13 ms·

About Our Galaxy Fold Teardown

155 points by Garbage 7y ago

PhantomGremlin 7y ago
Shoot the messenger. That should take care of the problem. /s I'm puzzled as to how Samsung thought that this phone was ready for prime time. Was it being pushed top-down and no underling dared to speak up?
- jbigelow76 7y ago
  "First foldable phone to market, take that Huawei!" probably sums up the entirety of the decision making process regarding whether to release or not.
- threeseed 7y ago
  The story going around is this: a) Samsung spent a ton of money and research in building foldable OLED screens. b) This technology is allegedly stolen by a supplier and sold to BOE Display: https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Companies/Samsung-supplier-indicted-in-leak-of-OLED-tech-to-China https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Companies/Samsung-supplier-... c) Huawei uses the foldable BOE Display technology in its Mate X smartphone and is on track to be the first to release it. d) Samsung panics as it learns that the technology it built might be released by a competitor earlier than them and consumers might think of them as less of an innovator. May sound silly but the Chinese companies have been getting a lot of traction recently e.g. P30 Pro. e) In addition Samsung goes into lock down as it fears there might be more leaks to other companies. f) Combination of d) and e) means that there is less real world testing of the device than for other phones. And hence how we got to this point.
  - icelancer 7y ago
    Interesting. >>d) Samsung panics as it learns that the technology it built might be released by a competitor earlier than them and consumers might think of them as less of an innovator. May sound silly but the Chinese companies have been getting a lot of traction recently e.g. P30 Pro. Doesn't sound silly at all. I have a Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S and it's an amazingly good phone for the price (replaced my Google Pixel 2, which I liked enough). I'll absolutely buy a Chinese phone to replace this phone when it's time in a few years, or at least look into it. Other people constantly ask about the phone (has a striking reflective ceramic back) and haven't heard of Chinese phones, but are considering alternatives in droves due to the insane prices of flagships by Apple and Samsung.
    - yarg 7y ago
      You can save a decent amount of money buying phones from brands that don't pay for their own R&D.
      - lostmsu 7y ago
        Why do they still sell on US soil? If they'd violated some patent, couldn't the original author get them banned?
        ergo14 7y ago
        They could have just licensed the patents?
        james_in_the_uk 7y ago
        Patent litigation is complex and expensive. Also, often a lot of innovations are still patent pending due to the time it takes to get them registered.
        lostmsu 7y ago
        Can't you send some preliminary request based on pending patent? Also, Huawei and Xiaomu have been getting stronger in US market for years now. Expensive? We are talking about $1T company here. I can't imagine they are unable to afford litigation in their core business space. Basically, until somebody shows they violated some patent(s), these claimes about stolen tech are just a smere campaign. I don't understand why Huawei won't sue for it.
        tooltalk 7y ago
        I guess that's why there aren't too many Chinese made phones sold in the US.
      - NotPaidToPost 7y ago
        Huawei is one of the largest R&D spenders in the world. Perhaps time to stop regurgitating nonsense?
  - hnnmzh 7y ago
    Re f), It's probably a culture thing. Samsung used to churn out >200 phone models per year. Want long term support and thorough testing? Non-existent. Re b), It's commonly accepted by a lot of people in China, Taiwan that it's Samsung's tactics to maintain market domination. If you believe the anecdotes, like this one https://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/4fnp86/why_does_htc_avoid_amoled/d2axkmj?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x https://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/4fnp86/why_does_ht... Samsung cut the oled supply to Huawei when it threatened Samsung's mobile phone market share, the same reason why Samsung screwed HTC before.
  - megaremote 7y ago
    The technology is bendable screens, that have been around in testing labs for years. LG released a folding tv last year.
atesti 7y ago
Is there a mirror?
- rcw4256 7y ago
  https://web.archive.org/web/20190425075411/https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Samsung+Galaxy+Fold+Teardown/122600 https://web.archive.org/web/20190425075411/https://www.ifixi...
  - arendtio 7y ago
    How did you find that old URL? I mean, the new blog post has a different URL... Did you use a search engine or some kind of browser extension?
    - LeifCarrotson 7y ago
      Probably just browsing the archive to the front page of iFixit as of yesterday, which would link to this article. Search engines aren't the only way to navigate the web, you know...
