When the Samsung introduced the Galaxy Z Flip foldable smartphone, people had one thing on their minds – to see what Youtuber JerryRigEverything would do to it. The wait is over, as he’s finally put the phone’s durability to the test.
Note that the Galaxy Z Flip does heavy damage to your wallets priced at USD1,379 (RM5,708), so it was definitely painful to see Jerry (real name: Zack Nelson) abuse the device to a point of no return – but a necessary evil for the name of science.
One of the key selling points of the Galaxy Z Flip is its foldable display – Samsung said during their presentation at Unpacked, when folding the phone shut, “you’re not just bending glass, you’re bending the laws of physics” – which has led many to believe the display is proper glass – as in it has the scratch-resistance of it and the flexibility of a plastic.
Image credit: JerryRigEverything
Jerry’s video proved otherwise – as he performed scratch tests, the display showed heavy divots even from being scratched with duller tips. He notes that actual glass should scratch at that level, but only show signs when on much sharper tips. It’s led him to deduce that Samsung may have used a hybrid glass-polymer formula to make the display, which means it isn’t truly glass as Samsung has made us believe.
Even worse, he could make a dent in the display with just his finger nail. We really only see this on phones with displays made of plastic.
Image credit: JerryRigEverything
The notifications/back selfie display on the top half of the phone is actual glass, and because of that didn’t show damage at the same level as the main display – kind of proving Jerry’s point and speculations.
We doubt Samsung will have anyway to fix the issue other than to be more honest about what makes the Galaxy Z Flip display – plastic. But hey, at least the rest of the phone is still built pretty sturdily as we can see in the video – so kudos to the Korean giants for that.