The $2,900 Galaxy Z TriFold is already having display issues, no replacements available

Early in December of last year, Samsung unveiled its first trifold folding phone, simply called the Galaxy Z TriFold. It was launched in Chine first and then globally soon after. Since January 30, it has been available for purchase in the US as well. However, some of the people who purchased the phone have already started facing some display issues, specifically with the inner trifolding screen.

Two days ago (February 16), user ‘Odd-Drawer6410’ posted on the r/GalaxyZTriFold subreddit a video showing an unresponsive inner display on their Galaxy Z TriFold. The user purchased the phone in China and pointed out some interesting observations with the phone in its current condition. After about a month of normal use, the internal screen suddenly flashed green and then stopped displaying anything. After rebooting, the issue resolved itself but it kept coming back and the restarting fix worked inconsistently.

The outer display seems worked just fine but the inner display was completely black and unresponsive. The user noted that screenshots taken with the Galaxy Z TriFold in its unfolded state were showing a 1,920x1,080 resolution rather than the native 2,160x1,548 resolution.

Then, yesterday (February 17), another user posted in the same subreddit about the unfolded display becoming unresponsive and registering phantom touches. The next morning, the screen was all white and the user seemingly heard a popping sound when folding the device. They believe there is an air bubble under the screen. Neither of the two devices were damaged in any way.

The first user will be taking their device to Samsung for investigation and hopefully can find a solution. For the second user, it seems like Samsung has refunded their purchase. Another commenter on the post shared that they received a refund as well.

While there have only been a handful of such cases, possibly less than five even, it doesn’t bode well for a premium device such as the Galaxy Z TriFold. Since it is also being produced in limited quantities, Samsung doesn’t seem to be offering replacements. One of the comments on Odd-Drawer6410’s post was that this is an issue caused by a bad flex ribbon cable. Hopefully Samsung can identify the root cause and address it for the coming batches.