    - michaelmior 7y ago
      The original link is the first result on Google for "galaxy fold teardown" even though it now redirects to the new blog post.
    - ihuman 7y ago
      In addition to the other methods mentioned in the replies, The Internet Archive does have a search function on the main page, plus and advanced search option [0]. You can also lookup all saved pages that start with "https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/" https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/" and sort by the date they were first saved (the "from" column)[1]. [0] https://archive.org/advancedsearch.php https://archive.org/advancedsearch.php [1]https://web.archive.org/web/*/https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/* https://web.archive.org/web/*/https://www.ifixit.com/Teardow...
- nacs 7y ago
  Another mirror (not as good as archive.org's however): https://archive.is/PFRPp https://archive.is/PFRPp
cbzry 7y ago
>After two days of intense public interest, iFixit has removed our teardown of Samsung’s Galaxy Fold. But... you are ifixit?
- jcelerier 7y ago
  ifixit.org may have people not on board with ifixit.com
- XMPPwocky 7y ago
  This is just phrasing. Read as "We at iFixit have"...
  - cbzry 7y ago
    Then it shouldn't mix first and third person in the same sentence. "ifixit (they) have removed our review". Makes no sense. It sounds like they are two different entities.
    - LeifCarrotson 7y ago
      The author of this blog post is speaking as a representative of iFixit. If you were authorized to represent CBRZY Inc, you could write a blog post and include the phrase "CBRZY Inc have published our comment suggesting that a representative writing for us shouldn't speak in third person." without sounding awkward.
      - cbzry 7y ago
        Then the post should not be anonymously signed as "ifixit staff".
        bunderbunder 7y ago
        <shrug> So something got posted online without first consulting Grammarly. It's just a venial sin, not a mortal one.
sschueller 7y ago
Maybe Samsung needs to take another look at Apple. You don't need to be first, Apple has repeatedly claimed to have the first of its kind but it was always just a clever rebrand of an existing technology. Sure somethings they did do first but sometimes it takes Apple years to adopt something and they will still claim they did it first. I actually don't care who does it first. Its who does it best that matters.
- thomasahle 7y ago
  I think the main difference is that Samsung is primarily a hardware company. Their phones are showcases of what they can do with screens, sensors etc.. Once they have shown that, companies like Apple will buy said screens from Samsung.
  - dmitriid 7y ago
    > Samsung is primarily a hardware company. As is Apple
    - Hobohodo 7y ago
      Would it be more accurate to say Samsung is a hardware component company then?
      - dmurray 7y ago
        Close to 50-50 according to their breakdown of revenue by business division [0]. Assuming "consumer electronics" and "mobile communications" mostly refer to selling finished products, and the other groups like "semiconductors" are for selling components. [0] https://www.statista.com/statistics/630434/samsung-quarterly-revenue-by-segment/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/630434/samsung-quarterly...
      - mikeash 7y ago
        Samsung is a big and diverse company, not really comparable to a more focused company like Apple. In addition to smartphones and components, they’re the largest manufacturer of TVs and a big manufacturer of appliances. If you look at the larger Samsung group, and not just Samsung Electronics, it includes one of the largest shipbuilders in the world, construction, life insurance, and more.
purpleidea 7y ago
Why would they take it down? It's archived... mirror: https://gofile.io/?c=YOwVef https://gofile.io/?c=YOwVef
- rakoo 7y ago
  They removed the detailed analysis but the conclusion remains the same and is perhaps even reinforced: "Samsung's Fold breaks easily, is not ready yet"
- lucasverra 7y ago
  Probably samsung wanting to erase some traces. All reviewers are shipping it back, probably mandatory [0]. [0]: https://youtu.be/TtpIzMhNtDE https://youtu.be/TtpIzMhNtDE
- dmitriid 7y ago
  > Why would they take it down? Why wouldn't you follow and read the link? It's three short paragraphs and the second paragraph describes in no uncertain terms why they took it down.
  - FatalLogic 7y ago
    The second paragraph describes why iFixit took it down, you are correct. But I think the GP's "they" means Samsung, not iFixit, and "why" means "why would Samsung do this stupid thing that will obviously attract attention to the issue"
    - 14 7y ago
      Yes perhaps we are seeing the Streisand effect in this situation?
    - fernandotakai 7y ago
      my guess on why samsung did it: the leaker (as in, the person that gave ifixit the device) had an NDA with samsung and samsung is just enforcing it -- they are asking for them to take the teardown down instead of suing for breach. (of course, that's all a guess, i'm not even close to be a lawyer).

