Samsung announced that it will now make its first foldable smartphone available to the public in September.

“Earlier this year, we announced Galaxy Fold, Samsung’s first foldable device, and the beginning of an entirely new mobile category,” a Samsung statement explains. “Since then, we’ve made improvements to Galaxy Fold to ensure consumers have the best possible experience.”

Well. That doesn’t really tell the story, now does it?

Samsung announced its first foldable phone back in November 2018, and then formally unveiled it as the Galaxy Fold ahead of Mobile World Congress (MWC) in February. At the time, the consumer electronics giant said it would make the $2000 handset available to customers starting on April 26. But that never happened: After many of the first reviewers experienced massive hardware failures with the Galaxy Fold, including scratched and broken displays, Samsung finally bowed to the inevitable. On the eve of the expected launch, it finally delayed the release indefinitely. Two weeks later, it canceled all customer preorders too.

By early July, Samsung CEO DJ Koh admitted that the company had pushed the launch before the device was ready. But there were rumors that Samsung had finally fixed the issues with the unreliable handset.

And it appears that Samsung believes it has done so. It lists the following improvements that it has made to the Galaxy Fold design:

• The top protective layer of the Infinity Flex Display has been extended beyond the bezel, making it apparent that it is an integral part of the display structure and not meant to be removed. [This addresses issues where some reviewers had removed what looked like a screen protector, damaging the display.]
• Galaxy Fold features additional reinforcements to better protect the device from external particles while maintaining its signature foldable experience:
• The top and bottom of the hinge area have been strengthened with newly added protection caps.
• Additional metal layers underneath the Infinity Flex Display have been included to reinforce the protection of the display.
• The space between the hinge and body of Galaxy Fold has been reduced.

Additionally, Samsung says that it has taken the additional time to further improve the overall Galaxy Fold user experience, including optimizing more apps and services for the device’s unique user experience.

And, most important, it now expects to make the Galaxy Fold available to customers starting in September, in select markets. The firm says it will provide additional details about availability as we get closer to that new launch date.

Tagged with Samsung, Samsung Galaxy Fold