Samsung's year started rather abruptly, with the much-awaited (and hyped) Galaxy Fold suffering from design issues that we never thought would arise.
It took?Samsung five months to fix and make the Galaxy Fold ready for the real world. And now, the device is all set to be unveiled in India.?
Reuters
Samsung has officially announced that the Galaxy Fold will be hitting the Indian shelves on October 1st for a rather hefty price tag which is expected to easily be over a lakh (considering the US variant is priced somewhere around $1980). The phone is already on sale in the US.
However, the Samsung Galaxy Fold's price tag for the Indian market isn't really its biggest concerns, if you track the history of the device so far.
If you're unfamiliar with the Galaxy Fold debacle, let me give you a quick walkthrough.
With a folding display, the flagship Galaxy Fold smartphone could close itself like a book, and while it felt too good to be true, it was. The device started to develop problems in the hands of the reviewers with dust particles getting trapped underneath the plastic display and getting damaged.
Samsung
The phone's display had a film that looked like a screen protector, many reviewers tried pulling it off, only to realise that they've wrecked the plastic folding display.?
Moreover, the phone was prone to dust getting trapped in its hinges and gears. With this, Samsung found it best to hold the launch of its $2,000 device until it was completely free of any design niggles.
After numerous leaks and rumours of the Galaxy Fold project being completely scrapped, the South Korean giant re-released the Galaxy Fold with some noteworthy upgrades, which as per Samsung has fixed the problems of its design past. However, the problems in design still persist.?
A report today by TechCrunch editor Brian Heater revealed that the display on his Galaxy Fold display got damaged in just 27 hours. The screen got an odd rainbow-blob at the centre.?
According to him, he never dropped the phone or did anything that could have caused the device any harm. No one's been able to find the cause to this. While this could be a one-off situation, it still is rather unsettling.?
Samsung
Moreover, the recently shared durability test video by YouTuber JerryRigEverything on the Galaxy Fold will make you think twice or thrice before you decide to actually buy this smartphone.?
One of the tests involved trapping some sand and dust particles between the folding display, however, after dusting the phone off, the dust was trapped in the hinges, despite the upgrades that were put to prevent dust from entering. The crunching sound of the dust particles when the Galaxy Fold was being opened and closed was unbearable to hear and watch.
The video also revealed how fragile the inner display is. The display on the inside has plastic, since glass cannot bend, and plastic is super prone to scratches.?
I agree with you that some of the tests are rather extreme, but in a country like India, where dust is just about everywhere, it does raise some doubts about the Samsung Galaxy Fold's durability.
Heck, Samsung has its own set of guidelines that tells you how you should be using the Galaxy Fold. Even Samsung knows its a delicate piece of tech.?
I won't deny, when Samsung first unveiled the Galaxy Fold to the world, I was excited like a child who's about to hop on his first (and much-awaited) roller coaster ride. But this half-completed ride isn't the one I or rather anybody would want to be on.?
Samsung
I respect Samsung as a brand for it has always pushed the needle of innovation and delivered things we never thought we could achieve, and Galaxy Fold is one of those things. I get it, they tried something new, and it surely requires 'courage' (ahem! Apple's reason for killing the headphone jack ahem!) but this doesn't mean a consumer should also have the courage to pay a fortune for a phone that can barely survive the outside world.?
It'll be interesting to see how the device fairs in the hands of reviewers and a few consumers in India. And despite its shortcomings, I would really want to get my hands on the device to experience the unfolding of the next chapter in smartphone tech.?