Samsung has finally said when it will release the Galaxy Fold following its troubled launch

Samsung Galaxy Fold

Samsung has announced that it will release the Galaxy Fold in September.
The company pushed back the phone's original April 26 launch date following reports from reviewers that the device's screen had broken.
Samsung said it made a number of improvements to the phone to boost its durability.
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Samsung will release its Galaxy Fold foldable smartphone in September in select markets, the company announced on Wednesday.

Samsung officially unveiled the Fold — and its $1,980 price tag — at its Unpacked event in February 2019. The phone was originally slated to be released on April 26, but Samsung delayed the launch indefinitely after a small number of reviewers said the screens on their device had broken after just two days of use.

Samsung said that it has made a number of improvements to the Fold's design following these incidents. The company has extended the screen's top protective layer, which some reviewers had mistaken for a screen protector, beyond the phone's bezel. This should make it more clear to consumers that the protective film is part of the display and should not be removed or tampered with, the company said in a press release.

Samsung also added "additional reinforcements" to ensure that external debris does not make its way into the phone and cause damage. New protection caps have also been added to the top and bottom areas of the phone's hinge, and metal layers added underneath the display should further protect the device's screen. The company has also decreased the amount of space between the hinge and the phone's body.

The company added that it is conducting final product tests, and that it will share more details around specific availability as it gets closer to September.

Just two days after Samsung provided tech journalists with review units of the Galaxy Fold in April, a small number of critics had reported that the screens on their phone's had malfunctioned. Two of those reviewers had removed the phone's protective layer and said that the screen had stopped working after doing so. One reviewer who did not remove that film said that a bulge had formed underneath the Fold's display, suggesting that it was suffering from a separate issue.

At the time, Samsung issued a statement saying it would "thoroughly inspect" the units in person to determine the problem. But the company remained largely silent on the status of the Fold until Wednesday.

The Galaxy Fold is Samsung's first foldable smartphone, a device that it's been teasing since 2018.

The phone has a flexible hinge that allows it to open and close like a book, enabling it to serve as both a tablet and a smartphone. When Samsung unveiled the device in February, it positioned the Fold as being the next big evolution of the smartphone. But reviewers warned against buying the first iteration of the Galaxy Fold given how quickly the device malfunctioned and the limited information Samsung had provided about the problems impacting the phone.

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