Samsung Galaxy Fold is a tough nut to crack, iFixit teardown reveals

Samsung Galaxy Fold scored a meagre 2/10, which means it is one of the most difficult devices to repair.

An attendee holds a Samsung Electronics Co. Galaxy Fold mobile device during an unveiling event in New York, U.S., on Monday, April 15, 2019. (Bloomberg)

Samsung Galaxy Fold aims to provide userswith double the power and screen for enhanced gaming, entertainment, or productivity experience. However, Samsung's first foldable smartphone is not very good under the screws, it seems.

Repair firm iFixit conducted a teardown of the bulgy, foldable phone and ranked it low on the repairability scale. The Samsung Galaxy Fold scored a meagre 2/10, which means it is one of the most difficult devices to repair.

The teardown revealed that the mechanics in the fold of the smartphone are likely to wear over time. The main display, which recently gave early users a lot of problems, lacks protection and is fragile. The glued glass on the front and back are vulnerable to breakage, making the Galaxy Fold difficult to repair.

Samsung made its ambitious foldable phone launch earlier this year. The Galaxy Fold was scheduled to go on sale starting April 26, but the company has halted it indefinitely. Review units of Galaxy Fold sent out to journalists started cracking and breaking within just a few days of use, and some even after a day' use. Samsung said it would investigate the matter, and has delayed the launch for now.

Samsung Galaxy Fold specifications

Samsung Galaxy Fold features a 4.6-inch HD+ Super AMOLED display up front, and a bigger 7.3-inch QXGA+ Dynamic AMOLED screen when unfolded. The foldable phone is powered by a 7nm processor paired with 12GB of RAM. For photography, Galaxy Fold offers six cameras in total.

On the outside there's a triple-camera setup of 16-megapixel ultra-wide sensor, 12-megapixel wide-angle camera, and 12-megapixel telephoto lens. It has two front cameras on the inside featuring a 10-megapixel and 8-megapixel RGB sensor with f/1.9 aperture.

The smartphone is fuelled by a 4,380mAh battery with Wireless PowerShare technology. On the software front, it runs on Android 9 Pie out-of-the-box. Galaxy Fold is priced at $1980 ( ₹1,40,000 approximately).

With inputs from ANI.