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Samsung gets reports of Galaxy Fold screen problems, raising specter of Note 7 fiasco
One America News ^ | April 18, 2019 | By Angela Moon and Ju-min Park

Posted on 04/18/2019 11:19:56 AM PDT by Red Badger

NEW YORK/SEOUL – Samsung Electronics Co Ltd said it has received “a few” reports of damage to the displays of samples of its upcoming foldable smartphone, raising the prospect of a less-then-smooth entry for the splashy $1,980 handset.

The Galaxy Fold, on sale from April 26 in the United States, resembles a conventional smartphone but opens like a book to reveal a second display the size of a small tablet at 7.3 inches (18.5 cm). The design, matched by Huawei Technologies Co Ltd’s Mate X, was hailed as the future in a field that has seen few surprises since Apple Inc’s iPhone in 2007.

Yet ahead of the launch, journalists supplied with review samples reported malfunctions after only a day or two of use.

“We will thoroughly inspect these units … to determine the cause of the matter,” Samsung said in a statement.

Shares of the company closed down 3.1 percent, while the broader market was down 1.43 percent.

The malfunctions raised the specter of Samsung’s doomed Galaxy Note 7 phone three years ago. Battery and design flaws in the Note 7 resulted in some units catching fire or exploding, forcing Samsung to recall and cancel sales of the model.

The recall wiped out nearly all profit of Samsung’s mobile division in the third quarter of 2016.

With the Fold, analysts said malfunctions from the first batch of a test model were of little surprise. Moreover, the handset’s in-folding design is likely to be less durable than Huawei’s out-folding approach, they said.

“In-folding is more difficult to make than out-folding, as it adds higher pressure to screens, which people have worried about,” said analyst Park Sung-soon at BNK Securities.

DO NOT REMOVE

Technology journalists took to Twitter on Wednesday to report instances of the screen either cracking or flickering.

Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman tweeted: “The screen on my Galaxy Fold review unit is completely broken and unusable just two days in. Hard to know if this is widespread or not.”

Gurman removed a plastic layer on the screen that was not meant to be removed and the phone malfunctioned afterwards, according to his tweets.

A wrapper around the device featured “ATTENTION” in uppercase and warned not remove the layer, showed a tweet from another sample recipient.

Samsung on Thursday said removing the protective layer might result in damage, and that it would clearly inform customers of the issue.

Dieter Bohn, executive editor of The Verge, said a “small bulge” appeared on the crease of the phone screen, which appeared to be something pressing from underneath the screen. Bohn said Samsung replaced his test phone but did not offer an explanation for the problem.

“It is very troubling,” Bohn told Reuters, adding that he did not remove the protective layer.

CNBC.com tech editor Steve Kovach tweeted a video of half of his phone’s screen flickering after using it for just a day.

HIGH DEMAND

Samsung has said it plans to make at least 1 million Fold handsets, versus the total 300 million phones it produces annually. It has closed Fold pre-orders due to “high demand”.

On Thursday, the firm told Reuters there was no change to its release schedule following the malfunction reports.

“I think as time goes on its yield rate will improve, and foldables that customers have in hand will be much better,” said analyst Lee Kyu-ha at NH Investment & Securities. “But I don’t know if Samsung can completely fix the problem about screens.”

(Reporting by Angela Moon in NEW YORK and Ju-min Park in SEOUL; Additional reporting by Heekyong Yang in SEOUL,

Editing by Leslie Adler and Christopher Cushing)


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Technical
KEYWORDS: boeing; galaxy; korea; samsung; smartphone
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1 posted on 04/18/2019 11:19:56 AM PDT by Red Badger
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To: Swordmaker; ShadowAce

Ping!...................


2 posted on 04/18/2019 11:20:23 AM PDT by Red Badger (We are headed for a Civil War. It won't be nice like the last one....................)
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To: Red Badger

I notice that an awful lot of young women seem to carry their cell phones in the back pockets of their jeans. Oops!


3 posted on 04/18/2019 11:26:01 AM PDT by Menehune56 ("Let them hate so long as they fear" (Oderint Dum Metuant), Lucius Accius (170 BC - 86 BC))
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To: Menehune56

My wife does and she’s 57.

Already broke one..............


4 posted on 04/18/2019 11:30:08 AM PDT by Red Badger (We are headed for a Civil War. It won't be nice like the last one....................)
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To: Red Badger

It’s not a “problem,” it’s a “matter.”


