It was one of the most disastrous product launches we can remember.
Even before devices left reviewers hands the Galaxy Fold had a reputation for failure.
There were the mysterious bumps in the display, a removable display covering, that wasn’t
supposed to come off, and other random device failures.
All of these problems led Samsung to pull the Fold right before it was released.
But now the Galaxy Fold is back and we’re dying to see what changes Samsung made to
make a folding device that will actually work.
There’s only one way to find out and that’s to tear it down.
There’s nothing like a giant warning label to make you feel like you’ve just purchased
a very durable device.
Especially if one of the warnings is to not press too hard with your fingernail.
For such a unique and revolutionary device getting into the fold is kind of boring.
Just like other the less foldy Galaxy phones you start off by removing a glued on rear
panel to gain access to the device.
Once we’ve removed the midframes were greeted with what looks like a pretty complete phone.
This side of the Fold has the battery, motherboard, and pretty much everything you think you’d
find in a Galaxy phone.
Disconnecting some cables and removing the first 2 of 6 total cameras, allows us to free
the motherboard.
On the board we spy the 12 GB of RAM layered over Qualcomm Snapdragon 855, and the 512
GB of Samsung made eUFS flash storage.
The trio of rear facing cameras pops out bringing us to 5 total cameras removed so far, and
we’re still looking for 1 more.
The first battery is predictably glued in place and is the last part on this half of
the fold, so we turn our attention to the second half.
This time we’re starting off by removing the outer display.
Underneath we find yet another midframe, a secondary board, another battery, and the
6th and final camera.
To give you an overview of all the cameras we found, we’ve go the 10 MP selfie cam
along with the 8 MP RGB Depth camera.
The three rear cameras composed of a 16 MP Ultra Wide, 12 MP Wide angle, and a 12 MP
Telephoto camera and finally, yet another 10 MP selfie camera.
The batteries we found 2135 mAh and a 2245 mAh. provide a combined 16.87 Wh of power.
That's less than most tablets, including the 19.32 Wh cell in the newest iPad Mini, but
I guess that makes sense the fold is still considered a phone.
We’re left with the huge foldable inner display which is adhered to the frame.
This is a 7.3 inch QXGA Dynamic AMOLED display with a resolution of 2152 by 1536 and a pixel
density of 362 pixels per inch.
The big question is what has Samsung changed to make this phone hopefully not break after
a few days of use?
Long story short it seems they’ve shored up many of the leaky spots that previously
plagued this phone.
The most prominent entry point for debris was found at either end of the fold where
there was a break in the hard plastic bezel.
Samsung has added a small protective cover to close that gap.
The hinges on the frame which were once bare are now covered with tape to prevent dirt
and grime making its way to the display.
We also noticed that they reinforced the display with an extra metal layer and extended the
Advanced polymer protective layer to the edges of the display making it less of a temptation
to pick off.
With our fold fully disassembled it’s time to talk repairability.
How did the Samsung Galaxy Fold score on our repairability meter?
It got a 2 out of 10 and here’s why.
On the upside A single Phillips driver takes care of all
the screws.
Many components are modular and can be replaced independently.
But on the downside The mechanics involved in the fold are likely
to wear over time, causing stress to hinges and the display, eventually they’ll all
have to be replaced.
The display is really fragile, which means you’ll have to replace it before too long
and it’s gonna be a pricey repair.
Battery replacements are possible, but unnecessarily difficult—solvents help, but risk damage
to the display supports.
And lastly Glued-down glass on both front and back means
greater risk of breakage, and makes repairs difficult to start.