Samsung’s latest foldable flagship, the Galaxy Z Fold 7, is rated to survive up to 500,000 folds — twice the number of the previous Z Fold devices that company has released. To see just how well the new phone stands up to the test of everyday use, a YouTuber by the name of Tech-it has spent the past several days folding the phone by hand over 200,000 times.
One reason the YouTuber decided to fold the phone by hand is to try to emulate real-world usage. While folding machines are fine for standard testing, they also always open and close the device at the same speed and force. By doing all of the folding manually, by hand, Tech-it is able to organically add real-world variables to the situation.
And while Samsung says the Z Fold 7 is rated for up to 500,000 folds, the YouTuber noted that the phone began to run into some issues after just 6,000 folds. Now, these issues might not be entirely related to the folding of the device, but they do raise some concerns about its long-term durability.
How the Z Fold 7 fared after 200,000 folds
So, how exactly did the Z Fold 7 fare during this test? According to the final video, as well as a summary document shared by the Tech-it team, several issues were noted during the test. First, as noted above, the phone ran into issues after just 6,000 folds. Tech-it says that between 6,000 and 10,000 folds, the phone experienced a reboot error, which it then experienced roughly every 10,000 folds afterward. From there, the YouTuber also noted that the phone began to make creaking noises around the hinge after 46,000 folds.
But the issues don’t stop there. At 75,000 folds, the team noted an unknown black liquid leaking from the hinge. It never showed up again, but that’s certainly not something any phone owner wants to see. From there, the issues proceeded to get a bit more concerning, with the device’s speakers — including the top, bottom, and earpiece — all failing to work after 175,000 folds.
Beyond that, the YouTuber noted that the hinge became much smoother to open and close, and that while Free-stop still works, the elasticity of the Z Fold 7’s new folding tech seems to have been lost. These issues are concerning, especially since they all occurred before the phone had even reached 200,000 folds — the listed durability limit of previous Z Fold devices. If the Z Fold 7 really is rated for 500,000 folds, then it raises concerns about just how many other problems you might run into before you reach that number.
