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Samsung Retrieving Defective Galaxy Fold Review Units as it Works to Fix Display Issues Before Launch
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I can really see this never actually being released. I think that is the best thing, and just leave it as a concept. This has clearly shown the technology simply isn’t ready.
But let's keep things in perspective. Samsung had a minor hiccup with the pen for Note 5 (how many users suffered, one?) But they are now on the 9th generation of the pen-enabled phone whereas Apple is yet to release one.
Thanks for proving my point. Again taking a disaster for Samsung and trying to figure out a way to sneak in a criticism of Apple.
Which disaster? One user having his pen stuck? Apple has similar "disasters" every day.
Uh, what’s this thread about? The Galaxy Fold disaster. And as I predicted it’s chock full of people trying to bring Apple up any chance they can.
This is the second high profile failure from Samsung where they’ve had to outright sack a flagship product because the flaw is so humongous that there is nothing else to do. I mean, its great that Samsung is willing to admit this and then sweep it all under the rug, but Apple’s problems are positively cosmetic in comparison.
In fairness, the “notch” is not a defect.
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I never missed the headphone jack and I think I am not alone.
Canceling the Galaxy Fold may be the best thing that they could do. Apple had a similar experience with the AirPower charging mat. When they discovered that it would not be able to work as advertised, they canceled it rather than risk sullying their reputation by creating a bad customer experience. Samsung should have learned from this
As a tech fan I want this to succeed. I want tech to evolve. I mean how much better are regular smartphones going to get? They can't go much further, which is why the market is stagnant.
We need new smartphone tech. Is it in foldables? I honestly don't know. The truth is the Galaxy Fold was missing a lot of stuff that makes a premium phone ... Premium. Was there water resistance? No! Was there Dust resistance? No! Was the screen made of any type of glass? No! Why? Because glass can't fold. So that leaves you with plastic and polymer. What happens when you fold a piece of paper? It develops a crease. The Galaxy Fold was always going to develop this same type of crease. So when it starts to crease that means there are truly 2 sides to a plastic screen. In a lot of cases that meant the colors were different on each side of the crease. Plastic will get dimpled up very easily as well. Which is the reason the device had an extra layer of polymer on the top that truly looked like a screen protector.
This device is $1,980. So we have a major company. A major smartphone manufacturer that was asking there customers to be $2,000 guinea pigs. This is essentially what Samsung was attempting to do.
In Samsung's defense, at there unpacked event the way they introduced the Galaxy Fold was not as there "flagship" device. That's the Galaxy S10, S10+ and the S10 5G. They were essentially marketing it towards someone who had the money to throw away. Only problem there is that no company should market anything where they're asking the consumer to "throw away" money.
I'm very interested in this technology. I just think Samsung and Huawei has rushed it. I'd much rather see it when it's ready for primetime.
We need new smartphone tech. Is it in foldables? I honestly don't know. The truth is the Galaxy Fold was missing a lot of stuff that makes a premium phone ... Premium. Was there water resistance? No! Was there Dust resistance? No! Was the screen made of any type of glass? No! Why? Because glass can't fold. So that leaves you with plastic and polymer. What happens when you fold a piece of paper? It develops a crease. The Galaxy Fold was always going to develop this same type of crease. So when it starts to crease that means there are truly 2 sides to a plastic screen. In a lot of cases that meant the colors were different on each side of the crease. Plastic will get dimpled up very easily as well. Which is the reason the device had an extra layer of polymer on the top that truly looked like a screen protector.
This device is $1,980. So we have a major company. A major smartphone manufacturer that was asking there customers to be $2,000 guinea pigs. This is essentially what Samsung was attempting to do.
In Samsung's defense, at there unpacked event the way they introduced the Galaxy Fold was not as there "flagship" device. That's the Galaxy S10, S10+ and the S10 5G. They were essentially marketing it towards someone who had the money to throw away. Only problem there is that no company should market anything where they're asking the consumer to "throw away" money.
I'm very interested in this technology. I just think Samsung and Huawei has rushed it. I'd much rather see it when it's ready for primetime.
