Folding phones are no longer a fad. But they have moving parts that regular smartphones lack, and the constant folding and unfolding could eventually lead to failure. For the last few days, the host of Korean YouTube channel Tech-it has been folding and unfolding the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 over and over and over, with the goal of doing 200,000 folds.
The fold-a-thon is presumably meant to see how the redesigned hinge and flexible display hold up on Samsung’s thinnest foldable yet.
Tech-it’s host, whose name isn’t given, is folding the phone by hand. After 150,000 folds, the device is still working fine. The final 50,000 folds will air via a live stream later Monday. The video features an on-screen counter which is linked to a sensor that’s taped to the Z Fold 7’s inner display.
Representatives for Tech-it and Samsung didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Phones from companies such as Samsung, Apple, Motorola and Google all go through simulated durability testing. In the case of folding phones, machines will open and close phones thousands of times to see how they might hold up in the real world.
Given that foldable phones have complex hinge designs and flexible displays, they are more prone to damage or failure than regular slab-style phones. Durability is actually one major reason, along with battery life, that some consumers aren’t jumping into the folding phone world.
