Samsung’s Galaxy Fold finally goes on sale – in Korea, but the US must wait
Samsung’s Galaxy Fold smartphone, which costs nearly US$2,000, is set to launch in South Korea on Friday, September 6 – but is expected to go on sale in the United States only on September 27, according to a customer who pre-ordered the device.
One of the South Korean company’s customer-support representatives referred to Thursday, September 27 as the expected US release date in a recent conversation with the customer, according to chat logs viewed by Business Insider.
It also looks like the Galaxy Fold will be sold only in retail stores when the phone launches and will not be available to order through Samsung’s website, according to the conversation between the customer and the support representative.
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The company declined to comment for this story.
Samsung said in July it would release the Galaxy Fold in September, but it did not announce a specific release date.
Samsung says it has extended the protective layer of the screen on the Galaxy Fold beyond the phone's bezels to make it more clear that it should not be tampered with
Evan Blass, who is known for leaking reliable information about forthcoming tech product launches, first wrote on Twitter that the Galaxy Fold would be released on September 27.
The company is set to release the Galaxy Fold to customers in South Korea on Friday, September 6, the Korean news outlet Yonhap News Agency recently reported.
Samsung unveiled the Galaxy Fold in February to much fanfare alongside the Galaxy S10 just before the Mobile World Congress conference.
However, the company quickly pushed back the phone’s initial launch date of April 26 after a small number of reviewers reported that the screens on their devices had broken after about two days of use.
Samsung remained silent about its new launch plans for the Fold until July, when it said the phone would launch in September after making a number of improvements to the phone's durability.
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The company said it has extended the protective layer of the screen beyond the phone’s bezels to make it more clear that it should not be tampered with.
Some of the reviewers that experienced issues with the device in April had accidentally removed this protective layer after mistaking it for a disposable screen protector. Samsung also added additional reinforcements to make sure debris does not make its way inside the phone.
The launch comes as Huawei, Samsung's rival Chinese technology company, is also gearing up to release its first foldable phone, the Mate X, which it revealed soon after the Galaxy Fold’s unveiling earlier this year.
Huawei, which was recently blacklisted from working with companies in the US, is also facing delays.
The Mate X was originally expected to be released over the summer, but a recent report from TechRadar, the technology news website, suggests it may not appear until later this autumn.
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Reports suggest customers in the United States will not see the US$2,000 foldable smartphone in shops until September 27 – which comes after the original launch was delayed when screens broke on reviewers’ versions