Apple was trying to do the impossible and in
my opinion the unnecessary with Airpower, it just not that big of a deal to align your devices correctly on a charging pad vs just dropping them anywhere. That's also something I don't feel a lot of people besides fans would pay extra for. That's probably why they dropped it, my opinion obviously.
With the Fold the market is definitely leaning towards bigger devices for media consumption, you can only make a slab phone so big before it's an unwieldily tablet. I think (again my opinion) this is where the market is headed and if it works will be a hit. The thing is getting it to work and we need someone willing to take the risk and willing to fail but keep pushing until it's ready for primetime. This is where Samsung comes in, they can make the tech (screens and body) but perfecting it won't happen for another 2-3 years after release to the market to get that feedback whether negative or positive. They are headed in the right direction, they just need to realize beating Huawei to the market is not that important if you can produce better quality, this is where they failed. It shouldn't be a race to get it first but a race to get it right.
TL;DR I think this is where the market is headed with consumers consuming more media on their phones than anything. If they can nail it, like "the phablet" others will adopt the form factor and most likely buy the tech from Samsung.
Edit: I forgot to also add the fact that right now you can plug a Samsung device into a dummy monitor and turn it into a computer using the Dex interface or Linux so these folding devices can also replace your laptop if Samsung decides to move away from the Dex connection and figure out a way to dual boot on mobile which shouldn't be too Mich of a task. So you can have a phone, tablet, and possible laptop all in 1.
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[doublepost=1556071127][/doublepost]A $2,000 cell phone that folds? Uh...I had a folding cell phone once...it only cost me $100. I thought Apple was bad...No thanks Samsung...
One day after Samsung said it was delaying the public launch of the Galaxy Fold smartphone, the company has now announced that it will be retrieving all Galaxy Fold devices that were distributed to reviewers (via Reuters). For many reviewers, the Galaxy Fold proved to be an unreliable smartphone as the display experienced multiple issues while being tested.
These issues included a random bulge appearing on the display, as well as flickering and failing screens. In many cases, the issues were enough to make the Galaxy Fold devices completely unusable. Now, Samsung will retrieve these units and prepare for the re-launch of the smartphone at an unspecified date in the future. The Galaxy Fold was originally set to launch on April 26.
In a few cases, reviewers removed a protective layer on the smartphone's screen that looked similar to plastic films that are meant to be peeled off of displays after you open a device. For the Galaxy Fold, this layer is not meant to be removed, leading to some of the display issues.
Still, not every reviewer with a broken Galaxy Fold removed the plastic film, suggesting that there are multiple issues with the device that Samsung will have to address before a wide launch to the public. In an email to pre-order customers about the delayed launch, Samsung said that it will update customers with more specific shipping information in two weeks. "Your pre-order guarantees your place in the queue for this innovative technology," the company promised.
When it does launch, the Galaxy Fold will be available for $1,980.
Article Link: Samsung Retrieving Defective Galaxy Fold Review Units as it Works to Fix Display Issues Before Launch
I don’t theink they even expected to make revenue on this phone, as it is an advertisement for the company (I mean do they really expected t0 sell tons of it? I am sure their sales guys know better).
Unfortunately the lower quality will backfire this advertisement stunt.
The perspective I have is Samsung was going for have free advertizement( as in no money gained but not spent for being the first to market this kind of phone), and it would have worked very well if they’re tech dep was in line with the marketing one.
All in all In the end it will be no money made no money lost, and hardly a dent in Samsung reputation in the long run.
That they talk good of you or bad of you, all it matter is that people talk about you, as people tend to forget what happened, but not the company.
Like AirPower, this looked doomed to fail from start. Even if screen is .05/atom thin, in closed sate, inner fold has to compress, at the same time external side expands. In open position front and back need to be same, 3 states of being, and this is before wear and tear from repetitive use is taken into account.
Which is why now that they’ve had to publicly say there is a problem, it has flopped.
Don’t be silly. They did hundreds of tests, each on a different Fold.
Agreed. I don’t think this product was ever expected to be anything more than a passing curiosity, but it had to come out to inspire other ideas - bigger and better ideas.
Not every success can be measured by sales. Example... the G4 Cube - a failure from a sales perspective, but what an inspiring design. In fact, it was never officially canceled.