5 posted on 04/18/2019 11:31:46 AM PDT by Steely Tom ([Seth Rich] == [the Democrat's John Dean])
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To: Red Badger

Pure status symbol to spend $2000 on a cell phone.


6 posted on 04/18/2019 11:32:33 AM PDT by C19fan
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To: Red Badger

I had the original Palm Pilot years ago, it had a flip up screen. The hinge eventually wore out and broke. I don’t like moving parts on phones.


7 posted on 04/18/2019 11:33:40 AM PDT by Cementjungle
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To: Cementjungle

Stress / motion fatigue will eventually destroy all these phones........


8 posted on 04/18/2019 11:41:08 AM PDT by Red Badger (We are headed for a Civil War. It won't be nice like the last one....................)
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To: Cementjungle

That was a while back. Turned out the flip phones were the most reliable of the bunch in the olden days. They could take a beating. Easy to sneak into prison too I bet.


9 posted on 04/18/2019 11:41:48 AM PDT by ImJustAnotherOkie (All I know is The I read in the papers.)
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To: Steely Tom

At $2K a pop, it’s a ‘problem’!...................


10 posted on 04/18/2019 11:41:52 AM PDT by Red Badger (We are headed for a Civil War. It won't be nice like the last one....................)
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To: Red Badger
for the splashy $1,980 handset

And yet todays yutes and politicians seek socialism to spread the wealth. Every proponent of socialism should spend 6 months in Venezuela or Zimbabwe, to see what socialism has done to once prosperous nations. The poor in the US are rich beyond imagination in much of the world.

11 posted on 04/18/2019 11:50:02 AM PDT by FatherofFive (Islam is EVIL and needs to be eradicated)
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To: FatherofFive

There was a teenage girl and her two siblings, black, from Houston, TX.

Their mother took them to some African nation, Nigeria I think, on vacation to meet a man she met on the internet.

She abandoned them in some mud hut village in the middle of the jungle, and they never saw her again.

They were stranded in a foreign country, no passports or other ID. They had to subsist on handouts from locals until they were taken to an orphanage to live.

There they stayed until months later a missionary group came to visit from America.

The girl had a hell of a time convincing them they were Americans, and needed help in getting home.

They sang the Star Spangled Banner, America the Beautiful, recited the Pledge of Allegiance and told them all about their home and schools in Houston.

Eventually the missionaries called in the American embassy and they got in touch with relatives in the US.

Upon arriving, finally, back in the US a reporter asked them what she had learned during their ordeal.

She replied, “I learned that there are no poor people in the US.”...

The reporter ended the interview immediately.............


12 posted on 04/18/2019 12:03:04 PM PDT by Red Badger (We are headed for a Civil War. It won't be nice like the last one....................)
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To: Red Badger
Oh...thought it said Galaxy Ford...


13 posted on 04/18/2019 12:17:02 PM PDT by moovova
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To: moovova

Oh...thought it said Galaxy Ford...

...

I was going to ask if anybody read the title that way.


14 posted on 04/18/2019 12:20:38 PM PDT by Moonman62 (Facts are racist.)
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To: Moonman62

I did!


15 posted on 04/18/2019 12:21:28 PM PDT by 21twelve (!)
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To: Red Badger

Cute gimmick but that’s all it is. I like my non folding glass screen just fine.


16 posted on 04/18/2019 12:22:49 PM PDT by AFreeBird
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To: moovova

Oh baby a ‘61 Starliner. With 401 h.p. 390 with trips, that’s my kind of Galaxie.


17 posted on 04/18/2019 12:22:59 PM PDT by VietVet876
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To: VietVet876

Back when cars were works of art instead of blobs of putty


18 posted on 04/18/2019 12:24:20 PM PDT by Pelham (Secure Voter ID. Mexico has it, because unlike us they take voting seriously)
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To: VietVet876

428 dual quads


19 posted on 04/18/2019 12:35:07 PM PDT by TexasGator (Z1z)
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To: Pelham

Back when cars were works of art instead of blobs of putty”””

Tell me about it! I’ve been watching Crime Story, Dennis Farina, set in the early sixties and man do they pull out the stops period carwise! Closeup shots of those cars and many scenes involving dozens of them at once, over and over! I was struck by how different and unique the styles were compared to today.


20 posted on 04/18/2019 12:41:38 PM PDT by TalBlack (Damn right I'll "do something" you fat, balding son of a bitch!)
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