155 points by Garbage 7y ago

Shoot the messenger. That should take care of the problem. /s I'm puzzled as to how Samsung thought that this phone was ready for prime time. Was it being pushed top-down and no underling dared to speak up?

jbigelow76 7y ago
"First foldable phone to market, take that Huawei!" probably sums up the entirety of the decision making process regarding whether to release or not.
threeseed 7y ago
The story going around is this: a) Samsung spent a ton of money and research in building foldable OLED screens. b) This technology is allegedly stolen by a supplier and sold to BOE Display: https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Companies/Samsung-supplier-indicted-in-leak-of-OLED-tech-to-China https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Companies/Samsung-supplier-... c) Huawei uses the foldable BOE Display technology in its Mate X smartphone and is on track to be the first to release it. d) Samsung panics as it learns that the technology it built might be released by a competitor earlier than them and consumers might think of them as less of an innovator. May sound silly but the Chinese companies have been getting a lot of traction recently e.g. P30 Pro. e) In addition Samsung goes into lock down as it fears there might be more leaks to other companies. f) Combination of d) and e) means that there is less real world testing of the device than for other phones. And hence how we got to this point.
- icelancer 7y ago
  Interesting. >>d) Samsung panics as it learns that the technology it built might be released by a competitor earlier than them and consumers might think of them as less of an innovator. May sound silly but the Chinese companies have been getting a lot of traction recently e.g. P30 Pro. Doesn't sound silly at all. I have a Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S and it's an amazingly good phone for the price (replaced my Google Pixel 2, which I liked enough). I'll absolutely buy a Chinese phone to replace this phone when it's time in a few years, or at least look into it. Other people constantly ask about the phone (has a striking reflective ceramic back) and haven't heard of Chinese phones, but are considering alternatives in droves due to the insane prices of flagships by Apple and Samsung.
  - yarg 7y ago
    You can save a decent amount of money buying phones from brands that don't pay for their own R&D.
    - lostmsu 7y ago
      Why do they still sell on US soil? If they'd violated some patent, couldn't the original author get them banned?
      - ergo14 7y ago
        They could have just licensed the patents?
      - james_in_the_uk 7y ago
        Patent litigation is complex and expensive. Also, often a lot of innovations are still patent pending due to the time it takes to get them registered.
        lostmsu 7y ago
        Can't you send some preliminary request based on pending patent? Also, Huawei and Xiaomu have been getting stronger in US market for years now. Expensive? We are talking about $1T company here. I can't imagine they are unable to afford litigation in their core business space. Basically, until somebody shows they violated some patent(s), these claimes about stolen tech are just a smere campaign. I don't understand why Huawei won't sue for it.
      - tooltalk 7y ago
        I guess that's why there aren't too many Chinese made phones sold in the US.
    - NotPaidToPost 7y ago
      Huawei is one of the largest R&D spenders in the world. Perhaps time to stop regurgitating nonsense?
- hnnmzh 7y ago
  Re f), It's probably a culture thing. Samsung used to churn out >200 phone models per year. Want long term support and thorough testing? Non-existent. Re b), It's commonly accepted by a lot of people in China, Taiwan that it's Samsung's tactics to maintain market domination. If you believe the anecdotes, like this one https://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/4fnp86/why_does_htc_avoid_amoled/d2axkmj?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x https://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/4fnp86/why_does_ht... Samsung cut the oled supply to Huawei when it threatened Samsung's mobile phone market share, the same reason why Samsung screwed HTC before.
- megaremote 7y ago
  The technology is bendable screens, that have been around in testing labs for years. LG released a folding tv last year.

atesti 7y ago

Is there a mirror?

rcw4256 7y ago
https://web.archive.org/web/20190425075411/https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Samsung+Galaxy+Fold+Teardown/122600 https://web.archive.org/web/20190425075411/https://www.ifixi...
- arendtio 7y ago
  How did you find that old URL? I mean, the new blog post has a different URL... Did you use a search engine or some kind of browser extension?
  - LeifCarrotson 7y ago
    Probably just browsing the archive to the front page of iFixit as of yesterday, which would link to this article. Search engines aren't the only way to navigate the web, you know...
  - michaelmior 7y ago
    The original link is the first result on Google for "galaxy fold teardown" even though it now redirects to the new blog post.
  - ihuman 7y ago
    In addition to the other methods mentioned in the replies, The Internet Archive does have a search function on the main page, plus and advanced search option [0]. You can also lookup all saved pages that start with "https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/" https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/" and sort by the date they were first saved (the "from" column)[1]. [0] https://archive.org/advancedsearch.php https://archive.org/advancedsearch.php [1]https://web.archive.org/web/*/https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/* https://web.archive.org/web/*/https://www.ifixit.com/Teardow...
nacs 7y ago
Another mirror (not as good as archive.org's however): https://archive.is/PFRPp https://archive.is/PFRPp

