Samsung is ready to launch the Galaxy Fold. The foldable handset was originally due to go on sale in April, until various hardware faults found by journalists forced the Korean smartphone manufacturer to postpone the release to run further tests.
At the end of May, Samsung announced that the tests had not yet concluded, promising to produce a launch schedule “in a few weeks”; all preorders of the bendy handset were cancelled and an expectant hush descended upon the industry.
To Samsung’s credit, a few weeks have elapsed, and the company has delivered the goods – sort of. The Korea Herald reports that Samsung’s display vice president Kim Seong-Cheol has described the Galaxy Fold as “ready to hit the market”.
Speaking at the Korean Information Display Society on 18 June, Kim Seong-Cheol reported that “most of the display problems have been ironed out”, saying that despite the myriad issues for which the handset has become known, he expects the Fold “to receive a lot of attention in the market” when it finally does launch.
We don’t like the sound of that “most”, but Samsung has been careful not to pin down an exact release date, perhaps because the rumoured launch of the Galaxy Note 10 is fast approaching . The Korean firm denied reports that the Fold would launch before the Note 10, potentially in July.
Tech journalists found that review samples of the Galaxy Fold were prone to warped or broken displays. In addition, it was quickly discovered that removing a protective film from the folding screen – frequently mistaken for part of the packaging – resulted in significant damage to the Fold. Since then, there’s been no word on an exact release date for Samsung’s game-changing handset.
