Almost as soon as Samsung’s new foldable phone, the Galaxy Fold, made its way into the hands of early reviewers and analysts, things started falling apart.

A Bloomberg reporter shared images of his Galaxy Fold review unit “just two days in” with an unusable display, one that looked akin to a large smartphone with midnight ink spilled on it. The Verge published a story that included images of a broken Galaxy Fold, one with a tiny bulge under the display and the “telltale lines of a broken OLED converging on the spot where the bulge is.” A reporter from CNBC posted a video to Twitter, now viewed over 2.7 million times, of the display on a Galaxy Fold flickering like a strobe light in a club.

I obtained WIRED’s Galaxy Fold review unit on Thursday morning of last week, and so far the phone’s display is still usable and intact (though the phone’s swipe-to-unlock function hasn’t been working all the time). But the very obvious—and very public—evidence of malfunctioning Folds left Samsung little choice: The company is delaying the release of the new product, which was supposed to officially go on sale on April 26 for the low low price of $1,980. Samsung said the delay of public availability is part of an effort “to offer the best possible consumer experience.”

“To fully evaluate this feedback and run further internal tests, we have decided to delay the release of the Galaxy Fold,” a Samsung spokesperson wrote via email. “We plan to announce the release date in the coming weeks.” Samsung’s plan to delay the release of the foldable was first reported by The Wall Street Journal earlier today.

Woe Is Fold

The full statement from Samsung includes some details about the company’s initial findings with the faulty phones. But the information shared still doesn’t offer a fully comprehensive explanation of what went wrong—or whether Samsung’s own internal tests showed evidence of these problems with the Fold beforehand. While some may be willing to chalk up the faulty Fold launch to “early days,” or to the inherent risk that’s firmly baked into trying anything new, these initial reports have been an embarrassment for the world’s largest smartphone maker.

According to Samsung, the company’s inspection of the broken devices showed that both the Fold’s hinge and its display protection could be integral parts of the phone’s issues. “Initial findings from the inspection of reported issues on the display showed that they could be associated with impact on the top and bottom exposed areas of the hinge,” a Samsung spokesperson said as part of its larger statement today. “There was also an instance where substances found inside the device affected the display performance.”

Last week, Samsung had suggested that peeling off the very top layer of the display—a barely-there sheet of polymer that curious Fold users might understandably feel the urge to pick at—could cause damage as well. (Only some early review units came with this explicit warning as part of the phone’s packaging.) As it was explained to me by a person close to the company, the Fold’s multilayer polymer composite display is not unlike an onion; the paper-thin skin is fine to peel off, just like you’d tear off a disposable screen protector. But once you start peeling below that, you’re picking away at the actual product.

Still, Samsung’s suggestion that people removing the critical top layer was causing the problem not only shifted the onus onto the new users of the phone, it also didn’t begin to explain the full range of problems that have emerged. And the phone’s official delay from Samsung only underscores the technical challenges and the apparent fragility that come with a newfangled device like this. A folding smartphone hasn’t been done in this way before because it couldn’t technically be done. As it turns out, that very well may still be the case.