We still don’t have an exact date for when Samsung will launch its delayed, problem-plagued $2,000 foldable smartphone — but we do know, finally, that Samsung is planning to launch the Galaxy Fold in September, more than four months after its scuttled April release date. That’s according to a Wednesday announcement from the company, which added that myriad “improvements” have been successfully finished ahead of a release of the handset a little more than a month from now.
The company’s announcement notes that additional details will be shared as the still-unspecified launch date gets closer, but we do know that in addition to at last pointing to a specific release month the company will also continue to make some last-minute tweaks. Those include general refinements still ongoing to the overall Galaxy Fold user experience, “including optimizing more apps and services for (the phone’s) unique foldable UX.” Final product testing is also underway now ahead of making the device available to consumers in September “in select markets.”
This news had been increasingly expected in recent days as evidence began to mount Samsung seemed to be getting closer to wanting to try again with a release. We and others had reported, for example, that the device had aced its durability tests and seemed to be undergoing public testing, with at least one unit spotted in the wild on a train in India in recent days.
As a reminder, all of this was necessary in the first place because, in advance of the Fold’s initially planned release date of April 26, many review units started breaking for multiple reasons. To take just one example, a unit given to CNBC broke after only a couple of days, according to the network, when its screen started flickering and then the whole thing just stopped working completely. After other prominent reviewers and journalists similarly ran into problems, Samsung called the whole thing off and took the extraordinary step of canceling pre-orders. AT&T and Best Buy followed suit.
On Wednesday, Samsung said that fixes it’s made to the Fold have included design and construction improvements, like extending the top protective layer of the Infinity Flex Display beyond the bezel. That’s to make it more apparent the layer is “an integral part of the display structure and not meant to be removed.” The new and improved Fold will also feature “additional reinforcements” to better protect it from external particles, while Samsung adds that the top and bottom of the Fold’s hinge area has also been strengthened.
