Samsung Galaxy Fold Review

The Galaxy Fold was announced in February 2019 at $1,980 and was due on sale on April 26. In the week before that, at least four review units died. Two reviewers peeled off what looked like a screen protector and was the top layer of the display. One had debris get under the panel through the hinge gap and push up a bulge that killed the pixels above it. Another simply flickered and went dark on its second day. Samsung pulled the launch on April 22, spent five months on a redesign, and shipped the fixed version in South Korea on September 6 and the US on September 27.

The redesign tucked the protective layer under the bezel so it could not be peeled, capped both ends of the hinge, filled the gap behind the screen and came with a claim of 200,000 folds. That was the Fold people bought, and it was better, but it was still a plastic screen that dented under a fingernail, with no water or dust rating, a crease you felt on every swipe, and a warranty that treated screen damage as the owner's fault. Samsung's Premier Service replaced one screen for $149 in the first year; the next cost $599.

As a computer it was superb: Snapdragon 855, 12GB of RAM, 512GB of UFS 3.0 storage, and App Continuity that carried an app from the 4.6-inch cover screen to the 7.3-inch inner panel as you opened it. The cover screen was the wrong size for everything, a 21:9 strip with bezels you could park a bus on. The three rear cameras were the Galaxy S10's, good in 2019 and not what anyone paid for. Two cells added up to 4380 mAh and lasted a day if the big screen stayed mostly closed. Samsung kept it updated through Android 12, more than it owed a phone it had to unlaunch.

Every foldable since exists because this one sold enough to justify a second try. That earns the innovation grade. Nothing else about it earns much.