Samsung forces iFixit to withdraw its Galaxy Fold teardown article

Over the past few days, the Samsung Galaxy Fold has been a device of interest in the smartphone industry. After the first set of review units were received, a number of complaints emanated and this forced Samsung to postpone the first sale of this device. It now appears that the company has now fixed June for the sale so that it can address the numerous display issues. Recall that, iFixit, a senior teardown agency, released a detailed disassembly of Samsung’s foldable phone. Among other things, it concluded that the 7mm gap at the upper and lower folds is probably not dust-proof, causing dust, debris, etc. to invade into the OLED panel. This suggests that Samsung has some design flaws with the Galaxy Fold. However, iFixit was forced to withdraw the dismantling article today because of pressure from Samsung.

iFixit said in a statement “After two days of intense public interest, iFixit has removed our teardown of Samsung’s Galaxy Fold. That analysis supported our suspicions that the device provided insufficient protection from debris damaging the screen. We were provided our Galaxy Fold unit by a trusted partner. Samsung has requested, through that partner, that iFixit remove its teardown. We are under no obligation to remove our analysis, legal or otherwise. But out of respect for this partner, whom we consider an ally in making devices more repairable, we are choosing to withdraw our story until we can purchase a Galaxy Fold at retail.”

From the statement by iFixit, it will definitely do another teardown of this smartphone if it can get a unit at retail. Obviously, Samsung will inevitably have to repair the Galaxy Fold during this time. However, the teardown will still be necessary to ascertain the durability of this seemingly fragile $2000 smartphone.