Samsung has tried to fix the two most glaring design defects of the Galaxy Fold but, as iFixit has discovered its thorough teardown, it still is a fragile device. According to iFixit, some improvements have been made, but like they found with the first Galaxy Fold teardown (that Samsung tried to get rid off), it’s not a sturdy device by any means.
The Korean company has taried to address the two problems brought up by reviewers earlier this year. First: that people removed the outer screen layer thinking it was just a regular protective plastic. Second, the hinge gape that allowed dirt particles to come in and damage the display.
Dust and lint was also an enemy of the Galaxy Fold, but iFixit noted that there are now T-shaped plastic protectors to plug the gaps between the top and bottom of the display that appears when it’s folded. There are still gaps that flank the spine of the foldable phone, where dust could creep in, but this time it’s less likely to make a mess up in the display.
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A whole lot of adhesive has been used to stick the phone together as well, and the ‘Advanced Polymer Protective Layer’ – read built-in screen protector – is still present and correct only it’s been better integrated into the Galaxy Fold to prevent people from thinking it’s a removable protector and thus wrecking the phone’s folding display.
Perhaps the most noticeable change is the added layer of metal to make the display more robust. According to iFixit, the extra layer is “like chainmail armor” placed between the backing plates and the screen. This addition should make the display more reinforced, even when it’s separated from the chassis.
There are plenty of warnings that you won’t expect in any flagship device nowadays, from touching the screen too hard to putting objects like credit cards inside to exposing it to dusty environments. But, as iFixIt has discovered, there is a good reason for all this. According to iFixit:-
“That said, this thing is still pretty fragile. We’ll have to see how it holds up in the real world, but for now, we can’t help but wonder: why weren’t these revisions a part of the first Fold? It took reviewers (and us) less than a week to figure out the phone’s weak points. Why ship something they must have known to be so easily breakable?”
That’s a reasonable question, especially as iFixit gave the Galaxy Fold a ‘repairability’ score of two out of ten, thanks to its glued-down parts and fragile main display. So while the Galaxy Fold has been greatly improved and it seems durable enough in certain aspects — like its folding capacity — some may want to wait for version 2.0.
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