After some reviews showed the Samsung Galaxy Fold screen could easily crack, the company has halted all unconfirmed pre-orders.
This year was supposed to be the year of the foldable phone, but for Samsung it’s proving to be one of serious worry for its entry into the market. According to Reuters, the South Korean tech giant’s Electronics division said it cannot confirm when it will ship the new phone, dubbed the Galaxy Fold.
Despite originally being penned in for a 26 April release date, Samsung said that anyone who it hasn’t heard from about the phone’s pre-order will have to wait for an undetermined length of time.
“If we do not hear from you and we have not shipped by May 31st, your order will be cancelled automatically,” it said in an email on Monday (6 May) to customers who pre-ordered. This is different from its original statement last month that said “your pre-order guarantees your place in the queue for this innovative technology”.
Not long after the phone was announced, Samsung was forced to halt all pre-orders due to high demand, having said it planned to make at least 1m phones in the first year. All of this has occurred after a less-than-stellar launch for the phone, with a number of reviewers reporting that the device was breaking after just a day or two.
One of the big talking points of these reviews was that many people had removed the top protective later, mistaking it for a temporary screen cover. This resulted in many of the screens of the review devices becoming damaged. There were also reports that cracks and bumps appeared along the hinge of the device and, in one instance, the suggestion that a piece of moulding clay used to prop up review devices for video shoots may have gotten trapped in the hinge.
Following these reports, Samsung said that it was taking “measures to strengthen the display protection” and warned customers not to remove the protective layer.
In the meantime, one of Samsung’s rivals in the foldable phone space, Huawei, seems to be still on track for the release of its own foldable phone, the Mate X, in June.