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Latest Foldable Smartphones Experiencing Failures and Durability Issues

There are always defective units of a new product. Until it is proven to be widespread though, there isn't much to say about it.

However...


.....did Samsung lie about the screen being glass? Scratches like plastic.
 
Of course they fail. All materials have an endurance limit resulting from reversing stresses. The only way to prevent it is to minimize the stress by increasing the bend radius and keeping the reversing stresses well above the yield strength of the material. The bigger the radius, the more it doesn't look anything like a foldable display.
 
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It is just an expensive fresh toy for those geeks, fans, etc...... I am not the target person of these folding products for the moment....
 
I'm probably showing my age, but I used to own lots of folding/sliding phones, like the Handspring Treo and the Nokia 7110, and they all failed multiple times. I vowed never to buy a phone again that had moving parts.
 
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The more I see videos and read articles on these phones, the more I see just what a flawed product and not ready for market product it really is. From watching You Tube videos on the Galaxy Z Flip. it comes with care instructions for the screen. Seriously, when a phone comes bundled with care instructions for the screen, then this should ring alarm bells.
 
shamino said:
I respectfully disagree. My all time favorite phone was my old RAZR v3 flip-phone. I would really like a modern iPhone to be able to fit in my pocket the way that one did.
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I used one of these Razor phones back at that time. That was the time when phones were used differently. You would make/receive calls/ send/receive text with some MMS. That's pretty much the usefulness of it. That was the main use and for that matter, the smallest/thinnest phones were the coolest phones. Other factors like an awesome backlighted keypad, external display to see callers ID/SMS, etc made this phone look cool. After almost 2 decades, as you would expect, technology and the way people use these pocket devices have changed drastically. Now it is all about great display, great cameras, great OS for a new kind of experience. Smartphones now are real computers with real computing power that can do "infinite" number of things. I do not believe that many give a flying monkey about having the smallest/thinnest anymore. Motorola bringing 'Razor V3' on this new era is like bringing Stanley Steamer old car design as an EV. Yeah, cool.... but why? There will be people who would want to buy it, sure... but to be honest I am not sure if it does make much sense from a business point of view.
 
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I understand the need to innovate and try different products, but the problem here is that Samsung/Motorola want to sell them and sell them without what appears to be real world testing.
This for me is largely the difference with Apple (most times) in that they won't sell a product to appease shareholders if it's not ready or indeed needed. They recognise the negative impact doing so has on their brand and ultimately their long term performance
 
First foldable screen to market has issues? Didn't see that coming...
If Apple can't get keyboard keys to work right after decades of their inventions, I am not too surprised by foldable screens.

cjboffoli97 said:
. I recall seeing demonstrations of multitouch technology for many years before the iPhone was announced. In addition to a range of other reasons, I appreciate that Apple can afford to wait until new technologies are truly ready for market.
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TBF, I recall almost 0 touch screen phones or devices. I thought this technology was not possible on consumer products. The only touch screen I remember prior to iphone are the screen that are made of some sort of soft plastic where you can push the screen in, kind of like those restaurant cashier kiosks ones.

Its amazing Apple released touch screen phone on day one and it was working just as good as it is working today, this is what I believe to be is the "Jobs effect"
 
Doesn't require an engineer to figure out that you cant take a display which is based on technology meant to be supported behind a sheet of glass and think it can withstand the stress of bending over and over again.

also - who wants a bendable phone. I dont have anyone in my network who talks about bendable phones, some wants small size like SE, some wants large one, but noone wants one which bends.
 
cjboffoli97 said:
I recall seeing demonstrations of multitouch technology for many years before the iPhone was announced.
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Yup. Multitouch existed in the 1980s.

