After folding and unfolding the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 200,000 times by hand, Korean YouTube channel Tech-it found that the folding phone’s redesigned hinge and thinner design couldn’t withstand repeated handling.
The stunt, which was livestreamed over the course of a few days, found that the phone would reboot every 6,000 to 10,000 folds. At 46,000 folds, the phone started to creak. At 75,000 folds, an unknown black liquid started to leak out of the hinge. At 175,000 folds, all speakers, including the earpiece, stopped working. At the end of the experiment, the folding mechanism did become smoother, and the ability to hold its shape at any angle still worked. The findings were uploaded to a publicly available Google Doc.
“Although it would have been possible to build a machine to do the folding, we chose not to,” said Tech-it host Hyeonseo Chae, who goes by ITchelin, in a statement. “Machines apply consistent force, which doesn’t reflect how people actually use foldable phones in their daily lives. To better simulate real-world conditions, I decided to fold it entirely by hand.”
It seems that ITchelin has a point. Samsung advertises that the Z Fold 7 can withstand 500,000 folds. But that was likely done in a simulated environment.
Samsung didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Phones from companies such as Samsung, Apple, Motorola and Google undergo simulated durability testing. For folding phones, machines open and close phones thousands of times to see how they might hold up in the real world.
“One thing I learned from this project is that there can be a clear difference between lab test results and results from real-world scenarios,” said ITchelin. “I also realized that in any durability test, it’s important to assess not only the hardware but also how the internal software behaves over time.”
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, along with battery life, is actually one major reason some consumers aren’t jumping into the folding phone world.
