Samsung has been making foldable phones for more than half a decade now, and its newest book-style foldable phone – the Galaxy Z Fold 7, has received praise from both critics and users for its slim form factor and intuitive user interface.
The latest from Samsung not only has a bigger inner screen (8-inch), but also boasts a much more durable hinge, which the company claims can withstand more than 5,00,000 folds. To test the durability of the phone, a South Korean tech YouTuber recently went live on the platform and folded the phone a whopping 2,00,000 folds by hand to see if the Galaxy Z Fold 7 (review) lives up to Samsung’s claims.
Along the way, the YouTuber paused at certain milestones to check how the device was doing. Keep in mind that the 5,00,000 folds by Samsung were under ideal conditions. In case you are wondering, the company’s foldable safety guide notes that the device should be used from 0 degrees Celsius to 35 degrees Celsius.
Also, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 was folded without pauses, which might be more taxing on the hardware than everyday use because of the folding mechanism being under constant stress, but it does give us an idea of what to expect from the phone under normal usage. If you’re curious about how far Samsung’s foldables have come in terms of durability, here’s a breakdown of what happened during the five-and-a-half-hour-long test.
Between the first 6,000 to 10,000 folds, the YouTuber encountered a “forced reboot error”, with the same error appearing roughly every 10,000 folds. At around 46,000 folds, the Galaxy Z Fold 7’s hinge started making some creaking noises, but everything worked as intended. When the YouTuber reached the 75,000-fold mark, the YouTuber noted that an “unknown black liquid” started to leak from the hinge, after which it did not appear again, and at 1,05,021 folds, the crease had deepened.
For a few thousand folds, nothing happened with the Galaxy Z Fold 7, but at the 1,75,000-fold mark, both the bottom and top earpieces stopped working. Another thing the YouTuber noted was that the hinge became smoother, and while the phone was able to open at an angle, the elasticity was lost.
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After 2,00,000 folds, the inner display of the Galaxy Z Fold 7 showed no dead pixels, managed to retain its touch response and showed no major issues apart from a slightly deeper crease. While this isn’t anywhere near the 5,00,000 folds Samsung advertises, it does show that the phone can withstand constantly being folded and unfolded a couple of thousand times even under normal conditions.
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