Reviewers reported the screens on the $2,000 Galaxy Fold flickering, freezing and dying on test units within days

Samsung is pushing back this week’s planned public launch of its highly anticipated, $2,000 folding phone after reports that reviewers’ phones were breaking.

The company had been planning to release the Galaxy Fold on Friday, with a 3 May release date in the UK, but instead it will now run more tests and announce a new launch date in the “coming weeks”.

The delay is a setback for Samsung and for the smartphone market generally, which had been pinning some hopes on the folding phone to catalyze innovation in the industry. The Galaxy Fold, with its $1,980 price tag (£1,800 in the UK), was not intended to be a mass market hit, but many hoped it would hint at a new wave of smartphone advances – an area that has been lagging in recent years.

Galaxy Fold: Samsung investigates as screens break in first days Read more

But device reviewers quickly found issue with the Galaxy Fold, which is about the size of an average smartphone when folded, and the size of a small tablet when its two sides are pulled apart.

Several journalists reported the inside screens flickering, freezing and finally dying on their test units within the first couple days. Two reviewers mistakenly removed an outer plastic layer that was meant to stay on and reported scratches on the screen afterward.

Samsung confirmed last week that the layer was meant to stay on. But that didn’t explain why many reviewers saw the phone’s inside screens break.

An early inspection showed there could be issues when pressure is put on the exposed areas of the hinges that open and close the phone, Samsung said in a statement announcing the launch delay on Monday. It also found an issue where “substances found inside the device affected the display performance”.

Todd Haselton (@robotodd) Samsung is coming to pick up our broken Galaxy Fold review unit. But before they do, I just want to reiterate that we never removed the special film from our review unit. It is fully intact, as these images show. pic.twitter.com/zoeGELWBiN

Samsung said it will find ways to better protect the screens and explain to people that the outside protective layer must stay on.

“While many reviewers shared with us the vast potential they see, some also showed us how the device needs further improvements that could ensure the best possible user experience,” the company statement said. “To fully evaluate this feedback and run further internal tests, we have decided to delay the release of the Galaxy Fold.”

Other test phones seemed to still be working well, and so far holding up to the Samsung pledge that the phone can be unfolded about 200,000 times in its life.