Samsung’s Galaxy Fold makes a great first impression (when it doesn’t break)

Seeing is believing, right?

After years of writing about foldable phone rumors and concepts and leaks, I finally got to hold Samsung’s highly anticipated Galaxy Fold and try out its bendable display — crease and all — and I have to say, it definitely scores a 100 on hype. In a saturated market where all phones essentially look and work the same, the Galaxy Fold was refreshing.

As someone who’s maybe been the most critical of foldable phones, I was surprised by how polished the phone was. For a first-generation product, the Galaxy Fold felt more finished than I expected it be.

Unfortunately, at the very moment I was fawning over the new form factor like a little boy, reviewers who were a few days into testing the Galaxy Fold learned the device might not be as durable or reliable as Samsung claims.

For a phone that costs $1,980, that’s pretty concerning.

It’s weird to say this, but it’s been a very long time since I pulled a new phone out of its box and genuinely had no words.

After finally processing the fact that foldable phones are real and I had one in my hand, I found myself repeatedly saying variations of “this is nuts” and “this is wild” and “wow.”

It’s one thing to look at images and video of the Galaxy Fold, but something different to hold it in your hands. Unlike the Royole FlexPai, which can only be described as a terrible, half-assed attempt at a foldable phone, the Galaxy Fold is the complete opposite.

Closed up, the smooth glass and metal body feel as premium as a Galaxy S10. Yes, the phone’s tall, skinny, thick (about the thickness of two iPhones), and a little heavy, but it doesn’t feel cheap. Some have likened the closed-up Galaxy Fold to a TV remote and I have to agree.

I’m not sure the Galaxy Fold feels like nearly $2,000 worth of phone, but it definitely feels more expensive than a crude foldable device like the FlexPai. I can tell you this much: The Galaxy Fold’s hinge looks elegant and opens smoothly compared to the FlexPai’s literally crunchy-sounding hinge.

I did a quick front pocket test in my jeans and, honestly, the Galaxy Fold didn’t bulge much. Skinny jeans, however, might not be as forgiving.

A lot of people have complained about the 4.6-inch display on the outside of the phone, saying it’s too small, and too skinny, and it’s surrounded by thick bezels on all four sides. This is all true, but I suspect most people won’t be using the outside screen much. I realized I didn’t pay much attention to it because the interior 7.3-inch screen was so much more captivating.

When unfolded, the Galaxy Fold’s tablet-sized screen is wondrous. It feels like an impossible mind trick. I kept opening and closing and the device just to make sure I wasn’t seeing things.

Surprisingly, the thing that I expected to dislike the most about the display — the crease running down the middle — wasn’t as bad as it looked in photos and video. At certain angles, the crease is visible for sure and I could feel it if I ran a finger directly along it while applying a little bit of pressure, but I stopped noticing it almost immediately after I started opening apps in full screen and running multiple apps simultaneously.

Most impressive was a feature called “app continuity” which let me expand an app from the smaller outside screen to the larger tablet-sized display when I opened up the Fold. I was impressed at how quickly it worked. There was no waiting for an app to “move” between screens — it just worked like you’d expect it to. The responsiveness was no doubt the work the Fold’s powerful Snapdragon 855 chip and 12GB of RAM.

It’s unreal to be able to watch a YouTube video without having to squint and still be able to flick through the comments section below. It felt more immersive playing a 3D racing game like Asphalt 9. Google Maps didn’t feel so cramped. Reading articles felt roomier, as if I was using a Kindle or iPad mini.

Even the cameras are really good. The Galaxy Fold has six cameras in total: three on the back, two inside, and one on the outside of the smaller screen. 

As far as I could tell, the three rear cameras are the same as the ones on the S10 phones: 12-megapixel wide, 16-megapixel ultra-wide, and 12-megapixel 2x telephoto lenses.

The inside cameras consist of a 10-megapixel camera and 8-megapixel depth camera like on the S10+. And above the outside screen is a 10-megapixel selfie camera.

But even though the cameras are the same as on the S10, using the Fold to shoot photos felt different because the viewfinder is so much larger on the inside screen. As cheesy as it sounds, shooting with such a big viewfinder felt less like taking a photo and more like framing reality.

As much as I liked the Galaxy Fold, let’s be clear: It hasn’t convinced me that foldable phones are the future.

Samsung’s new foldable device left a great first impression — rightfully so since it’s a new form factor and we’ve never seen anything like it before — and it did cross off some of the things all foldable phones need to overcome such as the crease, how software works, and thickness, but durability remains a big concern.

Earlier this year, I wrote:

With the crease comes the question of durability… how many unfolds will it be able to endure? How durable is a display that you’ll fold and unfold hundreds of times a day? 

It’s bad enough to have a single dead pixel on a screen on a $1,000 phone. What happens if the pixels along the crease start to die? Can any phone maker guarantee the pixels along a screen’s crease will be good for years to come?

Samsung says it stress-tested the Galaxy Fold to be able to withstand up to 200,000 folds, but several review units seeded to reviewers have broken within days of being unboxed.

Reviewers broke their Fold screens after the “polymer adhesive” — meant to prevent scratches — because it looked like a pre-installed screen protector. Particles got underneath the display. For one person, half the interior display just straight up freaked out. It all shows the Galaxy Fold is very much a “version 1.0” device. 

It’s unclear if these are issues that only affect the review units provided to journalists or if retail models will have the same problems as well. A Samsung representative told me reviewers received European versions of the Galaxy Fold to test and it’s possible the U.S. versions might not have the same issues — we won’t know how widespread the defects are until customers get their phones starting on April 26.

With so many early issues, I remain skeptical about foldable phones. They’re no doubt very cool and the Galaxy Fold really works — it folds and unfolds and the multi-app experience is surprisingly solid — but ultimately, durability will make or break the product category.