cbzry 7y ago

>After two days of intense public interest, iFixit has removed our teardown of Samsung’s Galaxy Fold. But... you are ifixit?

jcelerier 7y ago
ifixit.org may have people not on board with ifixit.com
XMPPwocky 7y ago
This is just phrasing. Read as "We at iFixit have"...
- cbzry 7y ago
  Then it shouldn't mix first and third person in the same sentence. "ifixit (they) have removed our review". Makes no sense. It sounds like they are two different entities.
  - LeifCarrotson 7y ago
    The author of this blog post is speaking as a representative of iFixit. If you were authorized to represent CBRZY Inc, you could write a blog post and include the phrase "CBRZY Inc have published our comment suggesting that a representative writing for us shouldn't speak in third person." without sounding awkward.
    - cbzry 7y ago
      Then the post should not be anonymously signed as "ifixit staff".
      - bunderbunder 7y ago
        <shrug> So something got posted online without first consulting Grammarly. It's just a venial sin, not a mortal one.

sschueller 7y ago

Maybe Samsung needs to take another look at Apple. You don't need to be first, Apple has repeatedly claimed to have the first of its kind but it was always just a clever rebrand of an existing technology. Sure somethings they did do first but sometimes it takes Apple years to adopt something and they will still claim they did it first. I actually don't care who does it first. Its who does it best that matters.

thomasahle 7y ago
I think the main difference is that Samsung is primarily a hardware company. Their phones are showcases of what they can do with screens, sensors etc.. Once they have shown that, companies like Apple will buy said screens from Samsung.
- dmitriid 7y ago
  > Samsung is primarily a hardware company. As is Apple
  - Hobohodo 7y ago
    Would it be more accurate to say Samsung is a hardware component company then?
    - dmurray 7y ago
      Close to 50-50 according to their breakdown of revenue by business division [0]. Assuming "consumer electronics" and "mobile communications" mostly refer to selling finished products, and the other groups like "semiconductors" are for selling components. [0] https://www.statista.com/statistics/630434/samsung-quarterly-revenue-by-segment/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/630434/samsung-quarterly...
    - mikeash 7y ago
      Samsung is a big and diverse company, not really comparable to a more focused company like Apple. In addition to smartphones and components, they’re the largest manufacturer of TVs and a big manufacturer of appliances. If you look at the larger Samsung group, and not just Samsung Electronics, it includes one of the largest shipbuilders in the world, construction, life insurance, and more.

purpleidea 7y ago

Why would they take it down? It's archived... mirror: https://gofile.io/?c=YOwVef https://gofile.io/?c=YOwVef

rakoo 7y ago
They removed the detailed analysis but the conclusion remains the same and is perhaps even reinforced: "Samsung's Fold breaks easily, is not ready yet"
lucasverra 7y ago
Probably samsung wanting to erase some traces. All reviewers are shipping it back, probably mandatory [0]. [0]: https://youtu.be/TtpIzMhNtDE https://youtu.be/TtpIzMhNtDE
dmitriid 7y ago
> Why would they take it down? Why wouldn't you follow and read the link? It's three short paragraphs and the second paragraph describes in no uncertain terms why they took it down.
- FatalLogic 7y ago
  The second paragraph describes why iFixit took it down, you are correct. But I think the GP's "they" means Samsung, not iFixit, and "why" means "why would Samsung do this stupid thing that will obviously attract attention to the issue"
  - 14 7y ago
    Yes perhaps we are seeing the Streisand effect in this situation?
  - fernandotakai 7y ago
    my guess on why samsung did it: the leaker (as in, the person that gave ifixit the device) had an NDA with samsung and samsung is just enforcing it -- they are asking for them to take the teardown down instead of suing for breach. (of course, that's all a guess, i'm not even close to be a lawyer).