Samsung's New Foldable Phone Under Fire for Flimsiness

Samsung's latest foldable smartphone, the Galaxy Z Flip, is once more causing controversy for questionable durability.

Its predecessor, the Galaxy Fold released this past year, also garnered negative reviews before its release for issues with the screen, which winked out when bits of grit were trapped under the screen.

The Z Flip has already been released in the U.S., Singapore and the UAE and sold out.

But popular YouTuber JerryRigEverything posted a online video suggesting that the Z Flip's screen is "fake folding glass." Samsung used "ultra-thin glass" for the display because of its alleged resistance to wrinkling and imperviousness to shock. 

The YouTuber claimed that the company is "using a hybrid plastic polymer with little specks of glass ingredients inside," based on his test using Mohs hardness picks. He said if it is absolutely created from glass, scratch would appear at a level 5 or 6, but his Mohs pick test on the Z Flip showed "marks learn to appear" at a level 2 and "deeper grooves happening at a rate 3," which may be seen on plastic.

The Galaxy Fold's used polyimide film instead.

Tech website the Verge said, "But if it certainly can be scratched this easily, what appeared like a significant selling point for the US$1,380 Galaxy Z Flip is needs to appear to be overblown marketing." 

Samsung bristled. "The YouTube clip was a malicious review that went beyond the realm of ordinary usage," a spokesman said. "We used tempered glass for the Z Flip's screen, but it's so thin that people added a protective layer."

In other words, the scratch marks appeared on the protective layer and not the glass itself. In what users may feel is cold comfort, Samsung said Z Flip buyers will get a one-time screen replacement for $119.