Google’s first foldable, the Pixel Fold, is set to start landing on doorsteps today for lucky pre-orderers. But before you unbox it, you should heed a bit of advice.
According to Ars Technica’s Ron Amadeo, there’s a very serious flaw with the Pixel Fold. Basically, the screen protector does not go all the way to the edge of the phone. So there’s a slight gap between that and the bezel. And since the Pixel Fold does fold completely flat, those unprotected sides do touch each other. Which also means that if something gets in there, like a speck of dirt, it can destroy the screen. Which is exactly what happened to Amadeo’s Pixel Fold.
Now the bottom portion of his screen is all white. It’s technically still usable, but not really. Foldables are still quite fragile, so it’s really important that you be careful with them, keep them in cases and so on. Currently, foldable displays are plastic, with a thin layer of glass – aptly called Ultra Thin Glass. It’s basically thin enough to be able to be folded, but that also means that it is not very strong or durable. So even something as small as a speck of dirt can get in there and destroy it.
Deja Vu
Back in 2019, when Samsung launched it’s first foldable, we had a similar issue. With the Galaxy Fold (before they added the Z), Samsung had a pre-installed screen protector. But it didn’t go edge-to-edge, so naturally, reviewers figured it was okay to take off. Since most phones have these pre-installed and most of the time, we take them off right away. Not so fast on a foldable. That was part of the screen. So as reviewers removed them, their Galaxy Fold’s essentially died.
Now we have a similar issue with the Google Pixel Fold – four years later. Where that screen protector does not go edge-to-edge. Hopefully Google makes some changes in the manufacturing process, and changes this to make it edge-to-edge. But that won’t happen to any Fold’s that are arriving today. So be careful out there.
2023-06-27 15:21:57