume testing is ongoing.”
Koh didn’t offer specifics with regards to a release date, though the company is reportedly gearing up to launch the next version of the Note at an event in August.
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Samsung exec says the Galaxy Fold is ‘ready to hit the market’
As we asked back in February, “We’re ready for foldable phones, but are they ready for us?” The answer, so far, has been an enthusiastic, “not really.” The Galaxy Fold was pushed back after multiple review units crapped the proverbial bed. And just last week, Huawei noted that it was holding off on its own Mate X release, citing Samsung’s issues as a cautionary tale.
Samsung, at least, may finally be ready to unleash its foldable on the world, two months after its planned release. “Most of the display problems have been ironed out,” Samsung Display Vice President Kim Seong-cheol told a crowd at an event in Seoul this week, “and the Galaxy Fold is ready to hit the market.”
The company’s no doubt waiting for a more formal announcement to release specifics on timing. Samsung has been promising release news “in coming weeks” for several weeks now. Understandably, the company hasn’t been rushing to get the handset back out. As bad as the press was the first time around, Samsung doesn’t want a repeat here along the lines of the Note 7’s two recalls.
When announcing the initial delay, Samsung announced two points of failure: a screen protector that looked like the temporary ones other devices ship with and large holes between joints in the hinge that allowed detritus to sneak behind the display, causing issues when users applied pressure to the front.
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AT&T cancels Samsung Galaxy Fold orders
AT&T has cancelled early orders for the Samsung Galaxy Fold.
Tom’s Guide first reported the cancellation, noting that AT&T said the Galaxy Fold would be available again to order as soon as Samsung announces a new launch date. AT&T is offering $100 in credit to those whose orders it has cancelled.
The Samsung Galaxy Fold was originally scheduled to launch on April 26. However, early reviews indicated there were issues with the phone, which Samsung initially said was the fault of reviewers. The company eventually decided to postpone the launch and get back to the drawing board.
Earlier this week, a Samsung rep told Cnet that it would announce timing on the nearly $2,000 phone “in the coming weeks.”
However, AT&T’s move here suggests that it may be a while before the Galaxy Fold resurfaces, if at all.
Samsung itself asked customers who pre-ordered to confirm that they still want the device following the review period. On May 24, Best Buy cancelled all pre-orders of the phone.
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Galaxy Fold launch date will be announced in ‘coming weeks’
May has come and gone, and we’re nearly halfway done with June. All we seem to really know about the Galaxy Fold, on the other hand, is that it’s still coming…at some point. In a comment earlier today, Samsung promised a launch date for the delayed foldable “in the coming weeks.” It’s a familiar refrain at this point, of course.
Initially planned for an April 26 launch, the hardware giant hit pause on the device after multiple problems were reported among a small batch of review units. Samsung initially placed the blame for display problems on reviews, but ultimately announced it was going back to the drawing board.
A month and a half after the promised launched, we’re still no closer to knowing the new date. It’s not a great look for Samsung, but it’s a hell of a lot better than subjecting the product to a pair of recalls à la the Galaxy Note. It’s a new category based around a new technology, so one ultimately can’t blame Samsung for being cautious here. Of course, the case could certainly be made that these sort of precautions would have been better to take prior to putting these out in the wild, but here we are.
Reviewers aren’t supposed to serve as beta testers, but the company is probably better off getting these issues out of the way before wider release.
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Best Buy cancels Samsung Galaxy Fold pre-orders
Samsung is taking its time bringing the Galaxy Fold back to market. And frankly, that’s probably for the best. The Note debacle from a few years back was an important lesson about what happens when you rush a product back to market. That one resulted in a second recall — PR nightmare upon PR nightmare.
With a release date still very much in limbo, Best Buy has sent notes to those who pre-ordered the Fold. Spotted by The Verge, the letter has since been posted to Best Buy’s support forum. It cites “a plethora of unforeseen hiccups,” (fair enough) adding, “Because we put our customers first and want to ensure they are taken care of in the best possible manner, Best Buy has decided to cancel all current pre-orders for the Samsung Galaxy Fold.
The letter goes on to assure customers that the big-box retailer is “working closely with Samsung” to help deliver the product to customers. At the moment, however, their guess on the time frame is as good as ours.
Recent reports have suggested that an announcement was imminent, with the company having solved design flaws that had reviewers peeling off screens and getting debris jammed in the holes of the folding mechanism. More recent reports gave the product a June 13 release date, but that, too, appears to have been scrubbed for the time being.
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Samsung reportedly readying Galaxy Fold for release after finding ‘fix’
Samsung’s been mostly quiet on the Fold front after recalling review units and indefinitely delaying the phone’s release. Understandably so. It couldn’t have been easy going back to the drawing board with one of the buzziest handsets in recent memory. While we’ve been waiting word, the company has been exploring fixes and attempting to determine the magnitude of the issue.
According to reporting from Yonhap News Agency, Samsung is currently testing the handset with mobile carriers in Korea, putting the phone’s official release some time next month. There are a few grains of salt to be taken from these unnamed sources. The release time frame depends on approval from carriers and will vary country by country.
What is notable, however, is that Samsung has apparently found fixes for the two primary problems. First, there’s the issue with the protective laminate, which some reviewers apparently peeled off. I get it. I looks an awful lot like the peel-able screen covers the company’s phones ship with.
The protective cover will remain, but the edges will be tucked away, making it much more difficult to remove. As for the issue with matter falling through cracks in the hinge and getting wedged behind the display, Samsung’s apparently just making the holes smaller.
Last week, CEO DJ Koh addressed the issue, noting that “news” was coming soon. This isn’t that, but Samsung does appear to still be committed to what could ultimately prove a very pricey mistake. At $1,980, consumers, too, are advised to approach this one with caution.
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