It seems Samsung might be in some hot water over a growing potential issue with the hinge on its Z Fold7. We’ve been keeping an eye out for developments and still can’t quite decide whether the issue is a real cause for concern or not. Still, it is worth reporting.
The facts we have so far are at least a couple of photos published on Reddit of what seem to be store demo units. Indeed, these appear not to be opening fully. That said, the poster does mention that they could “help it a bit”, so it’s more a case of the hinge not snapping properly than not opening.
This might be due to a defect in the hinge, something caused by rough treatment (though that shouldn’t be the case on such new units), or a case of preproduction units not quite meeting the standards. There is also always the possibility that the users didn’t open the phone fully, intentionally or not. For the record, we have no such issues with our review unit.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5 unit not opening fully
Whatever the case, there is still no talk of a manufacturing defect or a recall of any kind. For some context, the new and redesigned Armor FlexHinge should not only reduce display creasing but also be more durable by distributing stress more evenly.
Samsung hasn’t released any formal cycle durability figures regarding its new hinge yet, but we do know that the Z Fold6 is rated for over 200,000 open and close cycles without any issues.
It is also worth noting that the “original” “zero-gap” hinge introduced with the Z Fold5 had an official tolerance of between 178.5 and 181.5 degrees when fully open. Anything more should be covered by warranty. Perhaps the new hinge has a similar degree of tolerance; we just aren’t aware of it. We’ll keep an eye on how this story develops once the first deliveries begin to arrive.