The first foldable phone was supposed to make its debut this week, but it looks like consumers might have to wait a little longer before they can get their hands on one.
Samsung planned to lead the foldable phone charge with the Galaxy Fold this Friday, but the Korean brand has officially postponed its release following numerous reports of the screen malfunctioning.
While some of these cases can be attributed to miscommunication (reviewers were removing a piece of protective film that wasn’t supposed to be removed), there were other incidents that Samsung was unable to explain as well.
News of the delay came in the form of an official statement from Samsung posted today:
“While many reviewers shared with us the vast potential they see, some also showed us how the device needs further improvements that could ensure the best possible user experience.To fully evaluate this feedback and run further internal tests, we have decided to delay the release of the Galaxy Fold.”
This shouldn’t come as a complete surprise — yesterday we reported that Samsung was already postponing its launch events in Hong Kong and Shanghai, and the fact that they didn’t allow journalists to touch the Galaxy Fold at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in January didn’t exactly inspire faith either.
Samsung intends to reveal the revised release date “in the coming weeks”, though we’re honestly hoping that they take as much time as they need to solve the issue. If we’re going to buy a phone that’s literally the price of a mid-range laptop, we wouldn’t want it to be breaking within the first few days of use.
Of course, Huawei is hot on Samsung’s heels with the Mate X (which was touchable at MWC), so the pressure is on. With technology as new as this, however, getting it right might be more important than being first.