Better luck next time, Samsung
Here it is, the Galaxy Fold. Samsung actually managedto release this thing. It still folds, it still costs $1980, and it's still, I think, pretty delicate. Look, we reviewed thisthing earlier this year before Samsung had to cancel the launch and then delay the re-launch, and then, "hey Bixby, how ya doin'?" And, then it finally launched the thing, and because we had already reviewed it, I kinda wanna just lookback at the original review and see what's still true with this slightly revisedversion of the Galaxy Fold and see if it holds up. The phone, I mean, not the review. Let's take a look. Verge Galaxy Fold review. Ah, man, that intro, it still holds up. Okay, so the first thing we need to do is talk about what Samsung has changed with the Galaxy Fold, andspecifically why they changed it. There are two different issues here. The first is that onthe front of the screen, there's this thing that looks like a removable screen protector,but it is not removable. Instead, it's the layer that's applied with some serious adhesive, and it's basically part of the screen.
If you try to pull itoff, which to be clear, seems like a totallyreasonable thing to do given how it looks, you'll end up wrecking thehell out of this phone. All right, so Samsung doesn't want people to rip off the screen protector on the top so what do they do? Well, they extended the screen protector up underneath the plastic bezels here. And, they also addedthese funny little tabs on the top and the bottom so that you couldn't even reach it there if you really wanted to. But, this isn't the thingthat happened to me. What happened to me was I got some debris underneath the screen and that's what broke the screen. So, as you can see, the screen on our Galaxy Fold is broken. I've got a line here and a line here. And, here's what happened. Right about here, underthe screen last night I noticed that I could feel a little bump under the screen when itwas completely opened. When it wasn't completely open, I didn't feel the bump at all. And, last night, it wasn'tcausing any problems. It was flexing thescreen out a little bit, I called it like a bulge.
But, when I woke up thismorning, opened the phone up, it had caused apparentlya little bit more damage. And, so it's ruined the screen. All right, so how didSamsung fix the debris thing? Well, they did a bunch of stuff. They say they put anextra layer of material underneath the flexible screen. There's these caps again, of course, and then they also saythat they've limited the size of the gaps so thatless debris can get inside, so here, and it's even thinnerwhen you close the thing. So, maybe it'll be lessdust on the inside. So, did they fix it? Man, I don't know. I've had this thing for a few weeks now, and I've been treating itreally, really carefully, because I'm so nervous about it. I mean, it's not like I've been living in a bubble like Joanna Stern has. I mean, actually, look at this clip. So, I haven't gone that far, but yeah, I'm definitely beingmore careful with this than I otherwise would be with a phone, and I still have a couple ofnicks and marks on the screen. Now, if you buy this thing, and you break the screen,you get a one-time only, extra $150 screen replacementservice that you can go get, so I guess that's a littlebit of an insurance policy, but I mean, what are we doing here? Are you actually gonna buy this phone? Is anybody actually gonna buy this phone?
The answer is no, nobodyshould buy this phone. This is a science experiment, but it's an interestingscience experiment, so a better question thandid Samsung fix the thing is, is the thing still interesting? Is it still useful to havea little screen on the front to open it up to a big screen and I wanna talk about that question. I think the answer to itstarts with the software. So, let's see what Isaid about the software. You can swipe over from the right, and select a second appto open in split screen. Then, you can do itagain to open a third app underneath that one on the right. And, then you can do crazy Samsung stuff like open popoverwindows like real windows and move them around and resize them, and it's all just kind of a lot. And, it's okay, but it'snowhere near as elegant as how multitasking works on an iPad. So, all of that is still true. The experience here isstill a little bit weird especially moving from the front screen to the inside of the screen. I do enjoy having thesingle app split screen over on the right, but once you start trying todo anything more than that, it does get a little bit janky. It feels like everythingis a little bit tacked on. And, there's also just likethe standard hardware stuff, like the jelly scroll is still here, which is super annoying, but I do love having this big screen. I still love reading eBooks on it. I still love it whenI'm sitting on the couch or at a table in a meeting, or whatever, but I hate it when I am walkingaround or I'm on the subway. And, here's what I had tosay about this last time. Think about this thing that happens all the time with your phone. You pull it out to check something quick, but then all a sudden,a half hour has gone by while you were scrollingInstagram or whatever.
It's a real problem, but it's a problem I didn't really have with the Galaxy Fold. Because, when I was justusing the tiny screen, I wanted to get something doneand put it away really fast, cause the tiny screen's not that good, but then when I unfolded it and used it, I was really using it. I had to hold it in two hands. It became an active thingthat I chose to be doing. It required some intentionality. All of that is also true. I just hate using this tiny screen, and sure I've got a betterwork, digital life balance because I'm using the phone less, but that's not the answer. You need to be able to use your phone when you're walking around or on the subway or wherever, and this is just too small and awkward of a screen on too tall of a phone, that's also too thickto fit in your pocket and then if you wanna use it opened up, you can't use this whenyou're walking around either, so it's just all a little bit too awkward. (upbeat music) You know, the more I think about it, the problem here ishonestly the folding screen, because I love the idea of having a phone that's bigger on the inside, but all the compromises you have to make with this flexible display,the durability issues, the fact that this bendmakes it a lot thicker is the problem here. Maybe we should givedual screen phones a try for a little while untilwe get this thing better.
