I'm going to admit, I've been tempted by the allure of a foldable phone. A phone in your pocket, but a tablet in the right environment, there's an appeal there that makes sense to me. Ultimately, it's the price and hinge that have always put me off. If you plan on spending days opening up and closing yours, like a bibliophile breaking in a good book spine, I have some bad news. If not, and you like a good live stream, well, then I have some good news.
As spotted by Digital Trends, tech-it, a tech creator, recently spent days streaming themselves flipping open a Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 200,000 times. The last five hours of this activity (going from 180745 to 200001) were uploaded as a single long video on their YouTube channel.
Rather impressively, all these flips were done by hand. Presumably, Samsung would do the same before sending these devices through to mass production, but it's likely not as entertaining as tech-it's stream, where they talked to chat, folded the phone (complete with compression wristbands) and reported on any oddities. Samsung also likely wouldn't do this by hand.
And boy, were there oddities. A Google Doc was typed up reporting some of the stranger anomalies during this test, with it suffering from a forced reboot 'between 6,000 and 10,000 folds'. The same reportedly happened every 10,000 folds after this. At 75,000 folds, 'an unknown black liquid came out of the hinge, but it has not appeared again.'
You can spot what they're talking about from around five hours and thirty-five minutes onwards in this stream, where they regularly collect light specs of black liquid for a while.
The team also reported that, at 175,000 folds, all speakers on the device stopped working entirely. They also remark that the hinge is now smoother, though 'no other abnormalities' were observed.
So, how likely is it that you would actually run into any of these problems? I look at my phone casually anywhere between 10 to 40 times a day, due to different notifications and just checking the time. Under this assumption, opening up the Fold 7 40 times a day would take 5000 days to hit 200,000 flips, and around 150 days to get the forced reboot problem at 6000.
However, the Fold Z likely won't be opened every time you check it, as it can still be used without actually unfolding it. In this case, it seems likely that those with a Fold Z will only use them unfolded when they're watching videos, drawing, or playing games.
Under that assumption, getting to the forced reboot problem could take a couple of years of use at the least, and the slowly degrading battery will likely be more of a problem by that point. Phones just aren't intended to last forever, and will break naturally. At an MSRP of $2000, though, you really have to think you'll use the folding part to justify that cost.
After watching this video, I don't think the folding element will be what stops me from picking up a Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7, but the price certainly will. That form factor in a handheld gaming PC could be pretty great, though. I've been pining after Ayaneo's Flip DS, and a fold screen may not be a bad way of doing the same basic idea.
1. Best overall:
Lenovo Legion Go S SteamOS ed.
2. Best budget:
Steam Deck
3. Best Windows:
MSI Claw 8 AI+
4. Best big screen:
Lenovo Legion Go
5. Best compact:
Ayaneo Flip DS
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