We review products independently, but we may earn affiliate commissions from buying links on this page. Terms of use. The era of folding smartphones is off to a rocky start. After debuting a $1,980 folding smartphone that unfurls into a tablet at Mobile World Congress (but not letting anyone actually touch it), Samsung finally let reviewers get their hands on its Galaxy Fold devices this week. It hasn't gone well. Within minutes of each other this afternoon, a slew of tech journalists and gadget reviewers who snagged a Galaxy Fold began reporting flickering or malfunctioning screens on various display panels after less than two days of use. Let's take a look at the greatest hits so far: The Verge's Dieter Bohn found a bulge in his OLED screen distorting the area around the Galaxy Fold's hinge. CNBC's Steve Kovach encountered a flickering, unusable screen on half of his unfolded device. Several users ran into problems after removing a protective layer of film on the devices. CNBC was not among them, but Bloomberg's Mark Gurman and YouTube tech reviewer Marques Brownlee both inadvertently removed the film—which appears deceptively easy to do—and thus rendered their devices functionally useless. Samsung purportedly instructed reviewers not to peel off the film. Yet for an almost $2,000 device to be laid waste by peeling back a thin layer that most consumers would take as a harmless screen protector, the speed at which the folding phones are breaking is laughable. And after the Note 7 fiasco, it's an unwelcome headache for Samsung. The company responded to outlets with the following statement, and confirmed that the Galaxy Fold will still launch on April 26 as planned: "A limited number of early Galaxy Fold samples were provided to media for review. We have received a few reports regarding the main display on the samples provided. We will thoroughly inspect these units in person to determine the cause of the matter. "Separately, a few reviewers reported having removed the top layer of the display causing damage to the screen. The main display on the Galaxy Fold features a top protective layer, which is part of the display structure designed to protect the screen from unintended scratches. Removing the protective layer or adding adhesives to the main display may cause damage. We will ensure this information is clearly delivered to our customers." Plenty of other journalists have thus far reported no problems with their Galaxy Fold review units; PCMag did not encounter any problems during our hands-on demo. But we'll keep our eyes peeled for any more widespread malfunctions. Flexible displays may well be the next big thing in connected devices, but for now the technology still has a lot of kinks to iron out.

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