Samsung to make a decision on its troubled $2K phone in ‘days’

Samsung is still deciding when — and perhaps whether — to launch its troubled $2,000 folding phone.

Samsung’s chief executive says the Korean electronics giant will soon decide when to the launch the device, which has been held up after multiple reporters complained of problems, including blacked out screens and breaking hinges.

“(The company) has reviewed the defect… and we will reach a conclusion in a couple of days,” CEO Koh Dong-jin told The Korea Herald of the launch. Koh also told the Herald that the breakages were caused “from substances” that had entered the device.

The comments come after Samsung earlier this week said that if it is unable to ship the Galaxy Fold by the end of the month, it would automatically cancel all customer preorders.

The $1,980 smartphone features a tablet-sized, 7.3-inch display that bends, allowing it to fold to the size of a regular smartphone with a 4.6-inch screen.

It made waves when it was unveiled in February thanks as much to its groundbreaking design as to its eye-watering price tag.

But the Korean hardware giant pulled the product a week ahead of its April 26 launch after a number of high-profile reviewers complained about their units breaking.

Reviewers said their phone displays blacked out or were otherwise damaged within a day’s use. In some instances, reviewers peeled off what appeared to be a screen protector, but was actually a crucial part of the phone’s design, rendering the entire thing useless.

It’s not Samsung’s first encounter with a faulty phone design. The company was famously forced to halt sales of its Galaxy Note 7 several years ago because the device’s battery had been overheating, catching fire and blowing up in customers’ pockets.