Putting to rest speculations on the launch of the Samsung Galaxy Fold after addressing the technical issues it had encountered, the company says the phone will be out in September.
The launch of the foldable device has evolved into an issue of pride and prestige for the South Korean technology giant since there were at least two Chinese counterparts, Huawei and Xiaomi ready with their own foldable smartphones. It now appears Samsung may beat the other two after all.
It may be recalled that Samsung had unveiled its first foldable smartphone, the Samsung Galaxy Fold, at the March event when it launched the Samsung Galaxy S10 and other devices. Shortly thereafter, the company chose to distribute the phone to a select group of people including in the media, to test it out. Within no time, there were reports of the foldable phone having issues. The scheduled official launch of the phone on April 26 was therefore postponed.
These issues were identified in a detailed article at that time by Bloomberg; one related to the display failing once the top layer comes off. The layer itself was peeling off easily. The other issue related to the hinge having a minor tear.
Samsung quickly went back to the drawing board to address these two issues. The company had faced a serious setback with its Samsung Galaxy Note 7 considered a flagship. Samsung did not want a repeat of the same with this prestigious product costing nearly $2,000 apiece. Of course, carrying it off successfully in the first attempt would have been a remarkable achievement for this company. At once, they would have addressed the issue of a large screen device like a tablet being carried inside a coat pocket.
The two issues have since been taken care of by first expanding the surface area of the film over the display and its edges being slipped over the full screen averting the possibility of the film peeling off. The hinge issue has also been solved and the phone will now fold and open without any hassles.
It cannot be denied that Samsung was in a bit of a hurry to beat Huawei to it. Samsung’s experience with the foldable phone, however led to Huawei too postponing its launch date. Possibly, the Chinese company may want to observe how the Samsung Galaxy Fold fares in the first few weeks before releasing its own foldable product.