Actually that's happening. LG is releasing the G8X like right now, and next year, Microsoft isgonna have the Surface Duo running a Microsoft-ifiedversion of Android that's in a much nicer formfactor when it's closed. Look, anybody that buys the Galaxy Fold right now after all of the drama, they know exactly whatthey're getting into and as great as this experience is, this for me, I'm not into it. Hey everybody, thanksso much for watching. What do you think? Should we be jumping rightinto flexible screens? I mean, that Huawei'scoming out next month. Or should we give dualscreens a try for a while? Let me know down in the comments, and if you wanna know everything I think about the Galaxy Fold you can watch our full videoreview from back in April.
If you try to pull itoff, which to be clear, seems like a totallyreasonable thing to do given how it looks, you'll end up wrecking thehell out of this phone. All right, so Samsung doesn't want people to rip off the screen protector on the top so what do they do? Well, they extended the screen protector up underneath the plastic bezels here. And, they also addedthese funny little tabs on the top and the bottom so that you couldn't even reach it there if you really wanted to. But, this isn't the thingthat happened to me. What happened to me was I got some debris underneath the screen and that's what broke the screen. So, as you can see, the screen on our Galaxy Fold is broken. I've got a line here and a line here. And, here's what happened. Right about here, underthe screen last night I noticed that I could feel a little bump under the screen when itwas completely opened. When it wasn't completely open, I didn't feel the bump at all. And, last night, it wasn'tcausing any problems. It was flexing thescreen out a little bit, I called it like a bulge.
But, when I woke up thismorning, opened the phone up, it had caused apparentlya little bit more damage. And, so it's ruined the screen. All right, so how didSamsung fix the debris thing? Well, they did a bunch of stuff. They say they put anextra layer of material underneath the flexible screen. There's these caps again, of course, and then they also saythat they've limited the size of the gaps so thatless debris can get inside, so here, and it's even thinnerwhen you close the thing. So, maybe it'll be lessdust on the inside. So, did they fix it? Man, I don't know. I've had this thing for a few weeks now, and I've been treating itreally, really carefully, because I'm so nervous about it. I mean, it's not like I've been living in a bubble like Joanna Stern has. I mean, actually, look at this clip. So, I haven't gone that far, but yeah, I'm definitely beingmore careful with this than I otherwise would be with a phone, and I still have a couple ofnicks and marks on the screen. Now, if you buy this thing, and you break the screen,you get a one-time only, extra $150 screen replacementservice that you can go get, so I guess that's a littlebit of an insurance policy, but I mean, what are we doing here? Are you actually gonna buy this phone? Is anybody actually gonna buy this phone?
The answer is no, nobodyshould buy this phone. This is a science experiment, but it's an interestingscience experiment, so a better question thandid Samsung fix the thing is, is the thing still interesting? Is it still useful to havea little screen on the front to open it up to a big screen and I wanna talk about that question. I think the answer to itstarts with the software. So, let's see what Isaid about the software. You can swipe over from the right, and select a second appto open in split screen. Then, you can do itagain to open a third app underneath that one on the right. And, then you can do crazy Samsung stuff like open popoverwindows like real windows and move them around and resize them, and it's all just kind of a lot. And, it's okay, but it'snowhere near as elegant as how multitasking works on an iPad. So, all of that is still true. The experience here isstill a little bit weird especially moving from the front screen to the inside of the screen. I do enjoy having thesingle app split screen over on the right, but once you start trying todo anything more than that, it does get a little bit janky. It feels like everythingis a little bit tacked on. And, there's also just likethe standard hardware stuff, like the jelly scroll is still here, which is super annoying, but I do love having this big screen. I still love reading eBooks on it. I still love it whenI'm sitting on the couch or at a table in a meeting, or whatever, but I hate it when I am walkingaround or I'm on the subway. And, here's what I had tosay about this last time. Think about this thing that happens all the time with your phone. You pull it out to check something quick, but then all a sudden,a half hour has gone by while you were scrollingInstagram or whatever.
It's a real problem, but it's a problem I didn't really have with the Galaxy Fold. Because, when I was justusing the tiny screen, I wanted to get something doneand put it away really fast, cause the tiny screen's not that good, but then when I unfolded it and used it, I was really using it. I had to hold it in two hands. It became an active thingthat I chose to be doing. It required some intentionality. All of that is also true. I just hate using this tiny screen, and sure I've got a betterwork, digital life balance because I'm using the phone less, but that's not the answer. You need to be able to use your phone when you're walking around or on the subway or wherever, and this is just too small and awkward of a screen on too tall of a phone, that's also too thickto fit in your pocket and then if you wanna use it opened up, you can't use this whenyou're walking around either, so it's just all a little bit too awkward. (upbeat music) You know, the more I think about it, the problem here ishonestly the folding screen, because I love the idea of having a phone that's bigger on the inside, but all the compromises you have to make with this flexible display,the durability issues, the fact that this bendmakes it a lot thicker is the problem here. Maybe we should givedual screen phones a try for a little while untilwe get this thing better.
Actually that's happening. LG is releasing the G8X like right now, and next year, Microsoft isgonna have the Surface Duo running a Microsoft-ifiedversion of Android that's in a much nicer formfactor when it's closed. Look, anybody that buys the Galaxy Fold right now after all of the drama, they know exactly whatthey're getting into and as great as this experience is, this for me, I'm not into it. Hey everybody, thanksso much for watching. What do you think? Should we be jumping rightinto flexible screens? I mean, that Huawei'scoming out next month. Or should we give dualscreens a try for a while? Let me know down in the comments, and if you wanna know everything I think about the Galaxy Fold you can watch our full videoreview from back in April.
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