Samsung’s £1,300 Galaxy Z Flip ‘already breaking’ just days after launch, users complain
SAMSUNG’S pricey new folding smartphone is apparently breaking within a few days of use.
One of the first people to shell out for the £1,300 Galaxy Z Flip claims its screen has already cracked despite only hitting shelves on Friday.
Another early adopter reports that his Z Flip squeaks whenever he presses on the ultra-thin glass display.
The sci-fi bending phone was unveiled last week at a lavish event in San Francisco, and went on sale on February 14.
It has a complex flexible screen that allows it to fold in half like a retro flip phone.
Alleged issues with the gadget’s durability mirror problems experienced by Samsung’s first malleable mobile, the Galaxy Fold.
The £1,900 phone had to be pushed back six months after early adopters reported that it broke within days of use.
It appears the Z Flip is undergoing similar teething problems after customers took to Twitter to report issues with the device.
One user, who goes by Amir, posted a photo of what they claimed was a crack in their screen, apparently sustained shortly after removing the phone from its box.
They tweeted: “Received my Samsung Galaxy Z Flip just now. Opened the box. Removed the protective/instruction film.
“Flipped the phone as you would do since it’s a flip phone and this happened. I heard the crack as well.”
“Uh oh, only took a day,” he said in the clip.
A Samsung spokesperson told The Sun that the company was looking into the issue and would report back as soon they had an update.
A brief timeline of the Samsung Galaxy Fold
Here's all the major things to happen in the controversial phone's history so far...
- On May 12 2011, South Korea’s Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology annonced that some of its researchers had created a folding smartphone prototype
- On May 2 2012, Samsung filed a patent application for its folding smart phone design
- In May 2013, Samsung tried to patent its folding phone screen idea
- In November 2013, Samsung announced that it would be bringing folding display devices to the market
- In spring 2016, Samsung was finally working on what we now refer to as the Galaxy Fold
- In Otober 2018, Samsung finally confirmed that its foldable phone was on the way
- On February 20 2019, Samsung launched the Samsung Galaxy Fold with a staggering £1,900 price tag
- On April 15 2019, Samsung started letting high profile technology journalists use the phone but by April 17 lots of them were already complaining about the screen breaking or not working
- On April 22 2019, Samsung had to announce that it was postponing the Samsung Galaxy Fold’s release so that it could address and fix ongoing issues with the folding screen
- On September 6, 2019, Samsung started selling the Galaxy Fold in the UK
Samsung will be hoping to avoid another folding phone scandal.
Its last bendy mobile, the Galaxy Fold, went on sale in September 2019, months after the planned April launch. It bent like a paperback novel using flexible screen technology.
The gadget’s original release was cancelled after test samples given to gadget reviewers broke within a few days of use.
Samsung pulled all pre-orders of the device while it furiously worked to fix the issue, said to be caused by a fault with the screen’s hinge.
The device eventually hit shelves for £1,900 and rapidly sold out despite its early issues.
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