Samsung and Huawei were in a hurry to unveil their foldable phones earlier this year, with the Korean company beating out its Chinese rival only by a few days. The Galaxy Fold should have been available in stores in late April, but serious defects were discovered by early reviewers and they forced Samsung to cancel its Galaxy Fold release and redesign parts of the phone. A new report now claims that Samsung’s first foldable phone will finally be released in July, which means the Mate X might actually beat it to market.
Earlier this week, Mate X 5G speed tests from China were released online, ahead of the phone’s anticipated launch this month. Samsung, meanwhile, is yet to confirm a new launch date for the phone. A few weeks ago, Samsung announced that it would cancel Galaxy Fold preorders in the United States if it wasn’t able to ship the phone by May 31st. It had to make good on that promise, and it wasn’t long before Best Buy canceled all Galaxy Fold preorders in the region as well.
But Samsung is going to start selling the phone in July, according to Korean-language NewsTomato. Before that, at some point in June, Samsung will hold a press conference where it’ll probably explain what went wrong with the Galaxy Fold, and how it fixed the problem.
Several reviewers discovered that debris could quickly get inside the phone through gaps in the hinge mechanism, breaking the phone’s foldable screen in the process. Moreover, the display has a unique layer meant to protect it from damage, but it looked a lot like a disposable screen protector. Some people tried to remove it, which broke the screen. Later reports confirmed that the outer screen layer is glued to the display, so removing it would indeed damage the display.
While Huawei’s first foldable may end up hitting stores before the Galaxy Fold, it’s unclear when the Mate X will be available in international markets, especially considering the current ban on Huawei. It certainly won’t be made available for sale in the US, so Samsung’s Galaxy Fold will earn the title of first foldable smartphone in the region once it finally hits store shelves.
