Reviewer's Pixel Fold unit display wrecked exposing potential design vulnerability

Well-regarded tech writer Ron Amadeo has posted a story on Ars Technica detailing the untimely demise of his Google Pixel Fold review unit after just four days of relatively light use. The Pixel Fold is on the cusp of a wider release in its select launch markets and Amadeo had been in the process of writing a review of the device when disaster struck. According to Amadeo, the bottom 10 pixels of the Pixel Fold went dead before the whole panel started to break down with the left side failing to respond to touch inputs and a white gradient started to grow across the screen.

The display failure appears to be caused by a piece of small debris that appears to have punctured a small exposed strip of the OLED panel not protected by film or flexible ultra thin glass. Amadeo also believes that “fold flat” design that has been hailed as a win compared to the gap-when-folded approach seen on the Samsung Galaxy Fold - to date - could have exacerbated the issue as it folds almost completely flush, when one half of the display is folded onto the other. Unfortunately for Pixel Fold fans, Amadeo seems to think that no amount of care will stop debris from entering that area on any Pixel Fold, potentially leading to a similar outcome.

Foldables have always been regarded as being potentially less robust than regular smartphones because their foldable display is designed to be flexible, and as a result, are not as thick and strong as glass covering regular smartphones. Of course, the whole episode immediately brings to mind Samsung’s epic fail with the launch of the original Galaxy Fold which had to undergo a redesign before units reached the market after a wave of display failures hit early reviewers. Since then, however, Samsung has worked hard to continually improve its design and its robustness.

In his article, Amadeo asserts that all foldables are potentially as vulnerable to this issue as the Pixel Fold; however, it appears the Pixel Fold could be especially vulnerable to the problem given just how tightly shut the device closes. We will know soon enough as it starts to reach more customer’s hands in the coming days and weeks.

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