The media was recently surprised by reports that the flexible displays in some of the review units of the new Galaxy fold from Samsung were breaking quite easily.
These incidents led Samsung to postpone the launch of the Fold worldwide. The Galaxy Fold's botched debut left some wondering what went wrong with the device that was billed as the world's first commercial foldable phone, especially considering its around $2,000 price tag. In relation, iFixit has explained the reason for the broken screens ...
In a new blog post, Kevin Purdy and other members of the iFixit team examine known issues that plagued reviewers who had the opportunity to use the Samsung Galaxy Fold. The team made some guesses based on more than a decade of examining the internals of devices that use flexible AMOLED panels similar to the one in this terminal. (Take a look ⇒ Galaxy Fold vs Huawei Mate X: two different concepts for the same purpose)
Broken Galaxy Fold screen
In short, the post points out that OLED screen is at the heart of the Galaxy Fold's problems, especially since it doesn't have a protective layer like Gorilla Glass on top. OLED displays are said to be very fragile, so even the smallest dust particles can cause problems, and the fold has many areas where dust can easily get into sensitive areas.
In some cases, the protective film on the OLED was peeled off with the expectation that it was similar to the thin, removable waterproof film that ships with most phones. That damaged the OLED screen and highlights that strong pressure on this type of relatively unprotected panel is dangerous.
Before the launch of the Galaxy Fold, Samsung had launched a highly publicized mechanical stress test for the device, where robot folders subjected the folding mechanism to various folds. iFixit is of the opinion that the tests were too mechanical and did not take due account of the fact that human use varies.
Finally, the iFixit team also mentioned that the lack of a dedicated crease line in the center of the folding screen prevents it from even constantly folding, putting even more stress on the OLED panel.
(Source)
