April 26th will be the big day of the commercial debut of the first folding smartphone , the Samsung Galaxy Fold . For years, various manufacturers, with Samsung in the lead, have shown their flexible and foldable prototypes, waiting for the right time to bring out the technology so that it was ready for use and reliable in everyday experience. It seems, however, that the first units sent to journalists from overseas are not without problems, and the most serious ones - no surprises - have appeared on the innovative internal display.
At the moment it is not clear what the number of Galaxy Folds in circulation between experts and journalists is, however different authors are reporting on social networks mainly three different types of problems : one occurs by removing what appears to be the "protective layer of the display" , which in reality it is a necessary component to guarantee the necessary structural rigidity; another problem among those already reported by journalists is the entry of dust and dirt under the display, while the last problem is related to the occurrence of artifacts and flickering within the image without any apparent reason.
Many manufacturers have recently applied a protective film "standard" on smartphone displays, as did Samsung on the new Galaxy S10 . However, in the case of Galaxy Fold, what appears to be the protective film is a part of the display itself : removing it weakens the panel, which becomes vulnerable to bleeding and even to breakage effects. It is clear that there was a communication problem here , as several editors (who are not really inexperienced users) have removed the film weakening the display structure without being the least aware of it.
Other editors have instead verified obvious artifacts with the flexible display after only a few days of use, a problem that renders the entire smartphone unusable. Another problem, this apparently isolated, however, has been reported by The Verge. On the terminal proved by the US site it has appeared in fact a kind of projection, the cause of which remains unknown, "Something has managed to get into one of the small openings, or part of the hinge has begun to give up to try to better the display," supposedly the author of the article.
Samsung has already sent an official note on the problems of Galaxy Fold , but in reality it has only dealt with a few of the problems actually reported. The company intends to analyze the problematic units in a meticulous way, but has explicitly addressed the issue of display film. Here is the official note:
"A limited number of Galaxy Folds have been provided to the media to carry out the review. We have received some reports related to the main display and will carefully monitor the units in person to determine the cause of the problems.
In addition, some editors claimed to have removed the top layer of the display causing damage to it. The main display of the Galaxy Fold has a protective upper layer that is part of the display structure and is designed to protect it from unintentional scratches. Removing the protective layer or adding stickers to the main display can cause damage. We guarantee that this information will be clearly provided to our customers ".
At the time of writing we do not seem to have the conditions for a recall from Samsung on its foldable smartphone, as had happened with Galaxy Note 7 and battery issues . However, it is necessary to wait for the real marketing of the device to verify how much the terminals with defects are in percentage. To date there are several editors who have reported problems with the terminal, against a spread of the same that is certainly not very extensive.