IFixit Teardown Analysis Finds Galaxy Fold Phone Is ‘Fragile With a Capital F’

Samsung’s Galaxy Fold smartphone is “Fragile with a capital ‘F,’” which was the “big takeaway” of iFixit’s teardown analysis, said the right-to-repair company Wednesday. Samsung this week postponed the Galaxy Fold launch from Friday to a date not certain after online reviewers reported the displays on test samples Samsung sent them broke a day or two after being unboxed (see 1904220028). The Galaxy Fold “is, without question, an ambitious first-generation device,” said iFixit. Time will tell if the problems reviewers encountered are just “temporary setbacks” or the prelude to a “a full-blown AirPower-style product cancellation,” it said. Apple scrapped the AirPower wireless charging mat’s commercial introduction after concluding internally the product wasn't up to snuff (see 1903290062). The Galaxy Fold has a “ton of entry points for dust and other foreign matter to make their way inside, and there are so many different ways for the screen to break,” said iFixit. Its main bezels are “super slim,” it said. “They barely cover two millimeters of display, while leaving a 7 mm gap at the top and bottom. That doesn’t seem like much protection.” Samsung didn’t comment.