While there is still hope that the initial issues with the Galaxy Fold test units are fairly easy to address and the unique phone may ship this month, the final release may stretch out to June, which would erase Samsung's head start before Huawei's Mate X, the other foldable phone pioneer out there.
Samsung even asked the demolition folks over at iFixit to pull their teardown post, as it is apparently not of the final retail unit that will eventually be released with the necessary fixes gathered by the impressions from the test units tryouts it sent to reviewers. Despite that the Galaxy Fold unit that iFixit took apart to reveal a complex design and plenty of opportunities for things to go wrong, was provided by a third-party supplier, they decided to take down the post to wait for the purported retail version. Thus, we are only left with one unofficial teardown of the Fold that says the display felt like "a piece of rubber" to peel off, rather than a rigid glass structure.
We were provided our Galaxy Fold unit by a trusted partner. Samsung has requested, through that partner, that iFixit remove its teardown. We are under no obligation to remove our analysis, legal or otherwise. But out of respect for this partner, whom we consider an ally in making devices more repairable, we are choosing to withdraw our story until we can purchase a Galaxy Fold at retail.
Samsung already posted an official statement that in order "to fully evaluate this feedback and run further internal tests, we have decided to delay the release of the Galaxy Fold." In it, the company cites plenty of reasons for doing it, without even mentioning the fact that some YouTubers and influencers it sent Galaxy Folds to, scraped the polyimide film of the display package that serves as a cover glass in flexible phones. The only jab at what some of the early reviewers were doing is that there had apparently been "impact on the top and bottom exposed areas of the hinge."
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Still, Samsung directly addressed those issues that were seemingly caused by unforeseen design flaws, like "an instance where substances found inside the device affected the display performance." Therefore, Samsung decided to retrieve the units it sent out for preview, rearrange the top layer so that nobody feels the urge to peel it off, and put some direr warnings that the cover of the foldable phones' display is unlike anything users might have been used to so far.
Not only that, but Samsung sent out the email you see here to those early adopters who already pre-ordered the Galaxy Fold, clarifying that the "first production units" it sent out need further examination to iron out some kinks, but changed the language for the new release date announcement from "the coming weeks" to "in the next two weeks." Thus, this week or the next one at the latest, we should know the new Galaxy Fold release date in the US, and hopefully the unique bendy phone will hit the shelves before spring rolls over.
Daniel, a devoted tech writer at PhoneArena since 2010, has been engrossed in mobile technology since the Windows Mobile era. His expertise spans mobile hardware, software, and carrier networks, and he's keenly interested in the future of digital health, car connectivity, and 5G. Beyond his professional pursuits, Daniel finds balance in travel, reading, and exploring new tech innovations, while contemplating the ethical and privacy implications of our digital future.
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