Samsung Galaxy Fold launch in China gets delayed after ‘foldgate’

South Korean technology giant Samsung has postponed the media launch events of its Galaxy Fold smartphone that were supposed to be held this week in Hong Kong and Shanghai. The news of the delay in the launch of Samsung Galaxy Fold was confirmed by a company official just days after members of the technology press reported about defective review samples.

However, the executive did not mention any reason for the delay or disclose when exactly the launch will be taking place now. But then, we don’t need the company to officially declare the reason for the delay in the launch of the device.

We should mention that the company has not commented as yet about whether there is a delay in the launch of Samsung Galaxy Fold smartphone in the United States.

The entire last week a number of reviewers reported about breaks, bulges and blinking screens after using the samples of Samsung Galaxy Fold smartphone. And this happened just ahead of the smartphone’s launch in the United States on April 26. What’s even worse, most reports surfaced online just after a day of the reviewers using the smartphone samples.

A hashtag regarding the issue called #foldgate also started trending on microblogging website Twitter after the reports of these issues went viral.

Samsung also acknowledged the issue with this statement:

“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.”

Samsung Galaxy Fold is priced at $1,980 and the South Korean technology giant has also confirmed that it will be launched in India too. The company has said in the past that with Galaxy Fold, it is focussing on providing a much larger real estate in terms display to its customers. However, in a premium offering like Samsung Galaxy Fold, is simply not acceptable and the company must do all that it can to fix the issue before making it available for purchase.

Update: Samsung has announced that it has delayed the sale/launch of the Galaxy Fold smartphone in all regions indefinitely.