Samsung revealed in July that it had made “improvements” to protect the Galaxy Fold’s screen, and now it’s giving us a firm release date for the foldable handset today. The updated Galaxy Fold will be available on September 6th in Korea, the company announced.
In the US it will arrive “in the coming weeks,” according to another press release. It has been rumored that it would launch in the US on September 27th, but we haven’t had that confirmed by Samsung yet.
Samsung is also offering a new thing it’s calling “Galaxy Fold Premier Service,” though details on what exactly it is are vague beyond “direct access to Samsung experts who can provide you tailored guidance and support over the phone any time, any day. This includes an optional one-on-one onboarding session.” Presumably that one-on-one session would happen in-person and would probably involve explaining how to treat (and not treat) the delicate screen.
Samsung has confirmed to The Verge that this service is included in the price of the Galaxy Fold.
Samsung originally delayed the retail launch of the phone after reviewers discovered serious hardware problems almost immediately. Some reviewers peeled off a protective film that was meant to be permanent, damaging the panel. The Verge didn’t do that, but our original unit had some debris that still managed to get under the hinge and damage the screen. Samsung responded to multiple, high-profile reports of issues by officially delaying the release of the $1,980 device and canceling preorders.
It looked like the Galaxy Fold may never make it to stores, but Samsung says it has fixed the device by extending the protective layer beyond the bezels, adding more reinforcements to protect against debris, and strengthening the top and bottom of the hinge with “protection caps.” You can see the detailed changes Samsung is making here.
Hopefully Samsung will provide more detailed launch dates for other regions. It ends one of today’s releases by saying “during the coming weeks, we look forward to sharing more” and given the tumultuous history of this phone’s launch, we look forward to hearing more.