Samsung Offers $149 Screen Replacement Option for the Delicate Galaxy Fold
Samsung has released an updated version of the Galaxy Fold after pulling the plug earlier this year, accompanied by an one-time-only screen replacement for just $149 as well as a long list of education and warnings.
You can fold up Samsung's $2,000 phone. But for heaven’s sake, keep your fingernails away. Keys, coins and water, too.
In the upgraded model, Samsung has hardened the phone's screen edges, has added a new hinge and a giant warning about all the ways you might accidentally break it. A “care instruction” guide attached to the front of the phone includes the following list of ordinary-sounding activities that might destroy this extraordinary device:
- Do not press or apply “excessive pressure” to the flexible screen with anything sharp, including fingernails.
- Keep keys, coins and cards away from the folded-up Fold, which has a slight gap between the two halves of its screen.
- Do not expose the Fold to liquids or “small particles” that could enter through its exposed hinge.
- Keep it away from credit cards, which it might demagnetize.
To add to its luxury marketing push, a new “premier service” that comes with each Fold includes 24-7 call center “concierge.” Samsung is also offering to replace the screen within the first year of use for $149.
The Fold has a slender 4.6-inch screen on its front. Then it opens up to reveal a 7.3-inch screen, big enough to multitask with multiple Android apps at once.
The Galaxy Fold is available in “limited quantities” and users should get one-on-one “Premier” consultations at either a Best Buy, AT&T, or Samsung Experience retail store.
Creating an OLED screen that can fold and refold hundreds of thousands of times definately involved technical challenges. But why is Samsung selling a device that it knows is still so delicate, instead of waiting until it’s worked out how to make it strong?