The way I see it, it takes three things:
  • good hardware engineering. Let’s face it, foldable screens just aren’t there. We probably need another breakthrough, be it better materials (more bendable glass?) or a new hinge design.
  • a good use case. The Flip Z hardly has one. OK, so some pockets are thicker but shorter than a typical phone. Is that worth $1500 and a less reliable, more cumbersome device? The Fold has a good use case, maybe. I had been thinking of that form factor for years. You essentially have an iPhone and an iPad mini in one. So you’re saving hundreds of dollars, somewhat making up for the price tag, you don’t have to deal with additional sync, cellular plans, etc., and of course you have to carry less. What if you don’t need another phone, another tablet? What if this becomes your main computer? Suddenly, $2k looks just fine. So I think the Fold nails this, in theory.
  • good software execution. Here’s where the first iPhone really destroyed everything before: both existing phones as well as existing prototypes for multitouch. Samsung doesn’t know how to execute well on software. Their corporate structure just doesn’t incentivize it; software is but a means to the end to sell hardware. I had a Samsung Windows 7 tablet, and they had a team go through all the trouble of building touch apps for it. Weather, Notes, a simplified launcher, all that. Basically looked and felt like a mix of iOS 6 and Windows Mobile 6. Unfortunately, those apps all felt extremely half-assed, as if only produced to be good enough for the showroom, not for actual users. And third party developers? Nobody thought of that. Dead on arrival.
People criticize “oh, but when Apple does it, suddenly it’s good”. Yes, well. When Apple does it,
  1. they tend to wait until the tech is there. That’s why they’re not shipping this yet (if ever). Foldable screens are good enough to show at CES. They’re not good enough to spend four figures on and use for three years.
  2. they figure out the use case. They don’t ship if they can’t think of one. Samsung and Lenovo did this right. And then Samsung (again!) and Motorola got it wrong. Oof. They couldn’t resist more foldables.
  3. they consider software an integral part of this. How do you actually use it? What apps does it need? How do you really benefit from the folding mechanism? Is this just neat, or actually better? Are the trade offs worth it? Can we make an API that shows the folding state? Should we? Can we get Adobe to demo Photoshop Fold? If they’re not into it, is that a sign this product is stupid?
Samsung did some great engineering on folding screens. But they’re not done with the productization.
 
Apple relies on these companies to test these components in the real world. Tim Cook's Apple would never release a product like this unless the Samsung's of the world do them first. However, Samsung and the others should really do more testing if the screens are cracking or peeling under normal conditions.
 
femike said:
Apple relies on these companies to test these components in the real world. Tim Cook's Apple would never release a product like this unless the Samsung's of the world do them first. However, Samsung and the others should really do more testing if the screens are cracking or peeling under normal conditions.
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I don’t think it’s Apples initiative for allowing other companies to ‘test’ these types of products first, Apple typically is one of the last to release various technology when the competitors already have, mainly being they tend to refine the product in a different way to make the user experience unique. Now, in the sense of foldable smart phones, I don’t think it’s really part of Apples future at this point, nothing indicates we would see anything like this from Apple in the next five years, especially given with advancements of AR/Apple glasses.
 
I will wait to see the operating manuals of these phones before I make a judgement on them because due to the nature of the type of new technology phone it is, it may comes with different handling requirments from that of a standard mobile phone.

it's the same principle of that of someone who's only driven family saloon cars for years and then suddenly given a high performance Ferrari. As far as they are concerned, it's just a car and thus no extra requirements are needed in how to drive it. What's the next thing we see, the Ferrari damaged due to a crash because they person did not know how to handle the car properly.

In my opinion it is the same with these tech reviewers of the foldable phones. They just see it as a mobile phone and handle it and treat it just like the did with their normal mobile phone and what happens, it breaks. Naturally people will comment on that it's a mobile phone and thus should be able to handle all kinds of conditions. I still say we should see the manufacturers instrutions on how to handle the phone because that is something that tech reviewers conviently leave out 'oh look, the phone is broken' ....'did you use it/handle it as per the manufacturers instructions?'.....'instructions???..nah, only fools read instructions, we know what we are doing'....phone breaks but reviewer conviently avoids telling viewers how they were supposed to be handling the phone.
 
Samsung and other Android phone makers are always in a hurry to introduce/launch new technologies. And in their efforts, they fail. This habit of Samsung quickly reminds me of two popular idioms:
marry in haste, repent at leisure and more haste, less speed. Probably, Samsung needs to follow the second one. Because its archrival - Apple - does follow the latter. To date, Samsung has been a leader in many technologies and product innovations. Apple, although a late entrant in the game, takes the lead slowly and steadily.

