Samsung has officially delayed the Galaxy Fold after receiving negative reviews from early users that showed that the mobile device “needs further improvements.” Samsung hasn’t stated how long the launch will be delayed but have announced that a new release date will be determined “in the coming weeks.”
The Galaxy Fold, which was tested by several tech journalists, was expected to be launched today. Sources have told The Wall Street Journal that a new rollout will be announced in “coming weeks.” The news came a day after another report stated the Galaxy Fold launch had also been delayed in China. Initially, it was expected that the April 26 launch in the US would proceed as scheduled, however, this has not been the case.
A number of tech outlets and online experts who reviewed the Galaxy Fold, which was expected to be the world’s first foldable phone, mistakenly peeled off what they thought was a screen protector that covered the inner screen, causing the inside display to malfunction or not work.
Another reporter, who didn’t remove the screen protector, tweeted that one side of the display began flickering after several days of use. Another reported that one side was responding much faster than the other, which resulted in a “jelly” problem, meaning there is a noticeable lag on one half when viewing, for example, a web page on both sides of the larger, 7.3-inch inner display and scrolling vertically.
Samsung conducted a limited review program for the Galaxy Fold. Several technical teams were granted access to the device for a hands-on session that lasted approximately one hour. This process was unusual for such a high profile smartphone. At the initial launch at the Galaxy Unpacked event in February, the Galaxy Fold was displayed behind glass and barely visible, though the expectation was enormous.
Roel Vertegaal, CEO of Human Media Lab, Inc, who has experimented with flexible and folding displays for the last 15 years, including the instrumental PaperFold folding smartphone, believes Samsung’s decision to put the flexible display on the inside, like a book, may have been the reason for its technical problems. “You can only do what you can do and they may have pushed it a bit too far,” he says.
“If you look at the design, the phone doesn’t actually close and there’s a good reason for that, which is apparently that you still cannot crease the screen, like a piece of paper, because you kill the screen when you do that. One of the benefits of folding on the outside, like Huawei’s folding phone, is that you get a much shallower fold,” he adds.
The negative reviews resulted in Samsung immediately taking action, though the extent of the problem remains to be seen. For now, the first attempt at launching a foldable phone has failed dramatically.
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