--- title: "Review Units of Samsung’s Folding Phone Are Breaking Almost Immediately" description: "Worrying reports of Samsung Galaxy Fold review units are coming in, complaining of small bulges in the screens and broken displays." date: "2019-04-17" modified: "2019-07-09" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/early-release-samsung-galaxy-fold-broken" categories: - "Computing" - "Devices" - "Robots and Machines" tags: - "display" - "Samsung" - "smartphone" - "the digest" --- # Review Units of Samsung’s Folding Phone Are Breaking Almost Immediately ![Worrying reports of Samsung Galaxy Fold review units showing small bulges and broken displays are coming in.]() *\Image: Samsung\* ## PR Disaster? Korean tech giant Samsung has a PR disaster on its hands. *The Verge* just published a worrying report of its Samsung Galaxy Fold review unit showing a small bulge on the crease of the smartphone's bending seven inch screen. [*CNBC* noted]() similar problems with its review unit. "A review unit given to CNBC by Samsung is also completely unusable after just two days of use," wrote Todd Haselton. And the evidence keeps rolling in. YouTube tech reviewer Marques Brownlee, better known by the handle MKBHD, [tweeted]() earlier today to warn other early testers to *not* peel away a thin layer covering the screen — in his own attempt to remove the layer, he rendered the display useless. "I thought I was dumb for messing with it, but turns out Mark Gurman \[*Bloomberg*\], Dieter Bohn \[*The Verge*\] and Steve Kovach \[*CNBC*\] all also have broken Folds too because of how delicate this layer is," Brownlee added. ## Distressing Evidence "It’s a distressing thing to discover just two days after receiving my review unit," Bohn wrote for *The Verge*. "More distressing is that the bulge eventually pressed sharply enough into the screen to break it." Bohn also ruled out any unusually rough behavior that could've broken the screen. "I’ve done normal phone stuff, like opening and closing the hinge and putting it in my pocket," he wrote. Samsung has shipped out replacement review units to both *The Verge* and Brownlee so far, but hasn't officially commented on the issue so far. Futurism has reached out for comment. **READ MORE:** [My Samsung Galaxy Fold screen broke after just a day]() \[*The Verge*\] **More on the Samsung Galaxy Fold:** *[Samsung Just Revealed a $1980 Folding Smartphone]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()