In the foldable smartphone space, Samsung failed, and it failed spectacularly. In its second attempt, it seems the brand has not been able to fare well. Along with Samsung, Motorola has also followed suit. Both have fallen head over heels.

Many believe that tech brands repeatedly make such mistakes to keep their investors excited. A momentary high in stock markets can reap bounties as long as the fizz lasts. In the long run, the same brands have to face consumers' backlash.

So what should phone makers do? Should they stop making mistakes?

Well, these mistakes (read innovations) actually pave the roads for other brands (Apple) to take off. Magicman32 is right in his comment above: Things like this, for better or worse, are what pushes technology and other advancements forward.
 
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jpadhiyar said:
Samsung and other Android phone makers are always in a hurry to introduce/launch new technologies. And in their efforts, they fail. This habit of Samsung quickly reminds me of two popular idioms:
marry in haste, repent at leisure and more haste, less speed. Probably, Samsung needs to follow the second one. Because its archrival - Apple - does follow the latter. To date, Samsung has been a leader in many technologies and product innovations. Apple, although a late entrant in the game, takes the lead slowly and steadily.

In the foldable smartphone space, Samsung failed, and it failed spectacularly. In its second attempt, it seems the brand has not been able to fare well. Along with Samsung, Motorola has also followed suit. Both have fallen head over heels.

Many believe that tech brands repeatedly make such mistakes to keep their investors excited. A momentary high in stock markets can reap bounties as long as the fizz lasts. In the long run, the same brands have to face consumers' backlash.

So what should phone makers do? Should they stop making mistakes?

Well, these mistakes (read innovations) actually pave the roads for other brands (Apple) to take off. Magicman32 is right in his comment above: Things like this, for better or worse, are what pushes technology and other advancements forward.
Click to expand...

I think it ultimately boils down to the differing design philosophies underpinning Apple and Samsung respectively.

Apple is a design-led company who first decides on the desired end user experience, then works backwards to see how they can best enable that experience using existing technology.

Design is why Apple made the iPad vs the netbook, iPhone vs hardware keyboard, and are now focusing on wearables over foldable phones.

Samsung, like so many other companies, is an engineering-centric company trying to turn hot new tech into a viable product. I don’t think Samsung is doing foldable phones because they genuinely believe it makes for a great user experience. Rather, they are trying to make foldable phones a thing so they can drum up demand for their own folding screen technology.

And because Samsung had a fluke in the phablet, it seems like everyone is now afraid of calling them out for fear of looking like idiots in the off-chance that foldable phones do become a thing.

This is why I feel the tired old defence that “at least X company is trying” misses the mark. The issue isn’t that they shouldn’t be trying (to push the envelope), but that they are, in my opinion, approaching product design with the wrong incentives in mind and that’s why we are seeing the products we are.

And we are worse off for it.
 
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ruslan120 said:
I respect these companies more for assuming this risk and trying out new things that can fail, for the sake of moving technology forward. As long as they honor any warranties, support, etc.

That’s despite me thinking that foldable phones in this form factor might not be “forward.”
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I respect them as well, and although I don't like this kind of products I'm interested in the foldable screen technology.
I think I'd me more interested in an iPad Mini unfolding into a regular size iPad and hope we'll see something like that in the future.
A smartphone that folds in half to be more pocketable? I don't know if it more comfortable, as it gets thicker. Something like the Galaxy Fold? Don't like it, the external display is subpar.
I think at the moment companies are trying to find products to showcase a new technology, that's cool but they're not really solving a problem.
 
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Okay, the tech isn't ready yet, but some people can throw away $1380 on a whim. That's okay

But what, exactly, is it for? First they tried making phones that unfold into big phones or mini-tablets. You want a mini-tablet that turns into a thick phone and vice versa? For $2 grand? Then they've tried to recreate the flip phone. Okay, shutting the phone like the old flip is okay. $1400 worth? Okay, the thing can also sit there like a little laptop, with the lower end different from the top when it's sitting folded to right angles. Cool. But again, how is that useful? What can you do that you can't with a phone that doesn't fold?
 
DOA
What really appalls me is that formerly successful brands develop ideas according to trends instead of being advised by technically and technologically experienced and innovative minds.
The waste of money and human resources is then a decadent disaster...
 
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