Teardowns

See Samsung’s Rebooted Galaxy Z Fold 2 Come Apart in Our Teardown

Samsung’s first Galaxy Fold was a mess. It was an extremely fragile OLED screen, seated on an over-engineered but fragile hinge. It was difficult to use and painful to repair. In addressing our short-lived early teardown, we called the Fold an “ambitious device,” and were eager to see more:

All new products face challenges—this one perhaps more than most. We’re grateful to have shared a glimpse of how Samsung’s engineers addressed some of those challenges, and we look forward to sharing more as soon as possible.

The Galaxy Z Fold 2, on top of the original Galaxy Fold.

One year after the Fold’s official release, Samsung released the Galaxy Z Fold 2. It’s not so much a sequel as a franchise reboot. They started over, taking more inspiration from the Galaxy Z Flip than the original Fold. The Galaxy Z Fold 2 is a more complete, polished product, and likely way more practical and durable for anyone who actually uses it. As a device you can repair yourself, it still leaves a lot to be desired. But we’re excited to see the progress, in this device line and for foldables in general.

You can see everything we saw when we broke out the picks, solvent, and (this time around) heating pad in our video teardown of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2.

Among the things to look out for, you might notice:

  • A simplified folding mechanism, with two durable hide-away hinges instead of three, which looks incredible in a moving X-ray.
  • Folding glass instead of a plastic protector, with a nicely reinforced back and folding point.
  • A bezel that, while more annoying to remove, is more integrated into the design and likely provides more protection.
  • A larger footprint that makes more room for batteries
  • A restrained (for Samsung) 3-camera module

Again, don’t take my word for it—see for yourself in our video teardown. Stay tuned for wallpaper images, including X-rays. And let us know what you thought of the teardown in the comments, here or on YouTube.