Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Samsung Galaxy Fold's display seems to have problems

qz.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 159 posts

Re: The Samsung Galaxy Fold's display seems to have problems

#31

Post by oflannabhra »

chris_wot wrote: post #20
oflannabhra wrote: post #3

Summary: - 4 review units have failed (a day or two in) - 2 failed due to a removal of a "polymer coating" that essentially looks like a screen protector. This is not supposed to be removed, but several reviewers did (or tried) - 1 failed due to supposed ingress into the hinge mechanism. I'm sure failure analysis is currently going on at Samsung - 1 screen failed with no apparent causes.

That’s wrong. There were 6 units referenced in that story.

From what I can tell, there were only 4 devices: MKBHD (YouTube), Dieter Bohn (The Verge), Mark Gurman (Bloomberg), and Steve Kovach (CNBC).

Re: The Samsung Galaxy Fold's display seems to have problems

#32

Post by simonwhite87 »

roro159 wrote: post #15
simonwhite87 wrote: post #8

Can't understand the appeal of a foldable screen - it looks like shit (big crease down the middle and thick when folded) and for that I get a marginal improvement on idle surface area consumption. Would love to be proven wrong but I think it's going to be a monumental flop in regards to sales.

The pre orders sold out in 2 days: https://www.droid-life.com/2019/04/16/samsung-quickly-sold-o... The numbers aren't public yet, but it's probably low. I don't think they are dumb enough to expect this device to sell anywhere near the Galaxy S10 or an iPhone. It may not be a huge sales success, but apparently it's above Samsung expectations.

I'd be fascinated to see a breakdown of consumer demographic/profiles for the customers that purchased via pre-order.

My suspicion is that it's people interested in the engineering of the screen rather than consumers who've identified a personal use case for it.

Re: The Samsung Galaxy Fold's display seems to have problems

#33

Post by stetrain »

simonwhite87 wrote: post #25
jsgo wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Due to best screen available. In that sometimes you only have your phone with you. Outside of the normal status-y nature of high end phones, I could see this being valuable to an exec/management as this would allow them to review Excel documents and PDFs on the fly when in situations where booting up a work laptop isn't ideal or possible (laying in bed, at an airport waiting on flights, etc.). In that particular scen…

"It isn't a problem really" - I think that's my problem with it - of course I appreciate the engineering involved in producing a consumer grade foldable screen but I just can't figure out who the target audience is.

Do you mean for this particular tech demonstrator device or for a future ideal folding screen device?

I think the latter is easy to see a market for, anyone who currently uses both a phone and a tablet or e-reader who would prefer a single device that fits in a pocket.

Re: The Samsung Galaxy Fold's display seems to have problems

#34

Post by chrisseaton »

gzu wrote: post #28

Not sure if I’m in the minority but I would prefer two separated clamshell screens to one bendy screen. At least until the bendable tech is 100%. Two separate screens would still allow great multitasking when necessary. When not used perhaps it can completely fold behind the device for a traditional smartphone experience.

> would still allow great multitasking when necessary

I don’t think most people want to multitask - the want one big app or video.

Re: The Samsung Galaxy Fold's display seems to have problems

#35

Post by pastor_elm »

gzu wrote: post #28

Not sure if I’m in the minority but I would prefer two separated clamshell screens to one bendy screen. At least until the bendable tech is 100%. Two separate screens would still allow great multitasking when necessary. When not used perhaps it can completely fold behind the device for a traditional smartphone experience.

i prefer keeping a phone that can fit in my pocket easily but i guess i'm even more in the minority.

Re: The Samsung Galaxy Fold's display seems to have problems

#36

Post by dmitriid »

wpasc wrote: post #4

Even if the Fold has some problems, I commend them for being bold with their design and ambitions. It may be safer to wait for the next generation of that phone, but many recent developments in the hardware space have been lacking in ambition. Kudos to Samsung

Had this happened to Apple, there would be an uproar.

Samsung’s $2000 phone breaks in two days? Kudos to them for being bold and brave.

Smh.

Re: The Samsung Galaxy Fold's display seems to have problems

#37

Post by djsumdog »

gzu wrote: post #28

Not sure if I’m in the minority but I would prefer two separated clamshell screens to one bendy screen. At least until the bendable tech is 100%. Two separate screens would still allow great multitasking when necessary. When not used perhaps it can completely fold behind the device for a traditional smartphone experience.

Don't those already exist? I swear I've seen phones that just have dual screens.

Re: The Samsung Galaxy Fold's display seems to have problems

#38

Post by drcode »

mcphage wrote: post #10
neals wrote: post #5

Just wondering about the actual statistics here... Is this a higher failure rate than average phones? Or is there a extremely large focus on all of these devices because of what they are, and therefor problems are more "visible" (there's probably an English word for the phenomenon)

> Is this a higher failure rate than average phones? At this point these are just review models—the phone itself hasn't been release yet. > Or is there a extremely large focus on all of these devices because of what they are, and therefor problems are more "visible" There's a large focus on these devices, because the people who got them were given them for that purpose.

Samsung said that the units sent out are the same as the final consumer devices, for what it's worth.

Re: The Samsung Galaxy Fold's display seems to have problems

#39

Post by stetrain »

simonwhite87 wrote: post #32
roro159 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The pre orders sold out in 2 days: https://www.droid-life.com/2019/04/16/samsung-quickly-sold-o... The numbers aren't public yet, but it's probably low. I don't think they are dumb enough to expect this device to sell anywhere near the Galaxy S10 or an iPhone. It may not be a huge sales success, but apparently it's above Samsung expectations.

I'd be fascinated to see a breakdown of consumer demographic/profiles for the customers that purchased via pre-order. My suspicion is that it's people interested in the engineering of the screen rather than consumers who've identified a personal use case for it.

That might be some, I think for many it's just being able to buy "a piece of the future today".

Whether or not it ends up truly being practical, it's a phone that looks and does things that are radically different from most mainstream phones.

People will think their fancy future folding phone is cool, and other people will probably see it and think it's interesting and want to talk about it or see it work.

Kind of like paying $600 plus a 2-year contract for an iPhone in 2007 with a slow processor, no 3G, no MMS, no copy-and-paste, etc.

Re: The Samsung Galaxy Fold's display seems to have problems

#40

Post by ihuman »

hinkley wrote: post #26

> The phone comes with this protective layer/film. Samsung says you are not supposed to remove it. I removed it, not knowing you’re not supposed to (consumers won’t know either). It appeared removable in the left corner, so I took it off. I believe this contributed to the problem. How do you even?

Displays often come with a plastic film attached so it doesn't get scratched during transport. Maybe they assumed it was like that, and that Samsung was being overly cautious?
Post reply on HN